Text acquires four additional Text Prize-shortlisted books
26 June 2020
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to four manuscripts that were shortlisted for the 2020 Text Prize, in addition to the winner, middle-grade novel Rainfish (Andrew Paterson). From the shortlist...
Wakefield acquires Haghdoosti’s debut YA novel ‘Sunburnt Veils’
26 June 2020
Wakefield Press has acquired ANZ and UK rights to Sara Haghdoosti's debut YA novel Sunburnt Veils. Sunburnt Veils is a character-based exploration of Islamophobia through a heroine who’s the kind...
Hardie Grant acquires Ablett autobiography
24 June 2020
Hardie Grant Books has acquired world rights to AFL player Gary Ablett Jr’s autobiography. The fully illustrated book will include guest chapters from his father Gary Ablett Sr, Geelong captain...
Fremantle Press acquires ‘Unlimited Futures’ anthology
22 June 2020
Fremantle Press will publish a new anthology, Unlimited Futures: Speculative, Visionary Blak+Black Fiction, to provide ‘the chance for established and emerging First Nations writers and Black writers to share the...
Hachette acquires Lau’s ‘Gunk Baby’
18 June 2020
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to the novel Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau. Hachette head of literary Robert Watkins said he is excited to be publishing the novel,...
Billie B Brown optioned for TV
17 June 2020
Fremantle and development partner 720 Creative have acquired screen rights to the children’s book character Billie B Brown, from the junior fiction series written by Sally Rippin, illustrated by Aki...
Rights round-up
11 June 2020
Acquisitions Fiction Sally Bird at Calidris Literary Agency has sold world rights to Elodie Cheesman’s debut novel to Pan Macmillan. Lyn Tranter at Australian Literary Management has sold world rights...
Perlman’s ‘Maybe the Horse Will Talk’ to be adapted for US TV
10 June 2020
Paramount Television Studios in the US has optioned Australian author Elliot Perlman’s novel Maybe the Horse Will Talk (Vintage) for adaptation into a TV series, with Perlman to adapt and...
UQP acquires debut essay collection by Nyuon
9 June 2020
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired a collection of essays on identity by South Sudanese–Australian lawyer, community advocate, writer and public speaker Nyadol Nyuon. Nyuon is a lawyer...
S&S acquires Pickett life story ‘Belief’
5 June 2020
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired Belief, the life story of Richmond Tigers player Marlion Pickett from the Jane Novak Literary Agency via Pickett’s agent, Anthony Van Der Wielen...
S&S acquires two books by Kailas Wild
3 June 2020
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired illustrated book The 99th Koala and an as yet untitled memoir by Kailas Wild, the climbing arborist who received widespread attention for his...
Fedler novel ‘Things Without a Name’ optioned for screen
29 May 2020
Film and TV rights to Sydney author Joanne Fedler's novel Things Without A Name (Joanne Fedler Media) have been optioned by Bunya Productions, producers of the ABC series Mystery Road....
MidnightSun acquires Gold’s debut novel ‘The Breaking’
28 May 2020
MidnightSun Publishing has acquired debut novel The Breaking by Irma Gold. ‘Vivid and sharply observed, The Breaking is an intensely moving story about the magnetic bond between two young women,...
A&U acquires Bowditch’s ‘The Day the Diet Died’
27 May 2020
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ rights to a new nonfiction title from musician Clare Bowditch, from Pippa Masson at Curtis Brown. The Day the Diet Died will explore...
‘Bruny’ and ‘Smashed Avocado’ optioned for TV
22 May 2020
Television rights to Heather Rose's 2019 novel Bruny (A&U), which recently won the ABIA award for general fiction, have been optioned by Film Art Media, and Good Thing Productions has...
Rights round-up
20 May 2020
Acquisitions Fiction Simon & Schuster Australia’s Scribner imprint has acquired ANZ rights to short story collection Hold Your Fire (Chloe Wilson) from Rach Crawford at Mackenzie Wolf (see news). The...
