Books+Publishing newsletter

Inside the Australian book industry

Meet the Australian publishers at this year's fair!

The Australian Publishers Association (APA) stand at Frankfurt this year will feature 14 publishers, with an additional seven to appear on the APA Virtual Australian Collective Stand.

Appearing on the stand are Exisle Publishing, Fin Press, Fremantle Press, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing, Inspiring Publishers/ASPG, Melbourne University Publishing, NewSouth Books, Pantera Press, Rockpool Publishing, Scribe Publications, Seven Steps to Writing Success, Text Publishing, UQP and Ventura Press.

Attending through the APA’s virtual stand are Allen & Unwin, Animal Dreaming Publishing, Narratives of Nature, National Library of Australia Publishing, Spinifex Press, Sydney University Press and UWA Publishing.

Other publishers and agents attending from Australia include Affirm Press, Black Inc., Bold Type and Zeitgeist Agency.

Come and meet the publishers attending in person at the Australian Collective Stand party, to be held in collaboration with IPG UK at Hall 6.0, Stand B86 and B87 on Thursday 17 October from 5.30pm.

Until then, we bring you the latest Australian bestsellers; the titles publishers will be pitching in fiction and poetry, nonfiction and children’s/YA; the latest local award winners; a report on recent events in the Australian market; and the titles Australian authors recommend. We also report on the latest local acquisitions in fiction and poetry, nonfiction, and children’s/YA.

For more information, you can also check out the 2024 Australian Frankfurt rights catalogue and the APA’s Virtual Australian Collective Stand on the Books from Australia website.

As previously, this issue of Think Australian is being distributed by Publishers Weekly and BookBrunch. For more information on Think Australian and to sign up directly, click here.

We hope you enjoy reading, and take the time to ‘think Australian’ when it comes to rights.

—The Books+Publishing team.

Think Australian is produced by Books+Publishing with support from the Australian Publishers Association and the Australian Government through Creative Australia.

Feature

Photograph of Shant Kradjian in Booktopia warehouse

Australian market news: Publishers welcome survival of key online bookseller

Australian authors recommend

Australian creators tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why.

Michelle de Kretser won the Miles Franklin twice, for The Life to Come and Questions of Travel. Her forthcoming novel, Theory & Practice (Text, November 2024), is a combination of fiction, memoir and essay set in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1986. De Kretser recommends:

Cover of Highway 13 ‘Fiona McFarlane’s Highway 13 is a stupendous collection of stories that imagines the fallout from the crimes committed by a serial killer. It’s a dazzling refraction of the backpacker murders of the 1990s, reimagined by a writer in brilliant control of character, setting and form. She writes like an angel, too.’

David Dyer’s debut novel, The Midnight Watch, focused on the ship that witnessed the Titanic’s distress rockets but failed to respond. His sophomore novel, This Kingdom of Dust (Penguin, October 2024), asks: What if the Apollo mission had failed to return from the Moon? Dyer recommends:

‘The last Australian book I read and loved was Larry Writer’s wonderful The Shipwreck (2022). It tells the dramatic story of the sailing ship Dunbar, which, in 1857, after a three-month voyage from England, wrecked itself on rocks near the entrance of Sydney Harbour. Of the 123 people aboard, only one survived.

‘The Dunbar was a magnificent wind-powered machine, Larry tells us, “one of the finest British clippers at the zenith of the age of sail”. But, in the end, it was the wind that destroyed her. I’m fascinated by powerful machines that fail. The Dunbar, the Titanic, and the lunar module languishing in my kingdom of dust remind me that, marvellous as humankind’s endeavours might be, at any moment, nature can sweep them all away.’

In the new picture book My Dad’s Gone Away (Magabala, October 2024), authors Andrew Krakouer, a Minang (Nyoongar) and Inggarda (Yamatji) man and former AFL player, and Jacqueline Dinan, a funeral celebrant and former accredited foster carer, sensitively explore a family’s experience navigating a parent’s incarceration. They shared recommendations:

Always Was Always Will Be Krakouer: ‘I am fascinated by Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson, also published by Magabala Books. I have always appreciated the fight for respect on the footy field. This book provides an accessible and objective summary of the protests and plight of First Nations People in all aspects of life.’

