Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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In brief 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Redundancies at New Holland UKNew Holland has announced seven redundancies in its UK office. ‘We were already having a difficult year, due to the absence of a fully staffed rights...

Scott founds new educational publisher 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Former publisher at Eleanor Curtain Publishing, Jo Scott, has founded a new Victorian-based educational publishing house. Jo Scott Publishing will be a development company, with all material to be distributed...

Stanner Award to UQP title 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Gunyah, Goondie & Wurley: the Aboriginal Architecture of Australia (Paul Memmott, UQP) is the recipient of the 2008 Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies' (AIATSIS) Stanner Award....

Human Rights award for Scribe title 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia authors Linda Briskman, Susie Latham and Chris Goddard have been awarded the Literature Nonfiction Award as part of the 2008 Human Rights Medal...

Lindfield Bookshops to unveil new combined premises 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Next Monday 12 January Lindfield Bookshop and Lindfield Children's Bookshop will open in a new combined store on the Pacific Highway in Lindfield, NSW. Lindfield Bookshop owner Scott Whitmont told...

Vale Dorothy Porter 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Award-winning author Dorothy Porter died on 10 December 2008, aged 54. The Australian Society of Authors writes:‘The Australian Society of Authors expresse[s] its sadness at the death of member Dorothy...

RiP Donald E Westlake 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Mystery writer Donald E Westlake, the author of more than 100 novels, died on New Year's Eve, aged 75.

RiP Harold Pinter 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, described by the New York Times as ‘the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation', died on Christmas Eve, aged 78.

RiP Samuel Huntington 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Samuel Huntington, author of Clash of Civilisations died on Christmas Eve, aged 81.

Goldberg appointed Lonely Planet CEO 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Lonely Planet has announced the appointment of Matthew Goldberg as its new CEO. Goldberg, previously senior vice-president, digital strategy and operations at Dow Jones in New York, will report to...

HarperCollins to publish ABC Books 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
ABC Books and HarperCollins have announced a ?new commercial partnership' that will see HarperCollins taking on responsibility for the publishing and distribution of ABC Books titles. ?From the moment we...

Rights round-up 

Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Rights managers and publishers have been busy over the past couple of months, selling and acquiring titles around the globe. In this, the first of a regular new rights round-up...

Forthcoming events 

Monday, 5 January 2009
Trade events coming up soon, as shown on our events calendar, include: Applications close for APA Publishing Internship Program - 30 JanRegistration due for Frankfurt Book Fair - 31 JanReed...

Bestsellers 

Monday, 5 January 2009
In the retail days around Christmas Stephenie Meyer held her Bestseller lead with New Moon and Eclipse (Hachette), followed by J K Rowling’s slim volume of magical fairytales The Tales...

Burgess responds to Carr 

Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Chris Burgess, general manager of national buying group Leading Edge Books, responds to Bob Carr's Australian article: 'While Bob Carr's argument that cheap books = more books in Australian homes...

Trade responds to Bob Carr on parallel importation 

Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Bob Carr, the former NSW premier and current Dymocks board member, wrote an article for the Australian on 13 December entitled 'On the Case for Cheaper Books.'Beginning with the rhetorical...

Media Extra: What’s Hot? 

Sunday, 14 December 2008
Welcome to the final issue of MX for 2008! We'd like to thank our wonderful nationwide contributors for all their hard work this year; without them we wouldn't be able...

Is the book recession-proof? 

Thursday, 11 December 2008
While not all booksellers were doing as well as Serdiuk or Tilsley, many are confident that books will remain a sound gift choice this Christmas. ‘Some of our customers are...

The stats: equal value and volume growth 

Thursday, 11 December 2008
For all the doom and gloom, Nielsen BookScan's chart (below) shows that in the eight weeks to 29 November the value of books sold grew 0.9%, as compared to the...

The books 

Thursday, 11 December 2008
The bookseller response to publishers' lists this year has been slightly less positive than in previous years, with 61% saying they thought the books on offer were ‘strong'--down from 67%...

Non-book items 

Thursday, 11 December 2008
For most booksellers, non-book items such as DVDs were selling well, with standards such as cards, wrapping, bookmarks, diaries and calendars also tracking as usual. DVDs, games and other merchandise...

Catalogues, stock and staff 

Thursday, 11 December 2008
While the catalogue is clearly a staple for Christmas, with 81% of those surveyed reporting they were involved in one, either their own or a group/chain catalogue, only 53% reported...

Meanwhile, in New Zealand 

Thursday, 11 December 2008
Across the pond in New Zealand availability and supply emerged as a key issue for booksellers WBN surveyed. WBN spoke to a representative sample of chain stores and independents in...