Trading books: publishing and selling books about Asia and the Pacific

The Asia-Pacific Special Interest Group (APSIG) arranged a lunchtime seminar on 6 November at the NLA on current trends in publishing and selling books, being a topic of interest to academics, researchers and librarians.

Sally Burdon of the Asia Bookroom which sells antiquarian, out of print and new books on Asia told us of the impact of the Internet and how a bookshop in Belconnen, a quiet suburb on the outer edge of leafy Canberra, has developed an international trade and clientele.

Sally comes from a long-established bookselling family. Previously operating as The Old Bookroom, they decided to take the plunge and change from a general bookshop selling a wide variety of books to the Asia Bookroom in February 2003 and they have not regretted their move. The response has been strong and widely supported internationally, especially from the United States, Great Britain and Europe. Now demand is growing from the Asian region.

Canberra is one of the world's centres for the study of Asia with many visiting scholars and students and a large population of academics. With the Australian National University, the Australian Defence Forces Academy and the National Library of Australia's extensive collections on Asia, it is a natural focus for researchers.

Sally is a great supporter of Asian studies and regrets the present decline in the study of Asian languages and subjects within Australian universities due to lack of government support. She feels it is important for everyone to foster an understanding between Australia and our neighbours.

Sally noted that the distribution of Asia Bookroom catalogues via the Web and e-mail has been highly successful in generating sales from overseas, resulting in Asia Bookroom being better known overseas than in Australia. Previously, mailed-out catalogues would generate mail orders a few weeks later. With the speed of the Internet and e-mail, orders now arrive the next day.

More information at http://www.asiabookroom.com.

Ian Templeman of Pandanus Books at the Australian National University gave us an up-to-the-minute report on current publishing trends. Again, the Internet is making a strong impact.

Pandanus Books was set up recently at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies in order to publish books on their subject disciplines on Asia and the Pacific. Some are written by ANU researchers while others are selected from offers made to Pandanus. Ian explained how Pandanus Books tries to achieve a balance each year on Asia and the Pacific and also a balance of non-fiction and fiction.

One challenge for a press, which must operate on cost-recovery lines, is how it manages publication of academically excellent work, when the market potential for some of these titles is modest.

Overseas distribution is important for a small publisher. Ian recently set up an arrangement with the University of Hawaii Press which will be acting as their North American distributor. Distribution within the Pacific is difficult but important to Pandanus Books which includes the area in its brief. Ian is trying to deal with this problem by seeking sponsorship for particular Pacific countries so that copies can be distributed on a gratis basis. Often very important recipients such as libraries or institutes or universities lack the funds to purchase extensively form overseas.

In 2004, Pandanus Books hopes to publish twenty titles compared to fifteen this year. An interesting new development will be the free-to-air publication on the Internet of all new titles, sometimes with additional data or illustrations which cannot be included in the printed version because of costs.

More information at http://www.pandanusbooks.com.au.

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