Wednesday, 20 November 2013
‘It’s not wonderful but it’s certainly not dead’—RMIT University’s Michael Webster reports on the state of the Australian book trade at the Small Press Network’s Independent Publishing Conference.

Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Sales Fiction—Random House has sold German rights to Losing Kate (Kylie Kaden). Nonfiction—Exisle has sold North American rights to Younger Skin in 28 Days (Karen Fischer); Latvian rights to The Healthy...

Tuesday, 19 November 2013
New Zealand author Eleanor Catton has been shortlisted for the International Author of the Year Award in this year’s National Book Awards in the UK. Catton, whose second novel The...

Tuesday, 19 November 2013
The winners of this year’s Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) Educational Publishing Awards have been announced.  The winning titles in each of the categories are: Best Book or Series in...

Tuesday, 19 November 2013
American children’s book author Barbara Park has died, aged 66. Park, who had a long battle with ovarian cancer, was the author of more than 50 books for young readers, and...

Monday, 18 November 2013
Merlinda Bobis has won the 2013 Most Underrated Book Award (MUBA) for her novel Fish-Hair Woman (Spinifex Press). Bobis was announced as the winner at a public event in Melbourne on 15...

Monday, 18 November 2013
British author and Nobel prize winner Doris Lessing has died, aged 94. Lessing was the author of more than 50 novels, including The Grass is Singing (1950), The Golden Notebook...

Monday, 18 November 2013
Jeff Kinney’s latest book, Hard Luck: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Puffin), has debuted at number one on this week’s bestsellers chart. After a week at number one, Ricky Ponting’s...

Friday, 15 November 2013
Two picture books by Queensland author and illustrator Peter Carnavas will be adapted for the stage in 2014.   With the support of Artslink Queensland, Carnavas’ books Sarah’s Heavy Heart and Last Tree...

Thursday, 14 November 2013
New Zealand author Eleanor Catton has won the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction (English language) in Canada for her Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Luminaries (Granta). Catton, who...

Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Hachette Australia has partnered with NSW radio station 101.7 WSFM to present a monthly Rock’n’Roll Book Club. The book club will focus on one title each month from Hachette’s backlist...

Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Primary teacher and literacy educator Vivienne Nicoll-Hatton is the winner of this year’s Lady Cutler Award for Distinguished Services to Children’s Literature, presented annually by the New South Wales branch...

Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Melbourne-based bookseller Readings has launched its new-look website in the lead-up to Christmas. The new site replaces the previous six-year-old website, and aims to give greater prominence to reviews, blog...

Wednesday, 13 November 2013
‘Our job is to invent on behalf of the customer, make the experience of buying books and enjoying books better, and then let customers decide’—Amazon Kindle vice president Neil Lindsay...

Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Author and playwright Louis Nowra is the recipient of the 2013 Patrick White Literary Award, the 40th award in the prize’s history.   Nowra was presented with the $23,000 award...

Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Sales Fiction—Allen & Unwin has sold Canadian and French rights to Coal Creek (Alex Miller); Italian rights to The Ancestor Game (Alex Miller); Italian rights to Dinner at Rose’s (Danielle...

Monday, 11 November 2013
The Perth Writers Festival has announced a number of authors appearing in its 2014 line-up. Among the international guests attending the festival, which runs from 20-23 February, are US authors...

Monday, 11 November 2013
Ricky Ponting’s Ponting: At the Close of Play (HarperSports) has ended Tim Winton’s two-week run at number one on the bestsellers chart, with Eyrie (Hamish Hamilton) now in second place. Di...

Monday, 11 November 2013
Bookseller Peter Darby has died, aged 79. Pam Horsey writes: ‘Peter began his bookselling career in the 1950s at Robertson & Mullen. He was a quiet and private person with...