Menzies joins MWF
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has appointed Fiona Menzies as interim CEO. Menzies, who was previously CEO of Creative Partnerships Australia, and earlier, development manager at the Wheeler Centre, replaces...
Indie Book Awards longlist; Magabala fellowship, grants; Curry launches VenX
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Jane Curry, founder of independent book publisher Ventura Press, has established 'digital sibling' VenX, a membership-based digital community for writers that provides self-publishing options, with editorial services offered through a...
New year, new books: Children’s and young adult stories from local publishers
Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Australian children's and young adult publishers are excited to welcome 2024—and with it, a bright array of forthcoming books. Here are the titles publishers are highlighting for younger readers in...
Text acquires Carlyle’s ‘No One Will Know’
Monday, 11 December 2023
Text Publishing has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (ex Canada) to the new novel No One Will Know by Rose Carlyle, via Jenny Meyer. No One Will Know is a...
Books in the media this weekend, 9–10 December
Friday, 8 December 2023
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper The Conversion (Amanda Lohrey, Text) Courting: An intimate history of love...
UK in-house staff turning to freelance work in ‘growing trend’
Thursday, 7 December 2023
In the UK, in-house publishing staff are turning to freelance work to avoid burnout, in what the Bookseller calls ‘a growing trend’. The publication spoke with several professionals in publishing...
MidnightSun acquires Prewer science fiction novel
Thursday, 7 December 2023
MidnightSun has acquired world rights to a literary science fiction novel, titled R E Generation, by debut author Michael Prewer. Described by the publisher as ‘a fast-paced, futuristic tale of...
Indie Book Awards 2024 longlists announced
Thursday, 7 December 2023
The longlists for the 2024 Indie Book Awards, presented by Leading Edge Books, have been announced. The titles longlisted in each category are: Fiction Lola in the Mirror (Trent Dalton,...
The facts on 2024’s nonfiction releases
Wednesday, 6 December 2023
From big names and literary subjects, to politics, the environment and history, from personal development to crochet, sex guides to cookbooks, publishers pick their top nonfiction titles for 2024. Familiar...
HarperCollins acquires Grace illustrated ‘great sex’ handbook
Wednesday, 6 December 2023
HarperCollins has acquired world rights to an as-yet-untitled debut nonfiction book from Georgia Grace on ‘the A–Z of great sex’. In the hardcover handbook, sex and relationship practitioner Grace ‘will...
Ho Jiak: A Taste of Malaysia (Junda Khoo, Hardie Grant)
Tuesday, 5 December 2023
Ho Jiak: A taste of Malaysia by chef Junda Khoo with Nick Jordan is an exciting culinary exploration of Malaysian cuisine. The title, meaning ‘delicious’ in Hokkien—also the name of...
Books in the media this weekend, 2–3 December
Friday, 1 December 2023
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Rogue Corporations: Inside Australia's biggest business scandals (Quentin Beresford, NewSouth) The Secret...
Reading into the year ahead: 2024 fiction and poetry preview
Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Debuts, historical fiction, crime and thrillers, contemporary fiction, romance and fantasy, literary fiction and shorter works—Australian publishers share their top picks in fiction and poetry for 2024, from intergenerational family...
Five key insights from Nielsen BookScan’s SPN market report
Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Claire West and Olivia Johansson from Nielsen BookScan opened the Small Press Network’s Independent Publishing Conference industry day on Friday, 24 November, sharing key insights on the overall Australian book...
Independent Publishing Conference 2023: Conversations and communities
Wednesday, 29 November 2023
The Small Press Network (SPN) annual Independent Publishing Conference (IPC) was held from 23 to 25 November at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne, on Wurundjeri Country, and remotely online. Thursday was...
Lynch wins 2023 Booker Prize for ‘Prophet Song’, Aus reprint available from Friday
Monday, 27 November 2023
In the UK, Paul Lynch has won the 2023 Booker Prize, worth £50,000 (A$95,670), for Prophet Song (Oneworld). Prophet Song follows scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack as she tries to protect...
Fourth Wing wins 2023 Dymocks Book of the Year
Friday, 24 November 2023
Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros, Hachette Australia) has been named Dymocks 2023 Book of the Year, and Come Together: Things every Aussie kid should know about the First Peoples (Isaiah Firebrace,...
Books in the media this weekend, 25–26 November
Friday, 24 November 2023
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Best Australian Political Cartoons (ed by Russ Radcliffe, Scribe) Into Your...
AI: The next, best editorial tool?
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
Editors Rose Michael, Sharon Mullins, Renée Otmar and Katherine Day ask how AI tools might work, or be made to work, for editorial. Back when Rose was editor of the...
Rising Stars on AI
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
How do the publishing industry's rising stars feel about AI? Editors Rose Michael, Sharon Mullins, Renée Otmar and Katherine Day are interested in how AI tools might work, or be made...
Prime Minister’s Literary Award winners, Baillie Gifford Prize winner, inaugural Hope Prize calls for submissions
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
The 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Award winners were announced this week. Meanwhile, the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) presented the ASA Medal and the O'Donnell Essay Prize during the Colin...
Ingram’s David Taylor on POD
Wednesday, 22 November 2023
David Taylor is senior vice president at Ingram Content Group and has responsibility for Ingram’s print-on-demand (POD) activities outside Ingram’s US base. These include the Ingram-owned Lightning Source businesses in...
Books in the media this weekend, 18–19 November
Friday, 17 November 2023
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Days of Innocence and Wonder (Lucy Treloar, Picador) Right Story, Wrong...
2023 Storylines Notable Book Award winners announced
Thursday, 16 November 2023
Storylines Children’s Literature Trust Te Whare Waituhi Tamariki o Aotearoa has announced the 2023 Storylines Notable Book Award winners. This year’s winners are: Nonfiction Critters of Aotearoa: 50 bizarre but...
AI and AR at the Sharjah Publishers Conference
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
Each year, the Sharjah International Book Fair brings publishing professionals to the United Arab Emirates through its fellowship program. Agata Mrva-Montoya, from the University of Sydney, reports on her first...
‘I wanted to make a meaningful impact’: Reflections from the 2023 Open Book interns
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
First run as a pilot program offering two internships in 2022, the Open Book paid internship program is a joint sector initiative that aims to foster cultural and linguistic diversity...
Victoria Carless on ‘Lani and the Universe’
Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Victoria Carless is a Brisbane-based author who has written for middle-grade readers and young adults, and for theatre. Her debut novel, The Dream Walker (Hachette, 2017), was nominated for the Queensland...
Kochanski wins £50k Wolfson History Prize
Tuesday, 14 November 2023
In the UK, Halik Kochanski has won the £50,000 (A$96,280) Wolfson History Prize for Resistance: The underground war in Europe, 1939–45 (Allen Lane). Kochanski's book was chosen from a shortlist of...
Explainer: What are the costs and considerations of making audiobooks?
Wednesday, 8 November 2023
As audio has boomed in recent years, the ways a print title makes it to the audio format have changed. Whereas in the past, audio-only publishers such as Bolinda were...
Listen up: How booksellers are getting in on the audiobook boom
Wednesday, 8 November 2023
While the pandemic boost to reading appears to have subsided somewhat (with recent Creative Australia Arts Participation Survey results reporting a three-percentage-point decline in reading engagement since the last survey in...
