Monday, 31 March 2008
Feather Man, poet Rhyll McMaster's debut novel (Brandl & Schlesinger), has won the inaugural Barbara Jefferis Award.Founded by the late ABC film critic John Hinde to commemorate his author wife, the...

Monday, 31 March 2008
Online book sales are flourishing compared other areas of online retail, but booksellers could be doing better still, according to a new report.In a survey of 1215 Australian consumers, consultancy...

Monday, 31 March 2008
As first reported in a WBN Special Bulletin, the shortlisted titles in this year's Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year awards have been announced. The shortlist for...

Monday, 31 March 2008
Among the many items added to our Around the World blog in the past week:Agents 'lazy' about new media rightsTintin heads for the big screenOddest title award winnerDo you 'buy'...

Monday, 31 March 2008
The 9th national conference of the Children's Book Council of Australia, to be held in Melbourne from 2 to 4 of May, will be opened by Astrid Lindgren award-winner Sonya...

Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Following an announcement in February that they would be merging, Brumby Books & Music, Bookwise, Gary Allen and Tower Books have announced a name for the new combined group. The...

Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Stories posted to our Around the World blog this week include:UK publishers don't realise how much Aussies resent them, says RosenbloomBuy a book, plant a treeCookery books will be gone...

Tuesday, 25 March 2008
The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Lothian) has been nominated for yet another award, this time in the United States. The Arrival has been nominated for a Hugo in the official...

Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Coming in at number one this week in the Highest New Entries chart is children’s book Columbia Sneezes! Not about Columbians with hay fever problems as the title may suggest,...

Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: Victorian Community History Awards entries close, 28 MarchContemporary Australian Fiction Festival, NSW Writers' Centre, 29...

Monday, 24 March 2008
Australia's Workplace Ombudsman, Nicholas Wilson, has warned retailers to abandon attempts to ‘get around' workplace laws. The warning came after a Melbourne retailer was fined $30,000 for underpaying two casual...

Monday, 24 March 2008
The media group Bertelsmann, parent company of Random House Australia, is exploring the sale of its book club unit, Direct Group. Chief Executive Hartmut Ostrowski said that ‘every strategic option' would...

Monday, 24 March 2008
Random House Australia'sÿparent company Bertelsmann has reported a decline in profit for 2007, but the publisher's results in Australia 'wereÿstrong in 2007 andÿin line withÿexpectations,' according to Random House Australia's...

Monday, 24 March 2008
Registration is now open for this year's Australian Booksellers Association conference, to be held in Melbourne on 15-17 June. All ABA members, bookshop owners, franchisees, managers, head office management, staff...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
The NSW Writers' Centre will present the 2008 Contemporary Australian Fiction Festival on Saturday 29 March, co-presented by the UTS Centre for New Writing. Guests will include Gabrielle Carey, Katherine...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Six novels have been shortlisted for the 2008 ABC Fiction Award.The six shortlisted authors come from three states: three from Victoria, two from New South Wales and one from South...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Schwartz Media, publisher of the Monthly magazine, Quarterly Essay and Black Inc., has launched a new internet TV venture, SlowTV (slowtv.com.au).SlowTV will deliver online video content--interviews, debates, conversations and public lectures on...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Australian author Gail Jones has been included on the longlist for this year's Orange Prize for Fiction. Jones, the only Australian on the longlist, has been nominated for Sorry (Vintage)....

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Among the many international booktrade stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:Penguin US to launch 'e-classics'Borders reduces range to increase salesRomance world in a tizz over...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died aged 90. Author of more than 100 fiction and nonfiction books, he came to fame in 1968 when a short...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Number one in the Highest New Entries chart this week is Mr Paparazzi. This book details the world of paparazzi photographer Darryn Lyons, a 'self-made millionaire' who tells all in...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: Swancon 2008 - Australian national science fiction convention, 20-24 March, Northbridge, WA To view these...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008
The veracity of two more 'misery memoirs' has been called into question. Margaret Jones's Love and Consequences (Riverhead US) and Misha Defonseca's Surviving with Wolves (Piatkus) joined the ranks of Memoirs...

Monday, 17 March 2008
Educational publishing in Australia is in trouble and authors are paying the price, according to an Australian Society of Authors (ASA) report released this week. The survey of educational writers found...

Thursday, 13 March 2008
Steven Carroll has won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in the South East Asia and South Pacific region for The Time We Have Taken (Fourth Estate); and The Anatomy...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008
As reported in a WBN Special Bulletin last week, Australian author Sonya Hartnett has been announced as the winner of this year's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.She is the first Australian...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008
As reported in a WBN Special Bulletin last week, the longlist for the 2008 Miles Franklin award has been announced. The nine novels selected are:Landscape of Farewell (Alex Miller,  A&U)Love...