Throsby, Zwar and Crosby (2015)
Contents
Source Details
Throsby, Zwar and Crosby (2015) | |
Title: | The Australian Book Industry: Authors, publishers and readers |
Author(s): | Throsby, D., Jan Zwar, Paul Crosby |
Year: | 2015 |
Citation: | Throsby, Zwar and Crosby (2015) The Australian Book Industry: Authors, publishers and readers. Available: http://www.businessandeconomics.mq.edu.au/our_departments/Economics/econ_research/reach_network/book_project/about (last accessed: 11 June 2019) |
Link(s): | Open Access |
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About the Data | |
Data Description: | Data were obtained from an online survey of Australian authors, returning 993 responses. |
Data Type: | Primary data |
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Cross Country Study?: | No |
Comparative Study?: | No |
Literature review?: | No |
Government or policy study?: | No |
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Abstract
“The Australian Book Industry: Authors, publishers and readers in a time of change’ is a three-year research project led by Prof. David Throsby, funded by the Australian Research Council under Discovery Project grant DP 140101479 and Macquarie University. In February 2015 the researchers conducted an online survey of over 1,000 Australian book authors.”
Main Results of the Study
Whilst 20% of authors work full-time on their creative practice, less than 5% earn the average annual income from this alone. Authors nearly always supplement their practice with additional income, with nearly half of authors undertaking an additional job unrelated to authorship. Taking into account all sources of income, only 43% of authors earn the average annual income of Australia (61,485 AUD), and earnings from authorship alone average 12,900 AUD. Across the board, education and scholarly authors earn the highest income on average (130,000 AUD) and poets the lowest (4,900 AUD). The market has a tendency towards winner-takes-all structures, with one fifth of authors earning over 100,000 AUD and 2.5% earning over 200,000. 40% of authors state their financial position has not changed over the past 5 years, whereas 15% feel worse and a further 15% better.New technologies and modes of publishing impact authors to varying degrees. Only half of authors report working with a publisher (42%) with one in five self-publishing instead. Of all genres, the study finds that authors of fiction are the most likely to benefit from these changes, with one quarter of them reporting improvements in their financial position over the past 5 years. Yet, they also remain the most vulnerable to piracy (44.7%).
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
The study does not offer any explicit policy recommendations.
Coverage of Study
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