Black Inc. sells second Oslo Davis colouring book as US sales of first top 86k copies
20 May 2020
Black Inc. has sold world rights (ex ANZ) to Australian cartoonist Oslo Davis's new colouring book This Annoying Home Life: A Mindless Coloring Book for the Whole Family to Chronicle...
UQP acquires Araluen poetry collection ‘Dropbear’
19 May 2020
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired Evelyn Araluen’s debut poetry collection Dropbear. Dropbear is the second work the publisher has acquired from the Wheeler Centre’s inaugural Next Chapter...
‘A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares’ optioned for TV
18 May 2020
Television rights to Krystal Sutherland’s YA novel A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares (Penguin) have been optioned by the US division of production company Yellow Bird. Yellow Bird US, a...
Screen adaptations of Marchetta, Zusak novels, Jamieson & Cai picture book
14 May 2020
TV adaptions of Melina Marchetta's novel The Place on Dalhousie (Penguin) and Markus Zusak's The Messenger (Picador) have received funding from Screen Australia in its latest development funding announcement, while...
Scribner acquires Wilson’s ‘Hold Your Fire’
14 May 2020
Simon & Schuster Australia's Scribner imprint has acquired ANZ rights to Chloe Wilson's debut short story collection Hold Your Fire, from Rach Crawford at Mackenzie Wolf in a four-way auction....
Scribe acquisition of ‘The Palace Letters’ ‘personal’ for Rosenbloom
5 May 2020
Scribe has acquired The Palace Letters by Jenny Hocking via Jenny Darling & Associates. The book will cover Hocking’s efforts to make Australia’s National Archive release letters between former Australian...
Picador acquires ‘The Dressmaker’ sequel
30 April 2020
Picador has acquired ANZ rights to The Dressmaker's Secret by Rosalie Ham via Jenny Darling & Associates. The Dressmaker's Secret is a direct sequel following the events of Ham's debut novel...
Rights round-up
29 April 2020
Sales Fiction Fremantle Press has sold German rights to Doom Creek (Alan Carter, forthcoming) to Suhrkamp Verlag. HarperCollins has sold a renewal of Polish translation rights to Complete Self-Help for...
HGE sells ‘Real Pigeons’ to UK, announces YouTube series
29 April 2020
Hardie Grant Egmont (HGE) has sold its ‘Real Pigeons’ series by Andrew McDonald (illus by Ben Wood) to an as-yet-unnamed UK publisher, which will ‘crash the series into early 2021’,...
HarperCollins acquires ANZ rights to Jabour book on ‘the most miserable generation yet’
22 April 2020
HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights to a new nonfiction book on millennials by journalist and novelist Bridie Jabour. The as-yet-untitled book on ‘the most miserable generation yet’ was acquired...
Pantera acquires Hamouda family memoir
17 April 2020
Pantera Press has acquired ANZ rights to a memoir by Australian father–daughter pair Lamisse and Hazem Hamouda, from Benython Oldfield at Zeitgeist Agency. The joint memoir, told from alternating perspectives,...
Shaw sells Turner’s ‘Hang Him When He Is Not There’ to US
16 April 2020
Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary has sold US and Canadian rights to Nicholas Turner's novel Hang Him When He Is Not There to US indie publisher Zerogram. The sale is the...
S&S acquires debut women’s fiction ‘Grace Under Pressure’
14 April 2020
Simon & Schuster (S&S) has acquired ANZ rights to debut women’s fiction novel Grace Under Pressure by Sydney-based food and travel writer Tori Haschka. Rights were acquired from Catherine Drayton...
Barker launches rights agency for children’s and YA
8 April 2020
Former rights director and managing director at Hardie Grant Egmont Annabel Barker has launched a literary and rights agency, specialising in children’s writing and illustration. Annabel Barker Agency will sell...
