Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Candida Baker has replaced Jeni Caffin as Director of the Northern Rivers Writers' Centre and the Byron Bay Writers' Festival. Caffin, who programmed the Byron Bay Writers' Festival for the...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Lisa Lang's Utopian Man (A&U) received the most mentions this week. Set in 1880s Melbourne, before the Depression of the 1890s, it features eccentric entrepreneur Edward William Cole owner of...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
The winners of the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were announced last night at a presentation dinner at Zinc in Federation Square, Melbourne. Traditionally held at the close of the Melbourne Writers Festival,...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Osmond on exchange to Random House UKRandom House Australia marketing and publicity director and head of digital Brett Osmond is on a three-month secondment to Random House UK. ‘I'm here as...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
The Australian Booksellers Association writes: ‘Harry was involved in bookshops and books for a majority of his life and was a very talented gentleman.‘A man who was involved in book illustration...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
In rights news this week: SalesChildren's--Scholastic has sold Portuguese rights within Portugal to Gabrielle Lord's 12 book ‘Conspiracy 365' and Chinese complex character rights to I Love My Mum, I...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Ingram has announced it will establish ‘a full-scale Lightning Source print-on-demand book manufacturing operation in Australia'. A company spokesperson told the Weekly Book Newsletter that the exact location of the...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Anita Heiss has won the 2010 Deadly award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature for her novel Manhattan Dreaming (Random House). Heiss told the Weekly Book Newsletter that, unlike major literary...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
There has been no movement at the top of the bestsellers chart this week, with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Steig...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
New Zealand's Ministry of Education has announced that it will cease production of its TUPU series of Pacific Island materials from December this year. Education Minister Anne Tolley has said...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
The Australian Financial Review reported last week that copyright laws in Australia will be reviewed in the near future. The AFR reported that the federal government is set to ask...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
On Fancy Goods this week, Deborah Crabtree reviews Paul Kelly's How to Make Gravy (Hamish Hamilton), Charlotte Harper rounds up the discussion at the recent Sony forum on ebooks and...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Kaye Keck, director of the Dromkeen Gallery, died this month. She was 64 years of age. Keck's brother John Oldmeadow writes:‘Kaye Keck absorbed so much about the book trade almost...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
The winners of the 2010 Whitley Awards were announced in a ceremony at the Australia Museum last week.The Whitley Medal was awarded to George Hangay and Paul Zborowski for A Guide...

Tuesday, 28 September 2010
'From a consumer's point of view, you cannot go to an independent bookshop's website and buy an ebook, because they don't have them in stock--regardless of how tooled up you...

Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Among the many international booktrade stories added to our Around the World blog in the past week:US ebook sales jump another 250% in JulyUS bookstore sales continue to fall Hachette...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
If you've got news you think would be of interest to Weekly Book Newsletter readers, let us know by emailing bookseller.publisher@thorpe.com.au

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
John Singleton, owner of the advertising agency Banjo, and Kevin Weldon, founder of the Macquarie Dictionary, have announced they will launch a new publishing house, Australia's Heritage Publishing, on Australia...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Australia-based ebook software company DNAML has announced it will auction its domain name www.ebook.com. The company, which said it had provided ‘over 4.7 million ebook downloads over the past year...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced it is developing a digital edition of the magazine to be released in 2011, in celebration of the magazine's 50th birthday. Deputy editor...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Wiley Australia has announced that managing director Heather Linaker will be leaving the role at the end of November. ‘Heather assumed this role in September 2008 during a period when...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
‘The frustration felt by authors not being able to access the ebooks they want to read is the same frustration felt by readers and booksellers when confronted by some of...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
In New Zealand, journalist and publisher Dame Christine Cole Catley and journalist and author Steve Braunias have each been presented with a CLL Writers' Award by Copyright Licensing Ltd (CLL)....

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Morris Gleitzman has been shortlisted for the Guardian children's fiction prize for the second year in a row. Gleitzman's novel Then was shortlisted in 2009; his follow-up and the third...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Borders cuts Kobo priceBorders Australia has announced it has dropped the price of its Kobo eReader to $179, down from $199. Harris tour cancelledHachette Australia has confirmed that ‘Sookie Stackhouse'...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Allen and Unwin has announced that executive director Paul Donovan will step down from his full-time role at the end of February 2011. Donovan, who joined the company from the Hill...

Tuesday, 21 September 2010
In rights news this week: SalesFiction--UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, Australia and New Zealand, to Blossoms and Shadows (Lian Hearn, Hachette) have been sold to Quercus via agent Sarah...