Current Survey of Reference Sources of Australia

At a time when pessimism is the prevailing mood and the outlook for Australian publishing is generally held to be uncertain, the Australian Bookseller and Publisher reports a record number of 2,790 books published in Australia during 1980. This quantitative growth in production was complemented by improvements in the quality and in the diversity of the titles produced. The total figures for the last six years have been 1975: 2001, 1976: 1781, 1977: 2243, 1978: 2183, 1979: 2412 and 1980: 2790. This trend of steady growth in the volume of book production has been attributed to a number of factors. One is the continued expansion of educational publishing for the secondary and tertiary levels; another is that Australian publishers are finding themselves in an increasingly advantageous position compared with overseas publishers. The rise in prices of imported books due to increased costs of production overseas, unfavorable exchange rates, high postage and shipping costs, coupled with the aid of the Book Bounty, has meant that the smaller editions necessary for the small Australian market can be published at a price that competes reasonably favorably with the imported product.