Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

Free >

Penguin Random House UK to close French and German offices

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Penguin Random House (PRH) UK will close two offices covering markets in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, France and Germany as part of an international restructure of its sales team, reports the Bookseller....

WA Government expands Christmas trading hours

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Perth retailers are allowed to trade for extended hours during the Christmas period after changes to trading hours by the Western Australian Government Department of Commerce, reports the ABC. Beginning...

SWF launches first ever children’s writers festival

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
The Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF) will hold its first dedicated children’s festival from 14 November to 4 December 2014. The Children’s Festival of Moving Stories features 25 authors in almost 40...

MidnightSun crowdfunds first children’s book

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Adelaide-based publisher MidnightSun will publish its first children’s book in February 2015 following a successful crowdfunding campaign. One Step at a Time, written by Jane Jolly and illustrated by Sally...

Australia Post opens US postal-forwarding service

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Australia Post has opened ShopMate, an international postal-forwarding service in the US, reports Inside Retail. The ShopMate website allows Australian shoppers to buy goods from US retailers and have them...

Akle launches Better Reading website

Monday, 3 November 2014
Cheryl Akle announced the launch of new ‘independent book recommendations and news site’ Better Reading on 3 November 2014. The website at www.betterreading.com.au has been assisted by financial contributions from...

No ‘Daily’ tomorrow

Monday, 3 November 2014
The Books+Publishing Daily newsletter will not be published tomorrow, 4 November, due to the Melbourne Cup public holiday in Victoria. The next Daily will be published Wednesday 5 November.

AusRomToday Reader’s Choice Awards 2014 nominees announced

Monday, 3 November 2014
The nominees for the inaugural AusRomToday Reader’s Choice Awards have been announced. Administered by the recently launched AusRomToday website, the awards are intended to showcase Australian romance writing to readers worldwide. The...

Jill Bruce wins 2014 Lady Cutler Award

Friday, 31 October 2014
Children’s book author and former teacher-librarian Jill Bruce is the winner of this year’s Lady Cutler Award, presented by the New South Wales branch of the Children’s Book Council of...

Irish Book Awards shortlists announced

Friday, 31 October 2014
The shortlists for the 2014 Irish Book Awards have been announced. The titles shortlisted for Novel of the Year are: Nora Webster (Colm Tóibín, Picador), The Thrill of it All (Joseph...

US airport installs digital library kiosks

Thursday, 30 October 2014
San Antonio International Airport in Texas has unveiled two ‘first of a kind’ digital library kiosks, reports the San Antonio Business Journal. The US$26,000 kiosks were created via a partnership...

Online gaming platform Black Crown to shut down

Thursday, 30 October 2014
In the UK, Penguin Random House (PRH) is shutting down the online narrative gaming platform Black Crown due to a lack of revenue, reports the Bookseller. Black Crown is based...

Momentum partners with Tablo to find best novels in progress

Thursday, 30 October 2014
Australian online publishing platform Tablo has announced a partnership with Pan Macmillan digital publishing imprint Momentum to discover ‘future bestselling authors while they’re still writing their books’. Tablo, which provides...

Marvel adds comics to Kobo catalogue

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Marvel has signed a deal with Kobo to add 250 digital comics to Kobo’s catalogue as fixed-layout illustrated ebooks, reports Digital Book World. Titles include franchises such as ‘The Avengers’, ‘Guardians of the...

Kindle Scout crowdsourcing program opens for voting

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
In the US, Amazon has opened its Kindle Scout crowd-sourced publishing program for public vote. In October, Amazon invited authors to submit excerpts of their English-language romance, mystery, thriller, science-fiction or fantasy books for potential publication. Readers are...

Is the 14/14-day territorial copyright agreement working?

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
In the talkback column in the latest issue of Books+Publishing magazine we asked several publishers and booksellers whether the 14/14-day territorial copyright agreement was working for them. Scribe’s Henry Rosenbloom, Text’s Kirsty...

‘WBN’ published Thursday next week

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Please note that, due to the Melbourne Cup public holiday in Victoria next Tuesday, the Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday 6 November.The deadline for classifieds and job advertisements...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
‘Sometimes in Australia, people pay far too much for books and that’s not very clever for what’s supposed to be the Clever Country’—Dymocks owner John Forsyth discusses parallel importation restrictions,...

International library news

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
US appeals court reverses e-reserves copyright ruling In the US, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued its long-awaited ruling in the Cambridge University Press vs. Patton case, also...

In brief

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
ALIA 2014 conference papers and presentations available onlineThe Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) 2014 National Conference papers and presentations, including the keynote addresses, have now been published online. The...

French selected for NSW Senior Australian of the Year

Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Australian author Jackie French is a NSW finalist for the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year Award. French, the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2014-15, is the author of over 140...

CWA Dagger 2014 winners announced

Tuesday, 28 October 2014
In the UK, the winners of the 2014 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards have been announced. Wiley Cash won the Goldsboro Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the...

HarperCollins announces weekly podcast program

Tuesday, 28 October 2014
HarperCollins has announced a weekly podcast program called ‘HarperCollins Presents’, featuring conversations with its authors. The global podcast program ‘promises new perspectives on the world of books, culture and arts,’...

YABBAs 2014 winners announced

Tuesday, 28 October 2014
The winners of the Young Australian’s Best Book Awards (YABBAs), Victoria’s children’s choice awards, have been announced for 2014.The winning titles are:Picture storybooks The Dreadful Fluff (Aaron Blabey, Viking)  Fiction...