Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

News >

RiP Claire Kearney 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Claire Kearney, long-time Melbourne bookseller, has died aged 79. Paul Donovan, Allen & Unwin, writes: ‘Claire Kearney, for so long the doyen of The Hill of Content Bookshop at 86...

Vale Maeve Binchy 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Maeve Binchy, bestselling Irish author who sold more than 40 million books worldwide and received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Book Awards in 2000, has died aged 72....

RiP Gore Vidal 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Gore Vidal, US author who wrote 25 novels, including historical works such as Lincoln and Burr, has died aged 86. Vidal's essays on politics, sexuality, religion and literature earned him...

RiP Robert Hughes 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Robert Hughes, Australian-born author and art critic, has died in New York aged 74. Hughes’ works include The Fatal Shore, a study of the settlement of Australia; Things I Didn't Know, a...

Rights round-up 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Sales Fiction—Fremantle Press has sold German rights to Hal Spacejock and Hal Spacejock: Second Course (Simon Haynes); and Romanian rights in Edge of the World (Marcella Polain). Nonfiction—Black Inc. has sold Chinese-simplified translation...

Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
A rare strain of magic is spreading across the land, ‘infecting’ normal people and giving them wild and unstable powers. In Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked by touring Irish author Derek...

Changes to Booksellers NZ board 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Booksellers New Zealand chairman Hamish Wright has been re-elected to the Booksellers NZ board as a director. Wright commences a two-year term as director, having completed four years as chair....

Public libraries expenditure up 26% over five years 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Total expenditure on public libraries in Australia has grown by 26% since 2006, according to the 2010-2011 Australian Public Library Statistical Report, released last month. According to the report, which...

LIANZA Children’s Book Awards 2012 winners announced

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
The winners of the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Children’s Book Awards for 2012 were announced in Wellington, New Zealand, on 6 July. The winners, chosen from...

Szekely wins at LIANZA awards 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Chris Szekely, chief librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, won two awards at the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Children’s Book Awards, held in Wellington on...

Age Book of the Year 2012 shortlists announced

Saturday, 4 August 2012
The shortlists for this year's Age Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each of the categories are: Nonfiction 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the...

On tour: Meet the author John Boyne 

Friday, 3 August 2012
Irish author John Boyne is best known for his children’s novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, but he has also written a number of adult novels. His latest is...

NZ book industry awards winners announced

Friday, 3 August 2012
The winners of the Booksellers New Zealand Industry Awards, sponsored by Thorpe-Bowker, were announced on 2 August during the 2012 Booksellers New Zealand Conference in Auckland. Unity Books in Wellington...

Pearson to rebrand Borders online as Bookworld

Thursday, 2 August 2012
Pearson Australia Group will rebrand the former REDgroup Retail-owned Borders online business as Bookworld this month. In a statement on the Borders.com.au website, Pearson said that the current Borders.com.au website...

Ned Kelly 2012 shortlist announced

Wednesday, 1 August 2012
The shortlist for this year’s Ned Kelly Awards for crime writing has been announced. The titles shortlisted in the full-length book categories are: True crime Cold Case File (Liz Porter,...

Google seeks to close ebooks case 

Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Google has asked a US court to end the lawsuit over the massive book-scanning project, saying the scanned works are ‘not a substitute’ for books themselves. The internet giant argued...

Authors Guild and HathiTrust submit final briefs 

Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Attorneys for both parties in the Authors Guild vs HathiTrust case questioned whether the mass-digitisation project was ‘fair use’ in their final briefs on motions for summary judgment. Since no...

McDonald joins OverDrive 

Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Andrew McDonald will leave the position of online manager at Readings and join OverDrive Australia as business development consultant at the start of September.  McDonald told Bookseller+Publisher that he will...

Australia Post partners with new online shopping service 

Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Australia Post has confirmed to Bookseller+Publisher that it is the logistics partner for the new local outlet for international shopping service Tarazz. As reported by the Age this week, Tarazz.com.au...

Quote of the week 

Wednesday, 1 August 2012
‘It is not clear that prices paid by Australians for ebooks are consistently higher than prices paid by people in other countries, particularly once Australia’s GST of ten percent is...

Interview with Amy Espeseth on ‘Sufficient Grace’ (Scribe) 

Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Amy Espeseth's novel Sufficient Grace (Scribe, September) is a story of lost innocence and the unfailing bond between two young women. Read the review here. Espeseth spoke to reviewer Rita Yazdani. Reading Sufficient Grace, I kept...

‘Boomerang Bride’ wins US RITA award 

Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Australian author Fiona Lowe is one of the winners at this year’s Romance Writers of America (RWA) RITA awards. Lowe’s novel Boomerang Bride (Mira) won the award for Contemporary Single...

Booktopia wins Telstra NSW people’s choice award

Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Online Australian bookseller Booktopia has won the People’s Choice Award at this year’s Telstra NSW Business Awards. The award, which is open to all entrants in the 2012 awards, was...

Burwood Book Exchange to close in September 

Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Sydney’s Burwood Book Exchange, which first opened in 1986, will close on 8 September. The bookstore, which specialises in secondhand romance titles as well as special orders for new titles,...