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Penguin Random House UK to close French and German offices

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Penguin Random House (PRH) UK will close two offices covering markets in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, France and Germany as part of an international restructure of its sales team, reports the Bookseller....

WA Government expands Christmas trading hours

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Perth retailers are allowed to trade for extended hours during the Christmas period after changes to trading hours by the Western Australian Government Department of Commerce, reports the ABC. Beginning...

SWF launches first ever children’s writers festival

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
The Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF) will hold its first dedicated children’s festival from 14 November to 4 December 2014. The Children’s Festival of Moving Stories features 25 authors in almost 40...

MidnightSun crowdfunds first children’s book

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Adelaide-based publisher MidnightSun will publish its first children’s book in February 2015 following a successful crowdfunding campaign. One Step at a Time, written by Jane Jolly and illustrated by Sally...

Australia Post opens US postal-forwarding service

Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Australia Post has opened ShopMate, an international postal-forwarding service in the US, reports Inside Retail. The ShopMate website allows Australian shoppers to buy goods from US retailers and have them...

Bestsellers this week 

Monday, 3 November 2014
Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Vintage) continues its climb up the charts since being awarded the Man Booker Prize. It is up from ninth spot last week to...

Blumhouse Books imprint announced 

Monday, 3 November 2014
In the UK, Doubleday and Vintage Books, imprints of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, have created the imprint Blumhouse Books in a collaboration with film company Blumhouse Productions, reports Publishers...

Akle launches Better Reading website

Monday, 3 November 2014
Cheryl Akle announced the launch of new ‘independent book recommendations and news site’ Better Reading on 3 November 2014. The website at www.betterreading.com.au has been assisted by financial contributions from...

AusRomToday Reader’s Choice Awards 2014 nominees announced

Monday, 3 November 2014
The nominees for the inaugural AusRomToday Reader’s Choice Awards have been announced. Administered by the recently launched AusRomToday website, the awards are intended to showcase Australian romance writing to readers worldwide. The...

Jill Bruce wins 2014 Lady Cutler Award

Friday, 31 October 2014
Children’s book author and former teacher-librarian Jill Bruce is the winner of this year’s Lady Cutler Award, presented by the New South Wales branch of the Children’s Book Council of...

Irish Book Awards shortlists announced

Friday, 31 October 2014
The shortlists for the 2014 Irish Book Awards have been announced. The titles shortlisted for Novel of the Year are: Nora Webster (Colm Tóibín, Picador), The Thrill of it All (Joseph...

Hachette Australia promotes staff in management restructure 

Friday, 31 October 2014
Hachette Australia has promoted a number of staff in its sales and product, marketing and publicity, and Australian publishing divisions.In sales and product, Daniel Pilkington, currently national accounts manager with...

Clunes Booktown for Kids festival this weekend 

Friday, 31 October 2014
Clunes’ inaugural Booktown for Kids festival will be held this weekend in the central Victorian town of Clunes with a Schools’ Day on Friday 31 October and a Family Day on...

US airport installs digital library kiosks

Thursday, 30 October 2014
San Antonio International Airport in Texas has unveiled two ‘first of a kind’ digital library kiosks, reports the San Antonio Business Journal. The US$26,000 kiosks were created via a partnership...

Online gaming platform Black Crown to shut down

Thursday, 30 October 2014
In the UK, Penguin Random House (PRH) is shutting down the online narrative gaming platform Black Crown due to a lack of revenue, reports the Bookseller. Black Crown is based...

Momentum partners with Tablo to find best novels in progress

Thursday, 30 October 2014
Australian online publishing platform Tablo has announced a partnership with Pan Macmillan digital publishing imprint Momentum to discover ‘future bestselling authors while they’re still writing their books’. Tablo, which provides...

Marvel adds comics to Kobo catalogue

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Marvel has signed a deal with Kobo to add 250 digital comics to Kobo’s catalogue as fixed-layout illustrated ebooks, reports Digital Book World. Titles include franchises such as ‘The Avengers’, ‘Guardians of the...

Kindle Scout crowdsourcing program opens for voting

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
In the US, Amazon has opened its Kindle Scout crowd-sourced publishing program for public vote. In October, Amazon invited authors to submit excerpts of their English-language romance, mystery, thriller, science-fiction or fantasy books for potential publication. Readers are...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
‘Sometimes in Australia, people pay far too much for books and that’s not very clever for what’s supposed to be the Clever Country’—Dymocks owner John Forsyth discusses parallel importation restrictions,...

International library news

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
US appeals court reverses e-reserves copyright ruling In the US, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued its long-awaited ruling in the Cambridge University Press vs. Patton case, also...

In brief

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
ALIA 2014 conference papers and presentations available onlineThe Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) 2014 National Conference papers and presentations, including the keynote addresses, have now been published online. The...

Libraries awarded Community Heritage Grants 

Wednesday, 29 October 2014
A number of libraries have received funding as part of the federal government’s 2014 Community Heritage Grants (CHG).In NSW, Fairfield City Library Service received $4000 for ‘significance assessment of the...

French selected for NSW Senior Australian of the Year

Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Australian author Jackie French is a NSW finalist for the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year Award. French, the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2014-15, is the author of over 140...