Gary Pengelly, owner of Books+Publishing, writes: I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and a well-earned rest for our... Read more |
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Books+Publishing has collated company closing dates for the Christmas and New Year holiday period. (See table below.) The Books+Publishing office will close on Friday 13 December and... Read more |
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Michael Debenham’s Drowning for Beginners has won the 2024 Ampersand Prize for children’s and YA debut fiction. Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) publishing director Marisa... Read more |
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Jessie Tu has been awarded Creative Australia’s 2025 BR Whiting Studio Residency in Rome. Tu’s debut novel, A Lonely Girl Is a Dangerous Thing (A&U),... Read more |
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh has responded to a petition asking for Federal Parliament to introduce fixed-price laws for books in... Read more |
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Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) has announced recipients of its Contestable Fund Grants, totalling NZ$75,000. The recipients are: Georgina Tuari Stewart (NZ$8220): for the publishing project ‘Ngā Kararehe o... Read more |
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University of Queensland Press (UQP) has sold world English (ex ANZ) rights to Someone Like Me: An Anthology of Nonfiction by Autistic Writers (co-edited by... Read more |
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Two Anh Do series, WeirDo (Scholastic) and Wolf Girl (A&U), are being adapted to screen, reports the Age. The WeirDo series is being turned into... Read more |
In the UK, Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World (Parmy Olson, St Martin’s Press) has won the 2024 Financial Times... Read more |
Peter Rose, editor and CEO of the Australian Book Review, is set to step down from the role in 2025, after 23 years leading the publication.
In another change, the State Library of Queensland has announced a new agreement with UQP to publish titles from its black&write! First Nations–led writing and editing program from 2026, following a call for expressions of interest earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Black Friday saw book market sales up 4% on the same time last year, according to results from Nielsen BookData; and Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh has responded to a petition asking for Federal Parliament to introduce fixed-price laws for books in Australia.
In residencies and grants news, Jessie Tu has been awarded Creative Australia’s 2025 BR Whiting Studio Residency in Rome; Varuna announced the 2025 Affirm Press Fellowship recipients; and in Aotearoa New Zealand, Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) announced recipients of its Contestable Fund Grants.
There were also some changes to development programs announced this week: The Australian Book Review announced a new science writing fellowship; while the Australian Society of Authors is running ‘a smaller iteration’ of its award mentorship program next year, following the end of Copyright Agency funding.
In awards news this week, author Katherine Johnson won the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize for her unpublished manuscript A Wild Heart; Michael Debenham’s Drowning for Beginners won the 2024 Ampersand Prize for children’s and YA debut fiction; and the Institute of Professional Editors announced the 2025 Rosie longlist.
Overseas, Publishers Weekly reported on the end of the Internet Archive copyright case, which followed a decision by the organisation not to pursue an appeal in the US Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, in the UK, historian Joya Chatterji won the 2024 Wolfson History Prize for Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century (Vintage); and the Publishers Association released its annual workforce survey report.
In rights news this week, University of Queensland Press sold North American and UK rights to The Nightmare Sequence, a collection of illustrated poetry by Omar Sakr and Safdar Ahmed, to Nightboat Books and the87press respectively, and world English (ex ANZ) rights to Someone Like Me: An Anthology of Nonfiction by Autistic Writers (co-edited by Clem Bastow & Jo Case) to Verve Books UK; Allen & Unwin acquired ANZ rights to Rebecca Starford’s novel The Visitor; Fremantle Australia optioned the rights to a range of works from Paul Jennings for development of a ‘deliciously frightful’ new television series; two Anh Do series—WeirDo and Wolf Girl—are being adapted to screen; digital-first publishing house Storm acquired world English language rights (ex ANZ) to seven novels by Fiona McIntosh; and Simon & Schuster acquired world rights to a memoir by paramedic Sally Gould, with the working title Frog: A Memoir of Life and Death on the Frontline.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in publishing-related writings, ArtsHub put some questions to outgoing Affirm Press publishing director Martin Hughes, and Julian Novitz wrote for the Conversation on the ‘disruption’ of book publishing by technology companies (especially in relation to generative AI): ‘Greater speed and broader access may be laudable aims for these publishing innovations. But they will also likely lead to greater disposability—at least in the short term—for both publishing professionals and the books themselves.’
