Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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In brief 

Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Australia Post bans three Popular Penguin titlesAustralia Post has banned the sale of Popular Penguin titles Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov), The History of S-xuality (Michel Foucault) and Delta of Venus (Anais Nin) at its...

Rights round-up 

Tuesday, 13 October 2009
In rights news this week: SalesFiction-Hachette Australia has sold US rights to Stephen Irwin's The Dead Path (also known as The Darkening) to Doubleday via Scott Miller at Trident Media...

Quote of the week 

Tuesday, 13 October 2009
‘I'm tired of going to conferences and talking about "the future": we're in it already ... what are you doing?'--Sara Lloyd of Pan Macmillan UK addressing the inaugural O'Reilly Tools...

Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest presides over the Highest New Entries chart this week and comes second in the Bestsellers after The Lost Symbol by Dan...

Forthcoming events 

Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany, 14-18 OctoberAustralian and NZ Society of Indexers Conference, Sydney, 15-17 OctoberSisters...

Most mentioned: this week in ‘Media Extra’ 

Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Canadian author Margaret Atwood has been making many an appearance on the MX Most Mentioned chart of late, thanks to her new novel The Year of the Flood. Local favourite...

On Tour 

Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Authors on tour from October to March 2010: October Emily Maguire, Picador (Smoke in the Room)Monica Mayhem, Random House (Absolute Mayhem)Don Watson, Random House (Bendable Learnings)Roland Perry, Hachette (The Australian...

PM’s awards to be announced in November 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
The winners of the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards will be announced on Monday 2 November. The second annual award ceremony will be a lunchtime event to be held in...

‘Wolf Hall’ wins 2009 Man Booker Prize 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate) has won the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Mantel's novel was the favourite to win the prize and is the first bookies'...

Derricourt to retire from UNSW Press 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
UNSW Press managing director Robin Derricourt has announced he will stand down from the position in February 2010. Derricourt, who has completed 13 years in the role, told WBN he...

New joint venture to digitise NZ books 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
A new venture in New Zealand aiming to digitise New Zealand books has so far attracted 300 books from 30 publishers, reports Scoop. New Zealand's Copyright Licensing Ltd (CLL), Digital...

NZ Book Month kicks off 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
New Zealand Book Month, which runs through October, has kicked off with a gala launch in Auckland, hosted by Buddle Findlay. ‘There's plenty to get excited about with loads of...

Powles named 2010 Robert Burns Fellow 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Auckland novelist Michele Powles has been named the 2010 Robert Burns Fellow. Powles, the director of New Zealand Book Month, which kicked off last week, is the author of Weathered...

Meyer tops A&R Kids’ Top 50 poll 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Stephanie Meyer has topped yet another chart, with her ‘Twilight' series coming in at number one on Angus & Robertson's 2009 Kids' Top 50 poll. Meyer ended J K Rowling's...

Worldcon 2010 to be held in Melbourne 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
The 2010 ‘WorldCon' science-fiction, fantasy and horror convention, will be held in Melbourne in 2010.  'Aussiecon 4' will be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from 2 to...

Rights round-up 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
In rights news this week:   SalesFiction--Translation rights to The Book of Love (Phillipa Fioretti, Hachette) have been sold to Random House Germany. Text has sold North American rights to Hollywood...

Quote of the week 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
'The pet theory is that the enlightened, the sophisticated, the cosmopolitan, the cultured, the international, the universal attitude is to leave the Australian literary field wide open to world competition...

In brief 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
iMinds launches ‘MindTracks'New Australian audio publisher iMinds has launched a collection of short nonfiction general knowledge ‘tracks' that can be purchased and downloaded through iTunes or the US audiobook website...

Around the world 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Among the many international booktrade stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:Wilson leaves Headline UK after only 5 monthsRiP Reinhardt Mohr of BertelsmannHow publishers encourage...

Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol keeps the numerous Stephanie Meyer titles at bay in the Bestsellers at number one this week, Irish writer Marian Keyes' book The Brightest Star in...

Forthcoming events 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Bali, 7-11 October4th IPEd National Editing Conference, Adelaide, 8-10 OctoberFrankfurt...

On Tour 

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Authors on tour from October to March 2010: October Emily Maguire, Picador (Smoke in the Room)Monica Mayhem, Random House (Absolute Mayhem)Don Watson, Random House (Bendable Learnings)Roland Perry, Hachette (The Australian...

Around the world 

Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Among the many worldwide booktrade stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:'90% of Macmillan titles are pirated', says US CEOPiracy isn't necessarily lost sales'Lost Symbol'...

DNAML launches new ebook website 

Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Australia-based software developer DNAML has announced the launch of a new ebook website ebook.com. The website is ‘a global concept, which is accessible anywhere in the world' but includes books...

ABA welcomes zero-day proposal; publishers still unhappy 

Tuesday, 29 September 2009
A change to Australia's parallel importation rules reportedly proposed by Competition Minister Craig Emerson would reduce locally published international titles with print runs under 10,000 copies by between a third...