The average book price has gone up 10 per cent since 2014 and the average use has increased 15 per cent.
Photo: James Brickwood The average price for a book from the Black Business Books Group was $2,722 in 2017, compared with $1,946 in 2014, according to the report.
This represents a 10 per-cent increase.
A 10 per cenre rise is around the same as a 10-per-cent rise in the cost of a loaf of bread.
“I think it’s the trend in the book industry and I think there’s a lot of people out there that think book prices are really out of whack,” Mr McBride said.
“There’s been a lot more competition in the marketplace and there’s been so much innovation and new technology coming through.”
The Black Business Book Group is owned by John McBride, a partner at the law firm of Parnell & Maitland, who is also an executive at the business advisory firm McBride &.
Lloyd.
It is one of a number of firms that have been lobbying for a change to the Federal Government’s copyright regime, which allows copyright holders to charge booksellers and other book publishers for digital rights management, or DRM.
Mr McBrides said the Black Book Group was looking to change that so that it could offer a more competitive digital product.
“It’s important for us to see how the industry moves and we think that is a really important thing to do, and it’s something that we’ve got a lot to look at, and see what the options are,” he said.
The report also says book publishers are under pressure to increase their digital sales, with the market for ebooks increasing 10 per year.
Mr McNamara said it was important that the book business was not “just another retail or retail related sector”.
“We’ve got to be in the digital space, in terms of the business, not just in terms to sell books,” he told the ABC.
“We’re in the e-commerce space, and that’s a really huge opportunity for us.”
Mr McNamurs group also wants to see a “more robust” licensing regime for e-books in the same way as for print books.