Shelf talk: Get a clue
Thursday, 30 August 2018
A thrill awaits those readers on the lookout for whodunits, stories of transgression, and real-life cases to solve. On the fiction front, Jane Harper’s latest, The Lost Man (Macmillan, October),...
Editor’s picks: Blood-chilling and brain-expanding
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Andrew Wrathall’s spring reading list contains titles that are both blood-chilling and brain-expanding. Let’s start with some blood. Most humans contain between nine and 12 pints of it. In Nine...
Your store: Talk among your shelves
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Shelf Talkers is a staff-run podcast operating out of Dymocks Adelaide, hosted by the store’s booksellers Tori D’Cruz and Alex Andrews. While the flagship Dymocks podcast is based out of its Sydney head office—and focuses...
Your store: Training wheels
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Brisbane bookshop Avid Reader and the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) have launched an all-day booksellers’ training program that will include sessions on using Nielsen BookScan; the financial realities of running...
Your store: Non-book item of the month
Thursday, 30 August 2018
While many publishers and booksellers have their own branded tote bags, Melbourne independent bookseller Readings decided in 2016 to expand its offerings. The bookseller now produces an entire range of...
The Christmas wrap-up: 2018 children’s highlights
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Jackie Tang picks some highlights from publishers’ Christmas lists. Headliners Several high-profile authors have new titles out this Christmas, including national treasure Alison Lester who has three picture books: Tricky’s...
Book bites: A taste of books to come
Thursday, 30 August 2018
The next chapter Hot off the news that ‘The Bad Guys’ is being developed for an animated feature film by US production company Dreamworks, Aaron Blabey is back with a...
Between the lines: Observations on the trade by Gladys Bembo
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Canberra press gallery journo-turned-political thriller co-author Steve Lewis has got himself into some hot water with his frank and honest feedback to critics of the directions taken in programming this...
Stretching the truth: Jack Heath on ‘The Truth App’
Thursday, 30 August 2018
The Truth App (Scholastic, September) is the first book in YA author Jack Heath’s five-book junior-fiction series 'Liars', described by reviewer Heath Graham as a ‘non-stop action-adventure ride’ for readers who want ‘techno-thrillers...
Martin Hughes: Death by exposure
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Publishers should take an industry-wide stance to ensure fairer collaboration with print media, argues Affirm Press publisher Martin Hughes. Many years ago a major metropolitan newspaper was so excited about...
The secret diary of Shaun Bythell
Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Shaun Bythell owns Scotland’s largest second-hand bookstore The Bookshop, Wigtown and is the author of Diary of a Bookseller (Profile). He will deliver a keynote address at this year’s Booksellers...
Books+Publishing magazine Issue 2 2018
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Books+Publishing magazine’s second issue for 2018 is out now! It features 34 reviews of adult and children’s books publishing from July to August. Reviews: Of the 17 adult books reviewed in this issue,...
Reading the audience: the LoveOzYA readership survey
Thursday, 5 July 2018
In 2017, the LoveOzYA committee conducted a survey into the reading habits of the Australian YA community. Committee chair Stacey Malacari reports on the survey’s findings. The LoveOzYA movement was...
Book bites: A taste of books to come
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Picture this With Father’s Day coming up, several publishers are releasing dad-themed picture books. My Old Man He Played Rugby (Peter Millett, illus by Jenny Cooper, Scholastic, August) is for...
A full program: Jennifer Jackson shares her bookseller’s diary
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Paper Bird Children’s Books & Arts is a bookshop, arts centre and culture hub with a wide scope. Director Jennifer Jackson discusses its evolution. Paper Bird Children’s Books & Arts...
Join the club: What makes a good book club program work?
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Rising numbers of book clubs at bookstores and libraries show there is still ‘a voracious appetite for concentrated group discussion’. Elizabeth Flux investigates what makes a good club work. In...
Between the lines: Observations on the trade by Gladys Bembo
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
What on earth is going on with the Randy Penguins? By the time you read this, things might be clearer but at the time of writing, star publisher Ben Ball...
Editor’s picks: The familiar and the new
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Jackie Tang’s winter reading list contains titles that take a new approach to the familiar. It was difficult limiting this column to just winter releases; every day there’s news about...
The winning ticket: The literary prize sales effect
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Nielsen Book associate director Julie Winters talks to Jackie Tang about the sales effect of Australia’s biggest literary prizes. How much does a literary award affect a book’s sales? It’s...
Your store: a round-up of retailing news, tips and titbits
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Bespoke book displays Brisbane’s Avid Reader won the annual Best Business Idea Award at the Leading Edge Books conference in March for the second year in a row. This year’s...
Leading the way: Lee Walker on her career journey
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Oxford University Press director of School Publishing Lee Walker reflects on 26 years in the publishing industry and what she hopes to achieve as the newly appointed president of the...
For the love of poetry: Looking beyond Instapoetry
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Angela Elizabeth finds out how local publishers are committing to poetry beyond the ‘Instapoetry’ trend. ‘Poetry is the medium of the moment,’ proclaimed UK National Poetry Day executive director Susannah...
Cover new ground: Rejacketing a children’s book series
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Nathania Gilson asks publishers and booksellers about the art of rejacketing a children’s book series. When Tristan Bancks, co-creator and author of the Tom Weekly junior-fiction series, was presented with...
Back to the drawing board: Publishing local board books
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Danielle Binks explores the rising demand for homegrown board books. In her Ten Commandments for reading aloud with children, author Mem Fox’s number-one rule is: ‘Spend at least ten wildly...
Finding your centre: Megan Daley on her career journey
Wednesday, 27 June 2018
‘A school library is at the very centre of creative school communities,’ writes teacher-librarian and book blogger Megan Daley. She shares her career journey. I studied early childhood teaching, always...
Talking less and listening more: Martin Hughes on creating safer workplaces
Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Affirm Press publisher Martin Hughes (with senior editor Ruby Ashby-Orr) explores what it means to shape a better culture and create safer workplaces. At the recent Leading Edge Books conference...
The perfect Foyles: ABA conference keynote speaker Paul Currie on the UK book industry
Thursday, 14 June 2018
Paul Currie, CEO of Foyles Bookshop in the UK, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Australian Booksellers Association conference. He spoke to Jackie Tang about what Australian booksellers...
Acquiring new languages: Exploring the world of bilingual children’s books
Wednesday, 6 June 2018
Jackie Tang asks publishers, booksellers and librarians if there is an increased demand in foreign-language children’s books. When Allen & Unwin published Joanne O’Callaghan and Kori Song’s Found in Melbourne,...
Telling tales: Moreno Giovannoni on ‘The Fireflies of Autumn’
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Moreno Giovannoni’s The Fireflies of Autumn (Black Inc., July) is a collection of loosely connected short stories, describing life in the Tuscan village of San Ginese. ‘[It] reads like top-notch...
World class: Jeremy Lachlan on ‘Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds’
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Jeremy Lachlan’s middle-grade adventure Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds (Hardie Grant Egmont, August) is ‘a thrilling story set in a universe made up of multiple worlds’ that features...
