Rights and acquisitions | Books+Publishing

S&S acquires debut novel by Australian ‘book ninjas’

Monday, 21 August 2017
Simon & Schuster Australia has acquired world rights to the debut novel by Australian ‘book ninjas’ Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus. Berg, a copywriter and co-founder of Melbourne advertising agency...

Transworld acquires rights to Wilson’s ‘First, We Make the Beast Beautiful’

Thursday, 10 August 2017
UK publisher Transworld has acquired Commonwealth rights (ex-ANZ) to Sarah Wilson’s First, We Make the Beast Beautiful (Macmillan) via Peggy Boulos Smith at Writers House, reports the Bookseller. Transworld editorial director...

Wilkinson’s ‘Boundless Sublime’ sells to US

Thursday, 10 August 2017
US publisher Capstone’s teen imprint Switch Press has picked up North American rights to The Boundless Sublime (A&U), Lili Wilkinson’s 2016 YA novel about a teenage girl seduced by a...

PRH to publish Luke Hodge autobiography

Monday, 7 August 2017
Penguin Random House will publish the autobiography of retiring AFL player Luke Hodge on 30 October. Luke Hodge: The General will ‘explain his own transformation’ and that of the Hawthorn...

Screen rights to ‘The Good People’ optioned

Tuesday, 1 August 2017
Australian production company Aquarius Films has optioned the film and TV rights to Hannah Kent’s The Good People (Picador) via Curtis Brown Australia. Aquarius producers Angie Felder, Polly Staniford and Cecilia...

Affirm to publish junior fiction series by ‘Bondi Rescue’ lifeguard

Friday, 28 July 2017
Affirm Press will publish a children’s fiction series by Bondi Rescue lifeguard Trent ‘Maxi’ Maxwell in 2018. The series will be co-written by David Lawrence, author of the ‘Fox Swift’...

Solomun launches The Rights Hive agency

Wednesday, 26 July 2017
Former Penguin Random House (PRH) and Five Mile Press rights manager Natasha Solomun has launched a new rights agency, The Rights Hive, to provide representation of foreign and subsidiary rights...

HGE acquires local rights to Neil Patrick Harris’ ‘The Magic Misfits’ children’s series

Friday, 14 July 2017
Hardie Grant Egmont (HGE) will publish the first book in US actor and director Neil Patrick Harris’s debut children’s series, The Magic Misfits, as part of a worldwide release on...

Post-apocalyptic YA trilogy optioned for screen

Thursday, 13 July 2017
Melbourne-based author Justin Woolley’s YA trilogy ‘The Territory’ has been optioned for screen by Australian director Dana-Lee Mierowsky Bennett following negotiation by Alex Adsett Publishing Services. ‘The Territory’ is a...

Scribble sells North American rights to ‘The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade’

Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Scribe’s children’s imprint Scribble has sold North American rights to Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys’ picture book The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade to Abrams Books. Abrams will publish the book as...

HarperCollins acquires rights to Carly Findlay memoir

Wednesday, 5 July 2017
HarperCollins Australia has acquired world rights to Say Hello: How I Became the Hero of My Story by Australian writer, speaker and appearance activist Carly Findlay. Findlay, who has the...

Black Inc. signs Deborah Cass prize winner Giovannoni; acquires new books by Hunt, De Kretser

Wednesday, 28 June 2017
Black Inc. has acquired 2015 Deborah Cass award winner Moreno Giovannoni’s book of linked tales about a Tuscan village and the lives of its occupants, Tales of San Ginese. World rights...

A&U acquires second book from Clementine Ford

Tuesday, 27 June 2017
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired a second book from Fight Like a Girl author Clementine Ford, to be published in late 2018. Boys Will Be Boys ‘will examine toxic...

Spinifex acquires local rights to three new international titles

Thursday, 22 June 2017
Spinifex Press has recently acquired ANZ rights to three new international titles, include UK author Jules Grant’s Steel Dagger Award-longlisted debut crime novel We Go Around in the Night and Are...

ABC Books acquires ‘Aussie Legends Alphabet’ in two-book deal

Thursday, 15 June 2017
HarperCollins Publishers’ ABC Books imprint has acquired graphic designer and illustrator Beck Feiner’s debut picture book Aussie Legends Alphabet in a two-book deal at auction via Curtis Brown Australia. The...

Pantera acquires ‘commercial literary fiction title’ from Gentill, debut novel from ‘Seizure’ novella winner

Thursday, 15 June 2017
Pantera Press has acquired ANZ rights to a ‘commercial literary fiction title’ from Sulari Gentill, author of the ‘Rowland Sinclair’ historical crime fiction series. Crossing the Lines ‘explores what happens...

IPR License launches online rights buying option

Tuesday, 13 June 2017
Rights and licensing trading platform IPR License has launched a new service allowing sellers to place ‘buy rights’ buttons next to their titles on the IPR platform and their own...

Scribe to publish former ABC journalist’s account of fatal police-shooting of mentally ill man

Wednesday, 7 June 2017
Scribe has acquired world rights to former ABC journalist Kate Wild’s narrative nonfiction account of the fatal police-shooting of a mentally ill man, 24-year-old Elijah Holcombe, in NSW in 2009....

Affirm acquires debut novel by Tony Martin

Monday, 5 June 2017
Affirm Press has acquired the debut novel by comedian and broadcaster Tony Martin. The publisher said Deadly Kerfuffle is ‘inspired by letters to the local newspaper’, and is ‘set in...

VIPs program explores rights sales in China, Taiwan and India

Wednesday, 31 May 2017
The annual Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program was held during the 2017 Sydney Writers’ Festival. As part of the program, Australian publishers are given the opportunity to meet with international...

Toni Collette options film rights to ‘The Best of Adam Sharp’

Thursday, 25 May 2017
Actor Toni Collette’s new production company Vocab Films has optioned the novel and screenplay to Graeme Simsion’s The Best of Adam Sharp (Text). Simsion’s novel tells the story of a...

Scribe acquires world English-language rights to French president’s memoir

Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Scribe has acquired world English-language rights to recently elected French president Emmanuel Macron’s memoir Revolution. The memoir has become a bestseller in France following its publication in November. Scribe publisher Henry...