Publishers’ association of south africa

Comparative International Figures

Globally, in the developed countries that lead the publishing world, publishing industries are relatively static; with the increasing numbers of titles being produced not being reflected in equivalent increases in turnover.²² However, South Africa, with its large untapped market of potential readers, should have the potential to generate some growth in the sector.

If one reviews the growth rate of book publication in the 1990s, while South African book production fell from 7 300 titles in 1990 to 5 500 in 1998, Argentina grew its book output from 4 915 in 1990 to 13 000 in 1999, and Brazil grew from 13 684 in 1990 to 45 000 in 2000. Australia, like South Africa, records a relatively steady book output.
Australian book publishing had a turnover of US$622 million in 2000, and employed 3 833 full-time employees. It would appear, therefore, that with roughly the same output of books and number of employees, Australian book publishers earn four times more revenue.²³ The higher financial contribution in Australia might well be a result of higher currency rates. What is interesting is the lower proportion of school textbooks, compared with trade titles in the overall mix in Australia. Where schoolbooks in Australia make up around 20% of publishers’ turnover, in South Africa this is closer to 70%. Trade and children’s’ books make up around 15% of publishers’ turnover in South Africa, while in Australia the proportion is 60%. Given the high illiteracy rates in South Africa, the local industry does very well by comparison with Australia.
In Australia, with a growth rate of 5,7%, the copyright industries are one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.²⁴ The population of Australia is around half that of South Africa. ²⁵
By comparison with the other African countries recorded in International Publishers’ association (IPA) statistics, South Africa has a highly developed publishing industry. For example, Kenya records the publication of 120 titles in 1998, as opposed to South Africa’s 6 000.
When it comes to the balance of the different publishing sectors, the dependence of South African publishing on schools textbooks becomes clear.
The Growth Potential of the SA Publishing Industry
These figures suggest that, if South Africa is to target a profile for its publishing industry that is more in line with those of developed countries, it will need to concentrate on growing local trade publishing and children’s books and on developing and supporting fiction and non-fiction authors in this sector.
Given the low numbers of readers and book buyers in proportion to the population, there would appear to be substantial room for growth of the print industries sector, provided strategies are developed to expand traditional reading markets.

Publishers as Rights Managers

Whether the industry is to grow through the development of new businesses or through the expansion of existing businesses, there is a need for training in copyright and contracts for businesses and staff members. It is not widely recognised that the core of a publishing business is the management of intellectual property and, as a corollary, the promotion of the intellectual property contained in the work through a variety of vehicles. As an international copyright lawyer puts it, in his advice to publishers:

Instead of seeing yourself as a book publisher, see yourself as an acquirer of intellectual property rights. With this wider lens of who you are and what you do, you may come to see that that is your business even though it currently takes the form of publishing books.²⁶
The rights that publishers manage include not only the production and distribution of books into the local and international market, but also, among others, translation, photocopying, anthology and reprint rights and subsidiary licenses for co-publications in other territories. ²⁷
Authors and Their Contribution
Although there are many authors of all kinds working in South Africa, there has been a very low level of author organisation. Only recently has an association specifically for non-fiction and scholarly writers been established. This is of vital importance, as it is this category of writer that suffers most from the high levels of illegal copying. The focus of the Academic and Non-Fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa (ANFASA) will be rights administration.
The Norwegian Academic and Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association (NFF) has funded the initial research and consultation leading to its establishment, and the DAC has expressed its willingness to fund the secretariat in the early stages. Further reference will be made below to the seminal role an association of this nature can play in a holistic and all-encompassing rights’ administration regime. (See Chapter 7).
Authors are vital partners in the process of negotiating and lobbying for strong copyright protection, and the absence of sustained support from this quarter detracts from the credibility of the publishing industries which, while they endeavour to protect their authors’ rights and interests, are all too readily seen primarily as profit-driven. This means the creation of authors’ associations that exist not only to encourage new writing but also address the business, contractual and copyright issues that face authors. At present there appear to be low levels of understanding among South African authors of the way the publishing industry works – in other words of the ways in which their intellectual property can most effectively be disseminated and the ways in which authors can earn rewards for their work.
Electronic Media and Economic Growth
The growth of electronic media offers new opportunities for authors to publish their own work without the considerable capital investment required for the production of print products. New models of publishing are emerging and new approaches to copyright management are emerging. Scholars and creative writers in particular are moving increasingly to open access publishing, either on their own account or through a variety of co-operative or donor-funded ventures. It appears, however, in the rhetoric surrounding demands for the freedom of information on the Internet, that there is little understanding of the fact that copyright is the enabling mechanism (and not the barrier to) the dissemination of writing. This is true even if writers give their work away free of charge, since even writers participating in open access ventures need to understand the copyright and contractual mechanisms needed to institute those levels of protection they want for the integrity of their work and the uses they choose to authorise.
There is general agreement in both developed and developing countries that economic growth in copyright industries depends upon the basis of a strong national copyright regime.
It is clear also that local and international trade issues cannot be divorced from one another. A weak copyright regime will not only impact negatively on local industry growth, but risks affecting international trading partnerships, not only in the cultural industries, but across a wide range of key export industries. This is of vital importance to South Africa as it negotiates bilateral international trade agreements whose success will depend on the existence of a strong copyright regime in national legislation, compliant with international treaty agreements.