Tuesday, 20 January 2009
In news from our Around the World blog this week: Espresso Book Machine debuts in UK American Booksellers Association CEO to step down Barnes & Noble cuts 'nearly 100' jobs...

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Telecom New Zealand has announced it is closing its online shopping venture Ferrit. Ferrit, an online retail aggregator, included books from stores such as Whitcoulls and online bookseller thenile.com among...

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
In what could be a welcome break from the Stephenie Meyer-induced frenzy currently in the charts, word-nerds can note that the Australian Oxford Mini Dictionary is first in the Fastest...

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Author John Mortimer has died, aged 85. Mortimer was best known as the author of Rumpole of the Bailey. He also wrote Paradise Postponed and many screenplays.

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
American author Hortense Calisher has died aged 97; she wrote the novel Mysteries of Motion.

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Peter Bowron, group managing director of the Random House Group in the UK has died. Bowron worked for Hodder & Stoughton as a graduate trainee and in 1993 joined Simon...

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Kevin Meade, a journalist in the Queensland bureau of the Australian, has died, aged 57. His book, Heroes before Gallipoli: Bita Paka and that One Day in September, was published...

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
British poet and playwright Adrian Mitchell has died, aged 76. At his death Mitchell had just completed three works to be published next year: Tell Me Lies: Poems 2005-2008, the...

Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Michelle Brasington of Thames & Hudson writes: 'Thames & Hudson is sad to announce the death of our former long-time South Australian agent, Earl Gleaves. Our sympathies go out to...

Monday, 19 January 2009
Robert Fisher writes: ‘Alan Leutenegger, who died last month after a short illness, came to the book industry in 1974 when the paperback distribution side of his family's business in...

Monday, 19 January 2009
Finch Publishing has announced that from 1 April this year it will be represented by HarperCollins Publishers Australia. HEDS currently warehouses and fulfils all Finch orders on behalf of Simon...

Monday, 19 January 2009
'Going through all this again is torture for the trade. Old warriors are hiding behind remainder bins. Industry heads are speechless with disbelief and boredom. Only Dymocks--with 96 stores and...

Monday, 19 January 2009
The Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller (A&U) has been awarded the Annual Best Foreign Novels, 21st Century Award in Beijing. Miller is the first Australian novelist to win the...

Monday, 19 January 2009
The program for the second annual Writers at the Convent festival, organised by Reader's Feast bookstore, has been announced. On February 13, 14 and 15, writers and readers will congregate...

Monday, 19 January 2009
In rights news this week:  FictionHachette Australia has sold Sasha by Joel Shepherd to Italy. Margaret Gee reports: ‘my German sub-agent Bastian Schluck sold a debut fiction thriller by Queensland-based...

Monday, 19 January 2009
Following his arrest for lese-majeste (offences against the crown) in Thailand, Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been given the minimum sentence of three years jail in Bangkok, after pleading guilty....

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
The poet Mick Imlah, whose volume of poetry The Lost Leader was shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize, has died, aged 52.

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Among the stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:Waterstones cuts jobsTaylor wins Diamond DaggerSmall press sues Borders and B&T over excessive returnsWalsch admits to plagiarising...

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Australians chart well in UK for 2008Several Australian authors did well in the UK in 2008. The Bookseller reports that Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden (A&U) was number 11 in...

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
ABC Enterprises has confirmed that Doug Walker, the general manager of ABC Retail, left his position on 6 January. ABC Centres manager Christine Falconer is acting general manager until further...

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
West Australian bookseller Eric Ladhams had a distinctly unmerry Christmas, after vandals broke into his store. Boab Books lost around $50,000 worth of stock when local children pulled the books...

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Three ‘mini festivals' will replace the Canberra Readers' and Writers' Festival this year, according to ACT Writers Centre director Anne-Maree Britton. ‘Basically, we've got two-and-a-half staff and a very active...

Monday, 12 January 2009
In rights news this week: NonfictionHarperCollins has acquired ANZ rights to the new Bill Granger book Feed Me Now! to be published in April 2009; Wakefield Press has just signed...

Monday, 12 January 2009
Alan Leutenegger, former director of Collins Publishers, passed away on 8 December.