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In other depressing news, Aussie publisher Penguin has elected to cut royalties sharply to help out everyone in the business, except for the writers themselves. Writers: The Shits of the Publishing World.

Penguin cuts authors' reprint royalties

Australia's biggest book publisher has made a historic move to cut back royalties for authors with books in reprint.

Penguin Books is now enforcing a clause in writers' contracts to drop reprint rates from an average of 10 per cent, to between 6 and 8 per cent.

Penguin's Bob Sessions has defended the decision and says it will benefit authors whose books would have otherwise not been reprinted.

Mr Sessions says the new royalty deal for Australian writers is in line with the international market.

"We're not doing anything unusual," he said.

"If an author goes to a publisher in New York or London, that's what they're going to be offered as a standard rate and all the literary agents in both those countries accept that and have done for many years."

ABC Online News Link