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Roy Morgan study finds more Australians buying ebooks

Tuesday, 3 February 2015
More Australians are buying ebooks according to a study from Roy Morgan Research. The study found that over the past two years, online sales of ebooks have increased across most age...

University publishing symposium to be held in Canberra in March

Monday, 2 February 2015
A one-off symposium on university publishing will be held at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra in March.The ‘Reinventing university publishing’ symposium, to be held from 17-19 March, brings together representatives from university presses,...

New book to advise authors on publicity campaigns

Monday, 2 February 2015
A ‘world-first’ guide for authors running their own publicity campaigns in Australia will be published next month.The DIY Book PR Guide: The HAPPIER Guide to Do-it-yourself Book Publicity in Seven Easy Steps is written...

Bestsellers this week

Monday, 2 February 2015
The film tie-in edition of American Sniper (Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen & Jim DeFelice, HarperCollins) has jumped from fourth to first spot in this week’s top 10 bestsellers chart and is number one...

Indie Awards 2015 shortlists announced

Thursday, 29 January 2015
The shortlists for the 2015 Indie Awards, presented by Leading Edge Books, have been announced.The shortlisted titles in each category are:Fiction When the Night Comes (Favel Parrett, Hachette) Amnesia (Peter Carey,...

Quote of the week

Thursday, 29 January 2015
‘New Zealand has the misfortune in not having a lot of confidence in the brains of its citizens. There is a lot of embarrassment, a lot of discrediting that goes...

Rights round-up 

Thursday, 29 January 2015
SalesFiction—HarperCollins has sold Hungarian rights to Silver Wattle and Sapphire Skies (both Belinda Alexandra). Spinifex Press has sold UK rights to Haifa Fragments (Khulud Khamis); and Italian rights to Haifa...

Fagan appointed head of marketing and publicity at Nero 

Thursday, 29 January 2015
Kelly Fagan has been appointed to the newly created role of head of marketing and publicity for Black Inc. mass-market imprint Nero. Fagan, who was previously publicity manager at HarperCollins, will start in...

Pickering appointed digital affairs manager at Exisle 

Thursday, 29 January 2015
Exisle Publishing has appointed Matthew Pickering to the newly created role of digital affairs manager.Pickering, who will be based in Exisle’s Auckland office, will manage the publisher’s digital data and oversee digital operations in...

Bestsellers this week

Tuesday, 27 January 2015
Pete Evans’ Family Food (Plum) is this week’s fastest mover, having jumped from sixth to first spot on the top 10 bestsellers chart. The rest of the titles in the top 10 remain...

French named Senior Australian of the Year

Tuesday, 27 January 2015
Australian author Jackie French has been named the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year.French was presented with the honour at a ceremony in Canberra on 25 January, where she spoke...

Horin appointed publisher of HGE imprint Chirpy Bird 

Tuesday, 27 January 2015
Hardie Grant Egmont (HGE) has appointed Niki Horin to the newly created role of publisher of Chirpy Bird, the company’s imprint for licensed and trend-driven publishing.HGE marketing communications executive Sarah Magee told Books+Publishing the...

‘Overland’ launches ‘Fair Australia Prize’

Tuesday, 27 January 2015
Overland has launched a new Fair Australia Prize to encourage writers and artists ‘to be part of setting a new agenda for Australia’.The winner of each category—short fiction, essay, poetry, and...

NZ guest of honour program announced for Taipei

Thursday, 22 January 2015
The program for New Zealand’s guest of honour pavilion at the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) has been announced.Eighty-five delegates will represent New Zealand at TIBE, which runs from 11-16 February. The...

New report argues GST exemption should stay 

Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Extending the GST to internationally purchased online goods worth less than $1000 is unlikely to improve Australian retailing, according to a report by free-market think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).Citing a...

New app lets travelling parents share picture books with kids

Wednesday, 21 January 2015
A new Australian-made app that lets parents read books with their children when they’re away from home launched on the Apple iTunes store in late December.The Quality Time app, which is available for iPad, with...

Quote of the week

Wednesday, 21 January 2015
‘With e-books and e-readers, there was a crazy, massive spike in the past few years and it was scaring retailers. Now the e-book has 20 per cent of the market...

Last chance: Please complete our post-Christmas survey 

Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Books+Publishing is currently conducting its annual post-Christmas survey of booksellers and publishers. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey online. BooksellersIf you are a bookseller, please complete the...

Digital Writers’ Festival announces events

Wednesday, 21 January 2015
The Digital Writers’ Festival has announced a number of events in the 2015 program ahead of the full launch on 4 February.The online-only festival, which is hosted by the Emerging Writers’...

RiP Jim Thorburn

Wednesday, 21 January 2015
James Alexander (Jim) Thorburn, former bookseller at Pocket Bookshops in Sydney, has died, aged 90. His daughter, Rosemary Thorburn, writes:‘Jim ran the Pocket Bookshops from 1959 to 1979 with his wife, Hilda....