Dinan: ‘I have just finished reading Nova Weetman’s Love, Death & Other Scenes, in which she so rawly yet beautifully explores her journey through her husband’s illness and ultimate death, plus navigating life afterwards. As a funeral celebrant, I always want to understand the diversity of grief better and build my technical ability to capture a life story.’

Read the full article here.

Australian fiction and poetry at Frankfurt

Australian publishers are excited to pitch a wide range of fiction titles this year, including major award winners, debuts and follow-ups, in genres ranging from complex literary works to page-turning thrillers. Below are some titles Australian publishers look forward to highlighting at the fair.

Literary and contemporary fiction

After taking out the Australian awards that really count (in sales as well as prestige)—the Miles Franklin and Stella Prize—as well as the Queensland Literary Award for fiction and the ALS Gold Medal, Alex Wright’s Praiseworthy (Giramondo) has surely gained a reputation outside of Australia. (It also took home this year’s James Tait Black fiction prize in the UK.)

Giramondo will be pitching this modern masterpiece alongside Chinese Postman (October 2024), a new novel about the experience of old age by ‘one of Australia’s most important novelists’, Brian Castro. In this book, Abraham Quin is a migrant, thrice-divorced, a one-time postie and professor, a writer now living alone in the Adelaide Hills. ‘He reflects on his life with what he calls “the mannered and meditative inaction of age”, offering up memories and anxieties, obsessions and opinions, his thoughts on solitude, writing, friendship and time.’

Giramondo is also excited to pitch Raaza Jamshed’s debut novel, What Kept You?, which focuses on a young Muslim woman, Jahan, who leaves Lahore for the outskirts of Sydney at the age of 18, to escape the fear of violence that haunts her life in Pakistan; Jahan’s story is addressed to her grandmother, with an episodic structure that ‘mirrors the fragmented nature of her memories’.

From Pantera, An Onslaught of Light (Natasha Rai, March 2025), longlisted for several unpublished manuscript awards, is ‘a luminous literary migrant fiction debut’. Archana and her family arrive in Australia from India searching for a better life, but the move is not easy on anyone. ‘Years later, Arch lives her ideal solitary, isolated life. But with her father’s illness, she is pulled back into the world and a potential new start’, says the publisher. ‘This is a stunning debut with literary cross-over appeal from a committed writer with a promising future,’ says Pantera editorial director Kate Cuthbert, adding that it has already garnered praise from Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran, who says: ‘Haunting and heartbreaking, Rai’s debut novel deftly weaves a tale of guilt and atonement … a powerful journey from alienation to connection, from loneliness to love, from darkness to light.’

Read the full article here.

Nonfiction at Frankfurt

Australian publishers are heading to Frankfurt with plenty of nonfiction titles on offer, from poetic memoirs to vibrant art books. Below, they share highlights they look forward to pitching at the fair.

Life writing, politics and society

Nonfiction specialists Black Inc. bring to Frankfurt ‘the gripping story of Australia’s first female crime writer and her career-criminal son’ in Outrageous Fortunes: The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-writer, and Her Criminal Son George (Megan Brown & Lucy Sussex, February) under the publisher’s La Trobe University Press imprint. Says the publisher: ‘After a time selling sly-grog and a bigamous marriage to a policeman, Mary Fortune became a pioneering journalist and author’, producing The Detective’s Album, ‘the first book of detective stories to be published in Australia and the first by a woman to be published anywhere in the world’.

Black Inc. will also be presenting Upswell titles White Hibiscus (Loribelle Spirovski), a ‘memoir-in-a-poetic-tone by the acclaimed young artist … that tracks a childhood in The Philippines and Australia and a Covid-period encounter with the memory of it’, according to Upswell publisher Terri-ann White; and Calendar (Vanessa Berry), of which White says: ‘Calendar, with its daily accounts of a life surrounded by objects (hand-drawn) across 365 days, covers the full gamut from whimsical to moments and matters as serious as your life.’

