News | Books+Publishing

PRH launches online casting platform for voiceover actors

Friday, 5 March 2021
In the US, Penguin Random House (PRH) Audio has launched Ahab, a global online casting platform for voiceover actors, reports Publishers Weekly. The platform is open to the public and...

No ‘Daily’ on Monday

Thursday, 4 March 2021
Please note there will be no Daily newsletter next Monday, 8 March, due to the Labour Day public holiday (Victoria, South Australia, ACT and Tasmania). Also due to the public...

PRH acquires Abdel-Magied nonfiction book

Thursday, 4 March 2021
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to Talking About a Revolution, a new nonfiction title by Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied, from Clare Forster of Curtis Brown. In...

ASA writers and illustrators mentorship program winners announced

Thursday, 4 March 2021
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced the winners of its 2021 Award Mentorship Program for Writers and Illustrators. Children’s and YA Inda Ahmad Zabri Bianca Breen Kay Crabbe...

Sayer wins Hazel Rowley Fellowship 2021

Thursday, 4 March 2021
Writers Victoria has announced that Mandy Sayer has been awarded the $15,000 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship for her proposed biography of Australian silent filmmakers the McDonagh sisters. Between 1926 and...

Wollongong Writers Festival to close

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
Wollongong Writers Festival has announced it is closing following the loss of Create NSW annual organisations funding. Founded in 2013 by writer Chloe Higgins, the not-for-profit festival received annual funding...

April reviews round-up

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
With Mother's Day just around the corner, April is chock full of great literary book club titles. Jacqueline Maley's debut novel The Truth About Her, about a journalist juggling motherhood,...

S&S signs three ‘Halifax’ novels

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (ex Canada) to three novels by television writer and creator Roger Simpson, featuring his Halifax f.p. television character Jane...

Katherine Rajwar on interning at Hachette

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
The annual paid Hachette Australia summer internship was established in 2020 as part of a suite of activities the company has created to attract new talent into book publishing. Katherine...

Hachette Australia reports record year, revenue up 26%

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
Hachette Australia has reported a record year in net sales in 2020, with an increase of 26% on 2019. Hachette UK also reported a record year for sales, while Hachette...

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2021 finalists announced

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
In the US, the finalists have been announced for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, which recognises the best work of fiction published in the preceding year by an American...

Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2021 shortlists announced

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
The shortlists for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each category, chosen from longlists announced in January, are: Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize...

Oswald, McGahan, St John TV adaptations receive funding

Wednesday, 3 March 2021
Television adaptations of novels The Family Doctor (Debra Oswald, A&U), The Rich Man's House (Andrew McGahan, A&U) and The Ladies in Black (Madeleine St John, Text) are among 21 projects sharing...

Byron Writers Festival announces Restart funding program

Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Byron Writers Festival has announced a new residency program funded by Create NSW, which has granted the festival $185,000 to be disbursed in residencies as well as free workshops for...

S&S Australia reports record year, sales up 15%

Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Total sales at Simon & Schuster (S&S) Australia grew to more than $50 million for the first time, up 15% on 2019, the company reports. S&S Australia managing director Dan...

Pantera acquires debut thriller

Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Pantera Press has acquired world rights to The Scarlet Cross, a ‘gripping debut psychological thriller’ by Lyn McFarlane, from Jane Novak Literary Agency. McFarlane said she is ‘delighted to be...

UQP to publish Indigenous speculative fiction anthology

Monday, 1 March 2021
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) will publish an anthology of Indigenous speculative fiction in collaboration with Koori and Lebanese writer Mykaela Saunders, who will curate and edit the collection....

Scribner acquires Cave’s ‘Into the Rip’

Monday, 1 March 2021
Simon & Schuster Australia’s Scribner imprint has acquired ANZ rights to Into the Rip: How the Australian way of risk made my family braver, happier … and less American by...

Readings Children’s Book Prize 2021 shortlist announced

Friday, 26 February 2021
The shortlist for the Readings Children’s Book Prize for 2021 has been announced. This year’s six shortlisted titles, for readers aged 5 to 12, are: The Power of Positive Pranking...

Transit Lounge acquires Bacon short story collection

Friday, 26 February 2021
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to Eugen Bacon’s short story collection Danged Black Thing. Bacon is an African-Australian computer scientist and writer of speculative fiction, whose previous titles have...

Wakefield acquires Roff debut short fiction collection

Thursday, 25 February 2021
Wakefield Press has acquired world rights to the debut short fiction collection, provisionally titled Third Heaven, by Adelaide writer Andrew Roff, via Martin Shaw of Shaw Literary. ‘Roff’s daring, irreverent...

ARRA 2020 finalists announced

Thursday, 25 February 2021
The finalists for the 2020 Australian Romance Readers Association's (ARRA) annual awards have been announced. The finalists in each category are: Favourite paranormal romance Alpha Night (Nalini Singh, Gollancz) Famine...

UQP acquires Atkins picture book

Thursday, 25 February 2021
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to Egg, the first picture book by YA author Clare Atkins. A ‘multi-layered picture book with thought-provoking metaphors around environment, generational...

How international book markets performed in 2020

Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Through the PubMagNet initiative—a collaboration between book industry trade magazines from around the world—representatives from publications in the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Brazil and China have shared...