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Charts this week

Monday, 24 June 2019
Top 10 bestsellers Index Title Author Imprint 1 Boy Swallows Universe Trent Dalton Fourth Estate 2 Everything Is F*cked Mark Manson HarperCollins 3 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a...

Publishers Weekly

Monday, 24 June 2019
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 for a limited time. This...

BWF 2019 program announced

Friday, 21 June 2019
The program has been announced for the 2019 Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF), which runs from 5–8 September. Over 160 writers will appear at the festival, which in recognition of the...

A&U acquires rights to International Man Booker winner ‘Celestial Bodies’

Friday, 21 June 2019
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies, winner of the 2019 International Man Booker Prize, from Claire Roberts at Claire Roberts Global Literary Mangement,...

Naher, Heifetz announce new literary agency

Friday, 21 June 2019
Agents Gaby Naher of The Naher Agency and Grace Heifetz of Curtis Brown Australia have partnered to form a new literary agency called Left Bank Literary. Launching on 1 July...

NT History Book Award 2019 shortlist announced

Thursday, 20 June 2019
The shortlist for the 2019 Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award has been announced. The three shortlisted titles are: Found in Translation: Many meanings on a North Australian Mission...

Paramount acquires film rights to McKinty’s ‘The Chain’

Thursday, 20 June 2019
Paramount Pictures has acquired the film rights to Adrian McKinty’s forthcoming novel The Chain (Hachette, July), reports Deadline. Paramount executive Alex Jackson acquired the rights via Shane Salerno from The...

Jon Page on the retail recession

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
'I call it a retail recession. We spoke to retailers on the strip where we are and some of them have already closed and got out, and some are having...

Book buyer spotlight: Peter Pal’s Stuart Dunstan

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
How does book buying differ for the library sector? Stuart Dunstan, fiction buyer for Australian library supplier Peter Pal, spoke to Books+Publishing for our ‘book buyer spotlight’ series. How long have...

Publicity round-up

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Books+Publishing’s weekly publicity round-up covers forthcoming publicity for Australian and internationally authored books due to appear in Australian media over the coming weeks. Fiction & poetry Tony Birch (The White...

Rights round-up

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Sales Fiction Sharon Galant at Zeitgeist Media Group has sold UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding ANZ and Canada) to Below Deck (Sophie Hardcastle) to Allen & Unwin UK (see news). Children’s...

Change maker: Sally Rugg on ‘How Powerful We Are’

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
LGBTIQ rights activist Sally Rugg led the GetUp campaign for marriage equality for five years and is now executive director at change.org. Rugg’s first book, How Powerful We Are (Hachette,...

Meryl Halls: Creating better bookshops

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Meryl Halls recently became managing director of the UK Booksellers Association (BA). In June she’s in Australia to give the keynote address at the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) conference. She...

Acevedo, Morris win 2019 Carnegie, Greenaway medals

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
The UK Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) has announced the winners of the 2019 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals. Dominican-American writer and slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo won...

A&U launches new children’s imprint

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has created a new children’s imprint, Albert Street Books. Albert Street Books will have a commercial focus and will publish books for babies to 12-year-olds. A&U...

Meet the ABA Young Booksellers of the Year: Eadie Allen from the Sun Bookshop

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
In the lead-up to the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) 2019 conference, Books+Publishing spoke to each of the five shortlisted nominees for the Young Bookseller of the Year award ahead of the winner announcement on...

Hachette acquires 2017 Richell Prize winner ‘State Highway One’

Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Sam Coley’s State Highway One, via Grace Heifetz at Curtis Brown. Coley’s entry of the same name won the 2017 Richell Prize for...

Scholastic acquires ‘Hunger Games’ prequel

Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Scholastic has acquired world English rights to a new novel by Suzanne Collins set in the 'Hunger Games' universe. The yet to be titled prequel, known as Untitled Panem Novel,...

Cothren wins 2019 Peter Carey Short Story Prize

Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Alex Cothren has won the 2019 Peter Carey Short Story Award for his story ‘Let’s Talk Trojan Bee’. Judge Nic Low described Cothren’s story as ‘a polyphonic piece built entirely...

Robertson wins Walter Scott Prize for ‘The Long Take’

Tuesday, 18 June 2019
In the UK, Robin Robertson has won the 2019 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for The Long Take (Picador). The first Scot to win the award, Robertson’s book also...

A&U UK to publish Hardcastle’s ‘Below Deck’ in UK

Monday, 17 June 2019
Allen & Unwin’s UK arm (A&U UK) has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding ANZ and Canada) to Below Deck, the third book by 25-year-old author Sophie Hardcastle, reports the...

Tim Flannery children’s book sells to US, Canada

Monday, 17 June 2019
Catherine Drayton at InkWell Management has sold US and Canadian rights to writer and environmentalist Tim Flannery's forthcoming children's book Explore Your World: Weird, wild, amazing! (illus by Sam Caldwell)....

Charts this week

Monday, 17 June 2019
Top 10 bestsellers Index Title Author Imprint 1 Boy Swallows Universe Trent Dalton Fourth Estate 2 Everything Is F*cked Mark Manson HarperCollins 3 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a...

Daddo, Phommavanh, Bancks among participants in Littlescribe co-author program

Friday, 14 June 2019
Online literacy platform Littlescribe has announced its co-author program and participating authors. Authors Andrew Daddo, Oliver Phommavanh, Katrina McKelvey, Tristan Bancks, Deborah Abela and Andreea Kindryd have signed up to...