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St Leger to leave the Copyright Agency

Thursday, 5 March 2015
The Copyright Agency has announced that CEO Murray St Leger will leave the company in July.St Leger, a former managing director of McGraw-Hill Australia and former president of the Australian...

Avid Reader opens children’s bookshop 

Wednesday, 4 March 2015
Brisbane’s Avid Reader has opened its specialist children’s, YA and giftware bookstore, Where the Wild Things Are Bookshop, located next to its West End store.Owner Fiona Stager told Books+Publishing that the new store,...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 4 March 2015
SalesFiction—Giramondo has sold Chinese rights to The Tribe (Michael Mohammed Ahmad) to the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing Company; and Latin American Spanish-language rights to Original Face (Nicholas Jose)...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 4 March 2015
‘Newman condemned himself to being published outside of Queensland when he axed the Awards. Perhaps his future memoir will reflect on this with the benefit of hindsight’—Macquarie University creative writing...

‘WBN’ published Thursday next week

Wednesday, 4 March 2015
Please note that, due to the public holiday on Monday in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, the next Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday 12 March.The deadline for classifieds and...

Burrell wins Ashurst Business Literature Prize

Wednesday, 4 March 2015
Andrew Burrell has won the 2014 Ashurst Business Literature Prize for his book Twiggy: The High Stakes Life of Andrew Forrest (Black Inc.).Burrell was presented with the $30,000 prize at an event in...

New festival director, board chair for BWF

Tuesday, 3 March 2015
The Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) has appointed a new festival director and acting CEO for 2015.Julie Beveridge replaces current festival director and CEO Kate Eltham, who is taking maternity leave from mid-March. Beveridge has...

Petition against WA Premier’s Book Awards cuts

Tuesday, 3 March 2015
A petition against the WA government’s decision to cut funding and move the WA Premier’s Book Awards to a biennial format has been launched online.The petition, which is addressed to Liberal premier...

RiP Jess Ainscough 

Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Australian author and ‘Wellness Warrior’ Jess Ainscough has died, aged 30. Ainscough’s publisher, Hay House, writes: ‘It is with great sadness that we at Hay House inform you of the passing...

Baum wins 2015 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship

Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Caroline Baum has won the 2015 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship.Baum, a freelance journalist, broadcaster and editorial director of Booktopia, was announced as the winner at the Adelaide Writers Festival on 4 March. Writers...

‘Island’ magazine partners with MONA

Monday, 2 March 2015
Tasmania-based literary magazine Island has announced it will form a ‘literary partnership’ with Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).The partnership initially involves the magazine being promoted by the...

‘West Australian’ cuts book coverage

Monday, 2 March 2015
The West Australian newspaper will cut its Tuesday-edition book coverage by 50%, reducing the double-page spread to a single page.In a statement, writingWA said it was ‘dismayed’ to learn about...

Bestsellers this week

Monday, 2 March 2015
American Sniper (Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen & Jim DeFelice, HarperCollins) is back at number one this week as last week’s number one, The Ruby Circle (Richelle Mead, Viking), drops to...

Aurealis Awards 2014 finalists announced

Monday, 2 March 2015
The finalists for the 2014 Aurealis Awards, presented for science-fiction, fantasy and horror writing in Australia, have been announced.Among the categories are:Fantasy novel Fireborn (Keri Arthur, Hachette) This Shattered World...

Canberra’s Noted writers’ festival launches program

Friday, 27 February 2015
Canberra’s ‘experimental’ writers’ festival Noted has launched its first program.The program is divided into three streams—live, digital and professional development—and features a range of emerging writers and artists.The live stream...

Print sales steady at Hachette Australia in 2014 

Friday, 27 February 2015
Print sales at Hachette Australia have stayed at the same level from 2013 to 2014, which joint managing directors Louise Sherwin-Stark and Justin Ractliffe have described as ‘a very good...

UQP rejects Campbell Newman memoir over awards axing

Thursday, 26 February 2015
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has declined to publish former Queensland premier Campbell Newman’s memoir, citing Newman’s axing of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards as the reason, reports the...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 25 February 2015
SalesFiction—Fremantle Press has sold Spanish rights to Prime Cut (Alan Carter) to Editorial Yulca. Text has sold Portuguese and Simplified Chinese rights to The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 25 February 2015
‘This is the first truly collaborative initiative that we’ve undertaken together’—Small Press Network general manager Mary Masters on the new Victorian Indigenous literature officer role, which was developed by The...

Hachette launches audiobook list 

Monday, 23 February 2015
Hachette Australia has launched its own audiobook list under the Hachette Audio imprint.  Hachette joint managing director Justin Ractliffe told Books+Publishing that the publisher will produce a selection of audiobooks using ‘Australian talent’. The titles will be available as...