‘Ghost Bird’ receives funding for feature film development
Thursday, 23 February 2023
Lisa Fuller’s young adult novel Ghost Bird (UQP) has received funding from Screen Australia to develop the book into a feature film. The funding is part of Screen Australia’s First...
Affirm acquires VPLA 2023 unpublished manuscript winner
Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to One Divine Night by Mick Cummins, the winner of the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award (VPLA) for an unpublished manuscript, in a deal...
Linwood Messina sells ‘The Dreaming Path’ to HarperOne
Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Gregory Messina of Linwood Messina Literary Agency has sold world English rights (ex ANZ) to Paul Callaghan’s The Dreaming Path: Indigenous thinking to change your life written with Uncle Paul...
Walker acquires Kate and Angourie Rice YA romance novel
Thursday, 16 February 2023
Walker Books Australia has acquired world rights to YA romance novel Stuck Up and Stupid, the first book by mother and daughter writing team Kate and Angourie Rice, via Benython...
Ultimo acquires Yankovich debut book on friendship in ‘heated auction’
Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired UK/Commonwealth rights to Gyan Yankovich’s debut work of nonfiction Just Friends. Rights were acquired in a ‘heated auction’ in a deal agented by Rach Crawford at...
Transit Lounge acquires Cameron literary thriller
Wednesday, 15 February 2023
Transit Lounge has acquired world rights to The Rewilding, the second novel by Donna M Cameron, via Fiona Johnson at Beyond Words Literary Agency. ‘The Rewilding captures the essence of...
PRH signs Johns in two-book deal
Tuesday, 14 February 2023
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired world rights to the novel The Other Bridget Jones by Rachael Johns in a two-book deal, agented by Helen Breitwieser of Cornerstone Literary....
Scribe acquires Smaill’s ‘Bird Life’
Monday, 13 February 2023
In the UK, Scribe has acquired world English rights to the novel Bird Life by New Zealand author Anna Smaill via Will Francis at Janklow and Nesbit, reports BookBrunch. Smaill...
Pantera sells ‘Courting Samira’ to HarperVia, acquires fourth Awad novel
Monday, 13 February 2023
Pantera Press has sold world English rights (excluding ANZ) to Amal Awad’s novel Courting Samira to Gretchen Schmid at HarperVia, an imprint of Harper Collins. Courting Samira is a romantic...
Ultimo acquires ‘The Paris Cooking School’
Friday, 10 February 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired world English-language rights to a novel from Sophie Masson, writing as Sophie Beaumont, in a deal brokered by Margaret Connolly of Margaret Connolly & Associates. The...
UQP acquires new O’Keeffe novel
Friday, 10 February 2023
UQP has acquired world rights to The Sitter, a new novel by Angela O’Keeffe, from Shaw Literary. Described by the publisher as ‘startlingly accomplished and multilayered’, The Sitter is about...
NewSouth acquires Tan debut essay collection
Tuesday, 7 February 2023
NewSouth has acquired world rights to Cher Tan’s debut essay collection Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging, which blends ‘cultural criticism, experimental writing, autotheory, (inter)net writing and literary memoir’, according to the...
Hardie Grant acquires Wong and Kong’s ‘Chopsticks or Fork?’
Monday, 6 February 2023
Hardie Grant Books has acquired world print and ebook rights to Chopsticks or Fork? by Jennifer Wong and Lin Jie Kong in a deal negotiated by Benython Oldfield of the...
Echo acquires Murphy debut novel ‘That is All’
Thursday, 2 February 2023
Echo Publishing has acquired world rights to debut novel That is All by Liam Murphy via the NAC Literary Agency. The novel follows young Australian Mark Ward’s quest for redemption...
PRH acquires Rieden bio of Quentin Bryce
Wednesday, 1 February 2023
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to an authorised biography of Quentin Bryce by Juliet Rieden in a deal agented by Fiona Inglis at Curtis Brown. The...
Richell to S&S in six-figure pre-empt
Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Simon & Schuster (S&S) has acquired a new novel by Hannah Richell, The Search Party, and a further untitled novel in a six-figure pre-emptive deal struck with Sarah Lutyens and...
Shaw sells US rights to Adam’s ‘The New Animals’
Monday, 23 January 2023
Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary has sold US rights to New Zealand author Pip Adam’s 2017 novel The New Animals (Te Herenga Waka University Press) to Dorothy, a publishing project....
Ultimo acquires Smith debut novel in two-book deal
Friday, 20 January 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired ANZ rights to Twelve Steps to a Long and Fulfilling Death, a ‘whip-smart comedy’ debut by television drama writer Sarah Smith, in a two-book deal brokered...
Black Inc. sells Skinner memoir to Steerforth Press
Thursday, 19 January 2023
Black Inc. has sold North American rights to forthcoming memoir I’d Rather Not (July 2023) by Robert Skinner to Chip Fleischer at Steerforth Press, in a deal made with Black...
Ultimo Press acquires Campbell debut in two-book deal
Monday, 16 January 2023
Ultimo Press has acquired world rights to Lowbridge, a debut crime novel by Canberra author Lucy Campbell, as part of a two-book deal, via Martin Shaw of Shaw Literary in...
Foster’s ‘The Hush’ optioned for TV
Friday, 13 January 2023
Producer Clark Peterson and his company Story and Film, Inc. have optioned Sara Foster’s 2021 thriller The Hush (HarperCollins) for development as a television series, ‘in a competitive situation’, according...
Hachette acquires Adams debut fantasy ‘Tonight, I Burn’
Thursday, 12 January 2023
Hachette Australia has acquired ‘dark and decadent’ debut fantasy Tonight, I Burn by Aotearoa New Zealand-based author Katharine J Adams. Australian rights were acquired by Hachette Australia head of children’s...
Christmas Press acquires second Kelleher middle-grade novel
Thursday, 12 January 2023
Christmas press has acquired world rights to The Cave, an upper middle-grade novel by Victor Kelleher, via Margaret Connolly of Margaret Connolly and Associates. Described by Christmas Press publishing director...
Affirm acquires Lord debut YA spec-fic
Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to Anomaly, the debut young adult novel by Sydney-based writer Emma Lord. Described by the publisher as Tomorrow When the War Began meets The...
Law to adapt Pung’s ‘One Hundred Days’ for screen
Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Black Inc. has sold screen rights to Alice Pung's novel One Hundred Days to author and screenwriter Michelle Law, in a deal made by Black Inc. international director Sophy Williams. Pung’s...
Clarke joins HGCP with two-book deal
Monday, 9 January 2023
Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has acquired two books by Maxine Beneba Clarke. Releasing in June 2023, the first title, It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for...
Ultimo acquires Knight memoir
Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Ultimo Press has acquired world rights to the memoir Strange Little Girl by Melbourne-based writer, performer and zine maker Jess Knight. Described by the publisher as a ‘heart-warming, unapologetic and...
UWAP acquires Akhurst YA novel
Tuesday, 6 December 2022
UWA Publishing (UWAP) has acquired ANZ rights to Graham Akhurst’s young adult novel Borderland, via Danielle Binks of Jacinta di Mase Management. Set in Brisbane and the fictional rural town of...
Text acquires new Lohrey novel
Monday, 5 December 2022
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to Amanda Lohrey's new novel The Conversion, via Lyn Tranter of Australian Literary Management. The Conversion follows Zoe, who leaves Sydney for a small...
A&U acquires Bolton debut ‘Life Itself’
Monday, 5 December 2022
Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to Trish Bolton’s debut novel Life Itself. Rights were acquired by A&U publisher Jane Palfreyman and executive editor Genevieve Buzo. Life Itself...





