Do Indian authors need to be social media influencers to sell books? Vogue India
49 Literary Movies and TV Shows to Watch This Fall. That seems like a lot! Includes Frankenstein, The Twits (Roald Dahl), various Seuss stories, The Running Man, Train Dreams, Hamnet, etc.
Sophisticated nations support literary culture
September 8, 2025
Karl Quinn writing on the end of literary journal Meanjinhighlights the poor state of our literary culture and the low regard increasingly given to it by successive state and federal governments (“Hardly anyone reads Meanjin any more. So why does its end even matter?” 7/9). Many sophisticated countries actively support and encourage their literary culture. In France the VAT on books is 5.5 per cent (compared with 20 per cent on other goods) and in the UK it is zero. France has numerous measures to support bookshops, with the result that Paris has about 800 bookshops serving a population of 10.5 million. Melbourne by contrast has about 100 bookshops for its population of 5.5 million.
The best way to support authors is by buying their books, which gives them royalties, but as our booksellers shrink and the opportunities to discover our writers also shrink, the task is left to the few surviving bookshops. According to Nielsen Bookscan, Meanjin’s Winter Edition has sold 169 copies and Readings sold 61 of those. If you add on a few hundred copies sold to subscribers, it’s apparent that nobody appreciates Meanjin enough to support it. The federal government’s new initiative Writers Australia has a hazy brief and a meagre budget. I fear it will only give grants to writers to write books that won’t sell because there won’t be enough bookshops that care.
Mark Rubbo, chairman, Readings
The best way to support authors is by buying their books, which gives them royalties, but as our booksellers shrink and the opportunities to discover our writers also shrink, the task is left to the few surviving bookshops. According to Nielsen Bookscan, Meanjin’s Winter Edition has sold 169 copies and Readings sold 61 of those. If you add on a few hundred copies sold to subscribers, it’s apparent that nobody appreciates Meanjin enough to support it. The federal government’s new initiative Writers Australia has a hazy brief and a meagre budget. I fear it will only give grants to writers to write books that won’t sell because there won’t be enough bookshops that care.
Mark Rubbo, chairman, Readings