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From the witchy to the wistful, from the fact-filled to the fantastical, publishers have pulled together their lists of highlighted children’s and young adult titles... Read more |
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Publishers highlight forthcoming poetry books from well-loved voices in the field—like Kirli Saunders, Omar Sakr, Grace Yee, Antigone Kefala and Eileen Chong—as well as titles... Read more |
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Audiobook lovers have plenty of local content due in 2025. Here, we round up the Australian titles highlighted by local audio publishers Bolinda and Wavesound.... Read more |
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Kate Kemp’s debut, The Grapevine (Hachette, February 2025), unravels the mystery of a murder in 1970s Canberra, revealing hidden secrets and buried tensions within the... Read more |
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I recently read and loved The Wakes by Dianne Yarwood. I am instantly drawn to books about women reinventing themselves at various ages. This book... Read more |
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Sales Fiction Scribe has sold French translation rights to Kataraina (Becky Manawatu) to Au Vent des Îles; and Turkish translation rights in Thunderhead (Miranda Darling)... Read more |
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As previously reported, according to Nielsen BookData, Black Friday–week sales in 2024 ‘saw volume sales in the Australian book market 40% higher than the average... Read more |
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Top 10 bestsellers RecipeTin Eats: Tonight (Nagi Maehashi, Macmillan) Guinness World Records 2025 (Guinness World Records) In Too Deep (Lee Child & Andrew Child, Bantam)... Read more |
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Nestled in Melbourne’s western suburbs, Carnation Way is a quiet street of identical-looking houses with one distinction: number 37 was the scene of a murder... Read more |
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As summertime scorches Canberra and the 1970s draw to a close, a severed foot is discovered on the mountain behind Warrah Place. When it’s identified... Read more |
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In Grave Empire, Richard Swan returns to the world of his Empire of the Wolf fantasy trilogy in a way that’s thrilling and wholly unexpected.... Read more |
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When Dorothy Porter died in 2008, Australia lost one of its greatest contemporary poets. The author of nine poetry collections and five verse novels, Porter... Read more |
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How can we occupy spaces after death? Where do we place our grief when we lose someone close to us? Eileen Chong (A Thousand Crimson... Read more |
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Aubrey Daquinag’s Your Soul Purpose: Manifest a Life You Love offers an accessible entry point for readers looking to shift their thinking about life. The... Read more |
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Brave in Every Which Way by Maddy Mara (aka Hilary Rogers and Meredith Badger, who also produced Itty Bitty Kitty and The Greatest Mistakes That... Read more |
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Brightest Wild, by Mirning woman Tania Crampton-Larking, was a winning manuscript in the 2019 black&write! Fellowships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. It tells... Read more |
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Did you know that oysters are often called the kidneys of the ocean because they filter a bathtub’s worth of water every two days? Or... Read more |
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James Hinchon’s Llamas in the Library is a rollicking adventure about a group of children who must team up to herd a marauding group of... Read more |
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Lili Wilkinson’s latest young adult novel, Unhallowed Halls, is a dark academia fantasy about finding your inner strength and accepting who you are. After a... Read more |
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Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine.... Read more |
Nominations are now open!
Gather those lists and enter your 2024 titles for consideration in next year’s ABIAs, as we prepare to celebrate all that has been achieved and those who make our industry what it is—and what it will be in the years ahead.
Submit your nominations on our awards platform.
- Book award nominations will close on Wednesday 29 January 2025 at 11:59 am AEDT.
- Audiobook award and business award nominations will close on Wednesday 12 February 2025 at 11:59 am AEDT.
To make submitting your nomination easy, you can visit our FAQ page for commonly asked questions.
We recommend you start your application well before the closing date, as it can take time to upload and submit each nomination.
Learn more
You can view the categories and conditions for each award here:
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Raquel Dutra has been appointed to the newly established role of publishing manager, reporting to managing director Lisa Hanrahan.
She was previously at leading Portuguese publisher Grupo Editorial Presença, is fluent in five languages, and is responsible for strengthening the international list.
Laurance Wilson has been appointed to the newly established role of business manager Oceania, reporting to CEO Paul Dennett.
He held national sales management roles at S&S, PRH, Wiley, Bonnier, Five Mile Press, Phoenix and Hallmark, and is responsible for ANZ and Asia sales.
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This story tells how even the youngest of children can become a hero simply by trying to do their best for themselves, their world, and... Read more |
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