Who’s eating publishers’ lunch? The rising costs and shrinking margins of Australian books

Fri, 2 May 2025 03:58:58 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/whos-eating-publishers-lunch-the-rising-costs-and-shrinking-margins-of-australian-books-254290>

"At the end of March 2025, Penguin Random House announced booming sales, with a
year-on-year increase of 8.5%. Even better, their profits rose 11.3%.

Reading this, you might think publishing is flourishing, but you will hear a
very different story if you ask many Australian independent publishers. They
will tell you it’s difficult to cover costs, let alone make profit.

With some data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and a breakdown of the
costs involved in getting a book into your local Dymocks, I can show where some
of the troubles lie. Which leads to the question: How can Australia protect its
homegrown publishers?"

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

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