About

We acknowledge that we work and live on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and to all other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Books at Manic imports and distribute books on contemporary culture, specialising in architecture, photography, art and design. We have always sought to make available books that fall outside of the scope of the mainstream publishing industry in Australia.

More recently many of our publishers have expanded their focus so our range now also includes well-designed children’s books, travel guides, maps and stationery.

We have been importing and distributing books for over 30 years, always based in the inner-northern suburbs of Melbourne. We supply retailers – independent bookshops, museum and gallery shops, design shops, kids’ shops and others – all over Australia. We are a small, independent business and over the years have provided employment for many local artists, designers and writers.

Our publishers are from Europe, Asia, Australia and the USA. Some have an extensive publishing program, others only publish two or three titles a year but between them they put out some of the most interesting and exactingly edited and designed books in their fields.

Like many of the businesses we sell to, we are committed to running our business in an ethical and sustainable way.  Most importantly, we aim to treat and pay all our workers fairly. We donate regularly to indigenous and environmental organisations, and those that advocate for refugees.

We aim to have a low energy workplace: we re-use all the boxes and packaging we receive and also pick up and re-use packaging materials from local booksellers that would otherwise be wasted.

In an industry where so many books are pulped each year, we are committed to not wasting books. We order carefully to avoid overstock, and where the publisher permits, we sell books that are damaged in transit in an annual sale at reduced prices.

We hope that book-lovers are now aware of the difference between buying books from independent businesses who sell books because they love them and are committed to ethical business practices, and the big corporate online sellers whose apparent low prices come as a result of exploitation of their workers and non-payment of taxes while they relentlessly pursue market share and profits.