As our research has shown, publishing contracts (almost always) last for the entire term of copyright, and cover a broad range of rights and uses - commonly all territories worldwide, and all languages.  But publishers don't always actually exploit all the rights they take for any given title, and in most cases they stop meaningfully … Continue reading The availability of Miles Franklin winners as ebooks, audiobooks and in print

We at the Author's Interest Project are delighted to announce the opening of applications for Visiting Fellowships in 2020 and 2021. These Fellowships are intended to support outstanding emerging researchers to conduct innovative research into creators’ rights in the outstanding research environment of the Melbourne Law School. This is a unique opportunity to travel to … Continue reading Visiting Fellowships to work on creators’ rights in Melbourne

I was delighted to kick off the year by chatting with Joanna Penn on her Creative Penn Podcast - lucky episode 473..! We spoke about how authors can empower themselves by improving their knowledge of copyright copyright, as well as all kinds of opportunities and challenges coming down the pipeline via AI technologies. For the … Continue reading Rebecca Giblin on the Creative Penn podcast

Hello, my name is Daniel Gilbert, and I am excited to announce that I’ve joined the team here at the Author’s Interest Project. I’m shadowed by my unofficial research assistant, Butter – who will be facilitating meetings and enforcing minimum standards of vitamin D absorption across the team. As for me, my work focuses on … Continue reading The Public Lending Right and its Role in a Modern Australia

Book authors are (almost always) the first owners of their copyrights. They typically licence or transfer their rights to publishers to get their books to market. 'Reversion' refers to the return of those rights to authors - for example, after a certain period of time, or where a book has gone out of print, or … Continue reading Are authors’ rights ‘all taken care of’ by their contracts? Our new research suggests not.

I'll be on the road for the next two months speaking about and working on the Author's Interest project. Here's some key events - come along and say hi if you'll be in the neighbourhood: August 26, Nashville (ATRIP conference) August 29, Lexington (University of Kentucky) September 3, Washington DC (American University) September 10, NYC … Continue reading The Author’s Interest project hits the road

They say everyone has a book in them, but can everyone afford to write it? Authors Annabel Smith, and Morris Gleitzman, and ASA CEO Juliet Rogers joined me in Perth last month to pull back the curtain on the taboo topic of the economics of independent publishing and the realities of Australian author incomes. You can watch the panel via the link below: … Continue reading #disruptedfestival: The truth about making a living as a writer

Writers and readers take note! I'll be at the Disrupted Festival In Perth on Saturday 27 July on a panel with Australian Children's Laureate Morris Gleitzman, Annabel Smith (who you might know from marvelous novels like Whiskey Charley Foxtrot, or her taboo smashing blog series 'How writers earn money') and the CEO of the Australian … Continue reading The Author’s Interest Project @ Disrupted Festival

We've previously blogged about various author earnings data out of countries including Australia, the US, the UK and Canada. That data is really important for providing a snapshot of who's earning what, where it comes from and how it's changing over time. There is now a new report out of the UK, commissioned by ALCS … Continue reading 2018 UK author earnings data: full report now available