Tuesday, 17 April 2007
The International Publishers Association (IPA) has supported a case filed against China at the World Trade Organisation by the United States, which includes allegations of ‘inadequate protection' against piracy and...

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
A potential takeover bid for Funtastic has been called off.Talks between Funtastic's major shareholder, childcare provider ABC Learning, and ‘an unnamed third party' have been terminated, leading to the end...

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) has announced a new Publishers' Career Development Fund that will offer $50,000 in grants each year. The fund will offer publishers grants for staff career development...

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Second Life, the ‘virtual world' that is currently one of the most popular sites on the internet, has announced the inaugural Second Life Book Fair (SLBF). The fair runs from...

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
The shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Award will be announced tomorrow, Thursday 19 April. WBN will send subscribers a special bulletin as soon as the shortlist is released.

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Due to the Anzac Day public holiday on Wednesday 25 April, next week's WBN will be sent on Thursday 26 April. However, the deadline for advertising and editorial submissions will...

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
The kids are reclaiming the charts this week, with the sixth Specky Magee title (released to coincide with the kick-off of the 2007 footy season) breaking into the adult-fiction-heavy top...

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include:the London Book Fair, which finishes up on 18 Aprilthe Abu Dhabi Book Fair Information Session at the...

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, a hero of the 1970s counter-culture, best known for his anti-war novel Slaughterhouse Five (Vintage), has died of brain injuries after a fall in his Manhattan...

Thursday, 12 April 2007
As announced in a WBN Special Bulletin last week, Peter Carey is among the 15 authors on the judges' list of contenders for the second Man Booker International Prize. The...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Among the stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:UK figures show chains sufferingBloomsbury posts a small lossRecord advance for Agassi memoirHugo Awards shortlistGoogle 'engages' with...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Brumby Books and Music has signed a ‘conditional contract' to purchase fellow distributor Bookwise International. Under the deal--reportedly worth over $450,000--Bookwise will remain in Adelaide with all of its current staff,...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
The Australia Council is now calling for appointments with the 12 guests of this year's Visiting International Publisher (VIP) Program.Meetings will take place at 30-minute intervals on Thursday 31 May...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Marcus Zusak has picked up another award in the US: the membership of the American Booksellers Association has voted The Book Thief (Picador) its favourite book of the past year...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Australian resident J M Coetzee is one of eight authors in the running for this year's Dublin IMPAC Award, one of the world's most valuable literary awards.The shortlisted titles are:Arthur...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Books Alive has issued a reminder to booksellers and libraries that orders and marketing initiative submissions close soon.All book orders and marketing initiative submissions must reach Books Alive by Friday 27...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Allen & Unwin writes: we recently received the sad news that Faber author Michael Dibdin died in Seattle on Friday 30 March after a short illness. He was a much-loved...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: the announcement of this year's Man Booker International Prize contenders in Canada on 12 April;...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
The top 10 gets a big dose of popular fiction this week from some of the genre's biggest names. Wilbur Smith revisits the action of ancient Egypt in The Quest,...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
New Holland publishers and the NSW Writers Centre have announced the creation of a new ‘genre fiction award' open to all published and unpublished writers resident in Australia who are...

Tuesday, 10 April 2007
The Ovation channel, a subscription arts and entertainment channel that is carried on Foxtel, Austar, OptusTV and SelecTV, is planning to develop a monthly half-hour long television book program. While...

Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Random House has announced the appointment of Nikki Christer, former Picador publisher at Pan Macmillan, to the newly created position of deputy publishing director. The announcement follows the departure of...

Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Bloomsbury Publishing has released the cover illustrations and blurb for the final installment of the Harry Potter series. As with previous titles in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly...

Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Nicholas Shakespeare In Australia (Vintage), a tale of his Tasmanian ancestry, has won the inaugural Tasmania Book Prize for the best book with Tasmanian content. The $25,000 award was presented in Hobart...