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Ladybird children’s imprint to drop gender-labelling

Friday, 21 November 2014
In the UK, Penguin Random House children’s book imprint Ladybird will no longer publish books labelled ‘for boys’ and ‘for girls’ in response to a campaign against gender-labelling, reports the...

National Book Award 2014 winners announced

Friday, 21 November 2014
In the US, the winners of the 2014 National Book Award have been announced. The fiction award was presented to Redeployment (Phil Klay, Canongate), a short-story collection about US soldiers who...

Oyster launches online literary journal

Friday, 21 November 2014
Ebook subscription service Oyster has launched a free online journal called the Oyster Review, which will publish original essays, reviews and interviews on books and writing, reports Publishers Weekly. Oyster’s...

WAYRBA 2014 winners announced

Friday, 21 November 2014
The winners of the 2014 West Australian Young Readers’ Book Awards (WAYRBA) have been announced.The winning books are:Picture books The Three Bears (Sort of) (Yvonne Morrison, illus by Donovan Bixley, Scholastic...

Spineless Wonders launches new short fiction series

Friday, 21 November 2014
Independent Australian publisher Spineless Wonders has announced plans for a new series that combines short stories with authors’ reflections on them.Publisher Bronwyn Mehan told Books+Publishing that the ‘SW Fiction Plus’ series...

US library develops ereader app

Thursday, 20 November 2014
In the US, the Queens Library in New York has developed its own ereader app for Android and iOS, reports Good Ereader. The app gives users access to the library’s...

OUP partners with ed-tech start-up program

Thursday, 20 November 2014
In the UK, Oxford University Press (OUP) has partnered with education technology start-up ‘accelerator program’ Emerge Education, reports the Bookseller. As part of the partnership, OUP will sponsor a working...

ACT Book of the Year Award 2014 shortlist announced

Thursday, 20 November 2014
The ACT Book of the Year Award 2014 shortlist has been announced.The shortlisted titles are: 18 Days: Al Jazeera English and the Egyptian Revolution (Scott Bridges, Editia) Earthmasters: The Dawn...

UK protest group launches Amazon boycott

Wednesday, 19 November 2014
In the UK, protest group Amazon Anonymous has launched a campaign urging consumers not to shop at Amazon this Christmas, reports the Bookseller. The group is asking shoppers to sign...

Costa Book Awards 2014 shortlists announced

Wednesday, 19 November 2014
In the UK, the shortlists for the 2014 Costa Book Awards have been announced. The books shortlisted in the novel category are: The Lives of Others (Neel Mukherjee, Chatto &...

Queensland Literary Awards 2014 shortlists announced

Wednesday, 19 November 2014
The shortlisted titles for the 2014 Queensland Literary Awards (QLA) have been announced by the State Library of Queensland (SLQ). The shortlisted titles are:Fiction All the Birds, Singing (Evie Wyld,...

International library news

Wednesday, 19 November 2014
US library develops ereader appIn the US, the Queens Library in New York has developed its own ereader app for Android and iOS, reports Good Ereader. The app gives users...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 19 November 2014
‘Bundling has been talked about for some time, so we’re delighted to be in a position to test the theory, and see how results measure up against expectations’—HarperCollins Australia CEO...

Penguin Random House launches audio app

Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Penguin Random House has launched a new audio app called ‘Volumes’, reports Galleycat. The free app allows readers to listen to audio clips from authors including Jodi Picoult, Sophie Kinsella...

A&U acquires novel on F Scott Fitzgerald

Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has signed a novel following the final years of The Great Gatsby author F Scott Fitzgerald, reports the Bookseller.A&U acquired UK, Commonwealth and ANZ rights to...

‘How to be Both’ wins Goldsmiths prize

Monday, 17 November 2014
How to be Both (Ali Smith, Hamish Hamilton) has won the £10,000 (A$17,890) Goldsmiths prize, a literary award established to ‘reward fiction that breaks the mould or opens up new...

Bestsellers this week

Monday, 17 November 2014
The Long Haul, the ninth book in Jeff Kinney’s ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series (Puffin) is at the top of bestsellers chart and highest new entries chart this week....

Mystery awards announced at Bouchercon

Monday, 17 November 2014
Three prizes for mystery books—the Barry Awards, Anthony Awards and Macavity Awards—were presented at the Bouchercon 2014 World Mystery Convention: Murder at the Beach, held at Long Beach California from 13...

Hardie Grant wins best consumer site for Cooked

Monday, 17 November 2014
Hardie Grant has won the award for best consumer-facing website at the Bookseller’s Futurebook Innovation Awards. The best publisher website in the awards was divided into two this year, with...

Amazon wins right to administer .book domain

Thursday, 13 November 2014
Amazon has won the right to administer the .book domain name after eight contesting companies withdrew applications from the private auction run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The Register reports that Amazon...

BookNet Canada reviews impact of literary awards

Thursday, 13 November 2014
BookNet Canada has released the results of a survey on the relationship between literary awards and book-buying behaviour. The survey asked Canadian book-buyers how significant award wins or nominations were to their decision to purchase a...

ABC Retail launches website for smartphones

Thursday, 13 November 2014
ABC Retail has launched a new website that is optimised for smartphones.‘Having a mobile retail experience for ABC Shop was a critical element in ABC Retail’s customer focus strategy where we recognise...

Flanagan shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year

Wednesday, 12 November 2014
Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Vintage) has been shortlisted for the 2014 Waterstones Book of the Year in the UK.Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel is one of...