Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Charts this week 

Monday, 12 November 2018
Top 10 Bestsellers Index Title Author Imprint 1 The Three Secret Cities Matthew Reilly Macmillan 2 Meltdown Jeff Kinney Puffin 3 The Lost Man Jane Harper Macmillan 4 Wundersmith Jessica...

KOALAs 2018 winners announced

Friday, 9 November 2018
The winners of the 2018 Kids Own Australian Literature Awards (KOALAs), the children’s choice book awards for New South Wales, have been announced. The winners and honour books in each...

RiP Eleanor Witcombe

Thursday, 8 November 2018
Australian screenwriter and playwright Eleanor Witcombe has died, aged 95. Witcombe's most well-known works were the book-to-screen adaptations of My Brilliant Career (Miles Franklin, HarperCollins), The Getting of Wisdom (Henry Handel Richardson, Text)...

Quote of the week

Thursday, 8 November 2018
‘If we’re not encouraging our boys to read books with girls as the main characters, we’re doing them a great disservice. What are we telling our boys? That stories about...

Podcast spotlight: Write Through the Roof

Thursday, 8 November 2018
Hosted by speculative fiction author Madeleine D’Este, Write Through the Roof is a podcast for writers who want to improve their craft. Guests have included crime writer Emma Viskic and...

Rights round-up 

Thursday, 8 November 2018
Sales Fiction Allen & Unwin has sold UK rights to The Museum of Modern Love (Heather Rose) to Weidenfeld & Nicolson (see news). Jane Cockram has sold rights to her...

A&U sells ‘The Museum of Modern Love’ to UK

Thursday, 8 November 2018
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has sold UK rights to Heather Rose’s The Museum of Modern Love to Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a division of Orion Publishing. A&U rights associate Maggie Thompson...

Kirsten Alexander’s ‘Half Moon Lake’ 

Thursday, 8 November 2018
'This isn’t simply the story of a missing boy—though that alone would have been enough to sustain a reader’s interest—it’s also a skilful exploration of multi-generational trauma, wrapped up in...

Charts this week 

Monday, 5 November 2018
Top 10 Bestsellers Index Title Author Imprint 1 Kingdom of Ash Sarah J Maas Bloomsbury 2 The Lost Man Jane Harper Macmillan 3 Nine Perfect Strangers Liane Moriarty Macmillan 4...

Cundill History Prize 2018 finalists announced

Friday, 2 November 2018
In Canada, the finalists have been announced for the Cundill History Prize, which rewards ‘the best history writing in English’. Chosen from a shortlist of eight, the finalists are: Prairie...

Fashion designer Dinnigan to create two books for Berbay 

Friday, 2 November 2018
Berbay Publishing has acquired world rights in a two-book deal to picture books by fashion designer Collette Dinnigan. Dinnigan said: 'I spend more time now reading children's books having a six-year-old...

S&S acquires Archie Roach memoir

Friday, 2 November 2018
Simon & Schuster (S&S) has acquired world rights to a yet-to-be-titled memoir by singer-songwriter Archie Roach. Roach, who is part of the Stolen Generations, is also known as a campaigner...

Lifelong learning: Younger readers editions

Thursday, 1 November 2018
Kelsey Oldham investigates the role played by younger readers editions in the growth of children’s nonfiction. It’s a well-established fact that adult nonfiction titles sell strongly in Australia. In 2018...

Powles, Collison, Pati win inaugural Women Poets’ Prize

Thursday, 1 November 2018
Three poets have been announced as the winners of the inaugural Women Poets’ Prize: New Zealand-born Nina Mingya Powles and London-based poets Claire Collison and Anita Pati. Established in honour of...

New specialist kids agency launched

Thursday, 1 November 2018
Lawyer and writer Justine Barker has launched a new literary agency focusing on children’s and YA books. Mayfair Literary Agency will represent authors writing picture books, junior fiction, middle-grade and...

Book industry figures to attend Australia Fest in India

Thursday, 1 November 2018
Australian authors, publishers and literary festival programmers are among the guests at Australia Fest, a six-month festival comprising more than 75 events across 20 Indian cities. Supported by the federal...

Quote of the week 

Wednesday, 31 October 2018
‘Currently, many decisions are made on instinct and impulse ... It’s [hard] to get good data on the most basic question: Who is buying the book? Imagine if the publishing...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Sales Fiction Amanda Urban at ICM Partners sold North American and Canadian rights to The Book of Science and Antiquities (Thomas Keneally) to Atria Books. Nonfiction Lucia Osborne-Crowley has sold...

Podcast spotlight: Seeking Tumnus

Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Established in 2015, Seeking Tumnus is a podcast in which its hosts 'revisit the books of [their] youth and ... explore the uncanny wilds of contemporary adolescent fiction'. Hosted by...

RiP Rose Zwi

Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Writer Rose Zwi has died in Sydney, aged 90. Zwi was born in Mexico in 1928 to Jewish-Lithuanian parents but grew up in South Africa, where her family migrated when...