Tuesday, 11 August 2009
The shortlists for the 2009 Ned Kelly Awards have been announced. ‘The Neds' award crime writing in Australia. This year, a new award has been added, honouring Australia's best crime...

Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: The Aireys Festival of Words, Aireys Inlet, Vic, 14-16 AugustRomance Writers of Australia--national conference, Brisbane,...

Tuesday, 11 August 2009
As reported in this week’s Media Extra Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark, has written another novel steeped in Europe's past. Based on true events, The People's Train follows the...

Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Authors on tour from August to November: AugustGareth Morgan, Scribe (Poles Apart: Beyond the Shouting, Who's Right About Climate Change?)Rupert Isaacson, Text Publishing (The Horse Boy)Eric Garcia, Scribe (The Repossession...

Tuesday, 11 August 2009
American Budd Schulberg, who wrote the award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront and novels What Makes Sammy Run? and The Harder They Fall has died, aged 95.

Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Writer Tim Guest has died, aged 34. He was the author of memoir My Life in Orange and Second Lives.

Monday, 10 August 2009
HarperCollins parent company News Corporation has reported an operating income loss in its book publishing division of US$16 million (A$19 million) for the year ended 30 June, down from an...

Monday, 10 August 2009
The New Zealand Digital Publishing Forum has announced it will hold a half-day ebook-making workshop. The workshop, entitled ‘How to Make an eBook: XML and Other Mysteries Revealed', is a...

Monday, 10 August 2009
Steve Grimwade has been appointed the new director for the Melbourne Writers' Festival. Grimwade, who is currently associate director, will take on the role following the 2009 festival, which will...

Monday, 10 August 2009
Random House Australia has announced the winner of its inaugural Book Video Awards. Todd Decker, who submitted a ‘book video' of Nick Earls' The True Story of Butterfish, was judged...

Monday, 10 August 2009
The shortlists for the 2009 Age Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The winners will be announced before Bernhard Schlink's keynote speech at Melbourne Town Hall, on the...

Monday, 10 August 2009
Arts Minister Lynne Kosky announced the shortlisted titles for the 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Award on Monday 10 August. ‘This year's shortlist features both established and emerging writers across all...

Monday, 10 August 2009
The winners of this year's Australian Publishers Association (APA) Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing were announced in Melbourne on Wednesday 5 August. The full list of winners is...

Monday, 10 August 2009
The Byron Bay Writers Festival (BBWF) ran last weekend, 7 to 9 August, with workshops from 3 August, at its new site at Belongil Fields, in Byron Bay. The relocated...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
In rights news this week: FictionHachette Australia reports that Blood Ties by Pamela Freeman has sold to Portugal and the 'Death Works' trilogy by Trent Jamieson has sold to the...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
'The ISBN standard united the industry from author royalty statement to store shelf and, while I emphasise the ISBN is far from dead, there are sufficient warning signs to suggest...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Among the stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:US ebook prices fall to under US$10'The perfect bookstore': but where are the books?Is Amazon reducing choice...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Australian authors Shaun Tan and Margo Lanagan have made the nomination list for the 2009 World Fantasy Award. Lanagan's Tender Morsels (A&U) is nominated in the Best Novel category, and...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Author, journalist and filmmaker John Pilger has been awarded the 2009 Sydney Peace Prize.Pilger was awarded the prize for ‘enabling the voices of the powerless to be heard', and for ‘commitment...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
As reported in a WBN special bulletin on Thursday, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) will establish a working group to 'consider the matters raised in the Productivity Commission's report' on...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Members of the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) and Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) have joined in protest against the Productivity Commission's recommendation to remove parallel import restrictions (PIRs). Shane...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper is top of the Fastest Mover chart this week--which may have something to do with the recent release of the film starring Cameron Diaz.  Tricky People:...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: 'Literary Subscriptions' at the State Library of Victoria, 6 AugustWrite Around the Murray Festival, Albury,...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
American author, editor and translator Simon Karlinsky has died, aged 84.

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Thanks to Madman Entertainment, WBN is giving away three DVD box sets, each valued at $70, containing all eight original Asterix animated films. Asterix books have been a massive hit...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Authors on tour from August to November: August Gareth Morgan, Scribe (Poles Apart: Beyond the Shouting, Who’s Right About Climate Change?) Rupert Isaacson, Text Publishing (The Horse Boy) Eric Garcia,...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Victory Books is a new commercial imprint being launched in September by Melbourne University Publishing (MUP). Victory Books is ‘proudly commercial', according to MUP CEO and publisher-in-chief Louise Adler, and will publish...

Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Booksellers New Zealand is preparing draft changes to its constitution, which would enable a restructure of membership to include retailers only. The changes were proposed at the Booksellers NZ AGM,...