McLaughlin wins 2019 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award
13 September 2019
Irish writer Danielle McLaughlin has won the £30,000 (A$54,000) Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for her story ‘A Partial List of the Saved’. The story follows two people who...
Love wins 2019 Klaus Flugge Prize
12 September 2019
In the UK, Jessica Love has won the £5000 (A$8990) Klaus Flugge Prize for most promising newcomer to children’s picture book illustration for Julian is a Mermaid (Walker Books), reports...
Print revenue up for Canadian indies in 2017–18
11 September 2019
In Canada, industry research group BookNet has revealed 65% of indie booksellers saw increased revenue from new print book sales between 2017–18, reports Publishing Perspectives. The report, called What’s in Store:...
British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize shortlist announced
10 September 2019
In the UK, the British Academy has announced the shortlist for the £25,000 (A$44,930) Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, reports the Bookseller. The shortlisted titles are: How the...
Amazon breaks Atwood embargo in US
5 September 2019
Amazon has shipped hundreds of copies of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments (Chatto & Windus), the embargoed follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, to US customers ahead of its official release date...
Booker Prize 2019 shortlist announced
4 September 2019
The shortlist for the 2019 Booker Prize has been announced. The six books shortlisted for the £50,000 (A$88,875) prize are: The Testaments (Margaret Atwood, Chatto & Windus, September) Ducks, Newburyport (Lucy Ellmann,...
Shortlist announced for inaugural Dagger Award for best crime publisher
3 September 2019
The UK Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has announced the inaugural shortlist for its new Dagger Award category for best crime and mystery publisher of the year. The shortlisted publishers are:...
Audible halts Captions on major publishers’ titles
30 August 2019
In a New York district court stipulation, Audible has agreed to exclude works from a group of major publishers from its Captions program until permission and licensing issues are resolved,...
‘My Pet Star’ named Sainsbury’s Children’s Book of the Year 2019
30 August 2019
UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has announced the winners of its 2019 Children’s Book Awards. The overall prize for children’s book of the year was awarded to My Pet Star (Rosalind...
Royal Society 2019 Science Book Prize shortlist announced
28 August 2019
In the UK, the Royal Society has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Science Book Prize for popular science books written for a non-specialist audience. The shortlisted books are: Invisible...
US publishers sue Audible for copyright infringement
26 August 2019
In the US, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) has filed a lawsuit against Audible in a bid to stop its Captions program, which transcribes audio to text alongside its...
Springer Nature and Projekt DEAL strike ‘world’s largest transformative open access agreement’
23 August 2019
Springer Nature and German university consortium Projekt DEAL have signed a memorandum of understanding on what the organisations are calling the ‘world's largest transformative open access agreement’, reports the Bookseller....
Laing, Hilsum win 2019 James Tait Black Prizes
20 August 2019
The winners of the James Tait Black Prizes for fiction and biography—the UK’s oldest literary awards—have been announced. Olivia Laing won the £10,000 (A$17,920) prize for fiction for her novel...
Lonely Planet turnover down, profit up in 2018
19 August 2019
In the UK, Lonely Planet recorded a five percent drop in turnover and a 111% increase in profit before tax for the 2018 calendar year, reports the Bookseller. The publisher’s...
Macfarlane wins nature writing prize for ‘Underland’
16 August 2019
In the UK, Robert Macfarlane has been awarded the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for his eighth book Underland (Hamish Hamilton). Judges called Underland ‘a passionate book which celebrates the...
UK retailers demand business tax reform
14 August 2019
In the UK, the Booksellers Association (BA) has joined with more than 50 retailers in signing an open letter demanding the government take action on the business rates system, reports...
Foyles to install libraries in luxury UK retirement homes
13 August 2019
In the UK, bookselling chain Foyles has made a deal with developer Elysian Residences to install libraries in its high-end retirement homes, reports the Times. For each Elysian Residences development,...
HarperCollins earnings up six percent in fiscal 2018–19
12 August 2019
In the US, HarperCollins has reported a six percent rise in earnings despite flat annual revenue for the 2018–19 fiscal year, reports Publishers Weekly. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation,...
UK sales of Booker Prize longlisted titles up nearly 200%
6 August 2019
In the UK, the titles longlisted for the Booker Prize sold a combined 4740 copies according to Nielsen BookScan, up 198% on the week before the announcement, reports the Bookseller. Oyinkan...
Trump renews threat of tariffs on Chinese imports
5 August 2019
In the US, president Donald Trump has threatened to impose 10% tariffs on US$300 billion (A$442b) worth of goods imported from China, including ‘virtually all books’, reports Publishers Weekly. The...
US student groups urge government to block Cengage and McGraw-Hill merger
31 July 2019
In the US, more than 40 college student organisations are urging the Department of Justice (DoJ) to block the proposed merger of educational publishers Cengage and McGraw-Hill, reports the Bookseller....
RITA Awards 2019 winners announced
30 July 2019
The Romance Writers of America (RWA) has announced the winners of the 2019 RITA Awards, which recognise excellence in romance novels and novellas. Among the winners in the 13 categories...
Scholastic income down 55% despite sales rise
29 July 2019
In the US, Scholastic has reported a 2019 fiscal year operating income of US$25 million (A$36.2m), a 55% drop on the previous year despite sales rising 2% to US$1.65 billion...
Amazon UK begins releasing weekly sales charts
25 July 2019
Amazon UK has this week launched Amazon Charts, a weekly book bestseller list tracking sales and reads of fiction and nonfiction, reports the Bookseller. Its the first time print and...
Booker Prize 2019 longlist announced
24 July 2019
The longlist for the 2019 Booker Prize has been announced. The 13 books longlisted for the £50,000 (A$88,875) prize are: The Testaments (Margaret Atwood, Chatto & Windus, September) Night Boat...
UK Booksellers Association launches green bookselling manifesto
23 July 2019
In the UK, the Booksellers Association (BA) has launched ‘Green Bookselling: A Manifesto for the BA, Booksellers and the Book Industry’, as it calls on the trade to reduce its...
Publishers, authors concerned over Audible’s audio-to-text program
22 July 2019
In the US, publishers, literary agents and authors have expressed concern that Audible’s proposed program Captions, which transcribes audio to text alongside its audiobooks, infringes on rights holders, reports Publishers...
Two women awarded Japan’s top literary awards
19 July 2019
In Japan, novelists Natsuko Imamura and Masumi Oshima have been awarded two of the country’s top literary awards, reports Kyodo News. Imamura was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for her novel...
Thompson wins 2019 Arthur C Clarke Award for ‘Rosewater’
18 July 2019
Tade Thompson’s Rosewater (Orbit) has won the 2019 Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction, reports the Guardian. Set in a future Africa, the events of Rosewater take place in a...
US audiobook sales up 25% in 2018
18 July 2019
In the US, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) has reported audiobook revenue in 2018 grew by 24.5% to total US$940 million (A$1.34b), reports Publishing Perspectives. Unit sales were up 27.3%,...
