Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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Meet Scholastic Australia rights manager Claire Pretyman 

Claire Pretyman Wednesday, 17 February 2021
As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Scholastic Australia rights manager Claire Pretyman. How...

Christmas 2020: ‘Brilliant’ according to publishers 

Tuesday, 16 February 2021
Despite heading into Christmas with a high degree of confidence after a year of strong lockdown-boosted sales, most Australian publishers surveyed were nonetheless pleasantly surprised to find Christmas sales even...

‘Bridgerton’ tops fastest movers chart 

Monday, 15 February 2021
The Dry is back at number one on the Australian bestsellers chart this week, relegating last week's number one, The Fast 800 Easy, to third spot. Meanwhile, two new thrillers have...

Christmas 2020: Strong sales across all categories 

Monday, 15 February 2021
Most booksellers surveyed by Books+Publishing were pleased to report that sales were spread across all sections of their shops, with this reflected in the most mentioned titles spanning a diverse range...

Christmas 2020 survey results: ‘Best Christmas ever’ 

Friday, 12 February 2021
Books+Publishing received feedback from representatives of over 60 bookshops around Australia for its annual Christmas survey. Christmas 2020 was a bumper one for many Australian booksellers, with nearly every shop...

Au wins inaugural Novel Prize

Thursday, 11 February 2021
Melbourne-based writer Jessica Au has won the inaugural Novel Prize for her work Cold Enough for Snow. Au, whose novel was selected from an international field of almost 1500 submissions and...

The Prison Healer (Lynette Noni, Penguin) 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Lynette Noni, the winner of the 2019 Gold Inky for her dystopian sci-fi novel Whisper, returns to fantasy with The Prison Healer. Kiva’s daily life as prisoner and prison healer...

‘Sorrow and Bliss’ to be adapted for screen 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
US production company New Regency has acquired the film and television rights to Meg Mason’s 2020 novel Sorrow and Bliss in a deal brokered by Casarotto Ramsay and HarperCollins Australia....

Tussaud (Belinda Lyons-Lee, Transit Lounge) 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
Madame Tussaud is synonymous with wax figures of the famous and infamous and also with the uncanny-valley discomfort that such figures evoke. This book takes the documented strange life of...

Huda and Me (H Hayek, A&U) 

Wednesday, 10 February 2021
When their parents make a sudden trip back to their home country of Lebanon, Huda and Akeal find themselves left with their fellow siblings under the care of a family...

Giggs wins ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal

Tuesday, 9 February 2021
In the US, Australian writer Rebecca Giggs has won the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction for Fathoms: The world in the whale (Scribe). The Andrew Carnegie...

Cookbooks top all three charts 

Monday, 8 February 2021
Cookbooks are dominating the charts this week, with The Fast 800 Easy, this week's fastest selling title, back at number one in the overall top 10, and Air Fryer Express...

S&S acquires Lyons cookbook 

Friday, 29 January 2021
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to a book by Nathan Lyons, ‘the Australian TikTok sensation behind Kooking With A Koori’. Lyons, a Wiradjuri man, is a...

Return to Uluru (Mark McKenna, Black Inc.) 

Thursday, 28 January 2021
‘Perspective is everything,’ writes historian Mark McKenna in Return to Uluru, his mesmeric history–true crime hybrid. When starting the book, McKenna expected to tell an expansive history of central Australia,...

The Believer (Sarah Krasnostein, Text) 

Thursday, 28 January 2021
The people who populate The Believer are remarkably different from one another. There are, among others, a convicted murderer, a ‘death doula’, paranormal investigators, and Christian researchers who have dedicated...

Rajah Street (Myo Yim, Walker Books) 

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
In this sunny picture book, three-year-old Junya watches the world outside his window as he waits hopefully for the arrival of one of his most favourite things ever: the garbage...

Hold Your Fire (Chloe Wilson, Scribner)

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Hold Your Fire is the incisive and darkly funny fiction debut by Melbourne poet Chloe Wilson, author of Not Fox Nor Axe and The Mermaid Problem. The 17 stories in...

Waking Romeo (Kathryn Barker, A&U) 

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Waking Romeo is a stunning reimagining of the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet—meets Wuthering Heights, meets epic time-travelling extravaganza. The main story revolves around Juliet and a group of...

Meet Pantera Press rights manager Katy McEwen 

Wednesday, 20 January 2021
As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Pantera Press rights manager Katy McEwen. How...

‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’ cracks 100k 

Monday, 18 January 2021
In a bestsellers milestone this week, Affirm Press reports Pip Williams's novel The Dictionary of Lost Words has reached sales of over 100,000 copies across its two formats in the...

The Gaps (Leanne Hall, Text) 

Wednesday, 13 January 2021
The fourth novel by 2009 Text Prize winner Leanne Hall is simultaneously harrowing and enchanting. The Gaps begins as abruptly as a slap, with a newscast declaring schoolgirl Yin Mitchell...

‘The Dry’ becomes first number one of 2021 

Monday, 11 January 2021
After six weeks at number one on the bestseller chart and being named the top Australian Christmas bestseller for 2020 by Nielsen, Barack Obama's A Promised Land has slipped down to...

Nat’s What I Reckon debuts at number four 

Monday, 14 December 2020
For the third week running, Barack Obama's A Promised Land is at number one on the Australian bestsellers chart, while new to the top 10 is YouTube personality Nat's What I...

‘A Promised Land’ spends second week at number one 

Monday, 7 December 2020
Barack Obama's memoir A Promised Land is spending its second week at the top of the Australian bestsellers chart after debuting at number one last week, while last week's number two The Storm...

Footprints on the Moon (Lorraine Marwood, UQP) 

Wednesday, 2 December 2020
It’s 1969 and Sharnie is entering year seven and finding it difficult to make friends. The world is consumed by the Space Race and the Vietnam War, and Sharnie is...

‘A Promised Land’ debuts at number one 

Monday, 30 November 2020
Barack Obama's highly anticipated memoir A Promised Land has debuted at number one on the Australian bestsellers chart, after selling over 887,000 copies in the US on its first day. Obama's book...

The Boy From the Mish (Gary Lonesborough, A&U) 

Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Jackson is an Aboriginal teen who lives with his mum and little brother; he has a girlfriend, good mates and the local men’s group. Then his aunty from the city...