Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
With Father's Day only a month away, several blokey titles have crept into this week's bestseller charts. The blokiest of them all is Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book...

RiP Nigel Cox 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
New Zealand writer Nigel Cox died on Friday 28 July.Victoria University Press writes: One of New Zealand's best writers, Nigel was recognised at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards on...

RiP David Gemmell 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
UK fantasy writer David Gemmell died on Friday 28 July, two weeks after undergoing heart bypass surgery, according to his publisher Random House. Gemmell was a prolific writer whose works...

MWF program released 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The official program of the Age Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has been released, appearing online and as a supplement in the Age newspaper on 29 July. The Festival’s traditional opening...

BWF program announcements 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
In the lead up to the release of the official festival program in the Australian newspaper on 5 August, the Brisbane Writers Festival has released details of what attendees can...

Bookwise won’t become Bluefin 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Advanced Marketing Services (AMS), parent company of Bookwise International in Australia and New Zealand, has launched a new division, Bluefin Global Logistics, to provide ‘third-party logistics' services to clients in...

Aussie wins second romance award 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Australian romance author Marion Lennox has won her second Rita award, with Romance Writers of America members voting her novel Princess of Convenience (Harlequin Mills & Boon) the best traditional...

Random acquisition causes job loss at BBC Worldwide 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Following the announcement from Random House Australia that it will now represent BBC Books in Australia as part of the Random House Group portfolio, BBC Worldwide confirmed that it would...

NZ: New board of Booksellers elected 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The 2006/07 board of Booksellers New Zealand was elected at the board's annual general meeting, held at the New Zealand Booksellers Conference in Auckland on 23 July 2006. The directors...

Industry awards 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
As announced in a WBN special bulletin last Friday, last week saw the presentation of both the inaugural Australian Book Industry Academy (ABIA) awards and the Australian Awards for Excellence...

Books Alive, alive! 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The ABIA awards dinner last week also saw the official launch of the 2006 Books Alive campaign by Senator Rod Kemp, the Minister for Arts and Sport.The distribution of 2.5...

APA objects to A-G’s book censorship plans 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Australian Publishers Association (APA) CEO Maree McCaskill has written to Attorney-general Philip Ruddock and to all state attorneys-general expressing ‘grave concern' about plans to tighten regulations governing the Classification Review...

Canadians seek Aussie publisher 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The Canadian Consulate General, in conjunction with the Australia Council (OzCo), is funding the pilot of an Australian/Canadian publisher exchange as an extension of OzCo's successful Visiting International Publisher program.The...

Retail Technology Expo to showcase RFID 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The 2006 Retail Technology Expo, to be held in Melbourne in September, will showcase radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.Visitors to the expo will be given electronic name badges incorporating RFID...

Maguire’s ‘Beast’ on Dylan Thomas Prize longlist 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Emily Maguire's debut novel Taming the Beast (Brandl & Schlesinger) has been included on the longlist for the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize.Named in honour of the Welsh poet, the £60,000 (A$140,000)...

DOI updates 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
The International Digital Object Identifier Foundation, which manages the worldwide Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registry, has announced a number of fresh milestones.A DOI is a unique identifier (similar to an...

Booksurge Australia closes, but welcome BookPOD 

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
Print-on-demand (PoD) company BookSurge Australia has now ceased trading, but its former business development manager Michael Blair has established a new business called BookPOD.‘BookPOD will provide digital short-run printing and...

Media Extra: What’s hot 

Sunday, 30 July 2006
Well, the Australian cricket season may still be a way off but interested readers have plenty of 'cricklit' to tide them over till summer. Actor William McInnes features on our...

Meet the literary editors: Peter Rose 

Sunday, 30 July 2006
In the latest of a series of interviews with the literary editors of Australia's major book media conducted for MX by Alae Taule'alo, we meet Peter Rose, editor of the...

Prize night 

Thursday, 27 July 2006
The Australian publishing industry held its annual awards night in Sydney on Wednesday night, the debut of the Australian Book Industry Academy (ABIA) as the peak body for judging the...

2006 education awards 

Thursday, 27 July 2006
The 2006 Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing were presented at a lunch held at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse on Thursday.The overall winner of the award--this year's outstanding educational book--is...

Books Alive kicks off! 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
The 2006 Books Alive campaign kicked off in bookshops and libraries around Australia on Wednesday 26 July and was officially launched in Sydney at the ABIA dinner by the Minister for the...

Peter Field new chief executive Penguin UK 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
Peter Field, chief executive of Pearson Australia Group, has been appointed to the position of chief executive of Penguin UK. Field, who has been with Pearson and Penguin in Australia...

Bestsellers this week 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
This week's top 10 bestsellers look an awful lot like last week's: same titles, different order. But it won't be long before Pirateology breaks through--surely. Hovering at number 11, the latest title in the popular...

Around the world: round-up 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
In news from overseas this week Waterstone's parent company HMV confirms Simon Fox as its new CEO, Amazon moves into the world of online infotainment and rumours abound that Apple...

Airmail changes anger booksellers 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
Australia Post's decision to scrap its international economy air service, effective 4 September, has surprised and angered booksellers. ‘There was no warning, and absolutely no consultation,' Barbara Cullen, chief executive of the Australian...

J C Burke wins Family Therapists’ Award 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
J C Burke has been awarded the annual Australian Family Therapists' Award for Children's Literature for The Story of Tom Brennan (Random House). Mother's Day by Anne Brooksbank (Puffin Books)...

A simultaneous ‘Good Night’ 

Tuesday, 25 July 2006
Good Night, Me by Andrew Daddo, with illustrations by Emma Quay (Hachette) has been chosen as the book for this year's National Simultaneous Storytime. National Simultaneous Storytime is organised by...