Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

News >

Hachette UK to merge sales teams 

Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Hachette UK is merging its sales teams at Little, Brown and Orion; and at Hodder & Stoughton, Headline, Hachette Children’s Books and Quercus, reports the Bookseller. Sales director at Orion, Dallas...

Oyster launches Android app 

Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Ebook subscription service Oyster has launched an Oyster for Android app, making the service available on Android devices, Kindle Fire and Nook HD, reports Publishers Weekly. The service, which currently offers subscribers access...

Kavanagh joins Stella Prize

Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Bec Kavanagh has been appointed education resource development officer for the Stella Prize.Kavanagh, a freelance writer and reviewer and founder of A Thousand Words Festival in Melbourne, will be responsible...

International library news 

Wednesday, 18 June 2014
UK librarians to crowdfund library festivalIn the UK, a group of librarians have launched a crowdfunding campaign to establish a National Public Library Festival, reports the Bookseller. Librarians Richard Veevers...

Yarra Plenty Regional Library launches festival program 

Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Yarra Plenty Regional Library (YPRL) in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne has launched the program for its sixth annual Booklovers’ Festival. This year’s festival, entitled ‘A Story Begins’, runs from 2-30...

Indonesia launches translation grant program 

Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Indonesia has launched a translation grant program to assist translations of works by Indonesian authors into English and German as part of its ‘guest of honour’ status at the Frankfurt Book Fair...

Quote of the week 

Wednesday, 18 June 2014
‘Today’s exchange rate, plus 10%, plus GST, then round up or down to the nearest 95 or 99 cents’—Peter Donoughue’s ‘golden rule in import pricing’. You can see how Donoughue’s...

Ernest Scott Prize 2014 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 18 June 2014
The shortlist for the 2014 Ernest Scott Prize for history, presented by the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Arts, has been announced.The shortlisted titles are: Nature’s Line: George Goyder—Surveyor, Environmentalist,...

Norwegian publishers refuse Google ebook deal 

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Norway’s three biggest publishers, Aschehoug, Gyldendal and Cappelen Damm, will not allow Google to sell their ebooks, reports the Bookseller. The Google Play store launched in Norway on 4 June with five...

Lonely Planet to relaunch children’s list 

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Lonely Planet will relaunch its children’s list, Not for Parents, as Lonely Planet Kids, reports the Bookseller. ‘We now feel the time is right to establish Lonely Planet Kids as...

McInnes national ambassador for the Reading Hour

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
The Reading Hour has announced Australian actor and writer William McInnes is the national ambassador for the initiative in 2014.First held during the National Year of Reading in 2012, the...

Robert Harris wins Walter Scott Prize 

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
British author Robert Harris has won the £25,000 (A$45,167) Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for An Officer and a Spy (Arrow), reports the Bookseller. The judges described An Officer...

Wakefield appoints ‘geek in residence’

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Wakefield Press has appointed Simon Collinson as the publisher’s ‘geek in residence’ until September. The role, which is part-funded by the Australia Council, will involve Collinson ‘developing ways to enhance Wakefield’s...

Writers Vic launches ‘Writers Book Club’

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Writers Victoria has launched a new ‘professional development and networking opportunity’ for published writers, who will ‘use a newly released Australian novel as a starting point for facilitated conversation and...

Exisle acquires Rennie’s ‘Art in Nature’

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Exisle has acquired Art in Nature, the first book by photographer David Rennie. Rennie was the 2013 winner of the Australian Geographic ANZANG Nature Photographer of the Year competition. His...

Rights round-up 

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
SalesFiction—HarperCollins has sold world English-language audio rights to Cleanskin Cowgirls (Rachael Treasure). Nonfiction—HarperCollins has sold Polish rights to Fast, Fresh, Simple (Donna Hay); and Dutch rights to The New Classics...

RiP Pat Rosier 

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
New Zealand author Pat Rosier has died, aged 72.Spinifex Press publishers Renate Klein and Susan Hawthorne write:‘New Zealand author Pat Rosier died on Friday. A well known figure in New...

RiP David Ell 

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Australian publisher David Ell has died, aged 74. Bridging the Gap publisher Kathryn Lamberton writes: ‘David founded David Ell Press in the late 1970s and was an influential small publisher...

Makumbi wins Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Monday, 16 June 2014
Ugandan author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi has won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for ‘Let’s Tell This Story Properly’. The £5000 (A$9030) prize is presented annually to the best piece of...

Bestsellers this week 

Monday, 16 June 2014
John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (Penguin) is on top of this week’s bestsellers chart, up from second spot last week. The film tie-in edition of the same title is...

Self-publishing sales increase by 79% in UK 

Monday, 16 June 2014
In the UK, the market share for self-published books grew by 79% in 2013, according to Nielsen statistics, reports the Guardian. UK consumers bought 18 million self-published books last year...

Stanley and Harrison win 2014 black&write! fellowships

Monday, 16 June 2014
Adrian Stanley and Jane Harrison are the winners of the 2014 black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowships. Each of the fellowships are worth $10,000 and include publication by Magabala Books. Stanley’s novel...

Robinsons Bookshop unveils Melbourne Emporium store

Friday, 13 June 2014
Robinsons Bookshop has unveiled its new store in Melbourne’s Emporium shopping complex.The Emporium store, which began trading on 11 June, is ‘designed as a library in an old mansion—similar to...

Juan Gabriel Vásquez wins IMPAC Dublin award 

Friday, 13 June 2014
Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez has won 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his novel The Sound of Things Falling (Bloomsbury), translated from the original Spanish. The €100,000 (A$144,000) award,...