ABIAs 2024 shortlists announced
Thursday, 21 March 2024
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced the shortlists for the 2024 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs). The APA will announce the business awards shortlists, including the categories of publisher,...
Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History longlist
Thursday, 21 March 2024
The longlist has been announced for the 2024 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History, worth $25,000. The longlisted works are: Limberlost (Robbie Arnott, Text) Dogs in Van...
Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award shortlist announced
Thursday, 21 March 2024
The University of Sydney’s faculty of arts and social sciences has announced the shortlist for the Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest Award for 2023. The Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest...
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...
Good Thing Productions acquires ‘Cherrywood’ screen rights
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Screen rights to the forthcoming novel Cherrywood by Jock Serong (Fourth Estate) have been optioned by Good Thing Productions, via Melanie Ostell Literary. Good Thing Productions’ recent screen projects include Nitram and Nude...
Maguire’s historical fiction ‘Rapture’ sells to Sceptre
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
In the UK, Sceptre has acquired world rights (ex ANZ) to Rapture, the first historical novel from Emily Maguire (Allen & Unwin), about the legend of Pope Joan, via Grace...
Hachette signs Pei Yin’s ‘When Sleeping Women Wake’
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
In a joint acquisition, Hachette Australia and Quercus UK have secured UK and Commonwealth rights at auction for Canberra author Emma Pei Yin’s debut novel When Sleeping Women Wake, in...
The Bookshop Bowral and Kiama to change hands
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Marie Fitzpatrick, of The Bookshop Bowral and Kiama, has announced that the bookshops have been purchased by Clare Meldrum, and that the current owners will depart next month. Fitzpatrick said...
Crewe wins 2023 Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
In the UK, Tom Crewe has won the 2023 Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award, worth £10,000 (A$19,404), for The New Life (Vintage). Crewe’s novel was chosen from a...
Woehlert and Lake list Imprint Booksellers for sale
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Katherine Woehlert and Jason Lake, proprietors of Adelaide bookstore Imprints Booksellers, have placed the business on the market. In a statement shared on the bookstore’s Facebook page earlier this month,...
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...
CBCA 2024 shortlists announced
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its shortlist for the 2024 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. The shortlisted books in each category, selected from the 2024...
Skate appointed Writers Victoria CEO
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Writers Victoria has appointed Julie Skate as its new CEO. Skate takes over the role from Lucy Hamilton, who in February announced she would depart after three-and-a-half years with the...
Publishers ask court to uphold finding against Internet Archive
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
In the US, publishers Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and Wiley have filed a brief in the Second Circuit court of appeals asking that the court uphold Judge...
Pantera acquires Wright fantasy debut
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Pantera Press has acquired Skysong, a fantasy novel by debut author C A Wright. Skysong is a ‘beautiful, lyrical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Nightingale’ that follows Oriane, a...
North American rights sold for Rogers’ ‘The Heart Is a Star’
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
North American rights to The Heart Is a Star (Megan Rogers, HarperCollins) have been sold in a pre-empt to Central Avenue Publishing by Benython Oldfield at Zeitgeist Agency. The novel—Rogers’...
Auckland Writers Festival program announced
Monday, 18 March 2024
The program for the Auckland Writers Festival, which will run 14–19 May 2024, has been announced. Fiction headliners include prize-winning novelist Ann Patchett; international bestselling author Celeste Ng; Pulitzer Prize–winning...
Yarros tops 2023 ebook charts
Monday, 18 March 2024
Rebecca Yarros’ romantasy titles Fourth Wing and Iron Flame (both Piatkus) have taken out the top two places in Nielsen BookScan’s 2023 ebook charts—and the second and third place overall...
Aurealis Awards shortlists announced
Monday, 18 March 2024
The shortlists for the 2023 Aurealis Awards, presented for science fiction, fantasy and horror writing in Australia, have been announced. Among longer-form works shortlisted for this year’s awards are: Best...
‘The Bee Sting’ wins Nero Book Prize
Monday, 18 March 2024
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton) has won the overall Nero Book Prize, worth £30,000 (A$57,684). Murray’s novel was chosen unanimously as the winner by a judging panel chaired...
Local publishers nominated for Bologna Prize
Thursday, 14 March 2024
Australian publishers Affirm Press, Fremantle Press and Hardie Grant Children's Publishing and Aotearoa New Zealand publishers Scholastic New Zealand and Huia Publishers have been shortlisted for this year’s Bologna Prize...
Affirm Press signs Sweatshop mentees Nour and Barnette
Thursday, 14 March 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to books by Egyptian-Australian writer and journalist Daniel Nour and African-American Australian writer Tyree Barnette. Nour and Barnette were recipients of the 2021 Affirm...
Carnegie Medal 2024 shortlists announced
Thursday, 14 March 2024
In the UK, the 2024 shortlists for the Carnegie Medal for Illustration (previously known as the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration) and the Carnegie Medal for Writing have been announced....
Berry wins overall Writers’ Prize for ‘The Home Child’
Thursday, 14 March 2024
Poet Liz Berry is the winner of the 2024 Writers' Prize overall Book of the Year award, worth £30,000 (A$58,000), for The Home Child (Vintage). Berry’s novel-in-verse was inspired by the...
Fullagar wins 2024 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship
Thursday, 14 March 2024
Social and cultural historian Kate Fullagar is the winner of the 2024 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, worth $20,000. Fullagar was awarded the fellowship for her proposed biography, ‘The Secret Life...
S&S acquires three titles by Heiss
Thursday, 14 March 2024
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to three new books by Anita Heiss, via Tara Wynne of Curtis Brown Australia. The first book, which has the working...
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...
Global book report highlights growing book prices
Wednesday, 13 March 2024
A new Nielsen BookData-GfK study of the global book market has found that publishing revenue and book prices grew in many countries in 2023, reports Publishing Perspectives. The Global Book...
