The Commonwealth of Australia, represented by the Department of Finance and Deregulation (Finance), is making an open approach to the market in order to invite tenders for the licence rights to publish, distribute and promote the Style manual for authors, editors and printers, 6th edition (Style manual). The Style manual was first published in1966 as a result of a recommendation in a report prepared by the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary and Government Publications that was presented to Parliament in 1964. This first manual was intended purely as a style guide for the Commonwealth Government and the full title, Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers of Australian Government Publications, reflected that aim. The Style manual provides detailed advice on best practices in writing, editing, design and production. It provides a standard reference work for government and is also widely used, and highly regarded, within academic, business and professional writing spheres. The first five editions of the Style manual were edited, published and printed by the Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS). In April 1999 a private consortium, Snooks and Co., was engaged to produce the manuscript for the 6th edition, including content development and consultation with the public sector, industry and various stakeholder groups.
In 2001 a decision was made to find a commercial publisher for the manual. The Publishing Licence Agreement with the current publisher is due to expire in February 2010 and Finance, via this RFT process, is seeking to establish a new Publishing Licence Agreement to publish, distribute and promote the Style manual. The licence rights are for the printing, distribution and promotion of the hardcover and paperback versions of the Style manual only. Rights to the electronic version are retained by the Commonwealth. Intellectual Property of the Style manual is retained by the Commonwealth. The current list price is $44.95 for the paperback edition and $59.95 for the hardcover. The manual is approximately 560 pages with an eight page illustration section on art paper. As at October 2009, 54,582 copies of the 6th edition in paperback had been sold and 3,579 editions of the hardcover.
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