The Conventions and Regulation of Book Culture

Abstract

THE PRODUCTION, RECEPTION AND CONSUMPTION OF BOOKS ARE SHAPED BY COMPLEX systems of policy, conventions and traditions. These range from formally consecrated legislation and official industry and organisational codes of conduct, through to those conventions that govern literary merit, genres, questions of ‘taste’, and the value placed on the book as a cultural object. This special section of the Australian Humanities Review explores the ways—both tacit and explicit—in which book culture is regulated, with a particular focus on contemporary Australian book publishing. The essays engage with the laws of book culture, identifying these formal and informal rules, and exploring how they influence the workings of the field.