Oz book sales up 7.8%, royalties down for a third of authors

Australian book sales were up nearly 8% in 2020, led by strong growth in adult fiction and children’s titles, according to Nielsen. Meanwhile, the ASA has reported that royalties declined for more than a third of authors last year.

In other news, there’s a new writers festival being planned for the Central Coast, online retailer The Kids’ Bookshop has a new owner, and Andrew Pippos’s debut novel Lucky’s has been chosen for the inaugural NSW Reads program.

Writers Victoria announced the shortlist for this year’s Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship and Kill Your Darlings has partnered with the Madrid-based Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize. Meanwhile, literary journals Griffith Review and Overland both launched new writing prizes.

Overseas, in the US Amazon and the major publishers are facing a class action suit over ebook pricing, while the UK supply chain has been hit by border delays and Brexit-related issues.

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Category: This week’s news