News | Books+Publishing

Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

News >

Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship 2023 shortlist announced

Thursday, 16 November 2023
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced the 2023 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship shortlist. The shortlisted applicants, chosen by authors Mirandi Riwoe and Anna Spargo-Ryan, are: Emily Bitto for ‘Reasons...

Vivendi closes Editis sale

Thursday, 16 November 2023
French media company Vivendi has closed the sale of publishing house Editis to International Media Invest for €653 million (A$1.1b), reports the Bookseller. The sale price is less than the...

The Next Chapter 2024 recipients announced

Wednesday, 15 November 2023
The Wheeler Centre has announced the 2024 recipients of The Next Chapter writing development program. This year's five recipients are Raqiya Ahmed, Claire Cao, Jake Corvus, Laniyuk, and Maria van Neerven. The...

Booksellers sign statement of solidarity with Palestine

Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Local and international booksellers have signed an open letter in solidarity with Palestine. Published on Overland and attributed to Booksellers for Palestine, the letter states: ‘We stand against the collective...

AI and AR at the Sharjah Publishers Conference

Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Each year, the Sharjah International Book Fair brings publishing professionals to the United Arab Emirates through its fellowship program. Agata Mrva-Montoya, from the University of Sydney, reports on her first...

Larrikin acquires Vee, Faber junior fiction

Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Larrikin House has acquired world rights to a junior fiction title by author and illustrator Jules Faber and Larrikin publicist Dani Vee, titled How Not To…. Described by the publisher...

Shelley to lead Hachette in UK and US

Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Hachette Book Group (HBG) in the US and Hachette UK (HUK) will be reorganised under ‘a new English-language management structure’ that will see HUK CEO David Shelley take on the...

‘I wanted to make a meaningful impact’: Reflections from the 2023 Open Book interns

Wednesday, 15 November 2023
First run as a pilot program offering two internships in 2022, the Open Book paid internship program is a joint sector initiative that aims to foster cultural and linguistic diversity...

Victoria Carless on ‘Lani and the Universe’

Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Victoria Carless is a Brisbane-based author who has written for middle-grade readers and young adults, and for theatre. Her debut novel, The Dream Walker (Hachette, 2017), was nominated for the Queensland...

SPN Independent Publishing conference to be held next week

Tuesday, 14 November 2023
The Small Press Network (SPN) 2023 Independent Publishing conference will be held from 23–25 November at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre and livestreamed online. The research day on Thursday, 23 November will...

Larrikin House acquires two junior fantasy series

Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Larrikin House has acquired world rights to two junior fantasy fiction series from Louise Park and collaborators—the Boy vs Beast series (co-written with Susannah McFarlane, writing as Mac Park), which...

Kochanski wins £50k Wolfson History Prize

Tuesday, 14 November 2023
In the UK, Halik Kochanski has won the £50,000 (A$96,280) Wolfson History Prize for Resistance: The underground war in Europe, 1939–45 (Allen Lane). Kochanski's book was chosen from a shortlist of...

Nielsen reports consistent Black Friday sales boost

Monday, 13 November 2023
Nielsen BookData has reported a five-year trend of increasing print book sales during the annual Black Friday retail promotion in Australia. Since 2017, volume sales in the Australian book market...

Report shows continued growth in UK audiobook sales

Monday, 13 November 2023
In the UK, Nielsen BookData's Books & Consumers survey found there was 6% growth in volume and 12% growth in value of audiobooks in that market in the first seven...

Phillips wins 2023 Bragg Prize

Monday, 13 November 2023
Nicky Phillips has won the 2023 UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing for her essay ‘Trials of the heart’. In the winning essay, Phillips ‘illuminates the scientific evidence presented...

Speech Pathology awards 2023 winners announced

Friday, 10 November 2023
The winners of the 2023 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The winning titles in each category are: Age Category: Birth to 3 years Snap!...

Bashford wins 2023 Nib Literary Award

Friday, 10 November 2023
Alison Bashford has won the Waverley Council’s 2023 Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award, worth $40,000, for her book An Intimate History of Evolution: The story of the Huxley family...

Branigan wins 2023 Cundill History Prize

Friday, 10 November 2023
Guardian writer Tania Branigan has won the 2023 Cundill History Prize, worth US$75,000 (A$117,100), for Red Memory: Living, remembering and forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution (Faber). The book is an exploration...

Myers wins Goldsmiths Prize for Cuddy

Thursday, 9 November 2023
In the UK, Benjamin Myers has won the £10,000 (A$19,200) Goldsmiths Prize for Cuddy (Bloomsbury), a retelling of the story of the hermit St Cuthbert. Cuddy incorporates poetry, prose, play,...

Upswell acquires Jones poetry book

Thursday, 9 November 2023
Upswell Publishing has acquired world rights to The Empty Grandstand, the first book of poetry by Aotearoa New Zealand author Lloyd Jones. ‘Lloyd Jones was seven years old the first...

Explainer: What are the costs and considerations of making audiobooks?

Wednesday, 8 November 2023
As audio has boomed in recent years, the ways a print title makes it to the audio format have changed. Whereas in the past, audio-only publishers such as Bolinda were...

Listen up: How booksellers are getting in on the audiobook boom

Wednesday, 8 November 2023
While the pandemic boost to reading appears to have subsided somewhat (with recent Creative Australia Arts Participation Survey results reporting a three-percentage-point decline in reading engagement since the last survey in...