Opening the book on Australian publishing
A dozen international publishers, editors and scouts descended on Sydney in May for the 29th annual Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program. The delegation were immersed in Australia’s unique literary culture, shared insights into global publishing trends and built relationships with their Australian counterparts. Two delegates share their views of Australia’s publishing industry.
“One of the most exciting discoveries during the VIPs program was encountering books that felt unmistakably Australian, even when they were not ‘totally about’ Australia,” says Ge Guo, an editor at Archipel Press in Shanghai, China.
“Perhaps that is precisely what contemporary Australian publishing represents: a literature shaped by movement, migration and cultural intersections – one of its defining strengths, rather than a lack of national identity.”
Our local publishing industry is contending with pressures reshaping publishing the world over: shrinking print runs, falling reading rates and a market squeezed by the digital shift. But for one week each May, a hand-picked group of international publishers, editors, agents and scouts visit Sydney for Writing Australia’s VIPs program. It’s a chance to look inside the cover of the local industry through meetings, networking events and industry forums that run alongside the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
Guo was one of this year’s 12 delegates. For her and Harriet Hirshman, Senior Commissioning Editor at independent publisher Dead Ink Books in Liverpool, UK, the week sparked genuine conversation about where Australia’s industry fits in the world.
“I was surprised by how compact the industry felt,” Hirshman says. “I had a general awareness of the figures, but I was struck by the fact that everyone I met with seemed familiar with pretty much every published Australian author. I was also surprised by the short timelines from acquisition to publication. There were a couple of instances where I heard about books that would have been a great fit for us, but that we couldn’t have made the timings work for. Fortunately, I also heard about a lot of projects where we could.”
Now in its 29th year, the VIPs program is managed by the recently established Writing Australia, part of Creative Australia.
“The aim of the program is to make international publishers more aware of Australian literature and what it has to offer,” says Alice Cottrell, who manages the VIPs program for Writing Australia.
“If a bigger market takes on an Australian author’s book it can be transformative for their career.”
Getting into the room for VIPs is no small feat. This year’s cohort, selected from 95 applicants, included the first-ever delegate from Indonesia alongside those from major markets like the United States and Europe.
Guo, who works in translated literature, applied following a nudge from her chief editor, a VIPs program alum.
“Since I had already begun publishing several Australian authors and acquiring Australian titles, it felt like the right time for me to get to know the industry more closely,” she says.
She’s previously published Chinese editions of Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow and work by Alexis Wright. What she didn’t expect was how the trip would reshape her understanding of Australian literature’s relationship with Indigenous storytelling.
“I remember feeling slightly anxious that my knowledge was not deep enough,” Guo says. “But during my time in Australia, I had several conversations with publishers about Alexis Wright’s work, and what surprised and moved me was how generous and understanding everyone was. No one made me feel embarrassed about what I did not know.”
She also found herself unpicking assumptions about English-language publishing.
“For many books [originating from] the UK or the US, there is no Australian edition at all,” Guo says. “It made me wonder: do Australian readers ever wish for their own cover designs, their own editorial framing, or even small linguistic adjustments?”
She sees this gap as tied to something bigger.
“Perhaps because Australia is not one of the traditional centres of English-language publishing, people seem to have a remarkably open perspective,” she says. “They are deeply interested in outstanding writers and books from all over the world, while at the same time having a very distinctive voice of their own.”
Hirshman has a similar view from her side of the world. Dead Ink Books has grown in recent years, enabling her to acquire more international titles including Melbourne writer Jordan Prosser’s debut Big Time (2024), and his follow-up, Blue Giant, out this September. The trip left her convinced Australian fiction deserves a bigger footprint in the UK.
“I definitely think it’s underrepresented internationally,” she says. “People from the UK share much more in terms of personality, sense of humour and outlook on life with Australians than they do Americans.”
“If we published more Australian books in the UK I think readers would very quickly accept them as part of the landscape.”
The program makes space to discuss themes like this.
“One of the events during the week is an industry forum where the visiting publishers speak about the unique challenges or opportunities in their markets, and that’s an educational tool for the Australian sector to understand how best they can participate in those markets,” Cottrell says.
Both editors have felt industry pressures firsthand.
“We see similar challenges [to the Australian market], with a huge problem being production costs rising in a way that recommended retail prices don’t,” Hirshman says.
“These challenges are very real in the Chinese market,” Guo adds. “Almost as soon as I returned home, I overheard a colleague talking about a new book whose first print run had been reduced to half of what we’d normally expect.”
One unexpected benefit of the program was hearing how other markets were faring.
“In several countries, including Australia, reading actually increased during the COVID years, whereas in China it declined – though I was sorry to hear many of those markets have since seen readership fall back again,” Guo says.
Hirshman was struck by something the Australian industry seems to be getting right, given what’s happening back home.
“We’ve also seen the number of retailers shrink in the UK, with indie bookshops closing down,” she says, pointing to a few big players monopolising the market. “Indie bookshops are essential for a healthy publishing eco-system … Australia’s appreciation of their indie bookshops is something I wish we could emulate in the UK.”
It's too early for either editor to name new titles they’re now chasing, but they’ve made connections that are outlasting the week. Guo discovered an Australian publisher who shares both an author with her and a devotion to Australian claymation film Mary and Max.
“It made the world of publishing feel wonderfully small. Several meetings have already developed into warm, continuing email exchanges. In some cases, we even exchange pictures of our cats!” she says, highlighting a sense of openness that sets the program apart.
“That, to me, is something no major book fair can really replicate.”
Hirshman is already planning her next catch-up with fellow delegates, joining a worldwide VIPs alumni network of more than 300 people. She feels strongly about what she’d tell other publishers wanting to apply.
“[It’s] a curated, yet varied, opportunity to really dig into the Australian market and to connect with the industry,” she says. “An enriching and immensely enjoyable week in beautiful Sydney!”
Applications for the 2027 Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program open 30 September 2026 and close 10 November. If you’re an international publisher, scout or literary agent and you’d like to sign up for updates on the VIPs program, register your details here.
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