Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Around the World: round-up 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
In news from our Around the World blog, arts and development funding body New Zealand Creative gets a new chief executive; Time Out booksellers launch a competition to find the...

NLA shifts 40km of books 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
The National Library of Australia (NLA) has recently begun the process of moving 40 kilometres of its collection material into a new offsite storage facility.Despite the enormity of the task,...

Victorian libraries link up 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
The Victorian public library system has announced a new, state-wide internet catalogue and interlibrary loan system called LibraryLink.Launched last week, LibraryLink makes the catalogues of 42 metropolitan and 97 regional...

Booksellers and publishers come to grips with ISBN-13 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
As the trade counts down to the changeover to 13-digit ISBNs on 1 January 2007, booksellers, publishers, distributors and software vendors have all been meeting in recent weeks at APA-hosted...

Coles Myer in takeover talks 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Coles Myer, Australia's second-largest retailer, has been in the news in the past week with confirmation that it has been approached by a possible buyer, most likely the US-based private...

ABA 2007 conference dates announced 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) has announced that its 2007 conference will be held in Melbourne from Sunday 17 to Tuesday 19 June at the Hilton on the Park hotel.‘Next...

CBCA winners announced 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
As reported in a WBN special bulletin last Friday, the winners and honour books in this year's Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards were announced...

Useful tips for subscribers #6: Events Calendar 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Imagine how useful it would be if the whole book trade had access to the same calendar. Now it does!Our new online events calendar provides the whole industry with a way of...

New Asia imprint at Macmillan 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Pan Macmillan has announced a new trade publishing division, Picador Asia. The imprint will aim to secure world rights to Asian titles to publish simultaneously in Asia, the UK, Australia and...

Rockpool Publishing commences trading 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Rockpool Publishing, a new Australian publishing house owned by former Random House production manager Lisa Hanrahan and Gary Allen of book distributor Gary Allen Pty Ltd, will launch its list...

Prime Minister announces new history prize 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
The Prime Minister, John Howard, has announced the creation of a new annual prize for Australian history. The prize, which the Prime Minister said could go to a substantial written...

Deadline for CAL Professional Development Fund 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
The deadline for applications for grants from the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) Professional Development Fund is this Friday, 25 August. In 2005-06 $150,000 was allocated to the fund, which allocates...

Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
It looks like Australian readers like a little murder and mystery in their reading diet at the moment. The Husband, Dean Koontz's nail-biter about a landscape gardener whose wife is...

RiP Jim Hall 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Jim Hall, former editor and literary editor of the Australian newspaper and editor of the Bulletin magazine, died last week, aged 71. Although he spent most of his career working...

RiP Alex Buzo 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Popular and prolific Australian playwright and author Alex Buzo has died at the age of 62, after a long battle with cancer. Buzo was best known for his 1968 play...

Australia to have its say at Frankfurt meeting 

Tuesday, 22 August 2006
The importance of Australia as a rights market will be discussed at the 20th International Rights Directors Meeting, to be held the day before this year's Frankfurt Book Fair.The topic of this...

RiP Michael Sellers 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
Michael Sellers, the son of comedian Peter Sellers, has died.Sellers wrote two memoirs about the difficult relationship he had with his father: PS I Love You (Sutton Publishing) and Sellers...

RiP Murray Bookchin 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
American author, environmentalist and anarchist Murray Bookchin has died, aged 85.Bookchin was the author of over 20 books on environmental and political topics, and his writings in the 1960s anticipated...

RiP Leon Morris 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
Australian theologian and biblical scholar Leon Morris has died, aged 92.Morris wrote more than 50 books that have sold nearly two million copies worldwide and have been translated into many...

Grass reveals Nazi past 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
Nobel Prize-winning German author Günter Grass is weathering a storm of controversy over revelations that he served in the infamous Nazi SS during WWII.Grass, who became famous for novels examining...

Printer awarded for limited-edition book 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
Printer Ducor Group has been announced as the winner of the 2006 Heidelberg Australia Award for Marsupials of Australia, volume 3: Kangaroos, Wallabies and Rat-kangaroos (Tim Flannery & John Calaby,...

Court challenge to banned Islamic books 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
The NSW Council of Civil Liberties has launched a legal challenge to the recent banning of two books by the Classification Review Board.The Council will shortly begin proceedings in the Federal...

Remainder Fair 2007 dates announced 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
The Overstocks and Remainders Fair (OARF) has announced the dates and venue for its 2007 event.OARF will be held at Melbourne's Rydges Carlton Hotel on 11 and 12 February 2007.For...

HarperCollins launches ‘browse inside’ in Australia 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
HarperCollins, which announced late last year that it was digitising its entire catalogue (see WBN 4 January 2006), has now launched ‘Browse Inside', the first initiative to allow consumers access...

BWF guest list and program released 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
The Brisbane Writers' Festival (BWF) has released the full program and guest-list for this year's Festival, to be held from 13-17 September.With more than 20 international and 200 local guests,...

Davitt Awards shortlist 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
Sisters in Crime has announced the shortlist for this year's Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women published during 2005.Sisters in Crime members will now vote on...

BILBY and KOALA shortlists 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
The shortlists for the NSW Kids Own Literature Awards (the KOALA awards) and Queensland's Books I Love Best Yearly (BILBY awards) have been announced.The BILBYs and KOALAs are children's choice...

Vic Prem’s Award shortlist 

Tuesday, 15 August 2006
The shortlist for this year's Victorian Premier's Literary Awards was announced at the state Library of Victoria last week by Victorian Minister of Arts Mary Delahunty.There are 41 books in...