First Nations YA to look out for
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
A debut young adult title by Lystra Rose, a descendant of the Guugu Yimithirr, Birri Gubba, Erub and Scottish nations, took out the prestigious $25,000 Indigenous writing prize in the...
Junior and middle-grade fiction offerings
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
In junior fiction on offer at Bologna this year, Hardie Grant Children's Publishing has Monsties: The Lost Bunny (Zanni Louise & Kyla May) featuring Orla, Pearl, Mig, Boo and Oops—five...
Pitching pictures at Bologna
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Experiences in nature fill many of the picture books on offer from Australian publishers at Bologna this year. Thank you rain! (Sally Morgan & Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr, Magabala Books) is...
The fascinating truth: Nonfiction titles on offer at Bologna
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
In nonfiction the 'long-awaited' picture book Your Brain is a Lump of Goo from Idan Ben-Barak (A&U), the award-winning author of Do Not Lick This Book, and Christopher Nielsen. It explores...
Aus publishers’ latest acquisitions
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Among the latest children's and YA acquisitions by Australian publishers: Children's Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has acquired two books by Maxine Beneba Clarke. Releasing in June 2023, It’s the...
Baby boom: The growth of children’s and young adult market
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Children’s and young adult (CYA) titles have been driving the growth of the Australian book market in the past year, with titles like Heartstopper, Bluey and The Bad Guys becoming...
Award winners
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Lystra Rose has won the $25,000 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing for her YA debut novel The Upwelling (Hachette Australia), while We Who Hunt the Hollow (Kate Murray, HGCP)...
Graphic novel researcher: ‘Australian publishers are hungry for titles’
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Sophie Splatt, an editor of books for children and young adults at Allen & Unwin for the past decade, is the Australian Publishers Association's (APA) 2023 Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellow....
Spotlight on Annabel Barker
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
The launch of your own agency was quickly followed by the pandemic; how did that affect what you were pitching and how you were making deals? Like others, I had...
Spotlight on Jess Racklyeft
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Melbourne-based author and illustrator Jess Racklyeft has been awarded a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) International Bologna Scholarship to attend this year’s Bologna book fair. Here she...
Australian creators recommend
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Australian creators tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why. Illustrator and author Jess Racklyeft will attend this year's Bologna Book Fair as the...
Australia is back at Frankfurt, come say hello!
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Australians have spent most of the past two years confined to our home country (and much of that time confined to our homes!), so it is wonderful to report that...
High-profile memoirs, political books, self-help guides: top nonfiction at Frankfurt
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Memoir and biography Look out for Ash Barty’s memoir My Dream Time (HarperCollins), which reflects on Barty’s tennis career, her family, and ‘finding the path to being the best I...
Middle-grade series, queer YA romances: CYA books Aus publishers are pitching
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Picture books Allen & Unwin Children’s (A&U) is pitching a list of exciting new titles from beloved authors, including the picture book Shadow Catchers by award-winning team Kirsty Murray and...
Australian book market overview: 2022 so far
Thursday, 13 October 2022
The Australian book market posted strong results throughout the Covid-affected years of 2020 and 2021, and has continued this growth in 2022, with overall sales for the year to 18...
Get educated: Introducing Australian educational publishers
Thursday, 13 October 2022
As well as a wealth of trade offerings, Australia boasts a healthy educational publishing sector. Attending in person on the Australia stand at Frankfurt this year will be ATF Press...
Fiction acquisitions: spec-fic, debuts, short story collections
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Among recent fiction acquisitions by Australian publishers are literary speculative fiction books, a plethora of debut authors, and more poetry and short story collections. HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights...
Nonfiction acquisitions: memoirs galore
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Among the most recent nonfiction acquisitions by Australian publishers are a plethora of memoir titles, including actor Sam Neill’s memoir Did I Ever Tell You This?, for which Text acquired...
Middle-grade boom: recent Australian CYA acquisitions
Thursday, 13 October 2022
The Australian children’s middle-grade market continues to grow, and recent acquisitions show it won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ, Oceania and non-exclusive Asia...
Down wins Miles Franklin for ‘Bodies of Light’
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Melbourne writer Jennifer Down took out Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award, for her second novel Bodies of Light (Text). The winner was chosen from...
Introducing Bold Type Agency
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Nerrilee Weir, former Penguin Random House Australia senior rights manager and Fiona Henderson, former Simon & Schuster Australia publishing director, have joined forces to create new rights agency Bold Type...
Australian authors recommend
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Australian authors tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why. Michelle Kadarusman is the author of the middle-grade book on animal activism Berani (A&U...
It’s good to be back
Friday, 1 April 2022
After more than two years attending rights fairs virtually, several Australian publishers will be attending the 2022 London Book Fair (LBF) in person next week. 'We’re excited to attend LBF...
Moriarty, Dalton top Australian fiction, nonfiction charts YTD
Friday, 1 April 2022
Trent Dalton, whose 2018 debut Boy Swallows Universe remains in the top 10 Australian fiction bestsellers over three years after its publication, is at the top of Australian nonfiction charts...
Bios, how-tos, hybrid memoirs: recent nonfiction acquisitions in Aus
Friday, 1 April 2022
A biography of Australian surfer Owen Wright (world rights acquired by S&S Australia) tells the story of the surfer’s recovery after a serious brain injury ahead of the Pipeline Masters...
Koalas, climate and real-life ‘Succession’: Australian nonfiction offerings at LBF
Friday, 1 April 2022
Of all the titles being pitched at LBF, perhap the most instantly recognisable as Australian is forthcoming nonfiction title Koala by biologist Danielle Clode (Black Inc., September), which promises ‘an...
Australian book market overview 2021
Friday, 1 April 2022
After a pandemic-fuelled record year in 2020—during which sales of books in Australia grew 7.8% to A$1.25 billion (unit sales for the year were 67 million) according to Nielsen BookScan—in 2021,...
Fiction acquisitions: debuts, familiar names and plenty of two-book deals
Friday, 1 April 2022
Among recent acquisitions are a spate of two-book deals. MacLehose Press, an imprint of Hachette-owned UK publisher Quercus, has acquired world rights to two new novels by Australian author Peter...
Australian authors recommend
Friday, 1 April 2022
Australian authors tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why. Hayley Scrivenor is the author of forthcoming crime novel Dirt Town (Macmillan, May). ‘I...
Aus crime wave continues: the fiction publishers are pitching at LBF
Friday, 1 April 2022
Australian publishing continues to ride a literary crime wave, with several local publishers bringing crime offerings to London. ‘We are delighted to share Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has...
