Educational Publishing Awards paused; Hachette appoints Naoum as publishing director; reports QBD, Dymocks, Kogan interested in Booktopia assets
The Australian Publishers Association has paused the Educational Publishing Awards Australia for 2024 to allow ‘time for a comprehensive review’, in order to ‘ensure future events are as valuable as possible to the educational publishing industry’. Meanwhile, Hachette has appointed Joel Naoum as publishing director, and has promoted Katrina Collett to the position of product and production director.
Alexis Wright has had another win for Praiseworthy (Giramondo), receiving the 2024 ALS Gold Medal, marking the third time the author has won this award. In other awards news this week, Sweatshop has announced Tony Birch and Melissa Lucashenko will be the mentors for its inaugural Hage Award for First Nations Writers; the shortlist for the 2024 National Biography Award has been announced; the 14 books on the longlist for the 2024 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award have been revealed; several authors were among the finalists for the 2024 NAIDOC Week Awards; Elissa Weissman has won the 2024 Crystal Kite award in the Australia, New Zealand and Oceania division; and Varuna, the National Writers’ House has announced the 12 recipients of the 2024 Writer’s Space fellowships for writers with disability and/or who are D/deaf.
Meanwhile, in the US, Publishers Weekly reported on the huge increase in print book sales in the adult fantasy category, which has bolstered overall print sales in the country in the first six months of this year, and revealed that foot traffic at Barnes & Noble stores is up on previous years; and, in the UK, the winners of the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards were announced.
In rights news this week, Walker Books acquired Operation School Ball, a second young adult novel from Angourie Rice and Kate Rice; NewSouth acquired world rights to a creative nonfiction book from Jane Rawson, titled Human/Nature: On life in a wild world; MidnightSun acquired world rights to the novel Shift by Irma Gold; and Ultimo acquired ANZ rights to Elegy, Southwest, the second novel by Madeleine Watts.
Elsewhere in book-related news this week, several outlets published takes on the news that Booktopia has appointed administrators, with the Australian Financial Review reporting that it ‘understands ASX-listed online retailer Kogan.com and Brisbane-based QBD Books … are among parties that have registered their interest with administrators McGrathNicol’, and the Sydney Morning Herald reporting that Dymocks was ‘mulling the purchase of some of Booktopia’s assets, particularly its fulfilment and distribution centres’. Meanwhile, Katya Johanson and Bronwyn Reddan wrote for the Conversation that Booktopia’s news ‘doesn’t mean bookshops are in trouble’, and Mawunyo Gbogbo reported for the ABC on Australian authors ‘lamenting’ the collapse because of Booktopia’s ‘important role’ in supporting them.
Category: This week’s news
