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Books+Publishing to produce Australian Book Industry Awards

Wednesday, 28 August 2024
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced that Books+Publishing will ‘take the production reins’ of the annual Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) under a new licensing agreement. In 2025, which...

Aotearoa research grants announced 

Wednesday, 21 August 2024
The 2024 Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa PEN NZ Inc (NZSA) Research Grants have been awarded to four writers....

Steger among staff to leave Age/SMH

Wednesday, 21 August 2024
The books editor at the Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Jason Steger, is among dozens of journalists leaving the newspapers, reports the Guardian. The Guardian stated that up to 85...

Publishers welcome Australian owner for Booktopia 

Booktopia logo Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Publishers have welcomed the sale of Booktopia to Shant Kradjian, the owner of electronics retailer digiDirect, who has been meeting with publishers and authors to discuss the bookseller’s future and...

A&U acquires Caro novel ‘Lyrebird’ 

Photograph of Jane Caro Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Lyrebird, the second adult novel by Jane Caro, in a deal brokered by Jacinta di Mase Management. In the novel, no...

Books pitched at MIFF 2024 

Wednesday, 14 August 2024
Books at MIFF, an event that promotes books to potential screen rights buyers at the Melbourne International Film Festival, took place again this year, on last Thursday, 8 August. The...

Affirm acquires Cleary debut historical fiction 

Wednesday, 14 August 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Madeleine Cleary’s debut historical novel, The Butterfly Women. Set in 1863, the novel tells a story of Australia ‘that the newspapers and history...

Readings Children’s Book Prize 2024 shortlist announced

Tuesday, 13 August 2024
The shortlist for the 2024 Readings Children’s Book Prize has been announced. This year’s six shortlisted books are: The Lonely Lighthouse of Elston-Fright (Reece Carter, illus by Simon Howe, A&U...

A&U acquires Oswald novel 

Photograph of Debra Oswald Wednesday, 7 August 2024
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to One Hundred Years of Betty by Debra Oswald, in a deal brokered by Anthony Blair at Cameron’s. One the eve of...

Sullivan appointed MWF festival director

Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Veronica Sullivan, head of programming at the Wheeler Centre (TWC), will step down from the role at the end of August to become festival director at Melbourne Writers Festival. Said...

Wood longlisted for 2024 Booker Prize

Cover of Stoneyard Devotional Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Australian author Charlotte Wood has been longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize for her novel Stone Yard Devotional (A&U). The 13 books shortlist for the £50,000 (A$98,124) prize are: Creation...

Pantera acquires Sheppard adult novel 

Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Pantera Press has acquired ANZ rights for Holden Sheppard’s first novel for adults, Two Kings, in a deal brokered by Gaby Naher at Left Bank Literary. Two Kings is described...

Forster to leave Curtis Brown 

Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Curtis Brown has announced that senior agent Clare Forster will be leaving the company in late August ‘to pursue other interests’. Forster joined the literary agency in 2007, having previously...

PANZ Book Design Awards 2024 finalists announced

Wednesday, 24 July 2024
The finalists in the 2024 New Zealand Te Rau o Tākupu Publishers Association (PANZ) Book Design Awards have been announced. The finalists in each category are: Best illustrated book The...

HarperCollins acquires Price’s memoir 

Wednesday, 24 July 2024
HarperCollins has acquired world rights to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s memoir Matters of the Heart, written with Sue Smethurst. Price was elected a Country Liberal Party (CLP) senator for the Northern...

Booktopia administrators identify $60 million in debt 

Booktopia logo Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Keith Crawford, of Booktopia administrators McGrathNicol, has told the ABC the company had identified debts of $60 million held by the online bookseller, following the first meeting of creditors on 15 July. Crawford...

‘Big Time’ sells to UK, Italy and Russia 

Cover of Big Time Wednesday, 17 July 2024
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has sold UK/Commonwealth (ex ANZ) rights to Jordan Prosser’s debut novel, Big Time, to publishing director Harriet Hirshman at Dead Ink, in a deal brokered...

Thames & Hudson to move distribution to UBD 

Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Thames & Hudson (T&H) ANZ has announced it will move its Australia and New Zealand distribution from Alliance Distribution Services (ADS) to United Book Distributors (UBD) in February 2025. T&H...

Red Paper Kite for sale 

Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Perth-based independent press Red Paper Kite is up for sale. Founder and publisher Sandra van Doorn told Books+Publishing the press is ‘on the cusp of a greater success’ but ‘demands a...

Birch, Lucashenko inaugural Hage Award mentors

The Hage Award for First Nations Writers image featuring photographs of Ghassan Hage, Melissa Lucashenko and Tony Birch Wednesday, 10 July 2024
Sweatshop Literacy Movement has announced multi-award-winning authors Tony Birch and Melissa Lucashenko will mentor the recipients of the inaugural Hage Award for First Nations Writers. As previously reported by Books+Publishing,...

National Biography Award 2024 shortlist announced

Photograph of the books shortlisted for the 2024 National Biography Award stacked in a pile Wednesday, 10 July 2024
The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced the shortlist for the $25,000 National Biography Award. The shortlisted works, selected from a record 107 entries and including five...

Ultimo Press acquires Watts novel 

Wednesday, 10 July 2024
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to Elegy, Southwest, the second novel by Madeleine Watts, in a deal brokered by Lucy Luck at C&W Agency, London, on behalf of Anna...

Transit Lounge acquires Sayer memoir 

Wednesday, 3 July 2024
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to No Dancing in the Lift, a memoir from author Mandy Sayer, via Jeanne Ryckmans at Key People Literary Management. Described by Transit Lounge...

Booktopia appoints administrators

Booktopia logo Wednesday, 3 July 2024
Online bookseller Booktopia has appointed McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators of the company and its subsidiaries. Listed as insolvent are Booktopia Group Limited and associated entities Booktopia Pty Limited, Making I....