Shelf talk: Women’s stories
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Humour is back in a big way in women’s fiction, starting in February with The Rosie Result (Text). Could there be a more fitting title to the final book in...
Written in the stars: Minnie Darke on ‘Star-crossed’
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Minnie Darke’s Star-crossed (Michael Joseph, March) follows an aspiring journalist who begins to tinker with her paper’s astrology section after learning that her crush consults his horoscope whenever he’s faced with making...
Books+Publishing magazine Issue 4 2018
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Books+Publishing magazine’s fourth—and final—issue for 2018 is out now! It features 30 reviews of forthcoming adult and children’s books due to be published between December 2018 and March 2019. Reviews: Of the 17 adult...
Bound together: Kate Richards on ‘Fusion’
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Kate Richards’ Fusion (Hamish Hamilton, February 2019) tells the story of conjoined twins, their carer, and an injured stranger who is brought into their isolated bush home. Reviewer Jacqui Davies described...
Keen for 2019: A round-up of forthcoming children’s and YA titles
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
2019 sees the release of new children’s books from rapper Adam Briggs, fashion designer Collette Dinnigan and engineer and media personality Yassmin Abdel-Magied, plus new YA from Jay Kristoff and...
Ringing in the new year: 2019 title preview
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
New books by Peggy Frew, Claire G Coleman and Carrie Tiffany are among the local highlights from Australian publishers, reports Sarah Farquharson. Fiction After the success of Christian White’s The Nowhere...
Pen to paper: Publishing the writing of the African diaspora
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
African and African-Australian writers are finding a voice in Australian literature, but they continue to face many challenges. Marisa Wikramanayake investigates. Stories from people of African descent are ‘largely missing...
Book bites: A taste of books to come
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Picture this With a brand new year of school on the horizon, there are plenty of picture books to get early readers prepared for their first day: On The First...
What’s cooking?: Julie Gibbs shares her career journey
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Trade publishing consultant Julie Gibbs shares her career journey. I was lucky enough to grow up in a bookish household in Adelaide, buying Enid Blyton books with pocket money and reading...
Editor’s picks
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
This issue, Andrew Wrathall is swept up in Beatlemania. While visiting a vintage shop in the Victorian countryside earlier this month, I was inspired to purchase a range of vinyl...
Your store: Non-book item of the month
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Codenames is the bestselling game at Perth’s Rabble Books & Games. Players must guess their team’s secret codenames and avoid guessing their opponent’s codenames during the fast-paced 15 minute game....
Your store: Small space, big ideas
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Just because Melbourne’s tiny and beloved Paperback Bookshop is small, it doesn’t mean it can’t hold events. Owner Rosy Morton and bookseller Anna McDonald had been discussing the idea of...
Reversing the cultural cringe: Martin Hughes on publishing debut fiction
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Publishing debut fiction in Australia is worth the risk, argues Affirm Press publisher Martin Hughes. Can anyone remember a year that has delivered so sweetly for Australian debut novels? Not...
Gift of the Blab: An interview with Aaron Blabey
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Aaron Blabey is the creator of the ‘Pig the Pug’ and ‘The Bad Guys’ series. Kelsey Oldham asks the author about his success. You’re known for your prolific output, which...
A right royal romance: Emma Grey on ‘Tilly Maguire and the Royal Wedding Mess’
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Emma Grey’s Tilly Maguire and the Royal Wedding Mess (HarperCollins, December) follows an 18-year-old aspiring writer who wins a six-week internship at a top London PR firm, and somehow gets wrapped...
Sister act: The story of The Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Co-owner Mary Wadsworth tells the story of The Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop in Auckland, New Zealand. In 1965 Dorothy Butler established the bookshop that my sister Helen and I now...
Your store: Key takeaways of the booksellers’ training day
Tuesday, 30 October 2018
The first ABA booksellers’ training day was held at Avid Reader Bookshop in Brisbane on 21 August. Hosted by Fiona Stager, owner of Avid Reader and children’s bookshop Where the...
Making the deal: The state of rights sales in the UK
Wednesday, 24 October 2018
While the UK remains a tough market for Australian publishers to break into, UK indies are showing an interest in Australian voices, reports Catherine Moller. Several Australian independent publishers have had...
Books+Publishing magazine Issue 3 2018
Friday, 31 August 2018
Books+Publishing magazine’s third issue for 2018 is out now! It features 30 reviews of adult and children’s books publishing from September to November. Reviews: Of the 17 adult books reviewed in this issue, four...
Bridging borders: Philippa Donovan on working between Australia, the UK and the US
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Literary consultant and book-to-film/TV scout Philippa Donovan has recently returned to Australia after working in the UK and the US. She shares her career journey. In 2002 I was broke...
Season’s readings: 2018 Christmas highlights
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Sarah Farquharson and Nathania Gilson round up this year’s Christmas highlights. Fiction as you like it This Christmas features new offerings from several bestselling Australian authors: Rosalie Ham returns with...
Tracking changes: Jacqueline Kent on ‘A Certain Style’
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Seventeen years after A Certain Style was first published, Jacqueline Kent’s biography of Australia’s first full-time book editor Beatrice Davis is being reissued for a new generation of publishing aficionados....
Mapping the future: The state of travel guidebooks
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Jackie Tang talks to Lonely Planet’s Chris Zeiher, APA Publications’ Agnieszka Mizak and former Dymocks category manager Ali Hammond about the state of the travel guidebook. Australians are travelling more...
From Bega to the big city: Myoung Jae Yi discusses Book Expo 2018
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Candelo Books owner Myoung Jae Yi embarked on a trip to the 2018 Book Expo in New York City as part of a prize sponsored by Simon & Schuster Australia....
Shelf talk: Page to screen
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Pour some hot chocolate and get a bowl of popcorn ready before digging into these film and television tie-in editions. Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (A&U, September)...
Shelf talk: Get a clue
Thursday, 30 August 2018
A thrill awaits those readers on the lookout for whodunits, stories of transgression, and real-life cases to solve. On the fiction front, Jane Harper’s latest, The Lost Man (Macmillan, October),...
Editor’s picks: Blood-chilling and brain-expanding
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Andrew Wrathall’s spring reading list contains titles that are both blood-chilling and brain-expanding. Let’s start with some blood. Most humans contain between nine and 12 pints of it. In Nine...
Your store: Talk among your shelves
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Shelf Talkers is a staff-run podcast operating out of Dymocks Adelaide, hosted by the store’s booksellers Tori D’Cruz and Alex Andrews. While the flagship Dymocks podcast is based out of its Sydney head office—and focuses...
Your store: Training wheels
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Brisbane bookshop Avid Reader and the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) have launched an all-day booksellers’ training program that will include sessions on using Nielsen BookScan; the financial realities of running...
Your store: Non-book item of the month
Thursday, 30 August 2018
While many publishers and booksellers have their own branded tote bags, Melbourne independent bookseller Readings decided in 2016 to expand its offerings. The bookseller now produces an entire range of...





