Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

News sections >

The Book of Guilt (Catherine Chidgey, Penguin) 

Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Welcome to an alternative version of the UK in the 1970s. In Catherine Chidgey’s The Book of Guilt, Hitler is assassinated in 1943. After a purge of senior Nazis and...

The Letter Writer (Binny Talib, Windy Hollow) 

Tuesday, 25 March 2025
The Letter Writer by author and illustrator Binny Talib (Sloths Love Parties) opens with stunning endpapers – a delightful collage of envelopes adorned with scribbles and doodles that immediately draws...

The Edge of Everything (Miranda Luby, Text) 

Tuesday, 25 March 2025
In The Edge of Everything, Miranda Luby (Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over) tells a poignant story of a teenager recovering from tragedy. It’s been eleven months since Lucy’s older...

I Want Everything (Dominic Amerena, S&S) 

Tuesday, 25 March 2025
An unnamed aspiring writer leaves a Melbourne hospital and, seeking distraction, swims laps at his local pool. There, he recognises an elderly woman as Brenda Shales, one of Australia’s best...

Lonely Mouth (Jacqueline Maley, Fourth Estate) 

Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Jacqueline Maley (The Truth About Her) returns with Lonely Mouth, a powerful exploration of family, trauma and identity. Half-sisters Matilda and Lara share a mother but have different fathers. Abandoned...

2025 Windham-Campbell recipients announced 

Tuesday, 25 March 2025
The recipients of the 2025 Windham-Campbell Prizes, each worth US$175,000 (A$278,529), have been announced, reports Publishers Weekly. This year’s winning writers are Sigrid Nunez (US) and Anne Enright (Ireland) for...

Melbourne Books acquires Harris nonfiction 

Under the influence of salmon book cover Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Melbourne Books has acquired world rights to Under the Influence of Salmon: How a Man and a Fish Turned Our World Upside Down by Steve Harris. Of the book, the publisher...

Victorian Community History Awards winners announced

Tuesday, 25 March 2025
The winners of the Victorian Community History Awards have been announced. Winning titles in each category are: Victorian Premier’s History Award ($5000) Letters to a Critic: Alan McCulloch's World of...

BookPeople conference program announced 

Book people logo Monday, 24 March 2025
BookPeople has announced the program for its 2025 conference, which will run 14–16 June in Brisbane. Aimed at booksellers, the conference program includes panels, practical sessions, and keynotes – with...

NZ Booklovers Awards 2025 winners announced

Monday, 24 March 2025
The winners of the 2025 NZ Booklovers Awards have been announced. The winning titles are: Best Adult Fiction Book The Space Between (Lauren Keenan, Penguin) Best Lifestyle Book Kai Feast: Food...

Melbourne Books acquires Cochrane art book 

Living Art papua new guinea cover Monday, 24 March 2025
Melbourne Books has acquired world rights to Living Art: Papua New Guinea by Susan Cochrane. According to the publisher, the book will feature over 400 full-colour images of Papua New Guinean artists...

Two Carter crime series optioned for television 

a portrait of Alan Carter Monday, 24 March 2025
Tasmania-based crime author Alan Carter's Cato Kwong series and Nick Chester series (both Fremantle Press) have been optioned for television by Magnetic Stories. Production company Magnetic Stories launched last week...

MWF releases full 2025 program

MWF logo Friday, 21 March 2025
Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has launched the full program for its 2025 festival, the first under new festival director Veronica Sullivan, to be held in venues across the Melbourne CBD and...

UQP acquires Kemp debut novel ‘Soft Serve’ 

a portrait of George Kemp Thursday, 20 March 2025
UQP has acquired world rights for Soft Serve, the debut novel of playwright and actor George Kemp. The novel is 'set over one day almost exclusively in a regional McDonald’s as...

Atria acquires Koay romantasy debut 

a portrait of Tzeyi Koay Thursday, 20 March 2025
Atria Books Australia has acquired world rights for romantasy novel A Curse Carved in Ink by Tzeyi Koay, in a two-book, six-figure deal with Charlotte Trumble at Simon & Schuster...

IPEd announces ‘Rosie’ shortlist

IPEd logo Thursday, 20 March 2025
The Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) has announced the shortlist for the 2025 Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award. The shortlisted editors are: Kimberley Davis for Under the Weather: A Future Forecast...

Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2025 winners announced

Wednesday, 19 March 2025
The Wheeler Centre has announced the winners of the 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (VPLAs). Nukgal Wurra author-artist Wanda Gibson has won the overall Victorian Prize for Literature, worth $100,000,...

ABIA 2025 books shortlists announced

ABIA Celebrating 25 Years logo Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Books+Publishing, in partnership with the Australian Publishers Association, has announced the 2025 book award shortlists for the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs). The shortlisted titles in each category are: Audiobook...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Sales Fiction Penguin Random House (PRH) has sold Brazilian rights for Break the Rules (Lauren Jackson) to Planeta; and Japanese rights for Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect (Benjamin Stevenson)...

Macmillan signs Blabey in seven-book deal 

Pan Macmillan logo Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Macmillan has acquired rights to seven new titles from internationally bestselling author Aaron Blabey. The deal, worth eight figures, encompasses seven titles in two new middle-grade series, to be published...

BorrowBox: ‘User experience is everything’

Wednesday, 19 March 2025
In the lead-up to the 2025 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs), Books+Publishing is in conversation with the event's major sponsors about the status of the industry, what excites them about the...

Larrikin House acquires Mather picture book 

a portrait of Rory H Mather Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Larrikin House has acquired world rights to Otto's INKcredible First Day of School by Rory H Mather, with illustrations by Rebel Challenger. The story follows Otto, an octopus who sprays...

Beer’s ‘Thunderhead’ optioned for film 

Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Thunderhead (Sophie Beer, A&U) has been optioned by LateNite films, in a film and television deal negotiated by Annabel Barker Agency. Beer’s first middle-grade novel, Thunderhead draws on the author’s own...