From Austrailia -- a Print 21 online article about the Melbourne Writer's Festival

I am pasting an article from the Print 21Online newsletter (print21@bluelinemedia.com.au) published by my friend Patrick Howard. It is interesting not only because of the phenomenon of printers realising that their best friends could be their own national writers and publishers, but also because of the larger issues of territory based publishing rights for English language books. Printers in many countries want to export printed books and to some extent to limit the import of printed books. Publishers on the other hand often feel ill-served by their local printers and in some cases find them uncompetitive as well.

Printers set to lobby Melbourne Writer’s Festival
Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Members of the printing industry are being urged to rally along with authors and book publishers at a forum opposing the Productivity Commission’s recommendations on parallel imports of books at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival this weekend.

Part of the week-long festival will feature an open forum discussion featuring opponents of the recommendations including publishers, leading authors and printing industry representatives along with representatives of major booksellers and the Productivity Commission. The forum will be held at 7pm on Saturday 22 August in ACMI 2, Federation Square, Melbourne.

Printing Industries CEO, Philip Andersen, is urging those in the printing industry to attend and raise their concerns. “Together with our coalition partners of the Saving Aussie Books campaign, we are encouraging members to attend the forum and, where possible, to provide some practical support through signing and handing our petitions,” he said.

“We are also looking for assistance with the preparation of signage that attendees can use to show their support for our campaign.”

Discussions are currently taking place with book printer, McPherson's and local government members from Maryborough, where book printing is a major source of employment for residents, to see if either parties can attend the forum.

Andersen added that organisations and individuals outside of Victoria can also help by signing petitions which can be downloaded here and by participating in the Choice online poll on the parallel importation of books which has been re-opened following a temporary absence.