Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

Weekly news >

A&U acquires Lim middle-grade novel 

Wednesday, 20 July 2022
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ, Oceania and non-exclusive Asia rights to a new middle-grade novel by Rebecca Lim, Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky, via the Annabel Barker...

Affirm acquires two Robinson novels 

Wednesday, 20 July 2022
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to two new novels by Alice Robinson. The first title, Blueshifts, is a literary/speculative fiction novel set both 100 years into the future and...

T S Bookshop urges board to rethink closure 

Wednesday, 20 July 2022
Customers and supporters of the T S Bookshop in Melbourne have launched a Change.org petition in response to the planned closure of the store by the board of the Theosophical...

Summers leaves Hardie Grant 

Wednesday, 20 July 2022
Hardie Grant Books publisher Arwen Summers has left the role after five years at the company. Summers said in a LinkedIn post she was 'in need of major change' after two...

FedEx to manage all UBD new releases 

Wednesday, 13 July 2022
United Book Distrbutors (UBD) has announced that from next month all its new release deliveries will be managed by FedEx (TNT). The distributor said that, after assessing its freight model...

McHardy leaves Booktopia 

Wednesday, 13 July 2022
Franscois McHardy has left his position as head of publishing at Booktopia after three years in the role, and will be lecturing next semester in the Master of Publishing course...

Byron Writers Festival full 2022 program announced

Wednesday, 13 July 2022
Byron Writers Festival, Australia’s largest regional writers festival, has announced the full line-up for its 2022 event, which runs 26–28 August. After a two-year hiatus due to Covid, the festival...

Royal Societies of ANZ partner on $10,000 writing award

Wednesday, 6 July 2022
The Royal Societies of Australia and New Zealand Te Apārangi have announced a new partnership with the Creative Force Foundation, co-founded by author and environmentalist Bruce Piasecki. Under the partnership,...

Hachette acquires Dunn debut novel

Wednesday, 6 July 2022
Hachette Australia has acquired world rights to Dirt Poor Islanders, the debut novel by Winnie Dunn. Dirt Poor Islanders explores growing up in a blended Tongan family in Western Sydney...

Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter program funding ends

Wednesday, 29 June 2022
The Wheeler Centre (TWC) has announced its Next Chapter program will not open for applications in 2022, following the end of the organisation’s partnership with the Aesop Foundation, which had...

Australia Council latest funding announced

Wednesday, 22 June 2022
The Australia Council has announced its latest round of funding, with $11.9 million going to 283 creative projects and activities. 'This investment will support diverse, impactful projects for the benefit...

Text Prize 2022 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 8 June 2022
The shortlist for the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing, worth $10,000, has been announced. The shortlisted manuscripts are: ‘Bellamy Jones and the Lost Treeheart’ by Emily Beck...

Neilma Sidney Travel Fund 2022 recipients announced

Wednesday, 8 June 2022
Writers Victoria has announced the seventh round of recipients for the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund, which has opened up to international travel again after pandemic-related travel restrictions in 2021....

black&write! fellowships 2022 recipients announced

Wednesday, 1 June 2022
The 2022 black&write! fellowships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers have been awarded to Queensland Elder Herbert Wharton and Lay Maloney from Victoria. Each fellowship is worth $10,000 and...

BookUp full 2022 program announced

Wednesday, 1 June 2022
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has released the full program for the one-day BookUp publishing conference, to be held in Sydney next Thursday, 9 June, ahead of the Australian Book...

Lui acquires first three books for Joan imprint 

Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has announced the first three titles to be published under its new Nakkiah Lui-curated Joan imprint, acquiring ANZ rights to debuts by Brooke Boney, Sarah Firth...

Solomun to wind up The Rights Hive 

Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Natasha Solomun, who founded The Rights Hive agency in 2017, has announced the business will cease operating at the end of June. Solumun, who has worked in international rights for...

Prize money increase for Spark Prize 

Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Hardie Grant Books and RMIT Writing and Publishing have announced the prize money for the Spark Prize has increased from $2000 to $5000. The biennial developmental prize for narrative nonfiction,...

Vivas replaces Byng at HarperCollins 

Wednesday, 18 May 2022
HarperCollins Australia has announced the appointment of Ana Vivas as its new head of Australian children's publishing. Currently children's publisher at Hardie Grant, Vivas replaces Chren Byng, who was appointed...