No newsletter on Monday
Friday, 7 June 2024
Books+Publishing will not publish a newsletter on Monday, 10 June due to the King’s Birthday public holiday. The next newsletter will be published on Tuesday, 11 June. The deadline for...
Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History 2024 shortlist
Thursday, 6 June 2024
The shortlist has been announced for the 2024 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History, worth $25,000. The shortlisted works, chosen from a longlist of seven announced in...
NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2024 finalists announced
Thursday, 6 June 2024
In Aotearoa New Zealand the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults finalists have been announced. The finalists in each category are: Picture book award ($8500) At...
Upswell acquires Holt poetry collection, ‘Fitzroy North 3068’
Thursday, 6 June 2024
Upswell Publishing has acquired world rights to a new collection of poetry from Yvette Henry Holt, titled Fitzroy North 3068, via Jeanne Ryckmans and Lou Johnson at Key People Literary...
Educational publishers file lawsuit against Google
Thursday, 6 June 2024
In the US, several educational publishers have filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that it violates the Copyright Act and supports piracy, reports Publishing Perspectives. Plaintiffs Elsevier, Cengage Learning, Macmillan...
Penguin Literary Prize 2024 winner announced
Thursday, 6 June 2024
Penguin Random House (PRH) has announced The Occupation by Chloe Adams as the winner of the 2024 Penguin Literary Prize. Shortlisted as ‘Those Days of Hill and Sea’, The Occupation...
ALS Gold Medal 2024 shortlist announced
Thursday, 6 June 2024
The shortlist for the 2024 Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal has been announced. The shortlisted works, chosen from a longlist announced last month, are: Frank (Jordie Albiston, NLA Publishing) Like...
Liz Evans on ‘Catherine Wheel’
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
Based in Tasmania, Liz Evans is a British-born journalist, author, former psychotherapist and academic with a PhD in creative writing. Her latest novel, Catherine Wheel (Ultimo, August 2024), is ‘a...
A&U acquires London debut
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
Allen & Unwin has acquired world rights to debut novel Love on the Air by radio presenter and podcaster Ash London. Love on the Air follows radio host Alex York...
SWF and MWF bestsellers revealed
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
Booksellers at the Sydney Writers' Festival and the Melbourne Writers Festival—both of which took place in May—have released their lists of bestselling titles from the events. Sydney Writers' Festival Gleebooks...
Full BookUp 2024 program announced
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced the full program for the 2024 BookUp conference, which will take place on 7 August at State Library Victoria in Melbourne. Innovation and...
UK reports find children reading fewer books, writing less
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
In the UK, an annual report tracking the book-reading habits of around 1.2 million students across the UK and Ireland has found a drop of 4.4% in the number of...
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...
US audiobook sales up 9%, concerns about author payments
Tuesday, 4 June 2024
In the US, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) has released annual sales survey results showing the US audiobook market grew by 9% to $2 billion (A$2.99b), in 2023, reports Publishers...
Affirm acquires Fioretti outback noir ‘Skull River’
Tuesday, 4 June 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Pip Fioretti’s second outback noir novel, Skull River. Set in 1912, Skull River features mounted trooper Augustus (Gus) Hawkins, the protagonist of Fioretti’s first...
Booktopia considers redundancies for ‘at least 50 roles’, Nenke resigns as CEO
Monday, 3 June 2024
Booktopia has announced plans for the business to be ‘substantially restructured, with at least 50 roles to be considered for redundancy’ across several departments in Booktopia’s corporate headquarters in Rhodes,...
Jhalak prizes 2024 winners announced
Monday, 3 June 2024
In the UK, Yepoka Yeebo has won the 2024 Jhalak Prize for Anansi’s Gold: The man who swindled the world (Bloomsbury), and Hiba Noor Khan has won the Jhalak Children’s...
Robertson wins 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Pacific category
Monday, 3 June 2024
Aotearoa New Zealand writer Pip Robertson has won the Pacific category of the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the story ‘A River Then the Road’, in which a 12-year-old...
SPN plans expanded board, ‘new, revitalised’ organisation; Coronel to depart
Friday, 31 May 2024
The Small Press Network (SPN) has announced that ‘thanks to the kind support from members and stakeholders, we are now in a position to strategise for the organisation’s future by...
NewSouth acquires Wyndham’s Harrower biography
Thursday, 30 May 2024
NewSouth has acquired world rights to a new biography of Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower by Susan Wyndham. Harrower received the Patrick White Award in 1996, established by White for writers...
Bloomsbury acquires RLPG’s US academic publishing business
Thursday, 30 May 2024
UK-based Bloomsbury Publishing has acquired the academic publishing business of US publisher Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group (RLPG), reports Publishers Weekly (PW). The purchase—for US$83 million (A$125.5m)—marks the biggest acquisition...
YABBA Awards 2024 shortlists announced
Thursday, 30 May 2024
The 2024 YABBA (Young Australians Best Book Awards) shortlists have been announced. Shortlisted titles are: Picture storybooks The Black Cockatoo with One Feather Blue (Jodie McLeod, illus by Eloise Short,...
Auckland Writers Festival breaks attendance record, ‘Lioness’ the number one bestseller
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
The Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki reported that this year's festival program, held 14–19 May, has ‘broken all attendance records’. The festival recorded more than 85,000 attendees at 167...
Gesa recognised in 2024 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Indigenous, Pasifika and West Asian writer Meleika Gesa has been recognised with a Dreaming Award for young emerging artists at the 2024 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards. The awards...
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...
Headline launches new ‘serious’ nonfiction imprint
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
In the UK, Headline Publishing Group is launching Headline Press, a new ‘serious’ nonfiction imprint, reports the Bookseller. Headline said the new imprint, to be led by publisher Martin Redfern,...
Hardie Grant announces agency changes
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Hardie Grant has announced new distribution partnerships in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand with overseas publishers Princeton Architectural Press (PA Press), Gibbs Smith, UniPress and Canelo. PA Press is based...
Pantera sells rights to Duggan’s ‘Work Backwards’ to Wiley
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Pantera has sold world rights (ex ANZ) to Work Backwards (Tim Duggan) to Wiley, in a deal brokered by Pantera rights manager Katy McEwen. In the book, released locally in...
A&U acquires Rielly’s ‘Fridays with Blanche’
Tuesday, 28 May 2024
Allen & Unwin has acquired world rights to Fridays with Blanche by Derek Rielly, via Jeanne Ryckmans at Key People Literary Management. Fridays with Blanche is based on Rielly’s weekly...
Inaugural ABR Inglis Fellowship announced
Tuesday, 28 May 2024
The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced a new fellowship program—the $5000 ABR Inglis Fellowship. The inaugural year-long program will give one fellow the opportunity to write three review essays...
