Reading into the year ahead: 2024 fiction and poetry preview
29 November 2023
Debuts, historical fiction, crime and thrillers, contemporary fiction, romance and fantasy, literary fiction and shorter works—Australian publishers share their top picks in fiction and poetry for 2024, from intergenerational family...
Five key insights from Nielsen BookScan’s SPN market report
29 November 2023
Claire West and Olivia Johansson from Nielsen BookScan opened the Small Press Network’s Independent Publishing Conference industry day on Friday, 24 November, sharing key insights on the overall Australian book...
Independent Publishing Conference 2023: Conversations and communities
29 November 2023
The Small Press Network (SPN) annual Independent Publishing Conference (IPC) was held from 23 to 25 November at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne, on Wurundjeri Country, and remotely online. Thursday was...
ILF workshops create books, explore digital storytelling
29 November 2023
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation is well known as the facilitator of the fundraising initiative Indigenous Literacy Day, and for developing books in First Nations languages, but other ILF programs also...
Sharlene Allsopp recommends
29 November 2023
Burn by Melanie Saward. My favourite writers grip my heart with the reality of grief and loss, but leave me with hope and beauty at the same time. When I...
Sharlene Allsopp on ‘The Great Undoing’
28 November 2023
Sharlene Allsopp's debut novel, The Great Undoing (Ultimo, February 2024), 'is a remarkable book that reaches back into the early 20th century and forwards into the future to examine discontinuities...
Victoria Carless recommends
22 November 2023
I read and loved Limberlost by Robbie Arnott earlier this year. It is a quiet novel, ostensibly about a boy called Ned, who hunts rabbits for their pelts to buy a boat...
AI: The next, best editorial tool?
22 November 2023
Editors Rose Michael, Sharon Mullins, Renée Otmar and Katherine Day ask how AI tools might work, or be made to work, for editorial. Back when Rose was editor of the...
Rising Stars on AI
22 November 2023
How do the publishing industry's rising stars feel about AI? Editors Rose Michael, Sharon Mullins, Renée Otmar and Katherine Day are interested in how AI tools might work, or be made...
AI and AR at the Sharjah Publishers Conference
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...
‘I wanted to make a meaningful impact’: Reflections from the 2023 Open Book interns
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’
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...
Explainer: What are the costs and considerations of making audiobooks?
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
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...
BookPeople sees ‘notable uptick’, higher average value with new gift cards
8 November 2023
Earlier this year, BookPeople launched its new gift cards program, selling digital and physical cards that can be redeemed at member bookshops and Collins and Dymocks shops across Australia. The...
Yumna Kassab on ‘Politica’
31 October 2023
Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. She is the author of The House of Youssef (Giramondo, 2019), Australiana (Ultimo, 2022), and The Lovers (Ultimo, 2022). She has been listed...
Yumna Kassab recommends
31 October 2023
I think the standout book for 2023 has to be Only Sound Remains by Hossein Asgari. The writing has great clarity, and it evokes such a strong sense of place....
BookHub and Your Bookstore: New connections between ANZ booksellers and readers
25 October 2023
Since Bookshop.org and before, local brick-and-mortar stores have been pondering how best to reach online shoppers in the local market. Could the recently launched BookHub and Your Bookstore websites in...
Sara M Saleh on ‘The Flirtation of Girls’
24 October 2023
Sara M Saleh is an award-winning human rights lawyer and author. She follows her debut novel, Songs for the Dead and the Living (Affirm, 2023), with her first published poetry...
What do teens want to read? Six key insights from the Deakin University Teen Reading research team
18 October 2023
On 4 October in Melbourne, the Deakin University Teen Reading research team presented a preview of their final report for the project ‘Discovering a “Good Read”: Cultural pathways to reading...
Michelle Upton on ‘Emergency Exit Only’
17 October 2023
Originally hailing from Birmingham, England, Michelle Upton now calls the Redlands Coast in Queensland home. Her debut novel Terms of Inheritance (HarperCollins, 2022) was shortlisted for the 2021 Banjo Prize,...
Introducing Key People
11 October 2023
Earlier this year, publishing professionals Lou Johnson and Jeanne Ryckmans set up a new literary agency, Key People Literary Management. With a connection going back to their time as colleagues...
The Community Publishing Research Project
11 October 2023
The Community Publishing in Regional Australia project team comprises academic researchers Beth Driscoll, Kim Wilkins, Sandra Phillips and Alexandra Dane. With funding from the Australian Research Council, the project runs...
Amplify Bookstore’s summer picks
4 October 2023
Amplify Bookstore is an independent online bookseller specialising in books by Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) authors, founded by Jing Xuan Teo and Marina Sano. Here, they share their top...
Angourie Rice and Kate Rice on ‘Stuck Up & Stupid’
3 October 2023
Angourie Rice is an actor renowned for her roles in international feature films and television series; she also showcases her literary talents by writing, producing and hosting The Community Library...
Epics, experiments, escapism, excellence: Australian fiction at Frankfurt
3 October 2023
Several prize-winning Australian authors will have new novels showcased at the fair. Waanyi (First Nations) author Alexis Wright, who is the only writer to have won both the Stella Prize...
Volume symposium: Australia Reads on building a reading nation
27 September 2023
Last Thursday, 21 September, over 1000 people tuned in to Australia Reads’ Volume symposium, on the theme ‘Building a Reading Nation’. In the context of declining literacy and reading rates,...
Lucy Treloar on ‘Days of Innocence and Wonder’
26 September 2023
Lucy Treloar's Salt Creek (Picador, 2015) claimed the Dobbie Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the UK's Walter Scott Prize, while her second novel,...
Sport and sportspeople in Australian youth literature
20 September 2023
Former bookseller Georgia Strobel recently undertook research into how sport and sportspeople are represented in Australian children's literature. Here, she shares her findings. Earlier this year I was lucky enough...
Australian book market overview: 2023 so far
13 September 2023
Ahead of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Books+Publishing’s rights publication, Think Australian, looks at how the local market has fared so far this year. After three consecutive years of growth, the Australian book...
