Thursday, 28 March 2013
Macmillan Australia has announced that it will close Macmillan Distribution Services (MDS) by the end of March 2014. Macmillan managing director Ross Gibb told Books+Publishing that as a result of...

Thursday, 28 March 2013
The shortlisted works for the Ditmar Awards ballot have been announced and voting has commenced. The shortlisted works include: Best Novel Sea Hearts (Margo Lanagan, A&U) Bitter Greens (Kate Forsyth,...

Wednesday, 27 March 2013
The Romance Writers of America (RWA) has announced the finalists for the 2013 RITA Awards, with a number of Australian authors included in the honours. More than 1200 books were judged...

Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Argentinian illustrator and performing artist Isol is the recipient of the 2013 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s richest prize for children’s and young adult literature. Isol, who was born...

Wednesday, 27 March 2013
The owners of Australian online print bookstore Boomerang Books and ebookstore Booku have put their business up for sale. Clayton Wehner and Steven Tein, directors of Eclipse Commerce Pty Ltd,...

Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Sydney-based publishing services company Media Publishing has launched a new online bookstore called Talu Books. The store, which soft-launched in August 2012 with a small number of titles, sells both...

Wednesday, 27 March 2013
‘Put simply, a book that has overseas impact means more than a book that has a purely local impact. This is the form of the new cringe’—Emmett Stinson argues in...

Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Ebook provider Copia is currently looking to expand its local team, advertising for someone to manage the online marketing and merchandising for its Australian operations. Copia said in a job...

Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Please note that, due to the Easter Monday public holiday, the Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday 4 April.  The deadline for classifieds and job advertisements is therefore 12 noon Wednesday 3...

Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Sales Nonfiction—Black Inc. has sold Japanese translation rights to The China Choice: Why America Should Share Power (Hugh White) to Keiso Shobo. Acquisitions Fiction—Spinifex has acquired North American and UK...

Tuesday, 26 March 2013
New Zealand novelist and short-story writer Barbara Anderson has died, aged 86. Her novels include Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (Vintage), The House Guest (Vintage), Proud Garments (Ebury) and Girls High...

Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has died, aged 82. Achebe’s novels include Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People and Anthills of the...

Monday, 25 March 2013
Kids can’t wait for Easter, according to this week’s fastest movers chart. The top two books are The Great Big Aussie Easter Egg Hunt by Colin Buchanan (Scholastic) and The Easter...

Monday, 25 March 2013
Tony Burke has been appointed as the new Federal Minister for the Arts and Gary Gray has been appointed as the new Federal Minister for Small Business. Prime Minister Julia...

Friday, 22 March 2013
The program for the 2013 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, to be held between 15 and 19 May, has been released. New Zealand’s largest festival of ‘literature and ideas’ will...

Thursday, 21 March 2013
Penguin Australia has renamed its children’s division Penguin Young Readers. Penguin said in a statement that the name has been changed ‘to better reflect [the division’s] diverse range of print and digital...

Thursday, 21 March 2013
Griffith REVIEW  founding editor Julianne Schultz, Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) CEO Louise Adler, Text publisher Michael Heyward, Lonely Planet founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler and Black Inc. owner Morry Schwartz have...

Thursday, 21 March 2013
The finalists for the 2012 Aurealis Awards have been announced. Among the categories announced were:  Fantasy novel Bitter Greens (Kate Forsyth, Vintage) Stormdancer (Jay Kristoff, Tor UK) Sea Hearts (Margo...

Wednesday, 20 March 2013
The New Zealand Commerce Commission has cleared the proposed merger of Penguin and Random House. Commerce Commission chairman Mark Berry said in a statement on 19 March that ‘the commission...