‘The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’ to be adapted for TV
12 October 2018
Australian producer Bruna Papandrea’s company Made Up Stories has acquired screen rights to Holly Ringland’s debut novel The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Fourth Estate), and will develop the project...
Aussie children’s book creators chosen to pitch at global kids entertainment event
12 October 2018
Australian children’s book creators Yves Stening and Nigel Buchanan are one of five intellectual property owners selected to pitch at the world's biggest children's entertainment industry event, MIPJunior. Held on...
HarperCollins signs Blackwood in two-book deal
11 October 2018
HarperCollins has signed a two-book deal with children's book illustrator Freya Blackwood. The first book in the deal is a yet-to-be-titled picture book about a girl and her pig, due...
Winton’s ‘The Riders’ to be adapted for film
10 October 2018
Tim Winton’s The Riders (Penguin) will be adapted into a feature film produced by director Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free, reports Deadline Hollywood. A director for the film is...
NZ picture book on Trump sold to UK
10 October 2018
New Zealand publisher Millwood Press has sold UK, Irish and Australian rights to picture book Dear Donald Trump (Sophie Siers, illus by Anne Villeneuve) to Bonnier Books UK imprint Templar...
Hardie Grant acquires book based on podcast ‘The Full Catastrophe’
8 October 2018
Hardie Grant Books has acquired world rights to The Full Catastrophe, based on the podcast of the same name, via Jeanne Ryckmans at Cameron Cresswell Agency. Edited by podcast hosts...
Debut novel ‘Half Moon Lake’ sold to US
8 October 2018
US and Canadian rights to Kirsten Alexander’s debut novel Half Moon Lake (Bantam, January 2019) have been acquired by Grand Central, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. Natasha Solomun of...
Transit Lounge acquires new fiction by Savage, Bird
5 October 2018
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to new novels by Angela Savage and Carmel Bird. Savage’s fourth novel, Mother of Pearl, is set in Thailand and Australia, and centres on...
UQP acquires Riwoe’s historical novel ‘On Gold Mountain’
4 October 2018
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to historical novel On Gold Mountain by Brisbane-based writer Mirandi Riwoe. Set on the goldfields of north Queensland during the...
PRH acquires Ronnie Scott’s ‘The Adversary’ in two-book deal
3 October 2018
Penguin Random House (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to Ronnie Scott’s debut novel The Adversary in a two-book deal. PRH acquired rights at auction to The Adversary and a second...
Brow Books signs Grills in two-book deal; Ord’s ‘diary comic’ to publish in February
2 October 2018
Brow Books has acquired world rights to big beautiful female theory by writer and artist Eloise Grills as part of a two-book deal. Described as ‘a book-length narrative essay combining...
PRH sells Stevenson crime-thriller debut in US and UK
1 October 2018
Penguin Random House (PRH) has sold North American and UK (ex ANZ) rights to debut crime-thriller Greenlight (Michael Joseph) by Sydney-based author Benjamin Stevenson. PRH senior rights manager Nerrilee Weir...
Giramondo acquires McGregor’s ‘photoessay memoir’ on ‘Indelible Ink’
26 September 2018
Giramondo has acquired world rights to a ‘photoessay memoir’ called A Novel Idea by Sydney author and performance artist Fiona McGregor, via Jane Novak of Jane Novak Literary Agency. A...
Third O’Neill title sold to UK’s Lightning Books
25 September 2018
UK publisher Lightning Books has acquired UK and Commonwealth (excluding ANZ) rights to Ryan O’Neill’s 2012 debut short story collection The Weight of a Human Heart, reports Book Brunch. Lightning...
‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ to be adapted as TV miniseries
20 September 2018
Synchronicity Films will adapt Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Echo) as a television drama miniseries. The project is currently in development, with Australian writer-producer Jacquelin Perske to adapt Morris’...
‘Ottilie Colter’ sells for ‘record’ sum in three-book German deal
19 September 2018
Hardie Grant Egmont has sold German-language rights to Rhiannon Williams’ Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt, plus two further books by Williams, to Random House Germany imprint cbj Verlag, after a...
NZ author Chidgey’s ‘The Beat of the Pendulum’ sold to UK
19 September 2018
UK imprint Lightning Books has acquired New Zealand author Catherine Chidgey's 2017 novel The Beat of the Pendulum (Victoria University Press), reports the Bookseller. Caroline Dawnay at United Agents sold UK...
MUP acquires Hanson-Young book on slut-shaming
19 September 2018
Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) has acquired ANZ rights to En Garde by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young. ‘Senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s private life became a matter of public interest when she was...
Australian publishers report interest in parenting, children’s titles in Beijing
12 September 2018
Independent Australian publishers attending the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), running from 22-26 August, have reported interest in the categories of children's, parenting, and education. Ventura Press director Jane Curry...
McLean’s debut mystery novel sold in four territories
11 September 2018
Australian author Felicity McLean’s forthcoming debut novel The Van Apfel Girls are Gone (HarperCollins, April 2019) has been sold in four territories, including to Algonquin Books in North America and...
Clan Destine Press acquires Ngaio Marsh winner
7 September 2018
Clan Destine Press has acquired world (ex NZ) rights to Australian-born New Zealand-based author Jennifer Lane's debut novel All Our Secrets (Rosa Mira Books NZ). All Our Secrets recently won the...
Ford’s ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ optioned for TV
5 September 2018
Clementine Ford's forthcoming Boys Will Be Boys: An Exploration of Power, Patriarchy and the Toxic Bonds of Mateship (Allen & Unwin, October) has been optioned for television by Perth-based production company Metamorflix. Rights were...
‘Birth of the Plantagenets’ series optioned for screen
4 September 2018
Five historical novels in Blanche d'Alpuget's ‘Birth of the Plantagenets’ series (Ventura) have been optioned for television/film by Ironbark Media. Rights were sold via Jeanne Ryckmans at the Cameron Creswell...
PRH acquires Leah Purcell’s ‘The Drover’s Wife’
31 August 2018
Penguin Random House (PRH) has acquired world rights to Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, a novel based on Purcell’s play of the same name. The...
A&U acquires UK rights to ‘Ten Steps to Nanette’
29 August 2018
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired UK rights to comedian Hannah Gadsby’s memoir Ten Steps to Nanette. A&U initially acquired ANZ rights to the book last year via Kevin Whyte...
UQP acquires Mundell’s second novel
23 August 2018
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to The Trespassers, the second novel by Melbourne-based author Meg Mundell. Martin Shaw from Alex Adsett Publishing Services sold rights...
Screen rights to ‘The Nowhere Child’ acquired
22 August 2018
Australian production company Carver Films and US-based production company Anonymous Content have acquired screen rights to Christian White’s debut thriller The Nowhere Child (Affirm). Carver Films is known for producing...
PRH acquires ‘Fixed It’ book by Gilmore
22 August 2018
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired rights to a nonfiction book by Melbourne-based writer, commentator and journalist Jane Gilmore. Titled Fixed It: One Woman's Movement Against the Real Fake...
Vogel winner ‘The Yellow House’ optioned for film
22 August 2018
Emily O’Grady’s debut crime novel The Yellow House (Allen & Unwin) has been optioned for film by independent producers Lucy Hayes and John Tummino. Hayes, who is currently developing the...
Scribe acquires US nonfiction titles by Stack, Villarosa
21 August 2018
Scribe has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to two nonfiction books by American authors Megan Stack and Linda Villarosa, reports BookBrunch. Stack's book, Women's Work: A Reckoning with Home and...
