Weekly news | Books+Publishing

Open Book publishing internship to launch in 2021

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
A new paid internship aimed at increasing cultural diversity in the Australian publishing workforce will launch in 2021 with funding support from the Australia Council and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural...

ALIA to run digital storytime pilot in 2021

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
Australian publishers can opt to have new or backlist titles included in an Online Storytime pilot being run by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) in 2021. The one-year...

Indie Book Awards 2021 longlists announced

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
Leading Edge Books has announced the longlists for the 2021 Indie Book Awards. The longlisted titles in each category are: Fiction The Tolstoy Estate (Steven Conte, Fourth Estate) All Our...

Online SPN conference a ‘great success’

Wednesday, 2 December 2020
The Small Press Network’s (SPN) ninth Independent Publishing Conference was held online on 26–27 November, with organisers hailing the event a ‘great success’. SPN general manager Tim Coronel told Books+Publishing...

Walker acquires Uhlmann picture book

Wednesday, 2 December 2020
Walker Books Australia has acquired world rights to author and journalist Chris Uhlmann's debut picture book The Useless Tune, via Jeanne Ryckmans at the Cameron Creswell agency, Cameron’s Management. The Useless...

Red Ventures acquires Lonely Planet

Wednesday, 2 December 2020
Red Ventures has announced it has acquired Lonely Planet from NC2 Media for an undisclosed amount. Red Ventures, a platform of digital businesses including US-based travel website The Points Guy,...

Hardie Grant Children’s launches new illustrated imprint

Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Hardie Grant Children's Publishing (HGCP) has announced the creation of Bright Light, a new illustrated imprint that will publish 20 titles a year exploring privilege, race, equality, the environment, bodies...

Booktopia, Amazon Australia to use robots for fulfilment

Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Booktopia and Amazon will implement the use of robots in their Australian fulfilment centres in 2021. Booktopia announced it will trial autonomous robots at its Lidcombe Distribution Centre in Sydney...

Hueston awarded 2020 Medal for Excellence in Translation

Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Text Publishing director and a senior editor Penny Hueston is the winner of the 2020 Australian Academy of the Humanities Medal for Excellence in Translation for Being Here: The life...

Wright resigns from PRH

Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) head of trade sales Kaye Wright has resigned after almost 12 years in the role. Wright told Books+Publishing the role was ‘my most favoured in...

Giggs shortlisted for ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal

Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Australian writer Rebecca Giggs has been shortlisted for the American Library Association's (ALA) 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction for Fathoms: The world in the whale (Scribe). Giggs's consideration of whales...

S&S to publish Kerr children’s series and World Cup diary

Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to a new children’s series by Sam Kerr, captain of the Australian national women’s soccer team the Matildas, in a six-book...

Walkley Book Award 2020 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 11 November 2020
The Walkley Book Award shortlist for 2020 has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know (Sophie McNeill, ABC Books) Fallen (Lucie Morris-Marr, A&U) The Altar Boys (Suzanne Smith,...

Gay YA rom-com wins 2020 Ampersand Prize

Wednesday, 11 November 2020
Hardie Grant Children's Publishing (HGCP) has announced that Auckland teacher and writer Helen Valley has won the 2020 Ampersand Prize for her YA novel Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean...

Riwoe wins inaugural $50k ARA Historical Novel Prize

Wednesday, 11 November 2020
Brisbane writer Mirandi Riwoe has won the $50,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize for Stone Sky Gold Mountain (UQP). Selected from more than 185 entries and a shortlist of three announced in...

Chowdhury releases Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship report

Wednesday, 11 November 2020
Penguin Random House Australia senior audio producer and commissioning editor Radhiah Chowdhury has released her Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship report on the experiences and perspectives of BAME (Black, Asian and...

UQP acquires Behrendt’s ‘After Story’

Thursday, 5 November 2020
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired rights to After Story, the third novel by academic, broadcaster and author Larissa Behrendt. UQP said After Story is an ‘ambitious and...

Australia Reads campaign: Nielsen reports sales up almost 5%

Thursday, 5 November 2020
Nielsen Book Australia reports that sales of print books are up nearly 5% on the previous year. Territory manager Bianca Whiteley said that, for the year to the week ending...

Bloomsbury to repay pandemic pay cuts

Thursday, 5 November 2020
Bloomsbury Australia’s parent company in the UK has announced it will repay almost £700,000 (A$985,000) to staff who took a pay cut during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic,...

Text acquires Webb ‘anti-usage’ guide

Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to an 'anti-usage' language guide by ABC journalist Tiger Webb. Webb is the ABC’s language research specialist, providing broadcasters with pronunciation guidelines, updating the...

QBD to open two new Melbourne stores as Covid restrictions ease

Wednesday, 28 October 2020
The QBD bookselling chain has opened a new Parramatta store and will open two new stores in Melbourne before Christmas. The Parramatta store, in Westfield Shopping Centre, opened on 24...

Ibrahim wins 2020 Heyman Mentorship Award

Wednesday, 28 October 2020
HarperCollins Australia and Kathryn Heyman of the Australian Writers Mentoring Program have announced Naima Ibrahim as the winner of the 2020 Heyman Mentorship Award. Ibrahim’s winning fiction manuscript follows 10-year-old...