News sections | Books+Publishing

The Last Woman in the World (Inga Simpson, Hachette)

Wednesday, 6 October 2021
Inga Simpson’s fourth novel asks who we would choose to become in a catastrophic near-future Australia. Ray, short for Rachel, is a glass artist who sequesters herself deep in the...

Rights round-up

Wednesday, 6 October 2021
Sales Children’s/YA Affirm Press has sold South Korean rights to The Grandest Bookshop in the World (Amelia Mellor) to Booknbean. Fremantle Press has sold Russian language rights to Brobot and...

Transit Lounge acquires Fyfe novel ‘T’

Wednesday, 6 October 2021
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to T, a novel by Perth-based author Alan Fyfe. T is about ‘people living on the economic margins and the epidemic of meth addiction’....

The Midnight Girls (Alicia Jasinska, Penguin)

Wednesday, 6 October 2021
Alicia Jasinska’s The Midnight Girls will be eagerly devoured by fans of her dark fantasy YA debut The Dark Tide. In Lechija, a kingdom much like 18th-century Poland, three witches rely on their...

PRH acquires Dao debut novel ‘Anam’

Tuesday, 5 October 2021
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to André Dao's debut novel Anam, in a deal agented by Clare Forster at Curtis Brown Australia. UK rights have been...

Affirm acquires Saleh debut novel

Tuesday, 5 October 2021
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Sara Saleh’s debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living through the Affirm Press Mentorship for Sweatshop Writers. Saleh, an Arab-Australian human...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly

Tuesday, 5 October 2021
Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the edition here.

Ventura acquires Jacoby memoir

Monday, 4 October 2021
Ventura Press has acquired world rights to a memoir by television producer Anita Jacoby, Secrets Beyond the Screen. Jacoby was the producer of television shows including 60 Minutes, The Gruen...

Hereaka awarded 2021 NZSA Beatson Fellowship

Monday, 4 October 2021
Wellington-based novelist and playwright Whiti Hereaka has been awarded the 2021 New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship, worth NZ$10,000 (A$9549). Hereaka will use the fellowship...

Aotearoa Book Trade Industry Awards 2021 winners announced

Thursday, 30 September 2021
The winners of the postponed 2021 Aotearoa Book Trade Industry Awards have been announced. The winners in each category are: Book publisher of the year Mākaro Press Emerging publisher of...

Pantera acquires nonfiction by Pickering, Ramo

Thursday, 30 September 2021
Pantera Press has acquired ANZ rights to The Mother of All Shocks by Karen Pickering, via Jacinta di Mase. The book was acquired by publisher Lex Hirst. The Mother of...

Wakefield acquires McAlister YA rom-com

Thursday, 30 September 2021
Wakefield Press has acquired world rights to Jodi McAlister’s YA rom-com Libby Lawrence is Good at Pretending, via Alex Adsett of Alex Adsett Literary. Libby Lawrence is Good at Pretending...

Bluey, Wolf Girl dominate Aus children’s bestsellers YTD

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
The Australian children’s year to date (YTD) charts continue to be dominated by Bluey, so much so that Nielsen Book Australia has provided the children’s data with Bluey titles removed....

Rights round-up

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Sales Nonfiction Pantera Press has sold Czech rights to The Jungle Doctor (Chloe Buiting) to Argo, via Kristin Olson Literary Agency. Children’s/YA Hachette has sold US, Canada and Philippines English-language...

New Readings shop, McKay wins Arthur C Clarke Award

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Melbourne bookseller Readings will open a new shop—the chain’s eighth—in the Emporium shopping complex in the Melbourne CBD. In other retail news, performing arts specialist Book Nook has been saved...

HarperCollins acquires Molloy’s ‘You Made Me This Way’

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights to You Made Me This Way by journalist Shannon Molloy, in a deal brokered by Pippa Masson of Curtis Brown. Propelled by Molloy’s own...

Crime novel ‘The Whispering’ wins 2021 Banjo Prize

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
HarperCollins Australia has announced Veronica Lando as the winner of the 2021 Banjo Prize for her ‘hauntingly atmospheric mystery’ manuscript The Whispering. Lando’s crime novel was selected from a shortlist...

Voss Literary Prize 2021 longlist announced

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
The longlist for the 2021 Voss Literary Prize, awarded to the best novel published in Australia in the previous year, has been announced. The longlisted titles are: The Rain Heron...

Jennings wins British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Kathleen Jennings has won the Best Newcomer category in the 2021 British Fantasy Awards for her Australian gothic novel Flyaway (Picador). Jennings’ debut novel, chosen out of a shortlist of...

Killernova (Omar Musa, Penguin)

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
The latest collection from slam poet champion Omar Musa is a raw and muscular combination of poetry and woodcut art that uses the visual and literary capacities of each form...

Wiradjuri Country (Larry Brandy, NLA Publishing)

Wednesday, 29 September 2021
In Wiradjuri Country, Wiradjuri author Larry Brandy (along with several Indigenous artists, and with many photographs), offers a wealth of detailed information about flora, fauna, habitat, history, culture and storytelling in the...