Local news | Books+Publishing

Slam poets to represent Australia in the US

Monday, 2 July 2018
Four Melbourne-based slam poets will compete in the US National Poetry Slam in August this year. Poet Tenda McFly, the winner of a slam event held during the inaugural Melbourne...

Hinkler and Bookoli launch mass-market UK publisher

Friday, 29 June 2018
Melbourne-based children’s publisher Hinkler Books and UK children’s publisher Bookoli are launching a new mass-market publisher based in the UK. Curious Universe UK, which is the result of a 50-50...

WA Prem’s Book Awards returns to annual cycle in 2019

Friday, 29 June 2018
The Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards will return to an annual format, beginning in 2019. The decision was announced by the Minister for Culture and the Arts David Templeman at...

Govt to offer $48 million ‘innovation fund’ for regional and small publishers

Friday, 29 June 2018
The federal government has established a new fund for regional publishers, small publishers and content providers that produce ‘public-interest journalism with an Australian perspective’. The Regional and Small Publishers Innovation...

Text sells US, UK rights to Collette debut; Hillman picked up by Faber

Thursday, 28 June 2018
Text Publishing has sold North American rights to Katherine Collette’s forthcoming debut The Helpline to Tara Parsons, editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster’s (S&S) Touchstone division in the US, in a...

UQP acquires Birch’s new novel ‘The White Girl’

Thursday, 28 June 2018
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired author Tony Birch’s third novel, The White Girl. World (including translation) rights were acquired by UQP publishing director and acting-CEO Madonna Duffy, as...

‘Boy Swallows Universe’ to be published globally through HarperCollins

Thursday, 28 June 2018
HarperCollins Australia has announced a global deal for Trent Dalton’s debut Boy Swallows Universe that will see the book published through HarperCollins companies across major English and translation markets. HarperCollins...

300 attend 2018 ABA Conference; booksellers ‘surviving and thriving’

Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Close to 300 booksellers, exhibitors and guest speakers attended this year’s Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) conference and trade show, which was held in Canberra from 17-18 June. This year, the...

2018 ABA conference: value, volume up YTD; branding, staff management discussed

Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Nielsen Book associate director Julie Winters presented an overview of the Australian book market at the 2018 Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) conference. Winters reported that the total book market is...

Copyright Agency sues NSW government after unsuccessful mediation

Wednesday, 27 June 2018
After an unsuccessful mediation last week, the Copyright Agency is pursuing a law suit it filed against the New South Wales state government last year over the non-payment of copyright...

Hardie Grant acquires Pascoe’s travel guide

Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Hardie Grant Travel has acquired world rights to a travel guide book by Bunurong writer Bruce Pascoe. The as-yet-untitled book will look at places in Australia ‘where evidence of Indigenous...

Goldin’s escape room thriller attracts six-figure North American deal

Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Australian author Megan Goldin’s second novel, The Escape Room (Michael Joseph), has sold into North America in a six-figure, two-book deal negotiated by David Gernert of the Gernert Agency on...

Ventura acquires world rights to d’Alpuget’s ‘Birth of the Plantagenets’

Tuesday, 26 June 2018
Ventura Press has acquired world rights to Blanche D’Alpuget’s ‘Birth of the Plantagenets’ series. The first two books in the series, The Young Lion and The Lion Rampant, will be...

Maguire’s ‘An Isolated Incident’ sold to UK

Tuesday, 26 June 2018
UK publisher Lightning Books has acquired Emily Maguire’s 2016 crime novel An Isolated Incident (Picador), reports the Bookseller. Lightning Books editor-at-large Scott Pack acquired world English-language rights (excluding Australia and...

Dymocks Book Club launches on ‘Kids’ WB’

Tuesday, 26 June 2018
Chain bookseller Dymocks has partnered with Australian children’s television show Kids’ WB, from Channel Nine, to launch a monthly children’s book segment. Each month’s segment will feature a group of...

Allan wins 2018 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction

Tuesday, 26 June 2018
Lip magazine’s 2018 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction has been presented to Liz Allan for her story ‘Our Voices, Fierce’. Margot McGovern, on behalf of the judging panel, described the winning...

Law to edit ‘Growing Up Queer in Australia’ anthology

Tuesday, 26 June 2018
Black Inc. has announced it will publish a new anthology in 2019, Growing Up Queer in Australia, which will be edited by Benjamin Law. The anthology, which will be aimed...

Online bookstore stocking only debut Australian titles to launch this year

Tuesday, 26 June 2018
A new online bookstore that will stock only debut Australian writers is preparing to launch later this year. Non-profit group Underground Writers is establishing the new online store—called Underground Books—to...

‘Into the Heart of Tasmania’ wins inaugural Dick and Joan Green Family Award

Tuesday, 26 June 2018
Historian Rebe Taylor’s Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity (MUP) has won the inaugural Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History, reports the Advocate. The...

Better Reading launches ‘crowd-sourced’ review platform

Monday, 25 June 2018
Better Reading has launched a new ‘crowd-sourced’ book review platform named Preview. Under the new program, publishers will be able to sponsor a title to be promoted to Better Reading’s...

Donovan appointed scout for FremantleMedia

Monday, 25 June 2018
Australian editor and consultant Philippa Donovan has been appointed literary scout for production and entertainment company FremantleMedia Australia. Donovan will be covering book-to-film as well as TV adaptations for world English-language territories, with...