It’s always interesting to see how books are marketed across the ditch. And to see how Australian booksellers are faring in a market that is more fractured, cosmopolitan and competitive than ours.

At the moment, the industry is responding to the impact of GST being added to book costs, with a second huge Books Alive campaign. It will run for a month in mid-winter, and offers $5 editions of six popular books, available with the purchase of another book.

This Sydney Morning Herald article has the full story, and lists the loss-leading books:

The titles, chosen by a group of specialists, are: White Gardenia, a historical novel by Belinda Alexandra; Selby the Wonder Dog, two children's stories by Duncan Ball; The Shark Net, Robert Drewe's memoir of growing up in Perth, which was dramatised by the ABC last year; Shiver, by Nikki Gemmell, author of the bestselling The Bride Stripped Bare; Au Revoir, Mary Moody's French travel memoir; and Blacktown, Shane Weaver's memoir of an abused childhood in the western suburbs.