Spotify reports 25% of Premium users ‘engaging’ with audiobooks
18 April 2024
Data released by Spotify shows that 25% of the platform’s Premium users are ‘engaging’ with its audiobooks offering, reports the Bookseller. Spotify said users aged 18 to 34 make up...
Hachette acquires Coburn YA verse novel ‘The Foal in the Wire’
18 April 2024
Hachette Australia has acquired world rights to The Foal in the Wire, a YA verse novel from poet Robbie Coburn, via Belinda Bolliger at Key People Literary Management. Described by...
Student-run Elephant Page Publishing launches at Curtin Uni
18 April 2024
A new student press, Elephant Page Publishing, has been established at Curtin University in Perth (Boorloo), Western Australia. Curtin University’s professional writing and publishing senior lecturer Per Henningsgaard is serving...
Remaining big five publishers join PRH in Iowa lawsuit
17 April 2024
In the US, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, along with Sourcebooks, have joined Penguin Random House (PRH) as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Iowa to block the book...
Pantera acquires Sursok memoir
17 April 2024
Pantera has acquired world rights to an as-yet-untitled memoir from Tammin Sursok. Among many other roles—including producing, directing, writing, music, media appearances, and entrepreneurship—Sursok is known as an actor who...
Local authors on Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2024 shortlist
17 April 2024
Three Aotearoa New Zealand authors and one Australian writer are among the finalists for the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The authors shortlisted for the Pacific region are: M Donato...
Yvonne Sewankambo recommends
17 April 2024
I’m currently reading and loving Mawunyo Gbogbo’s Hip Hop & Hymns (Penguin), which has been on my bookshelf since it was published in 2022. Finding the mental capacity to read that...
BookPeople 2024 Book of the Year shortlists announced
17 April 2024
BookPeople has announced the shortlists for its Book of the Year awards. The shortlists for each category are: Adult fiction Lola in the Mirror (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate) Green Dot (Madeleine Gray,...
Yvonne Sewankambo on ‘Good Hair’
16 April 2024
Sydney-based Yvonne Sewankambo is a Ugandan-Canadian writer and publicist whose debut picture book, Good Hair (Walker, June 2024), is ‘a wonderfully inclusive book representing various cultures and subcultures, showcasing the...
black&write! Writing Fellowships shortlist announced
16 April 2024
The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) has announced the shortlist for this year’s black&write! Writing Fellowships. The six shortlisted writers are: Skye Cusack, for the young adult novel ‘The Dangers...
Ondaatje Prize 2024 longlist
16 April 2024
The longlist for this year’s £10,000 (A$19,321) Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The Britannias: An island quest (Alice Albinia, Allen Lane) Falling...
Affirm acquires Ferguson ‘feminist manifesto’
16 April 2024
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to an as-yet-untitled second nonfiction book from Hannah Ferguson. Described by the publisher as a ‘no-bullshit, no-frills guide to your twenties’, Ferguson’s 'new feminist...
A third of translators report losing work due to AI
15 April 2024
In the UK, a survey of members of the Society of Authors (SoA) has found a quarter of illustrators (26%) and over a third of translators (36%) have lost work due...
ISBN data: Pandemic slow-down in number of new publishers, number of new titles stable
15 April 2024
ISBN data shows there has been a deceleration in the number of new publishing entities entering the Australian market since the start of the pandemic, but the number of new...
BookPeople 2024 conference program announced
11 April 2024
BookPeople has announced the program for its 100th anniversary conference and trade exhibition, to be held at Pullman Melbourne on the Park on 14 to 17 June. Yuwaalaraay storyteller and...
UQP acquires Bigna middle-grade verse novel
11 April 2024
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to debut author Sandy Bigna’s middle-grade verse novel Little Bones, in a two-book deal via Danielle Binks of Jacinta di...
Hazard to leave Hachette
11 April 2024
Hachette Australia and New Zealand has announced group publishing director Fiona Hazard is leaving the role ‘to pursue other opportunities’. Hazard joined Hodder Headline in 1999 as publishing manager before...
BookPeople Book of the Year longlists announced
11 April 2024
BookPeople has announced the longlists for its Book of the Year awards. The longlists for each category are: Adult fiction Lola in the Mirror (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate) Green Dot...
PRH acquires Clark romantasy duology
11 April 2024
Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia has acquired rights to a romantasy duology from Tasmanian debut author Sophie Clark, as part of a global PRH co-publishing deal with Knopf in the...
AI and publishing: Concerns beyond copyright
10 April 2024
The publishing sector’s response to last year’s revelations about the materials used to train generative AI has been characterised by concern over the unauthorised use of pirated books in these...
Catton shortlisted for 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
10 April 2024
Eleanor Catton has been shortlisted for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, worth US$150,000 (A$226,245). The full list of shortlisted titles includes: Birnam Wood (Eleanor Catton, Granta) Daughter (Claudia...
International Booker Prize 2024 shortlist announced
10 April 2024
The shortlist for the 2024 International Booker Prize, worth £50,000 (A$95,600), has been announced. The titles in the running for this year’s prize, chosen from a longlist of 13 announced...
ARA Historical Novel Prize increases prize pool to $150,000
10 April 2024
The ARA Historical Novel Prize this year will have a prize pool of $150,000, with the winner of the adult category to receive $100,000—making this 'the richest individual literary prize...
Ambrose joins HarperCollins
10 April 2024
HarperCollins Australia has appointed Sophie Ambrose to the role of publisher, commissioning nonfiction for the ABC Books and HarperCollins imprints. Ambrose replaces Georgia Frances King, who will leave HarperCollins on...
Explainer: What is generative AI, and what does it have to do with books?
10 April 2024
Millicent Weber, Julienne van Loon and Bronwyn Coate write: The term generative artificial intelligence, or generative AI, refers to algorithms that can be used to generate text, images, and audiovisual...
Huia wins 2024 Bologna Prize, Oceania region
10 April 2024
Huia Publishers, based in Aotearoa New Zealand, is the 2024 Oceania winner of the Bologna Prize (BOP) for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. The Māori-owned independent publisher has...
ILF wins Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2024
10 April 2024
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) has won the 2024 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), worth five million Swedish kronor (A$710,000). The ILF was announced as the winner at a live...
Hachette acquires Farnham memoir
9 April 2024
Hachette Australia has acquired world rights to The Voice Inside, a memoir by John Farnham. The book is written in partnership with Poppy Stockell, director of 2023 Farnham biopic Finding...
Aotearoa New Zealand publishers represented at Bologna
9 April 2024
Eight publishers are exhibiting at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand collective stand. The stand will be managed by Publishers Association of New Zealand...
Puffin UK to launch graphic novel imprint
9 April 2024
In the UK, Penguin Random House has revealed the logo and publishing program of its new graphic novel imprint, Puffin Graphics, reports the Bookseller. The new imprint is aimed at...
