Sunday, 19 November 2006
As reported in a WBN Special Bulletin on Monday, John Wiley & Sons has entered into a ‘definitive agreement' to buy Blackwell Publishing, at a cost of £572 million (A$1.35...

Wednesday, 15 November 2006
The inaugural $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature, the most valuable literary award in Australia, was awarded to Helen Garner at a well-attended ceremony at Melbourne's Federation Square last week.The prize, which...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
In news from our Around the World blog this week: the winner of Canada's prestigious Giller Prize; a 'challenging' year for UK indie (and Text Publishing's partner) Cannongate; HarperCollins figures...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Writers Peter Temple (The Broken Shore, Text) and Laurie Duggan (The Passenger, UQP) have been named as the recipients of this year's Australia Council Fellowship awards--each worth $90,000--in the latest...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Copyright Amendment Bill has released its report. A link to the report can be found here. Ian McDonald, senior legal officer...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has raised concerns that publishers are claiming an unfair cut of copyright earnings, in the wake of significant increases in copying, scanning and downloading...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The new copyright exceptions proposed by the government were the topic of discussion at Copyright Society function held on 7 November in Sydney, where speakers Libby Baulch, executive officer of...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Clare Forster, previously publisher--books for adults at Penguin, has joined Curtis Brown, Australia's largest literary agency. The agency, which is based in Sydney, described Forster as ‘one of the most...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Gideon Haigh's Asbestos House (Scribe) is the winning title in this year's Westfield/Waverly Library award for literature, worth $15,000, which recognises ‘research undertaken for the outstanding works by Australian writers...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Fiona Henderson, head of publishing for the Bantam and Doubleday imprints at Random House, has announced her resignation. As reported in WBN last week, Jane Palfreyman, executive publisher at Random...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Peter Temple's crime novel The Broken Shore (Text) has been named the winner of the 2006 Colin Roderick Award for the best Australian book of the year, winning the author...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Publisher Pan Macmillan yesterday presented author John Marsden with an award in recognition of the fact that his ‘Tomorrow' series has now sold two million copies and become the highest...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The winning titles in this year's YABBAs (Young  Australian Best Book Awards) were announced this morning. Dougal the Garage Dump Bear (Matt Dray, Penguin) was named best picture book; Selby's...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Two new sequels to those popular Australian dieting and cleaning bibles flank this week's top 10. At number one is The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Book 2; at 10 is...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: the Asialink Yogyakarta Fundraiser on 16 November; the free-trade seminar for Australian businesses (Melbourne session)...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Pat Woolley from Wild & Woolley writes: Nick Vine Hall, the doyen of family history researchers in Australia, has died of cancer, aged 62. Among his 35 books, Tracing Your...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Australian journalist and author Liz Collins has died at the age of 85. Her early published work includes the novels The Second Step and The Copper Crucible. Later in her...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
British author Lucilla Andrews, best known for her ‘hospital fiction' romances (also published under the pseudonyms Diana Gordon and Joanna Marcus), has died of lung cancer at the age of...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Ernestine Carey, co-author of the bestselling memoir Cheaper by the Dozen (various imprints), among other books, has died at the age of 98.

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
A number of books by Australian and New Zealand authors have been included in the 138-title longlist for the 2007 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.Geraldine Brooks (March, HarperCollins), Brian Castro (The...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The Macquarie Dictionary and Macquarie Library, the Macmillan-owned company that publishes it, have left Macquarie University after more than 25 years and moved to the University of Sydney.According to recent...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
French literary festival Les Belles Étrangères is focusing on New Zealand this year. The 2006 festival, which runs from 13 to 26 November, will include the participation of 12 New...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Juggling Truths by Unity Dow (Spinifex) has been named runner-up in South Africa's Percy FitzPatrick Award.‘This is the fourth international award our authors have had in the last six months,'...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Morris Lurie has been announced as the recipient of the 2006 Patrick White Award.The award, which is worth $25,000, is presented each year to a writer whose work the award...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The finalists for this year’s Walkley Award for Best Nonfiction Book were announced last week. The three finalists are Neil Chenoweth for Packer’s Lunch (Allen & Unwin), Tim Flannery for...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Carrie Tiffany's Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living (Picador) is one of five books in the running for the UK's Guardian First Book Award.The award, worth £10,000 (A$24,000) was established in...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
In the US, Tim Flannery has just been announced as the winner of the 2006 Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, in recognition of his ‘significant contributions to English-language literature.'For more...

Tuesday, 7 November 2006
Jeni Caffin has been appointed as the new director of the Byron Bay Writers Festival. Caffin, who has been publicist for the festvial for the past two years and was...

Tuesday, 7 November 2006
In news from our Around the World blog this week Martina Cole helps the UK market to its biggest week this year; reports O J Simpson is set to publish...

Tuesday, 7 November 2006
Warren Stokes, owner of Spectrum Bookshop, said he was ‘very, very happy' with the deal that would see his business acquired by Campion Education. ‘I've worked here for 27 years...