Middle-grade boom: recent Australian CYA acquisitions
Thursday, 13 October 2022
The Australian children’s middle-grade market continues to grow, and recent acquisitions show it won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ, Oceania and non-exclusive Asia...
Down wins Miles Franklin for ‘Bodies of Light’
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Melbourne writer Jennifer Down took out Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award, for her second novel Bodies of Light (Text). The winner was chosen from...
Introducing Bold Type Agency
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Nerrilee Weir, former Penguin Random House Australia senior rights manager and Fiona Henderson, former Simon & Schuster Australia publishing director, have joined forces to create new rights agency Bold Type...
Australian authors recommend
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Australian authors tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why. Michelle Kadarusman is the author of the middle-grade book on animal activism Berani (A&U...
Australian bestsellers 2022 YTD
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Top 10 Australian fiction YTD Apples Never Fall (Liane Moriarty, Macmillan) 44,080 The Murder Rule (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins) 40,870 Exiles (Jane Harper, Macmillan) 39,770 Cobalt Blue (Matthew Reilly, Macmiillan) 37,040...
Every Version of You
Wednesday, 12 October 2022
Never Let Me Go meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Murakami’s surrealism—this is speculative literary fiction at its best. In late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin...
Bologna rights centre to open to adult publishers
Tuesday, 13 September 2022
Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) will expand its current BCBF Agents' Centre to include rights professionals from across the industry, including adult general trade publishers. BCBF director Elena Pasoli said:...
Tell Me Again (Amy Thunig, UQP)
Tuesday, 6 September 2022
Amy Thunig is an academic and social commentator on shows such as ABC’s The Drum. She also grew up in poverty, the child of parents battling drug addictions who provided...
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding (Holly Ringland, Fourth Estate)
Tuesday, 26 July 2022
Esther Wilding grows up in the shadow of her older sister Aura. When the once-sparkling Aura returns from Copenhagen hollowed out by life, and walks into the sea to her...
People Who Lunch (Sally Olds, Upswell)
Wednesday, 6 July 2022
People Who Lunch is the much-anticipated first book by Melbourne-based writer Sally Olds. Known among a devoted coterie of fans for her long-form standalone essays, Olds’ first full collection focuses...
Bon and Lesley (Shaun Prescott, Giramondo)
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Shaun Prescott continues his existential explorations of modern life in his second novel, which follows his 2017 debut The Town. In the opening pages of Bon and Lesley we meet...
Farm: The making of a climate activist (Nicola Harvey, Scribe)
Tuesday, 21 June 2022
Is it possible to be a meat-eating environmentalist? How do you spend months bonding with your heifers, seeing them as they truly are—curious, playful and happy sentient beings—just to send...
Growing in to Autism (Sandra Thom-Jones, MUP)
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Sandra Thom-Jones had a successful life before she knew she had autism. Or, more specifically, before she had a diagnosis of autism. A well-respected researcher in her 50s, Thom-Jones knew...
Faithless (Alice Nelson, Vintage)
Tuesday, 31 May 2022
Alice Nelson’s Faithless is an astonishing novel that unfolds as a love letter from protagonist Cressida to her all-consuming love, Max. In the beginning, Cressida is looking after a young...
Enclave (Claire G Coleman, Hachette)
Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Born of social media algorithms and convenience culture, with a biting critique of modern tribalism, Enclave, Claire G Coleman’s third novel, is Brave New World with every conceit flipped for...
It’s good to be back
Friday, 1 April 2022
After more than two years attending rights fairs virtually, several Australian publishers will be attending the 2022 London Book Fair (LBF) in person next week. 'We’re excited to attend LBF...
Moriarty, Dalton top Australian fiction, nonfiction charts YTD
Friday, 1 April 2022
Trent Dalton, whose 2018 debut Boy Swallows Universe remains in the top 10 Australian fiction bestsellers over three years after its publication, is at the top of Australian nonfiction charts...
Bios, how-tos, hybrid memoirs: recent nonfiction acquisitions in Aus
Friday, 1 April 2022
A biography of Australian surfer Owen Wright (world rights acquired by S&S Australia) tells the story of the surfer’s recovery after a serious brain injury ahead of the Pipeline Masters...
Framed
Friday, 1 April 2022
In this gripping art heist thriller, art conservator JJ Jego spots a long-lost masterpiece through the window of a luxury apartment – what she believes is a priceless Van Gogh...
Koalas, climate and real-life ‘Succession’: Australian nonfiction offerings at LBF
Friday, 1 April 2022
Of all the titles being pitched at LBF, perhap the most instantly recognisable as Australian is forthcoming nonfiction title Koala by biologist Danielle Clode (Black Inc., September), which promises ‘an...
Australian book market overview 2021
Friday, 1 April 2022
After a pandemic-fuelled record year in 2020—during which sales of books in Australia grew 7.8% to A$1.25 billion (unit sales for the year were 67 million) according to Nielsen BookScan—in 2021,...
Fiction acquisitions: debuts, familiar names and plenty of two-book deals
Friday, 1 April 2022
Among recent acquisitions are a spate of two-book deals. MacLehose Press, an imprint of Hachette-owned UK publisher Quercus, has acquired world rights to two new novels by Australian author Peter...
Australian authors recommend
Friday, 1 April 2022
Australian authors tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why. Hayley Scrivenor is the author of forthcoming crime novel Dirt Town (Macmillan, May). ‘I...
Aus crime wave continues: the fiction publishers are pitching at LBF
Friday, 1 April 2022
Australian publishing continues to ride a literary crime wave, with several local publishers bringing crime offerings to London. ‘We are delighted to share Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has...
Debut memoir wins Australia’s richest literary prize
Friday, 1 April 2022
In February this year, first-time author Veronica Gorrie took home Australia’s richest literary prize, the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature at the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, for her memoir...
Alex and the Alpacas Ride Again
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
After saving the world from Kiala, the ancient spirit of destruction, Alex longs for more adventure—and the chance to feel special again. Compared to riding through the Tasmanian wilderness on...
Zombie Diaries #1: Apocalypse Cow!
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
The first book in a fast-paced comedy-adventure series set in a town called Buttburgher where all the adults start turning into zombie cows! Jimmy, Daisy and Hooey will have to...
Bologna Prize shortlist: EK Books
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Publisher Anouska Jones introduces health and wellbeing press Exisle Publishing's children's imprint EK Books. How and why did Exisle's children's imprint EK begin its life? Exisle Publishing began 30 years...
Bologna Prize shortlist: Magabala Books
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Publisher Rachel Bin Salleh introduces Australia's leading First Nations press Magabala Books. How and why did Magabala's children's division begin its life? Magabala has been publishing children’s pictures books since...
Bologna Prize shortlist: Affirm Press
Wednesday, 16 March 2022
Children's publisher Tash Besliev intoduces Melbourne independent Affirm Press. How and why did the Affirm Press children's division begin its life? After successfully publishing across many other categories, Affirm Press...