Travelling to Tomorrow: The Modern Women Who Sparked Australia’s Romance with America (Yves Rees, NewSouth) highlights ten unconventional Australian women who ‘headed across the Pacific to make their fortune’ and, in doing so, ‘reoriented Australia towards the United States, years before politicians began to lumber down the same path’, according to the publisher. ‘They were rebels, they were trailblazers, they were disruptors,’ says NewSouth. ‘Yves Rees’ tale of ten gutsy, globe-trotting women is a delight,’ adds NewSouth executive publisher Elspeth Menzies. ‘It turns what we thought we knew about early Australia–US relations on its head.’

From NLA Publishing, Dear Mutzi (Tess Scholfield-Peters) is the story of Harry Peters—formerly Hermann Pollnow, known to his family as Mutzi—who was born in Berlin in 1920. Says the publisher: ‘As a teenager, he fled Nazi Germany and landed in rural Australia. Harry’s parents, Edith and Max, never saw their son again. Edith perished at Theresienstadt; Max at Auschwitz-Birkenau.’ NLA adds that Scholfield-Peters has produced a debut that ‘skirts the edges of fiction and nonfiction’, as she weaves her research with her grandfather’s recollections ‘to envision the unknown’, telling his story with three intertwining threads: ‘a sketched-out history based on Harry’s testimony and documentary history; her engagement with this personal history from a third-generation perspective; and the present story of Harry’s growing infirmities and eventual death in early 2021 at age 100’.

Read the full article here.

Australian CYA at Frankfurt

An array of books—from those for young children to those on the cusp of adulthood, and with subjects ranging from axolotls to ultra-villains—are set to feature among publishers’ CYA pitches at Frankfurt. Below are some highlights that publishers are excited to share at the fair this year.

Picture books

From Allen & Unwin, for children aged 3 to 6, A Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Pet (Ali Rutstein, illus by Tommy Doyle, October) is ‘a very funny, anarchic picture book that will appeal to kids who are longing for a pet … as well as parents who are trying to avoid one!’ ‘While the text says one thing, the gloriously energetic illustrations say quite another,’ says A&U, promising that this book is ‘perfect for pet-owners, pet-wanters, and anyone who loves mischief and mayhem!’ Also from A&U, The Tractor Has a Wobbly Wheel (Tim Saunders, illus by Carla Martell, March 2025) is also aimed at this age bracket, with a perennially popular subject.

From Fremantle, Bigfoot vs Yeti by James Foley is a new picture book by the creator of the publisher’s international success story Stellarphant. The new book is ‘a love story in the tradition of Romeo and Juliet … but Bigfoot vs Yeti couldn’t be less traditional in format with artwork that breaks new boundaries as it gradually moves from a wood-cut graphic novel style to a full-colour extravaganza’, says Fremantle CEO Alex Allan. Also from Fremantle is Timeless by Kelly Canby, a winner in the coveted Children’s Book Council of Australia awards. ‘The book is gorgeously illustrated and both entertaining and sophisticated in the way it approaches the complex concept of time,’ says Allan.

In Winifred Wanders the World (Frieda Herrmann, illus by Hilary Herrmann, Little Owl Books/Animal Dreaming Publishing, December), Winifred is amazed that, up close, the waves don’t sound fearsome at all; they sound like a song. In Rosie’s Garden (Olivia Coates, illus by Samantha McLelland, Exisle), for children aged 3 to 7, ‘Rosie loves nothing more than digging and spending time in her neighbourhood garden’. ‘But when the garden is destroyed to make way for a towering skyscraper, Rosie has to take some very brave—and unexpected—action to save the day’, in a book that ‘explores themes of sustainability, community engagement and navigating change in a way that is understandable and accessible’.

Read the full article here.

Title preview

Why Are We Like This? An Evolutionary Search for Answers to Life's Big Questions

Bigfoot vs Yeti

After the Great Storm

Rights sales and acquisitions

Latest acquisitions: Fiction and poetry

Among the new Australian fiction signed this year are books from familiar names, debut works, manuscript prize winners, titles signed at competitive auctions, and a good dose of romantasy.

