The audience had gathered in the House of Authors pavilion in the fairground for marking an Austrian Cultural day, according to the House's press office.

 

Shokuhbin, whose father is Iranian, runs a section of children books in Vienna Book Fair. He has worked for seven years in the bookselling and publishing sector in Germany and has served Vienna's union of publishers and booksellers since three years ago. The union was established in 1859 and has no business or partisan affiliation.

 

The Austrian publishing figure opened her discussion by reviewing the status of book royalties in the past, saying that the royalty was not recognized in medieval time however there were rules in force to guarantee the tight; "For example, no one was allowed at that time to steal a book. The argument was the sole way to mass copy a work was to transcribe it as there were no mass copying facilities. Moreover, many people were illiterate," she elaborated, adding that the situation undergone a change after the emergence of print industry.

 

In 1886, according to Shokuhbin, a convention was drawn up to protect authors' intellectual property rights in an international stage. Known as "Bern literary convention," 167 out of total 193 countries have acceded to the convention, the Austrian personality said, who noted that by author's intellectual property right as enshrined in the Bern literary convention, it is meant to protect both creator's right and right of mass copying.

 

As for Austria, the veteran executive said the country still continues to the property rights of authors under its own special law approved in 1846, adding however that the law falls short of covering translators and their intellectual property rights.

 

"Austria acceded to the Bern convention in 1920," Shkuhbin said, adding that the oldest law concerning authorial rights date back to 1936.

 

As for the European Union, Shokuhbin said there was no mainstream law in effect to protect intellectual properties however the European countries follow a general policy. She however criticized the policy for failing to guarantee authorial property rights in full terms. "Nor there is a law in force to protect the royalty rights of Iranian publishers who wish to carry out joint ventures with Austrian publishers," she lamented.

 

The Austrian personality said her country's publishing industry has been tested by violation of book royalties across the Internet. "E-book market has widened the risk of illegal articles so that, albeit authors' royalty rights are protected in Austria, there is no possibility to prosecute web-based abusers," the figure observed, adding however that relevant authorities are mulling to fix the governing rules.

 

Shokuhbin denounced the Google organization as violator of royalties for unauthorized digitalization of publications and subsequent development of a library search engine. "Google never obtains consent of authors for the job. It has also used Austrian works without authorization however the authors have made an offer to Google in search of an appropriate mechanism," she said.

 

Shokuhbin then noted that under an Austrian law titled 'intellectual property of creators,' if an author was quoted somewhere, his or her name must be mentioned. Moreover, no work may be used, altered or translated except with the consent of original author. "The rights are not transferable and would hold until 70 years after his or her death," she added.

 

According to Shokuhbin, for the purpose of royalties, a contract shall be concluded between author and publisher under which the author agrees to place his work at the discretion of the publisher for publication while the other party agrees not to abuse the discretion.

 

"The contract shall be terminated once a contracted publication sells by an edition stated herein or once the publisher fails to meet his commitment hereunder," Shokuhbin noted, adding that earnings of author must be stated in the contract.

 

Concerning titles published in 2009 in Austria, she said that 895 new titles were published in the country in 2009 of which 780 were translations into German from 37 other languages, mainly English, and to a lesser extent, French, Swedish and Spanish. The translations were largely novels, children books or scientific materials, according to her.

During the same period, according to her, 807 Austrian publications were translated into foreign.

 

Shokuhbin noted that Austrian translator were supported by a line of credit equivalent of 2,200 euros, however only those translators are eligible to the fund who are in contract with their publisher.

 

Professional contents and children books are more popular in Austria, the Austrian representative said, adding that Austrian authors are at hand in Frankfurt book fair in Germany and Bologna event in Italy.

 

Shokuhbin then offered latest tallies of Austrian book market, saying in Vienna, 627 registered publishers were operating.

 

According to her, of a total 12530 new titles, 8195 are available in book shops and the rest are either articles or without an ISBN identifier code.

 

Concerning business, she said book sales tariffs have increased by 16 percent year on year. She also said the Austrian book albeit market was expanding adding that 4,100 freelancer authors were living in Austria who have already published at least one title and that one percent of the population are professional authors.

 

Concerning type of product, Austrian publishers are classified under several categories of products, including scientific material, pedagogical material, general material, children books, audio material, tourist guides, photo collections, arts material and journals.

 

Concerning procedures of publication, the executive said in Euro zone authors pay no fees for having their work printed and published, adding that publishers comment on a given draft work 3 to 6 months after delivery.

 

"Once a draft was approved by a publisher, the author submits a synopsis of the draft in less than three pages as well as illustrations and details of author in 20 to 30 pages," according to Shokuhbin, who added that any publishing contract shall expressly state income of author, number of edition as well as royalties and earnings of author.

 

According to the Austrian cultural representative, a typical publishing project in Austria consists of several stages as follows.

 

1- Author finds a publisher relevant to subject of his or her work

2- Author hands part of his or her work to a chosen publisher

3- A contract is concluded

4- Author delivers full text of work to the publisher

5- The work is assessed

6- The work is edited

7- Negotiations are made with sales agencies

8- Typesetting works are conducted and cover is chosen