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RiP Charles Black 

Tuesday, 22 October 2013
Charles Black, director at Bloomsbury and former chairman of UK family publishing house A&C Black, has died, aged 76. Black started working at A&C Black in 1960 and served as chairman...

WH Smith relaunches website without ebooks 

Monday, 21 October 2013
In the UK, WH Smith has relaunched its website after taking the site offline for nearly four days, reports the Bookseller. However, the retailer is not currently selling ebooks and...

Castles wins Asher Literary Award 2013 

Monday, 21 October 2013
Belinda Castles has won this year’s Asher Literary Award for her book Hannah and Emil (A&U). Castles was announced as the winner of the award at the Australian Society of Authors...

Lawrence wins Blake Poetry Prize 2013 

Monday, 21 October 2013
Anthony Lawrence has won the 2013 Blake Poetry Prize for his poem ‘Appellations’. Lawrence received the award, which is worth $5000, on 17 October. The judging panel, made up of...

Bestsellers this week 

Monday, 21 October 2013
Rick Riordan’s House of Hades (Puffin), the fourth novel in his ‘The Heroes of Olympus’ series, is number one on the bestsellers and highest new entries charts this week. Jamie Oliver’s Save...

Walkley Book Award 2013 longlist announced 

Friday, 18 October 2013
The longlist for the 2013 Walkley Book Award has been announced.  The longlisted titles are: Killing Fairfax (Pamela Williams, HarperCollins) The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo (John Garnaut,...

International Library News 

Friday, 18 October 2013
Macmillan US makes backlist ebooks available to libraries In the US, Macmillan will expand its pilot ebook lending program for libraries to include its entire backlist, reports Publishers Weekly. The...

Kobo launches ebooks, devices in India 

Friday, 18 October 2013
Kobo has entered the ereading market in India, with a number of its ereading devices now available from bookselling chains Crossword and WH Smith, and electronics retailer Croma. In a statement,...

‘The Daughters of Mars’ wins Colin Roderick Award 2013

Friday, 18 October 2013
The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally (Vintage) has won this year’s Colin Roderick Award. Keneally, who previously won the Colin Roderick Award in 2004 for The Tyrant’s Novel (Doubleday), was announced...

Whitcoulls suspends ebookstore

Thursday, 17 October 2013
New Zealand bookselling chain Whitcoulls has suspended its Kobo-powered ebookstore due to ‘recent publicity surrounding ebook publishing through automated feeds provided by Kobo’. In a statement on the Whitcoulls website,...

National Book Awards shortlists announced 

Thursday, 17 October 2013
In the US, the National Book Foundation has announced the finalists for the 2013 National Book Awards. In fiction, the finalists are: The Flamethrowers (Rachael Kushner, Harvill Secker); The Lowland...

Booktopia makes ‘BRW’ Fast 100 for fifth year 

Thursday, 17 October 2013
Online bookseller Booktopia has been included in the Business Review Weekly Fast 100 list of fastest growing Australian companies for the fifth year running, with revenues of $27.1 million in...

Screen Australia funds new book-to-film adaptations 

Thursday, 17 October 2013
Screen Australia has allocated $643,125 in funding to support the development of 18 new feature films, including film adaptations of books by Peter Carey, Melanie Joosten, Susan Duncan and Megan Abbott. Part...

Talkback: Book reviews and book sales 

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Do book reviews in local and national newspapers make a difference to your sales? Bookseller+Publisher asked three booksellers. I’ve spent the past 12 years cutting out the reviews in the...

Compton wins Newcastle Poetry Prize 2013 

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Jennifer Compton has won the 2013 Newcastle Poetry Prize for her poem ‘Now You Shall Know’. Compton was presented with the award, which is worth $12,000, at a ceremony in...

UK department store Argos launches tablet 

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
In the UK and Ireland, department store Argos has launched its own branded tablet, reports the Bookseller. Following the recent example set by supermarket Tesco, Argos will sell the seven-inch MyTablet...

Kobo removes all self-published titles from UK store 

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Kobo has removed all self-published titles from its UK store following WH Smith’s decision to take its website offline while it removes explicit ebooks provided by the retailer, reports the Bookseller....

Funder to deliver Dymphna Clark lecture in Melbourne 

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Miles Franklin Literary Award-winning author Anna Funder will deliver the annual Dymphna Clark Lecture in Melbourne this week. Funder, whose debut novel All That I Am (Penguin) won numerous literary...

Eleanor Catton wins 2013 Man Booker Prize 

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
New Zealand author Eleanor Catton has won the 2013 Man Booker Prize for The Luminaries (Granta), with an award worth £50,000 (A$84,000) presented at London’s Guildhall on 15 October. Catton is the second...

Quote of the week 

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
‘I am very aware of the pressures upon contemporary publishing to make money and to remain competitive in a competitive world, and I know that it is no small thing...

International Library News 

Wednesday, 16 October 2013
November LibraryReads list released In the US, LibraryReads has released its November list, a monthly ‘top 10’ of forthcoming adult books compiled by librarians across the country. Bellman & Black...