Fiction

Familiar names

Ultimo has acquired the political thriller Unfinished Business by Miles Franklin Literary Award winner Shankari Chandran. Set in Sri Lanka in 2009, the novel features CIA agent Ellie Harper, sent to the capital, Colombo, to seek justice for the murdered journalist Ameena Fernando. ‘It’s her first time returning to the island after her last mission went tragically awry four years prior, and Ellie has more than one ghost to lay to rest. Amidst the international scheming and jostling for stakes in post-war Sri Lanka, Ellie follows the trail of secrets on a mission to uncover a truth worth killing for,’ said Ultimo, which plans to publish the novel in January 2025. Ultimo has also acquired Hannah Tunnicliffe’s domestic noir novel The Pool, ‘a compelling and thought-provoking read that will leave you questioning every character and their motives,’ according to publisher Brigid Mullane. Ultimo plans to publish The Pool in January 2025.

Atlantic Books Australia, a division of Allen & Unwin, has acquired ANZ rights to the novel Better Days by Claire Zorn, in a deal brokered by Grace Heifetz at Left Bank Literary, for publication in March 2025. Publisher Cate Paterson said of Better Days: ‘Isn’t there a small part of us all that yearns for that exhilarating intensity of first love, where everything seemed possible? Claire Zorn so perfectly encapsulates the pitfalls of fledgling adulthood and the what-ifs of later life, and she accomplishes it with writing that is compassionate, creative, funny and thought-provoking. This novel is a delight.’ A&U has also acquired ANZ rights to Lyrebird, the second adult novel by Jane Caro, in a deal brokered by Jacinta di Mase Management, for publication in April 2025. Said publisher Cate Paterson: ‘What I love about Jane Caro’s writing is that overlaying the thrilling story that keeps you turning the pages is an intelligent examination of feminist issues. You are thoroughly entertained by a gripping plot while delving deeply into social issues that concern us all. The perfect combination.’

Read the full article here.

Latest acquisitions: Nonfiction

First Nations reportage, moving memoir, cooking, sport and Drag Queens Down Under—read all about Australian publishers’ recent nonfiction acquisitions.

S&S imprint Scribner Australia has acquired ANZ and UK rights to Kumanjayi: Death and Indifference by First Nations journalist Jack Latimore, in a deal via Melanie Ostell at Melanie Ostell Literary, for publication in the first half of 2025. Latimore said: ‘Kumanjayi tells the stories of the abuse, deaths, and indifference experienced by young Blackfullas in contact with police and the state.’

Upswell has acquired world rights to Jessica White’s collection Silence Is My Habitat: Ecobiological Essays, for publication in August 2025. Upswell publisher Terri-ann White said the book of essays ‘contains multiple dimensions’, with ‘a focus on deafness, [on] working in the archive, being an uninvited guest on Noongar boodjar while researching Georgiana Molloy (the subject of her next book), on one’s own energy and on slowing down, and on the death of her mother’.

Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Drag Queens Down Under, an anthology curated by Art Simone, for publication in November 2024. Affirm commercial publisher Kelly Doust said: ‘The queens in this collection are fabulous in every way, and we could not have a better editor than Art to showcase the best of Australian drag in all its myriad forms with her unique brand of wit, grit and style.’

Memoir

Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Geraldine Brooks’ memoir Memorial Days for publication in late January 2025. Described by the publisher as a ‘heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey toward peace’, Memorial Days engages with the author’s experience of ‘immediate and many’ demands in the face of grief, ‘when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz—just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy—collapsed and died on a street in Washington, DC’. Hachette has aslo acquired world rights to The Voice Inside, a memoir by the singer John Farnham, for publication in November. Written in partnership with Poppy Stockell, director of 2023 Farnham biopic Finding the Voice, the book will chart Farnham’s ‘very personal and public journey … with his inimitable humour, insight, and humility’, according to the publisher.

Read the full article here.