Reversing the cultural cringe: Martin Hughes on publishing debut fiction
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Publishing debut fiction in Australia is worth the risk, argues Affirm Press publisher Martin Hughes. Can anyone remember a year that has delivered so sweetly for Australian debut novels? Not...
Gift of the Blab: An interview with Aaron Blabey
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Aaron Blabey is the creator of the ‘Pig the Pug’ and ‘The Bad Guys’ series. Kelsey Oldham asks the author about his success. You’re known for your prolific output, which...
A right royal romance: Emma Grey on ‘Tilly Maguire and the Royal Wedding Mess’
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Emma Grey’s Tilly Maguire and the Royal Wedding Mess (HarperCollins, December) follows an 18-year-old aspiring writer who wins a six-week internship at a top London PR firm, and somehow gets wrapped...
Sister act: The story of The Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Co-owner Mary Wadsworth tells the story of The Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop in Auckland, New Zealand. In 1965 Dorothy Butler established the bookshop that my sister Helen and I now...
Your store: Key takeaways of the booksellers’ training day
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
The first ABA booksellers’ training day was held at Avid Reader Bookshop in Brisbane on 21 August. Hosted by Fiona Stager, owner of Avid Reader and children’s bookshop Where the...
Bookish backchat: Elias Grieg on ‘I Can’t Remember the Title but the Cover is Blue’
Thursday, 25 October 2018
Author, academic and bookseller Elias Grieg’s debut book I Can't Remember the Title but the Cover is Blue (A&U, December) is an ‘always amusing and often laugh-out-loud funny’ compendium detailing Grieg’s...
Louise Cornege on the Publishers Publicity Circle
Wednesday, 24 October 2018
A networking group for UK publicists, the Publishers Publicity Circle (PPC), launched an Australian chapter this year. Allen & Unwin head of publicity Louise Cornege is the chair of PPC...
Making the deal: The state of rights sales in the UK
Wednesday, 24 October 2018
While the UK remains a tough market for Australian publishers to break into, UK indies are showing an interest in Australian voices, reports Catherine Moller. Several Australian independent publishers have had...
Podcast spotlight: Bookish Friends
Wednesday, 3 October 2018
Established in 2016, Bookish Friends is a YA and genre fiction podcast created by Diem Nguyen. Each episode features a mix of conversation, book reviews, and interviews with Australian YA authors. Nguyen...
The market down under
Tuesday, 2 October 2018
Australian titles are faring well in a market where personal development books and crime fiction are the standout trends, reports Andrea Hanke. For the fourth year in a row, the...
A twist of fate: Leigh Sales on ‘Any Ordinary Day’
Thursday, 27 September 2018
Author and journalist Leigh Sales’ third work of nonfiction, Any Ordinary Day: Blindsides, Resilience and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life (Hamish Hamilton, October), is an incisive...
Digital Book World: Bradley Metrock on interactive books, accessibility and voice-first publishing
Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Digital Book World (DBW) executive producer Bradley Metrock offers some insights on the topics that will be covered DBW conference, which will run from 2-4 October in Nashville, USA. The...
Podcast spotlight: The Monthly Hour
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Launched in 2018, The Monthly Hour is a podcast companion to The Monthly magazine, described as ‘an essential hour of news, culture and ideas that [offers] insight into each issue...
Consenting adults: Kate Cuthbert on the romance novel and representations of sexuality after #MeToo
Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Escape Publishing managing editor Kate Cuthbert gave the keynote address at this year’s Romance Writers of Australia conference. This is an edited extract of her speech. I’d like to begin...
Bridging borders: Philippa Donovan on working between Australia, the UK and the US
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Literary consultant and book-to-film/TV scout Philippa Donovan has recently returned to Australia after working in the UK and the US. She shares her career journey. In 2002 I was broke...
Season’s readings: 2018 Christmas highlights
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Sarah Farquharson and Nathania Gilson round up this year’s Christmas highlights. Fiction as you like it This Christmas features new offerings from several bestselling Australian authors: Rosalie Ham returns with...
Tracking changes: Jacqueline Kent on ‘A Certain Style’
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Seventeen years after A Certain Style was first published, Jacqueline Kent’s biography of Australia’s first full-time book editor Beatrice Davis is being reissued for a new generation of publishing aficionados....
Mapping the future: The state of travel guidebooks
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Jackie Tang talks to Lonely Planet’s Chris Zeiher, APA Publications’ Agnieszka Mizak and former Dymocks category manager Ali Hammond about the state of the travel guidebook. Australians are travelling more...
From Bega to the big city: Myoung Jae Yi discusses Book Expo 2018
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Candelo Books owner Myoung Jae Yi embarked on a trip to the 2018 Book Expo in New York City as part of a prize sponsored by Simon & Schuster Australia....
Shelf talk: Page to screen
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Pour some hot chocolate and get a bowl of popcorn ready before digging into these film and television tie-in editions. Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (A&U, September)...
Shelf talk: Get a clue
Thursday, 30 August 2018
A thrill awaits those readers on the lookout for whodunits, stories of transgression, and real-life cases to solve. On the fiction front, Jane Harper’s latest, The Lost Man (Macmillan, October),...
Editor’s picks: Blood-chilling and brain-expanding
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Andrew Wrathall’s spring reading list contains titles that are both blood-chilling and brain-expanding. Let’s start with some blood. Most humans contain between nine and 12 pints of it. In Nine...
Your store: Talk among your shelves
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Shelf Talkers is a staff-run podcast operating out of Dymocks Adelaide, hosted by the store’s booksellers Tori D’Cruz and Alex Andrews. While the flagship Dymocks podcast is based out of its Sydney head office—and focuses...
Your store: Training wheels
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Brisbane bookshop Avid Reader and the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) have launched an all-day booksellers’ training program that will include sessions on using Nielsen BookScan; the financial realities of running...
Your store: Non-book item of the month
Thursday, 30 August 2018
While many publishers and booksellers have their own branded tote bags, Melbourne independent bookseller Readings decided in 2016 to expand its offerings. The bookseller now produces an entire range of...
The Christmas wrap-up: 2018 children’s highlights
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Jackie Tang picks some highlights from publishers’ Christmas lists. Headliners Several high-profile authors have new titles out this Christmas, including national treasure Alison Lester who has three picture books: Tricky’s...
Book bites: A taste of books to come
Thursday, 30 August 2018
The next chapter Hot off the news that ‘The Bad Guys’ is being developed for an animated feature film by US production company Dreamworks, Aaron Blabey is back with a...
Between the lines: Observations on the trade by Gladys Bembo
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Canberra press gallery journo-turned-political thriller co-author Steve Lewis has got himself into some hot water with his frank and honest feedback to critics of the directions taken in programming this...
Stretching the truth: Jack Heath on ‘The Truth App’
Thursday, 30 August 2018
The Truth App (Scholastic, September) is the first book in YA author Jack Heath’s five-book junior-fiction series 'Liars', described by reviewer Heath Graham as a ‘non-stop action-adventure ride’ for readers who want ‘techno-thrillers...
Martin Hughes: Death by exposure
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Publishers should take an industry-wide stance to ensure fairer collaboration with print media, argues Affirm Press publisher Martin Hughes. Many years ago a major metropolitan newspaper was so excited about...
