National wealth

Dear Editor,

Jenny Darling states in her letter of September 2004: ‘it is very difficult to place Australian writers in front of Australian readers.’ This is exactly what the Books Alive campaign has done for two years. All fourteen of the books included in our two campaigns so far are from great Australian authors: Belinda Alexandra, Duncan Ball, Geraldine Brooks, Bryce Courtenay with Roy Kyle, Robert Drewe, Anna Fienberg, Nikki Gemmell, Morris Gleitzman, Gabrielle Lord, Mary Moody, Sally Morgan, Matthew Reilly and Shane Weaver. Two of the Books Alive titles have been brand new and all of the Books Alive titles have appeared in the bestseller lists during the campaigns. More than 500,000 of these fourteen specially printed books by Australian writers have been purchased nationally as a result of the Books Alive promotion.