Louise Adler, the prominent Australian publisher and chief executive of Melbourne University Press, has been appointed inaugural chair of the Book Council of Australia.

Attorney general and arts minister George Brandis made the announcement following heightened pressure on the government to reveal plans for the council, first announced by Tony Abbott at the prime minister’s literary awards in December 2014.

An open letter from 39 industry signatories was sent to Senator Brandis, Labor arts spokesman Mark Dreyfus and the Greens MP Adam Bandt on 3 September, seeking answers about the delay, a lack of “visible consultation” with the sector and whether the $6m Abbott had pledged to the initiative would materialise.

Brandis confirmed on Friday that $6m would be committed over three years to the council and to funding “the initiatives it recommends”.

“The Book Council will provide advice to the government on strategies to strengthen the profile of Australian literature and literary non-fiction,” he said.

“It will bring important focus and attention towards promoting Australian writing nationally and overseas; developing and extending audience engagement with Australian literature; and nurturing a vibrant reading and writing culture.”

As with his National Program for Excellence in the Arts, the Books Council of Australia would be administered by the attorney general’s office, he said. The council’s terms of reference, also published on Friday, make clear all appointments to the council will be made by Brandis himself.

Writing for Fairfax Media after her appointment was made public, Adler said culture was “the ultimate political football” and literary culture the “poor cousin” of the arts family, receiving only $9m of the Australia Council’s $199m in grants.

“Most writers earn less than $15,000 a year,” she said. “This is despite a genuine belief shared by both the community and its political representatives that encouraging reading and writing is vital to a civil society.”

It was a matter of “real regret”, wrote Adler, that Brandis was unable “to persuade the keepers of the public purse that the polity would benefit if an additional $106m was allocated to the National Program for Excellence in the Arts and $6m to the Book Council over the next three years rather than be excised from the Australia Council budget.”

The arts community, she added, “fervently hopes that the Minister will have more success in the next budget round”.

Initially joining Adler on the council will be the academic David Throsby, managing director of Dymocks bookstores Steve Cox, and Jon Page of Pages & Pages booksellers, who is a former president of the Australian Booksellers Association.

Further representatives would be appointed from a “wide range of literary and industry organisations” including the Australian Publishers Association, the Australian Society of Authors, the National Library of Australia and the Small Press Network.

While Brandis stressed the council had been established “following wide-ranging consultation with the sector”, Sam Twyford-Moore, former director of the Emerging Writers’ festival and a signatory of the recent open letter, disputed that meaningful consultation has taken place.

“The consulation that Brandis has referenced was in 2010 – five years ago,” said Twyford-Moore. “This is a fast-moving industry, especially because of digital innovation, and that consultation is massively out of date.”

Twyford-Moore was not surprised at Adler’s appointment, he said, which made official something that had been an open secret since December 2014.

“Louise was behind the strategy group that formed and advocated for the council. But there are no emerging voices, no Indigenous voices, no people of disability [involved].”

Award-winning writer Maxine Beneba Clarke was among those asking on social media if a more diverse range of literary organisations would be invited to participate in the Book Council.

“There are wider parts of the industry that are not being given voice by this representative body,” said Twyford-Moore.

“You can’t speak for people if you don’t speak to them.”