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Amazon to merge CreateSpace and KDP

Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Amazon has announced that its print-on-demand platforms CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) will merge, reports the Digital Reader. Authors are being asked to move their books from CreateSpace to...

Writers Victoria launches Publishability program

Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Writers Victoria has launched Publishability, a two-year initiative to support emerging writers living with disability. Publishability will provide two authors with mentorship, editing, professional development opportunities, and financial support over...

Staff changes at Hardie Grant Egmont, Lewis appointed MD

Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Hardie Grant Egmont has announced several staff changes to its management team. Troy Lewis will move from his current role as director at Hardie Grant (where he was responsible for...

NZ Book Trade Industry Awards 2018 winners announced

Tuesday, 28 August 2018
The winners of the 2018 New Zealand Book Trade Industry Awards were announced in Auckland on 25 August. The winners in each category are: Bookshop of the Year Volume, Nelson...

Jacobson wins 2018 Thomas Shapcott Prize

Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Poet Anna Jacobson has won the 2018 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize for her manuscript ‘I know I may not escape unscathed’. Jacobson receives $2000 and a publishing contract with University...

New York Public Library initiates ‘Insta Novels’ on Instagram

Monday, 27 August 2018
The New York Public Library (NYPL) has established a program of public-domain literary classics produced as Instagram stories in order to test Instagram users’ interest in long-form reading, reports Publishing...

Gentill, Bailey win 2018 Ned Kelly Awards

Sunday, 26 August 2018
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the winners for this year’s Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing. The Best Crime Novel was presented to Sulari Gentill for...

De Kretser wins 2018 Miles Franklin Literary Award for ‘The Life to Come’

Sunday, 26 August 2018
Michelle de Kretser has won the 2018 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her novel The Life to Come (A&U). The Life to Come is de Kretser’s first novel since Questions of Travel (A&U), which won the...

Jameyson wins 2018 Lady Cutler Award

Friday, 24 August 2018
The School Magazine editor Karen Jameyson has won this year’s Lady Cutler Award, presented by the New South Wales branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) for distinguished service...

US study finds digital media has displaced reading for teens

Friday, 24 August 2018
In the US, the American Psychological Association (APA) has released a report showing that for teens, the time spent online has displaced the time spent engaging with 'legacy media' such...

Harlequin announces commercial fiction fellowship for First Nations writers

Friday, 24 August 2018
Harlequin Australia has partnered with Flinders University and Writers SA to launch a new commercial fiction fellowship for First Nations writers. The fellowship is open to one First Nations writer...

Robinsons launches ‘Colour your world’ campaign with TV advertising

Friday, 24 August 2018
Independent bookselling chain Robinsons Bookshop has this week launched a new campaign called ‘Colour your world’, led by a television commercial airing on Channel 10 in Melbourne. The campaign aims...

Oceanofpdf piracy website returns

Thursday, 23 August 2018
US-hosted ebook piracy website Oceanofpdf, which was recently shut down, has returned under a .net domain, reports the Bookseller. The Bookseller reported on 22 August that the website was offering...

Rae wins 2018 Ashton Wylie Mind Body Spirit Literary Award

Thursday, 23 August 2018
Murray Rae has won the NZ$10,000 (AU$9120) Ashton Wylie Mind Body Spirit Literary Award for his book Architecture and Theology: The Art of Place (Baylor University Press). Rae is an architect...

UQP acquires Mundell’s second novel

Thursday, 23 August 2018
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to The Trespassers, the second novel by Melbourne-based author Meg Mundell. Martin Shaw from Alex Adsett Publishing Services sold rights...

Louisiana mayor wants library’s Drag Queen Story Hour event cancelled

Wednesday, 22 August 2018
In the US state of Louisiana, mayor-president of Lafayette Joel Robideaux has said he wants a Drag Queen Story Hour event planned at the Lafayette Public Library cancelled, reports Louisiana...

East Arnhem Land community library re-organises according to Yolngu culture

Wednesday, 22 August 2018
In Galiwin'ku, a remote community in the Northern Territory, the community library has replaced the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system with a system of organisation based on local Indigenous concepts. It...

UK family halts library closures in high court challenge

Wednesday, 22 August 2018
In the UK, a family has halted plans to close 21 libraries, after winning a high court challenge against Northamptonshire county council, reports the Guardian. The council is technically insolvent...

The secret diary of Shaun Bythell

Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Shaun Bythell owns Scotland’s largest second-hand bookstore The Bookshop, Wigtown and is the author of Diary of a Bookseller (Profile). He will deliver a keynote address at this year’s Booksellers...

Screen rights to ‘The Nowhere Child’ acquired

Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Australian production company Carver Films and US-based production company Anonymous Content have acquired screen rights to Christian White’s debut thriller The Nowhere Child (Affirm). Carver Films is known for producing...

‘Books+Publishing’ book industry employment survey

Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Books+Publishing is conducting research on wages in the Australian book industry for a feature article, which will be published in Issue 4 of Books+Publishing magazine. We last conducted this survey in 2013 and received...

PRH acquires ‘Fixed It’ book by Gilmore

Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired rights to a nonfiction book by Melbourne-based writer, commentator and journalist Jane Gilmore. Titled Fixed It: One Woman's Movement Against the Real Fake...

Chronicle launches Chinese-language children’s books imprint

Wednesday, 22 August 2018
US publisher Chronicle Books has launched an imprint for Chinese-language editions of its children's titles, reports Publishers Weekly. Chronicle Books is partnering with international investment firm Trustbridge Global Media to...