Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

News sections >

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Sales Fiction Shaw Literary has sold French rights to Rodney Hall’s 1988 novel Captivity Captive to L’arbre Vengeur. Simon & Schuster has sold Polish rights to The Miracle Typist (Leon...

We Are Wolves (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books) 

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
In We Are Wolves, middle-grade author Katrina Nannestad, creator of the ‘Olive of Groves’ and ‘Girl, the Dog and the Writer’ series, moves confidently into more sombre territory with the...

Affirm acquires middle-grade fantasy series 

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to a four-book middle-grade fantasy series by Samantha-Ellen Bound, via Danielle Binks and Jacinta di Mase of Jacinta di Mase Management. The publisher describes...

Police procedural ‘Flood Debris’ wins 2020 Banjo Prize

Wednesday, 23 September 2020
HarperCollins Australia has named Dinuka McKenzie the winner of the 2020 Banjo Prize for her 'gripping, pacy police procedural' Flood Debris. McKenzie's manuscript was chosen from a shortlist of four announced...

Crispin awarded 2020 Blake Poetry Prize

Tuesday, 22 September 2020
The Blake Poetry Prize 2020 has been awarded to Judith Nangala Crispin for the poem 'On Finding Charlotte in the Anthropological Record'. Crispin, a poet and visual artist of Bpangerang...

‘The White Girl’ optioned for film

Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Tony Birch’s novel The White Girl (UQP) has been optioned for feature film by Typecast Entertainment. Birch's Miles Franklin-shortlisted novel follows Odette Brown, who is raising her granddaughter on her own and...

Page wins 2020 ACU Prize for Poetry

Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Geoff Page has won the $10,000 ACU Prize for Poetry for his poem ‘Jericho’. Fiona Lynch received the $5000 second prize for ‘Footprints’ and Damen O’Brien received the $3000 third...

Read the latest Publishers Weekly 

Monday, 21 September 2020
Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine. View the edition here.

NZ Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize winner announced

Friday, 18 September 2020
Hachette NZ and the Margaret Mahy estate have announced Nelson-based artist Lily Emo as the winner of the 2020 Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize for unpublished illustrators. Unpublished New Zealand artists...

Hardie Grant acquires Alberici memoir 

Thursday, 17 September 2020
Hardie Grant Books has acquired world rights to journalist Emma Alberici’s memoir Rewrite the Story. Interweaving her life as a first generation Australian and her career in journalism with an...

Guineay, Walpert win 2020 Viva La Novella competition

Thursday, 17 September 2020
Seizure has announced the winners of the 2020 Viva la Novella competition. Dark Wave by Adelaide writer Lana Guineay and Late Sonata by Auckland writer Bryan Walpert were chosen from...

Molloy memoir ‘Fourteen’ to be adapted for screen

Thursday, 17 September 2020
Screen rights to journalist Shannon Molloy’s memoir Fourteen (S&S) have been acquired by Orange Entertainment Co. Fourteen is Molloy's account of the homophobic bullying and violence he experienced during high...

NZ Book Industry Awards 2020 winners announced

Thursday, 17 September 2020
The 2020 New Zealand Book Industry Awards have been announced. The winners in each category are: Young NZ Publisher of the Year   Paul Stewart, Mākaro Press and the Cuba Press...

Rights round-up 

Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Sales Nonfiction Murdoch Books has sold world Dutch-language rights to Probiotic Drinks at Home (Felicity Evans); world Korean-language rights to Australian Food (Bill Granger); world Korean-language rights to How to Talk...

Anemone is Not the Enemy (Anna McGregor, Scribble) 

Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Everybody needs a special friend—one they can rely on, one who’s there for them—but Anemone is lonely and finding it very difficult. The problem is he accidentally stings everybody who...

The Fifth Season (Philip Salom, Transit Lounge) 

Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Philip Salom has twice been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin, and The Fifth Season will attract serious readers as a result. But this is not a book for everyone; its...

Avila wins 2020 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize

Wednesday, 16 September 2020
In the UK, Australian writer Jacob P Avila has won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for Best Unpublished Manuscript for his self-published novel Cave Diver. Avila receives a world...

PRH acquires Madden’s ‘Anything But Fine’ 

Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to YA novel Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden. The novel’s teenage protagonist Luca Mason has been preparing to audition for...

Arathimos wins 2020 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award

Tuesday, 15 September 2020
Michalia Arathimos has won the the 2020 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award for her short story collection Apologia (originally titled ‘The Free Box’). Judge Justin Wolfers described the collection as...

S&S acquires biography ‘The Nazis Knew My Name’ 

Tuesday, 15 September 2020
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to The Nazis Knew My Name, Maya Lee's biography of her mother, Australian–Slovakian Auschwitz survivor Magda Hellinger. Lee's book is based on...