Tuesday, 15 September 2009
In rights news this week: Rights soldFiction--Random House has sold German language rights in Paul Cleave's forthcoming crime title Blood Men to Heyne Verlag.  Nonfiction--Random House has sold North American...

Tuesday, 15 September 2009
As announced in the Australian on Saturday 12 September, the shortlist for the 2009 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award has been chosen. The manuscripts shortlisted for this year's Award--which includes publication...

Tuesday, 15 September 2009
An ebook version of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (Transworld), which went on sale in hard copy yesterday, will be available for purchase from the Random House Australia (RHA) website...

Tuesday, 15 September 2009
There has been something of a respite from Stephanie Meyer titles this week and as we wait for the Dan Brown phenomena to take over (The Lost Symbol was released...

Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: Books Alive 2009--author events--Toni Jordan & Gretel Killeen, Noosa, QLD, 17 SeptemberReadings Create Your Own...

Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Tracey Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, topped the Most Mentioned chart in Media Extra this week with her new novel Remarkable Creatures. It's a story set in...

Tuesday, 15 September 2009
American poet, diarist and musician Jim Carroll has died, aged 60. His most famous work is The Basketball Diaries.

Tuesday, 15 September 2009
English bookseller and author Ian Norrie has died, aged 82. He wrote, among others, The Business of Lunch: A Bookman’s Life and Travels.

Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Authors on tour from September to November: September Jeb Brugmann, UQP, (Welcome to the Urban Revolution) Joris Luyendijk, Scribe (Fit to Print) Phillip Karl, Cadmos (Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage)...

Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Murdoch Books has announced a restructure of its sales and marketing team. Mary-Jayne House has been promoted to the newly created role of sales and marketing manager, with responsibility for...

Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Microsoft, Yahoo and the German government are among the many entities to have filed an objection to the Google Settlement ahead of the extended deadline for such complaints which passed on...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
'It brings books back to life and creates a new market for books that have been languishing on bookshelves for years. From an author's point of view it is a...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
As the date of an expected cabinet decision on the future of parallel importation restrictions approaches, mainstream media coverage of the debate continues. MUP publisher Louise Adler took the opportunity...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Queensland Premier and Minister for the Arts Anna Bligh last night announced a new initiative that will connect various literary organisations in the state. The initiative, A State of Writing,...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Summertime by Australian author J M Coetzee (Knopf) has been shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The full shortlist is: The Children's Book (A S Byatt, Chatto &...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
This winners of this year's Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were announced last night, 8 September 2009. Chloe Hooper followed up her wins in the Victorian and New South Wales Premier's...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Among the many international booktrade stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:Kerr wins 125,000 Euro crime prizeAmazon to restore deleted ebooksBook Depository continues to growUK...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
ReadHowYouWant (RHYW) has announced new partnerships with publishers Allen & Unwin, Black Inc. and Exisle to create ‘accessible formats' of the publishers' titles. RHYW, which re-purposes books into special formats, including...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
HarperCollins Publishers has announced it will be introducing a second 'new title' release each month. The publisher will be changing the delivery date of its new releases and, from November, introducing...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Hachette Australia has announced that, from November, all titles under its Hachette Australia imprint will be printed on either FSC or PEFC paper. The publisher will include the FSC and PEFC...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
An Australian ‘online, interactive, full curriculum learning system' has been selected by Cambridge University Press as its global flagship ICT mathematics resource. Created over nine years, HOTmaths is a suit...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Crime author Kathy Reichs has done the unthinkable! This week she has knocked Stephenie Meyer off her comfy number one spot in the Bestsellers chart with 206 Bones. Will it...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: Overload Poetry Festival, 4-13 SeptemberAustralian Copyright Council--2009 training program--Adelaide, 8-11 SeptemberBooks Alive 2009--author events--Melina Marchetta...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Australian authors J M Coetzee and Cate Kennedy were neck-and-neck for the top place on the Media Extra Most Mentioned chart this week. These weren't the only Australian writers to...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Authors on tour from September to November: SeptemberJeb Brugmann, UQP, (Welcome to the Urban Revolution)Joris Luyendijk, Scribe (Fit to Print)Phillip Karl, Cadmos (Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage)Padma Viswanathan, UWA Publishing...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
British author and journalist Keith Waterhouse has died, aged 80. His most famous work was the novel Billy Liar.

Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Arts Minister Peter Garrett has announced the appointment of Dennis Haskell as chair of the Australia Council Literature Board, for a three-year term. Haskell replaces Imre Salusinszky to who Garrett...

Monday, 7 September 2009
This year's Indigenous Literacy Day, held last Wednesday 2 September to support the Indigenous Literacy Project (ILP), revealed ‘a wave of support and goodwill right around Australia', according to ILP...

Monday, 7 September 2009
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has announced the ‘soft launch' of its new Australian website. The new website at www.simonandschuster.com.au is ‘the first step' in an ongoing plan to improve...

Monday, 7 September 2009
Hardie Grant acquires Universal PublishersPlease note that in a story in last week's WBN our heading incorrectly referred to Hardie Grant purchasing Universal Publishing. In fact, as stated in the story,...