Australian bookstore squeezing out the little guys

This morning I read a fascinating and highly entertaining blog entry in Undercover, the Sydney Morning Herald’s books blog by Susan Wyndham.

http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/archives/undercover/014948.html

It was about bookstore Angus and Robertson demanding that small- to medium-sized Australian publishers and distributors pay large amounts so that they can have the privilege of being stocked in the chain’s stores.

The blog entry consists of a reprint of the letter that was sent to Tower Books, who are a book distributor, by A&R. Then follows the response by the head of Tower Books. Both letters and the comments section are a completely entertaining read.

As a small publisher of extremely niche books, it will likely be a long time before our books are stocked in regular bookstores. However, Vetty Creations books are very readily available from your favourite needlework store. And if they don’t have our books, then they should be able to order them in for you. You can also purchase our needlework books from the Vetty Creations website.

We used to have the SMH home delivered, until our lives got so busy that the papers piled up in the corner until we had time to read them during our holidays. Susan Wyndham’s column, Undercover, was one I always liked to read. I now keep abreast of book news via her blog.