Following Pan Macmillan's decision not to proceed with the publication of a local edition of Andrew Morton's biography of Tom Cruise, it now seems that Australian booksellers will have difficulties ordering copies of the US edition as well.

Late last week both Ingram and Baker & Taylor told Australian customers they had been advised not to sell copies of the book outside the US and Canada.

Enterprising sellers on eBay are now doing a roaring trade in the book, with one seller telling the Age he had ordered up hundreds of copies in the US and was selling them to Australian customers. ‘We've got two shipments coming, the first is 150 books,' said a man the paper identifed as ‘Wojtek'. ‘We're buying multiples of 100 at a time. The demand is quite substantial, we need to get in as many as we can as quick as possible. Since offering the book on sale on Wednesday night [16 January] we have sold 110 units through eBay alone,' he said. ‘We haven't had the chance to target independent bookstores directly.'

‘Wojtek' said he thought it was ‘pretty bizarre' that the book was not available in Australia. ‘We have got no reason not to sell unless someone official bans the book,' he said. ‘We don't see it as a black market. It's a product that has been parallel-imported because distributors are not willing to sell it. There is demand for it and we've decided to plug a hole in the market.'