Tuesday, 12 May 2009
New sponsor for NZ Book AwardsThe New Zealand Post will becomes the naming-rights sponsor of the New Zealand Book Awards from 2010 after the decision of Pernod Ricard New Zealand...

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
The Scribo Group has announced the appointment of Jon Attenborough to the role of general manager at Bookwise International. Attenborough, formerly managing director at Simon & Schuster Australia, took up...

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Among the stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:Amazon launches Kindle DXAmazon Kindle store optimised for iPhoneHarperCollins sales drop 19.5% in a quarterS&S posts 20%...

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
As reported in a WBN special bulletin last week, the Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen has announced an extended deadline of 30 June for the Productivity Commission's report to government on parallel...

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Tim Winton’s Breath tops the Highest New Entries chart this week as people get their mitts on the paperback version. Super sleuth Colin Mclaren’s book Infiltration: The True Story of...

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: A Commonwealth Bill of Rights: Do We Need It? -- panel discussion, Eltham, VIC, 13...

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Author and ‘ghost hunter' Hans Holzer has died, aged 89. He was best known for Murder At Amityville.

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Newly appointed Brisbane Writers Festival artistic director Jane O'Hara has announced some changes for this year's festival. ‘In addition to the more "traditional" genres [this year's festival] will reach out...

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Author/publishers Michael Wilding and Phillip Edmonds have announced the launch of  Press On, a new publisher modelled on 18th- and 19th-century subscription models. Wilding told WBN one reason behind the...

Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Melbourne's Reader's Feast Bookstore has become one of the first independent bookstores to carry a range of ebook readers. The store stocks the Bookeen Cybook, Irex iLiad (V2 and Book...

Monday, 11 May 2009
The shortlists for the Kibble Literary award and Dobbie Encouragement award 2009 have been announced. The Kibble Literary award, worth $25,000, recognises the work of an established Australian female writer....

Monday, 11 May 2009
Dymocks in Brisbane's CBD has closed due to the expiration of its current lease. The store closed on Tuesday 28 April. Dymocks CEO Don Grover told WBN that Dymocks was...

Monday, 11 May 2009
Australia's Biggest Book Group is a new initiative formed to raise funds and awareness for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The initiative, established by Lucy Burns, encourages the public to buy...

Monday, 11 May 2009
The recently formed Australian Children's Literature Alliance (ACLA) has announced it will hold two forums in Melbourne and Sydney. The forums are designed to provide information about ACLA's function and...

Monday, 11 May 2009
Hachette Australia has announced an urgent recall of Betrayed by P C and Kristen Cast (Atom), ‘due to a printing error'. ‘As the incorrectly bound copies contain material which isn't...

Monday, 11 May 2009
Australian author Michelle de Kretser is shortlisted for the Orange Prize Shadow Youth Panel Prize, for her book The Lost Dog (A&U). The youth panel (aged 16 to 19) are...

Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Long-serving industry members were honoured for their service to the book industry at the second annual Australian Publishers Association (APA) George Robertson awards, held in Melbourne on Thursday 30 April....

Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Among the stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:US Justice Dept. launches antitrust inquiry into Google Books up to 650 jobs lost at Waterstone'sover 100...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
 Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) has posted a deficit of $2.9 million for 2008, according to the University of Melbourne's annual financial report.  The report states that the MUP deficit includes a...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
The recently formed New Zealand Digital Publishing Forum has announced it will hold a digital publishing conference in Auckland in June. The conference, to be held from 24 to 25...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
The Melbourne Writers' Festival has commenced its search for a candidate to replace current director Rosemary Cameron. Cameron, who was appointed director of the festival for three years in 2006,...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
The Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) and Hachette Australia manuscript development program for fiction writers in 2009 has now opened. Emerging Australian authors who are unpublished or have had no more...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
The Visiting International Publishers (VIP) program takes place during the Sydney Writers' festival, which runs from 18 to 24 May, 2009. Editors, publishers and agents from overseas will join in...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
The Auckland Writers and Readers Festival kicks off next Wednesday 13 May, running until 17 May. Guests include Debra Adelaide, Monica Ali, Tash Aw, Mohammed Hanif, New Yorker senior editor...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Parallel importation debate continuesMainstream media coverage of the debate surrounding the Productivity Commission's study of parallel importation continued this week, with an op ed piece from Dymocks board member Bob...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
The annual Clunes Book Town event held from 2 to 3 May attracted ‘a very good turnout' and saw the town overrun with secondhand books, according to publisher Rose Michael...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Christian book and music distributor CMCA has announced the establishment of a new distribution arm, Independent Distribution Solutions (IDS). IDS Oceania, based in Geelong, will offer warehousing, order fulfilment and...

Tuesday, 5 May 2009
In rights news this week: FictionRandom House has sold Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave to France; previous licenses include the United Kingdom and Germany. Text has sold Russian rights to...