A View from Australia.

Until 50 years ago the purpose of publishers in Australia was to act as distributors for overseas companies, mainly British. From 1970 onwards a local publishing industry began to develop, taking advantage of the greatly increased investment by publishers in distribution systems to service the “closed market.” In 1991 the “30-day rule” was introduced, leading to an increased amount of local printing of overseas titles, and a growing number of rights purchases of overseas-published books. The pros and cons of “separating out” Australian rights are addressed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]