Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

Rights and acquisitions >

Clarke joins HGCP with two-book deal 

A photo of Maxine Beneba Clarke. She stand in front of a bookshelf. Monday, 9 January 2023
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has acquired two books by Maxine Beneba Clarke. Releasing in June 2023, the first title, It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for...

Ultimo acquires Knight memoir

Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Ultimo Press has acquired world rights to the memoir Strange Little Girl by Melbourne-based writer, performer and zine maker Jess Knight. Described by the publisher as a ‘heart-warming, unapologetic and...

UWAP acquires Akhurst YA novel 

Tuesday, 6 December 2022
UWA Publishing (UWAP) has acquired ANZ rights to Graham Akhurst’s young adult novel Borderland, via Danielle Binks of Jacinta di Mase Management. Set in Brisbane and the fictional rural town of...

Text acquires new Lohrey novel 

Monday, 5 December 2022
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to Amanda Lohrey's new novel The Conversion, via Lyn Tranter of Australian Literary Management. The Conversion follows Zoe, who leaves Sydney for a small...

A&U acquires Bolton debut ‘Life Itself’ 

Monday, 5 December 2022
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to Trish Bolton’s debut novel Life Itself. Rights were acquired by A&U publisher Jane Palfreyman and executive editor Genevieve Buzo. Life Itself...

HarperCollins acquires Whitlam biography by Bramston 

Friday, 2 December 2022
HarperCollins Australia has acquired Troy Bramston’s biography of former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam. The currently untitled work will be a ‘thorough, highly readable’ biography drawing on newly discovered archival...

Pantera acquires James book on human sexuality 

Friday, 2 December 2022
Pantera Press has acquired world rights to Kinky History: The stories behind our intimate lives, past and present by Esmé Louise James. Drawing on James’s popular online lecture series Kinky...

Two Brabon novels to Ultimo 

Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ and UK rights to two new novels by Katherine Brabon, in a deal via Clare Forster at Curtis Brown. In Body Friend, the narrator leaves...

Affirm acquires Daley anthology about teachers 

Friday, 25 November 2022
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to a forthcoming anthology about teachers, to be edited by Megan Daley. The anthology will showcase educators who nurture, inspire, champion and create change, in...

Black Inc. sells ‘One Hundred Days’ to HarperVia 

Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Black Inc. has sold world English-language rights (ex ANZ) to One Hundred Days by Alice Pung to HarperCollins imprint HarperVia. The deal was made by Black Inc. international director Sophy...

A&U acquires debut novel ‘Search History’ 

Monday, 14 November 2022
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Search History, the debut novel by Melbourne writer Amy Taylor. A&U publisher Jane Palfreyman acquired rights from associate agent Benjamin Paz at...

Ultimo acquires Finkemeyer debut novel 

Friday, 11 November 2022
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to Melbourne-based writer Pip Finkemeyer’s debut, Sad Girl Novel, in a two-book deal via Claire Friedman at Inkwell Management. The publisher describes Sad Girl...

Black Inc. announces ‘Growing Up Indian in Australia’

Thursday, 10 November 2022
Black Inc. has announced the latest addition to its ‘Growing Up’ nonfiction anthology series is Growing Up Indian in Australia, to be edited by Canberra-based journalist Aarti Betigeri. 'It can...

NewSouth acquires Pirotta book on whales 

Tuesday, 8 November 2022
NewSouth Publishing has acquired world rights to a book about the past, present and future of whales by wildlife scientist and science communicator Vanessa Pirotta. According to the publisher, the...

HarperCollins acquires Parker WWII love story 

Thursday, 3 November 2022
HarperCollins has acquired ANZ rights to the novel At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by scriptwriter Alli Parker, in a deal brokered by Clare Forster of Curtis Brown. Described...

Alcove acquires ‘The Laughter Effect’ 

Wednesday, 2 November 2022
Laura Apperson at Alcove Press has acquired world English-language rights (ex ANZ) to The Laughter Effect: How to build joy, resilience and positivity in your life by Ros Ben-Moshe, in a...

Puncher & Wattmann acquires three Craig novels 

Friday, 28 October 2022
Puncher & Wattmann has acquired world English rights (ex USA & Canada) to two novels by Blue Mountains–based writer Jen Craig, as well as world rights to her debut, via...

Scribe acquires new Gott novel 

Friday, 28 October 2022
Scribe Publications has acquired world English rights to Naked Ambition, a new novel by Robert Gott. Described by the publisher as a ‘playful’ novel, Naked Ambition explores the collision of...

UQP acquires book by leading Indigenous psychologist 

Thursday, 27 October 2022
UQP has acquired world rights to a book by leading Indigenous psychologist Tracy Westerman outlining her life and work. Westerman is an internationally recognised psychologist specialising in culturally appropriate psychological...

Hachette acquires Jones’s ‘Cool Water’ 

Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Hachette has acquired world rights to literary novel Cool Water by Myfanwy Jones, in a deal negotiated by Jacinta di Mase Management. Following the story of a family over three...

‘People Who Lunch’ sells to Little, Brown Spark 

Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Talia Krohn at Little, Brown Spark has acquired world English language rights (ex ANZ) to People Who Lunch: Essays on work, leisure & loose living by Sally Olds (Upswell), via Black...

Picador acquires ‘Prima Facie’ novelisation 

Tuesday, 25 October 2022
Picador has acquired rights to the novelisation of Australian playwright Suzie Miller’s multi-award-winning play Prima Facie, plus an as yet untitled second novel, in ‘a heated auction’. Pan Macmillan publisher...

S&S acquires Paterson debut historical novel 

Monday, 24 October 2022
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired the debut novel Where Light Meets Water by Susan Paterson. Former S&S publishing director Fiona Henderson acquired ANZ rights to the novel from...

Ultimo acquires Day memoir ‘Reckless’ 

Tuesday, 18 October 2022
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights for Reckless by Marele Day, via Jenny Darling of Jenny Darling & Associates. Described by the publisher as a 'brilliantly crafted' ‘literary detective memoir’,...