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Booktopia administrators identify $60 million in debt

Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Keith Crawford, of Booktopia administrators McGrathNicol, has told the ABC the company had identified debts of $60 million held by the online bookseller, following the first meeting of creditors on 15 July. Crawford...

‘Big Time’ sells to UK, Italy and Russia

Wednesday, 17 July 2024
University of Queensland Press (UQP) has sold UK/Commonwealth (ex ANZ) rights to Jordan Prosser’s debut novel, Big Time, to publishing director Harriet Hirshman at Dead Ink, in a deal brokered...

Thames & Hudson to move distribution to UBD

Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Thames & Hudson (T&H) ANZ has announced it will move its Australia and New Zealand distribution from Alliance Distribution Services (ADS) to United Book Distributors (UBD) in February 2025. T&H...

Red Paper Kite for sale

Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Perth-based independent press Red Paper Kite is up for sale. Founder and publisher Sandra van Doorn told Books+Publishing the press is ‘on the cusp of a greater success’ but ‘demands a...

Meet the Rising Stars: Katherine Rajwar

Wednesday, 17 July 2024
The Australian Publishers Association Rising Star award recognises an emerging talent in Australian publishing who has spent less than 10 years in the industry. In the lead-up to the winner announcement...

Christopher Cheng recommends

Tuesday, 16 July 2024
I adored Emma Quay’s Happy All Over. It’s full of joy and light and happiness. The text consists of short, simple statements. These expressions of joy for a child arise from...

Christopher Cheng on ‘Dragon Folding’

Tuesday, 16 July 2024
Christopher Cheng is a Sydney-based, award-winning children's author of over 40 fiction and nonfiction titles. His latest picture book, Dragon Folding (illus Lucia Masciullo, Puffin, September 2024), shows readers 'how...

Independent Alliance records best-ever first half

Tuesday, 16 July 2024
In the UK, the Independent Alliance (IA) sales collective has, for the first time, placed above one of the ‘big four’ publishers for sales for the year to date, reports...

Melbourne Books acquires O’Connor’s ‘Bob Dylan for Beginners’

Tuesday, 16 July 2024
Melbourne Books has acquired world rights to Chris O’Connor’s debut nonfiction music title, Bob Dylan for Beginners: You don’t need a weatherman. The publisher said Dylan has been hailed as...

Booktopia orders not being filled ahead of first meeting with creditors

Monday, 15 July 2024
The Booktopia website is not taking orders, and customers with outstanding orders will need to make a claim of debt against the company. In a circular to customers with unfulfilled...

Magabala announces new chair, board changes

Monday, 15 July 2024
Magabala Books has announced its 2024 board, with current deputy chair Steve Kinnane stepping into the role of chair, as well as three new directors joining the board. Kinnane’s new...

S&S in distribution partnership with Authors Equity

Monday, 15 July 2024
US publishing company Authors Equity has partnered with Simon & Schuster (S&S) Australia for sales and distribution of its titles in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. As previously reported by...

Buchanan wins 2024 Michael Gifkins Prize

Monday, 15 July 2024
Author Jeffrey Buchanan is the winner of the 2024 Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished manuscript by an Aotearoa New Zealand writer. Chosen from a shortlist of four, Buchanan wins...

UK market down in 2024 without ‘Spare’

Monday, 15 July 2024
In the UK, book sales are down 1% on the first half of 2023, according to Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market data, a drop that can be attributed to the...

Hogan wins Mary Gilmore Award, Priest wins Magarey Medal

Thursday, 11 July 2024
The Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) has announced that Dan Hogan is the winner of the 2024 Mary Gilmore Award and Ann-Marie Priest is the winner of...

Australian Jewish Book Awards adds unpublished manuscript prize

Thursday, 11 July 2024
Not-for-profit organisation Shalom Australia has announced the inaugural Australian Jewish Book Awards will include a new $4000 prize for an unpublished manuscript that engages with Jewish experience. The Award for...

UQP acquires Araluen poetry collection

Thursday, 11 July 2024
UQP has acquired world rights to a new poetry collection from Evelyn Araluen, author of the Stella Prize–winning Dropbear (also UQP). Araluen’s new collection, The Rot, ‘dramatises the bad faiths...

RBmedia to acquire Dreamscape Media

Thursday, 11 July 2024
In the US, audiobook publisher RBmedia has agreed to acquire independent audiobook publisher Dreamscape Media, reports Publishers Weekly (PW). In a statement, RBmedia CEO Michael Paull said Dreamscape would become...

ACT Literary Awards 2024 winners announced

Thursday, 11 July 2024
The winners of the ACT Literary Awards, previously known as the ACT Notable Book Awards and presented by the Canberra writing organisation Marion, have been announced. The 2024 winners are:...

Lanchester to step down from ASA

Thursday, 11 July 2024
Australian Society of Authors (ASA) CEO Olivia Lanchester will be stepping down after five years in the role. Lanchester was appointed CEO in 2019 after four years working as the...

Hachette acquires Woodard YA debut

Thursday, 11 July 2024
Hachette has acquired world rights to Scott Woodard’s debut contemporary YA novel, Poster Boys, via Danielle Binks at Jacinta di Mase Management. Poster Boys is a coming of age story...

Foot traffic up at Barnes & Noble

Wednesday, 10 July 2024
In the US, location analytics company Placer.ai has reported that, between November 2023 and May 2024, foot traffic to Barnes & Noble (B&N) stores has increased every month except January,...

Birch, Lucashenko inaugural Hage Award mentors

Wednesday, 10 July 2024
Sweatshop Literacy Movement has announced multi-award-winning authors Tony Birch and Melissa Lucashenko will mentor the recipients of the inaugural Hage Award for First Nations Writers. As previously reported by Books+Publishing,...

National Biography Award 2024 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 10 July 2024
The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced the shortlist for the $25,000 National Biography Award. The shortlisted works, selected from a record 107 entries and including five...

Tinsel time: Christmas 2024 biographies and memoirs

Wednesday, 10 July 2024
From a soccer superstar to familiar faces in children's entertainment, and an equally wide range of non-celebrity (but far from ordinary) stories, Books+Publishing rounds up the local adult biography and...

Robbie Egan: ‘A centralised ecommerce platform … would be transformative’

Wednesday, 10 July 2024
Robbie Egan is CEO of BookPeople, the Australian Booksellers Association. Here, he argues that the mainstream media’s 'gloom and doom' narrative following Booktopia’s entry into voluntary administration has been 'quarantined...