In a debate article in Expressen write Grethe Rottböll and Per Wirtén, chairman and board member respectively, that Swedish politicians should be inspired by their colleagues in other European countries, including Norway.
The Authors’ Union believes that both authors and publishers receive too little compensation from the Swedish audiobook platforms, and believes that several large foreign publishers refuse to sell audiobook rights to Sweden for this very reason.
Countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and Spain have legislated fixed book prices. Now Norway will also have such a book law, which means, among other things, that new books cannot be streamed during the first twelve months. On the other hand, downloaded books during that time can be bought at fixed unit prices for download, something that improves the conditions for authors and translators, Rottböll and Wirtén believe.
“Why should Sweden be worse than Norway?”, they write.
The association has not taken a position on the issue of fixed book prices, but the two representatives think it is time to re-examine such a system in Sweden as well.