Many publishers in Australia keep as much of the production as possible here such as mono work like fiction. Much of the material printed offshore is colour work which is by far too expensive to produce in Australia. We shouldn’t just be concerned with the ethics of producing books but also the ethics of producing direct mail brochures and catalogues. Only about 2% of the world’s paper is used for books. The rest is for all that junk mail we receive through our letterboxes.

As far as the ethics of consumption of literature, it depends on how easily available it is. Usually I buy fiction from independent bookshops in Australia but if what I want is not in stock or it’s an expensive non-fiction title, I usually get it for almost half the cost by going to Amazon or The Book Depository. I’d probably by 80% of my books online.

Wanting to be ethical is relatively easier than deciding what is ethical and how to be ethical. Are the ethics of not printing books cheaply in China that clear cut? And by not using any form of cheap labour in any country, how does it improve the working conditions of the labourers?

See “In Praise of Cheap Labor ” by Paul Krugman http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html

always probing, probing, Ryan Paine.

my consumption of literature varies. if possible (with local-ish authors) i try to purchase books direct from the writer. otherwise i support local bookstores.

i am also a huge library user. i love reading books, and i have a reasonable shelf of titles, but if i bought every book i read, i’d have too many felled trees in my house for my liking (not to mention no money). but i am aware that this reading for free is not good for publishers, authors and the industry…

Shamefully, I would have say that with pretty much 100% of the books I purchase, I don’t consider how they get made. I wouldn’t even know where to look on a book to check this. Is there a ‘made in China’ stamp for books, or do we have to just know?

Leia: Getting heavily discounted books online raises the concern of whether the author will be adequately remunerated for their work – in a separate post at SIB, about bookselling, Felice even suggested that there should be a regulated benchmark price for books, to prevent this from happening.

The question of printing colour work offshore because it’s too expensive in Australia was in my mind when I wrote this post, and it raises an interesting question of how economics influences the ethics of a people – a question I don’t even begin to know how to answer, but one that is certainly worth thinking about. Basically I wonder if there is anything in the argument for gearing our own economy to prevent this, but …

… Simon: I’m sure it’s not clear cut at all – nothing ever is, which is why, as you say, it’s easier to want to be ethical than it is to actually act ethically. I’m glad you posted that link, because that’s exactly the sort of lead I was hoping this post might solicit.

Sam: That might be a worthwhile trade off – Australia’s Public Lending Rights program might cover any potential lose of income for authors. I don’t know much about this program, but it’s something.

I hadn’t thought of the environmental thing much. I remember a great article in Voiceworks though about how the move away from print newspapers would only shift the pressure onto fossils fuels, as more are burnt to power the computers we use to read news online. At this point I start to go cross-eyed and wonder if it’s at all possible to make a turn without bumping into some other ethical consideration.

Buying local is always a good way to support the culture, and it helps to mitigate the feeling that literature production occurs at a remove from our daily experience.

Phill: You can usually find this sort of information on the imprint page of a book, where the publisher is listed, along with copyright information and all that jazz.

Thanks all for your thoughts!

Ryan, I think for the titles I purchase, authors are well remunerated. The reason that US and UK books are so expensive here is that we are slugged for the freight and that is incorporated into the retail price. If it’s an Australian title/ author I always buy the book in this market. It’s only for indents that I purchase online. I just don’t buy that much Australian stuff.

How about the ethics of publishing at all – especially small run with zero economies of scale? I always think that in those contexts, writers and editors should be asking themselves why they’re doing it. If it’s to build community, think again – there’s other ways to achieve this.

Sorry about the delayed replies …

Leia: How do you ensure an author is sufficiently remunerated when you purchase a drastically discounted title? Perhaps it’s enough that they’ve made a sale at all, whereas they might not have if the book were still selling at the RRP.

Matilda: That’s a question I’ve asked a lot, having been involved in many small-run poetry books. I think if you do it wisely – that is, publish only enough copies that your identified market might consume – then there is great value in this sort of niche publishing, and that print-on-demand services have an important role to play here. I’m interested to know more about your ideas on developing literary communities without printing books.