Liz Evans recommends
Tuesday, 4 June 2024
The last Australian book I read and loved was Katherine Brabon’s Body Friend. It was so unusual and mysterious—and very elegantly crafted. It provides some beautifully profound insights into living...
Brittany Schulz of ‘Fiction & Friction’ on selling only indie authors
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Bookseller Brittany Schulz started online before moving into a physical space. Within months the business—which exclusively stocks books by self-published authors—outgrew that space too, and has since moved into a...
ABIAs 2024: This year’s winners on their books, and the industry that produced them
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
At this year’s Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs), Books+Publishing digital producer Andrew Wrathall spoke with some of the winners about their books, bookshops and the trends affecting the industry. Those...
Niki Horin on new venture Hobartisan Books
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Niki Horin is an editor and author with experience in children's trade publishing at Hardie Grant Egmont and as publishing director at Five Mile from 2018 to 2022. Now located...
Michelle See-Tho recommends
Wednesday, 8 May 2024
There are so many to choose from! I might go with The Body Country by Susie Anderson (full disclosure/humblebrag: we are friends). It launched in 2023, but I recently revisited...
Report: What the Creative Australia ‘Artists as Workers’ economic study has to tell us about writers
Wednesday, 8 May 2024
A new report from Creative Australia, Artists as Workers: An economic study of professional artists in Australia by David Throsby and Katya Petetskaya, ‘shows it is now harder than ever...
Michelle See-Tho on ‘Jade and Emerald’
Tuesday, 7 May 2024
Michelle See-Tho is a freelance writer and copywriter whose debut novel, Jade and Emerald (Vintage, July 2024), won the 2023 Penguin Literary Prize. The novel is 'a wonderful escape into the...
Culture, pride and engagement: A report from the RISE program
Wednesday, 1 May 2024
Bookseller Melissa Mantle attended the RISE ('Resilience, Innovation and Sustainability for the Enhancement of Bookselling') program at the 2024 Bookselling Ireland Irish Book Trade Conference. Mantle reports on the experience,...
Ashleigh Barton on ‘Freddie Spector, Fact Collector: Space Cadet’
Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Ashleigh Barton is a children's author and copywriter from Sydney who draws on her rich experience in publishing and marketing, including work on Jessica Townsend's Nevermoor. Her latest, Freddie Spector,...
Ashleigh Barton recommends
Wednesday, 24 April 2024
I recently read and loved One Song by A J Betts. It reminded me how much I love YA. I also loved that it was set in Perth, revolved around...
Yvonne Sewankambo recommends
Wednesday, 17 April 2024
I’m currently reading and loving Mawunyo Gbogbo’s Hip Hop & Hymns (Penguin), which has been on my bookshelf since it was published in 2022. Finding the mental capacity to read that...
Yvonne Sewankambo on ‘Good Hair’
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Sydney-based Yvonne Sewankambo is a Ugandan-Canadian writer and publicist whose debut picture book, Good Hair (Walker, June 2024), is ‘a wonderfully inclusive book representing various cultures and subcultures, showcasing the...
AI and publishing: Concerns beyond copyright
Wednesday, 10 April 2024
The publishing sector’s response to last year’s revelations about the materials used to train generative AI has been characterised by concern over the unauthorised use of pirated books in these...
Explainer: What is generative AI, and what does it have to do with books?
Wednesday, 10 April 2024
Millicent Weber, Julienne van Loon and Bronwyn Coate write: The term generative artificial intelligence, or generative AI, refers to algorithms that can be used to generate text, images, and audiovisual...
Bleedthrough: censorship and book banning in Australia
Wednesday, 3 April 2024
When Australian writers, publishers, and librarians look at the state of US book banning, we are shocked at the violence and scale of book banning groups. Could attempts to fire...
Jenna Lo Bianco recommends
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
I really enjoyed reading Karina May’s Never Ever Forever, because I just love her narrative voice and her subtle contemporary humour. She’s a clever writer and her fresh takes on...
Jenna Lo Bianco on ‘Love & Rome’
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
Jenna Lo Bianco is a Melbourne-based author whose heart and soul reside in Rome, Italy. Known as 'The Italian Teacher', she is also an educator, PhD candidate and advocate for...
Meet the agent: Lisa Fuller at Alex Adsett Literary
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Lisa Fuller is a Wuilli Wuilli woman from Eidsvold, Queensland, and is also descended from Gooreng Gooreng and Wakka Wakka peoples. Her debut YA novel Ghost Bird won numerous awards...
Asian-Australian booksellers championing diversity
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Emma Pei Yin is a British-born Hong Kong-Chinese author. She was also nominated for Bookseller of the Year in 2023. In this feature, Emma writes for Books+Publishing on the insights of three Asian-Australian...
Cristy Burne recommends
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
A book on anti-gravity. I found it hard to put down. A book on black holes. I was totally sucked in. A book on electricity. It was shocking. Okay, seriously....
Cristy Burne on ‘Ultra Violet’
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Cristy Burne is an award-winning author of children's books published worldwide. She loves mixing science, adventure and creativity in her stories; holds degrees in biotechnology and science communication; and has...
The party’s over: Publicists, burnout and a ‘far more creative’ role
Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Last week, Books+Publishing heard why book publicists are picking and choosing when (or, more often, when not) to put efforts into TikTok coverage. Here, they argue against big launch parties—and...
Shankari Chandran recommends
Wednesday, 13 March 2024
Winnie Dunn’s debut, Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette). She explores Australian Tongan life with defiance and audacious honesty. It’s something we’ve never seen in Australian literature before. It was ferocious and...
New York, New York: Insights from the 2024 Australian publishing delegation
Wednesday, 13 March 2024
This year’s New York Publishers’ Program took place between 12 and 16 February, with nine delegates accompanying Creative Australia’s Jo Simpson as part of the program. Alex Adsett of Alex...
Shankari Chandran on ‘Safe Haven’
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Australian Tamil lawyer and author Shankari Chandran, who won the 2023 Miles Franklin Award for her novel Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Ultimo), returns with her fourth novel, Safe Haven (Ultimo,...
Book publicity in the TikTok age: What moves the needle now?
Wednesday, 6 March 2024
With the consolidation of print reviews that appear in some of Australia’s key newspapers and a reduction in the number that appear in others, how much effort should publishers expend...
What influences book sales? ‘It’s still maddeningly difficult to tell,’ says Richard Charkin
Wednesday, 6 March 2024
Richard Charkin has held executive positions at Oxford University Press and Reed Elsevier, among others, and is former chief executive of Macmillan Publishers Limited and former executive director of Bloomsbury,...
Bri Lee recommends
Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood! She’s the G.O.A.T. Huge fan. How she does so much in so few pages always astounds me. A master at work, for sure.
Bri Lee on ‘The Work’
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Bri Lee is a celebrated author, academic and activist known for nonfiction titles Eggshell Skull (2018), Beauty (2019) and Who Gets to Be Smart (2021). Her debut fiction novel, The...
Can ChatGPT edit fiction? Four editors put it to the test
Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Editors Rose Michael, Sharon Mullins, Renée Otmar and Katherine Day have previously explored how AI tools might work, or be made to work, for editorial. In this extract from an...
