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Forthcoming events 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Book-related events over the coming fortnight include: Reality Bites Literary Festival, Conroy, QLD: 26-29 July National Poetry Day, NZ: 27 July Booksellers NZ Conference, Auckland, NZ: 1-2 August Corrugated Lines: A Festival of...

Samuel replaces Brady as Clunes festival director 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Stephen Samuel has been appointed as the director of the Clunes Booktown festival, replacing Tess Brady who has stepped down from the role after directing the festival since the inaugural...

Bastian leaves Varuna 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Varuna, the Writers’ House, has announced that CEO Lis Bastian has resigned from her position and has finished working for the centre. Acting chair of Varuna’s board of directors Sharryn...

ABS to collect online retail data from 2013 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
The Federal Government has announced that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will begin collecting data on online retail spending by the end of 2013. The government has allocated $2.1...

Penguin acquires self-publishing service Author Solutions 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Pearson has acquired the self-publishing service Author Solutions ‘from Bertram Capital for US$116 million [approximately A$113 million] in cash’, the publisher announced in a statement. The company said that while Author...

Bestsellers this week 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Oxford scholar and reluctant witch Diana Bishop and handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont were drawn together in a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782 and...

‘Knuckled’ wins Mary Gilmore Award 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Knuckled by Fiona Wright (Giramondo) has won this year’s Mary Gilmore Award for poetry. Wright was announced as the winner of this year’s award at the Association for the Study...

Quote of the week 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
'This acquisition will allow Penguin to participate fully in perhaps the fastest-growing area of the publishing economy and gain skills in customer acquisition and data analytics that will be vital...

2011 US books sales value down, volumes up 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
In the US, total book sales fell 2.5% in 2011, to $27.2 billion, according to estimates released Wednesday by BookStats, the annual industry sales survey coordinated by the Association of...

Italian publisher launches DRM-free imprint 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Italian publisher RCS Libri has launched a new digital-first imprint which will publish books free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection, reports the Bookseller. The publisher will release Italian and English...

Bloomsbury acquires visual arts publisher 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
In the UK, Bloomsbury has completed its purchase of creative publisher Applied Visual Arts Publishing (AVA) for close to £1.7 million (A$2.57 million), reports the Bookseller. AVA, which was established...

Commonwealth drops case against David Hicks 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) has dropped its attempt to seize the profits made from former Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks' memoir Guantanamo: My Journey (William Heinemann), concluding...

Keep is finalist in Realise Your Dream Award 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Writer and broadcaster Elmo Keep is a finalist in the Realise Your Dream Award, run by the British Council and designed to promote international creative collaboration. The award is given...

Allen selected for IFLA International Leaders Programme 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has announced that Margaret Allen has been selected as one of the members of the International Federal of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)...

Christchurch library closes due to earthquake risk 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
The Christchurch City Council in New Zealand has closed the South Library and Beckenham Service Centre after receiving the results of an engineering evaluation which concluded that the building which...

Vic govt announces funding for new libraries 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012
The Victorian Government has continued to allocate funds to rebuild and renovate the state’s libraries as part of its Living Libraries Infrastructure Program, worth $17.2 million over four years. Several...

Booksellers NZ Industry Awards finalists announced

Tuesday, 24 July 2012
The finalists for this year’s Booksellers New Zealand Industry Awards have been announced. The finalists in each of the categories are: Regional Bookseller of the Year (North Island) The Children’s...

RiP Margaret Mahy 

Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Margaret Mahy, renowned New Zealand author of books for children and young adults, has died.  Mahy won numerous awards including the New Zealand Order of Merit (1993), Arts Foundation Icon Award...

Pinerolo receives CAL funding for illustrator residencies 

Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Pinerolo, the Children’s book cottage in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, will receive Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL) funding for its four residencies for emerging and established illustrators of children’s books. Four...

Movie double-pass giveaway! 

Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Twenty eight-year-old finance golden boy and billionaire Eric Packer takes a long drive across town in a stretch limousine to get a haircut from his favourite barber. En route, in...

Rights round-up 

Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Sales Fiction—Curtis Brown has sold Burial Rites (Hannah Kent) to Picador in Australia, Picador in the UK and Little, Brown in the US; and foreign-language rights to France, Italy, Holland,...

Charlotte Wood film adaptation receives funding 

Tuesday, 24 July 2012
The film adaptation of Charlotte Wood’s novel The Children (A&U) has received $750,000 funding from ScreenWest. The Children was shortlisted in the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) in 2008. The...

2012 PM’s Literary Awards winners announced

Monday, 23 July 2012
The winners of this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced at a ceremony in Canberra this morning. The winning titles are: Fiction   Foal’s Bread (Gillian Mears, A&U)  ...

2012 PM’s Literary Awards winners announced 

Monday, 23 July 2012
As reported in a Bookseller+Publisher special bulletin, the winners of this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced on 23 July.  The winning titles are: Fiction Foal’s Bread (Gillian Mears,...