Booktopia revenue down 18%, Readings YA Prize shortlist announced, Writers for the Voice launched

Booktopia has reported its revenue was down 18% in the 12 months to 30 June (FY23), with the company’s earnings falling 23.7% over the same period, while educational publisher Hawker Brownlow has announced that it will cease operations on 1 September. Australia Reads has revealed the program for its upcoming Volume symposium, and newly established group Writers for the Voice seeks support from writers, publishers and literary agencies. Former Boffins Books sales and marketing assistant Adam Matthews has joined Fremantle Press as a publicist.

In awards news, Kill Your Darlings has announced Xiaole Zhan as the winner of the 2023 KYD Creative Nonfiction Essay Prize, Readings has revealed the shortlist for the 2023 Readings Young Adult Book Prize, and the winners of the 2023 CBCA Shadow Judging Book of the Year Awards have been announced. Dymocks is partnering with the Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Brisbane Times to launch a new essay prize for young writers, while in Aotearoa New Zealand, Nielsen BookScan figures have shown a 117% increase in sales of shortlisted books from the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

In the UK, Alice Winn’s In Memoriam (Viking) has won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, Danielle Jawando’s When Our Worlds Collided (Simon & Schuster Children’s) has won the 2023 YA Book Prize, and the Booksellers Association plans to relaunch its Shopfloor Publishers scheme, which invites publishers to spend a day working in a bookshop.

Category: This week’s news