<
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/24/most-of-australias-literary-heritage-is-out-of-print-the-fight-to-rescue-a-nations-lost-books>
"Consider the life cycle of the average book. It begins with acclaim, if the
author’s very lucky. Readings and publisher parties. General hobnobbing.
Canapés are often involved. There are whispers of a film adaptation starring
Eric Bana. Then time passes. The book stops selling and drifts out of print,
getting sucked away from the shore and out into the dark, empty ocean of
forgotten literature. Copies of it trickle down from bookstores to secondhand
bookstores, and from there to op-shops and neighbourhood garage sales, before
finally they get pulped or chucked into landfill. In rare cases, it will come
to rest on the dusty shelves of antiquarian booksellers, where it will, in all
likelihood, live forever as a graveyard for lost flies.
This is the unfortunate fate of most books, even literary prize-winners. In
fact, of the 62 books that won Australia’s Miles Franklin Award between 1957
and 2019, 23 are currently not available as ebooks, 40 are not available as
audiobooks, and 10 are not available anywhere, in any format whatsoever.
They’re officially out of print. This is something that Untapped: The
Australian Literary Heritage Project is trying to rectify."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
