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Hitchcock wins inaugural writingWA fiction award 

Friday, 4 October 2013
Miles Hitchcock has won the inaugural Curtin University Prize for Fiction, administered by writingWA. Hitchcock, who lives in the Western Australian town of Barragup, near Mandurah, won the award for...

Bloomsbury launches self-publishing comparison service 

Thursday, 3 October 2013
In the UK, Bloomsbury’s online writers’ resource Writers & Artists has launched selfpubcompare.com, a free self-publishing provider comparison website. Writers can complete a questionnaire on the website to find self-publishing providers that offer services most...

Scribd launches ebook subscription service 

Thursday, 3 October 2013
In the US, document-sharing and ebook sales platform Scribd is launching an ebook subscription service that offers unlimited ebooks for US$8.99 (A$9.60) a month, reports DigitalBookWorld. HarperCollins has partnered with...

Jingle balls 

Thursday, 3 October 2013
One of the biggest books of the season is Ricky Ponting’s Ponting: At the Close of Play. Published by HarperSport in November, the book coincides with Ponting’s retirement from all...

Goldsmiths Prize 2013 shortlist announced 

Wednesday, 2 October 2013
In the UK, the shortlist for the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize has been announced. The shortlisted titles are Harvest (Jim Crace, Picador), Red or Dead (David Peace, Faber), Exodus (Lars Iyer,...

Quote of the week 

Wednesday, 2 October 2013
‘It’s a cornucopia of riches’—Dymocks buying manager Sophie Higgins reflects on publishers’ Christmas releases in an article in the Age. Higgins, Readings’ Mark Rubbo and Booktopia’s John Purcell offer their...

In brief 

Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Public Libraries of SA launches Dads Read campaign Public Libraries of South Australia has launched the ‘Dads Read’ campaign, an early childhood literacy initiative developed by the State Library of...

International library news 

Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Penguin US ebooks available to libraries through OverDrive again Libraries in the US can now access Penguin ebooks through OverDrive, more than 18 months after the publisher announced that it...

Dymocks Kids’ Top 51 list announced 

Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Dymocks has revealed its Kids’ Top 51 list for 2013. The top 10 books on the list are: Tomorrow, When the War Began (John Marsden, Pan) The ‘Harry Potter’ series...

Booktopia launches new Bond book ‘Solo’ 

Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Booktopia has participated in a global launch campaign for the new James Bond book Solo (Jonathan Cape), receiving the only Australian copy—and one of seven copies worldwide—signed and stamped by...

Samuel Johnson Prize 2013 shortlist announced 

Tuesday, 1 October 2013
In the UK, the shortlist for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction has been announced. The six shortlisted titles are: Empires of the Dead (David Crane, William Collins), The Return...

On tour: Meet the author John Connolly 

Tuesday, 1 October 2013
John Connolly is visiting Australia in October. Conquest: The Chronicle of the Invaders (Headline) is the first book in a new YA science-fiction series, co-written with Connolly’s partner Jennifer Ridyard....

APA launches Frankfurt Book Fair app 

Tuesday, 1 October 2013
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has launched an app for this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. The Australia@FBF app, which was created by the APA’s IT administrator Margaret Sarlej, is available...

Currie leaves Avid Reader 

Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Chris Currie has left his role as buyer at Brisbane’s Avid Reader to live in Germany for a year, where he will research and write a novel. Currie said he...

RiP Marjorie Bligh 

Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Author Marjorie Bligh has died, aged 96. Text Publishing editor David Winter writes: ‘Bligh was a homemaker extraordinaire and an inspiration to Dame Edna Everage. Her fans included Kaz Cooke,...

Bestsellers this week 

Monday, 30 September 2013
Jamie Oliver’s Save with Jamie (Michael Joseph) and Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s The 39-Storey Treehouse (Pan) are in first and second place, respectively, on the bestsellers chart for the second...

Walker Books to launch media imprint 

Monday, 30 September 2013
In the UK, Walker Books is set to launch a media imprint, reports the Bookseller. The imprint, which launches in 2014, will be called Walker Entertainment in the UK and...

Pages & Pages’ Kindle amnesty update 

Monday, 30 September 2013
In April this year, Pages & Pages Booksellers in Mosman, Sydney, introduced a ‘Kindle amnesty’, asking customers to trade in Amazon Kindles for the store’s BeBook ereaders and raising consumer awareness of...

Online bookseller Wordery launches 

Monday, 30 September 2013
Online bookseller Wordery, a partnership between book wholesaler Bertrams and former Book Depository IT director Will Jones, has launched its direct-to-consumer website, reports the Bookseller. Wordery has been trading as...

Hachette Australia announces restructure, staff changes 

Monday, 30 September 2013
Hachette Australia has announced a restructure of its business to form a ‘single retailer-facing sales and product division and a single consumer-facing marketing and publicity division’. Hachette Australia chief executive officer...