Tuesday, 21 November 2006
BOOKSELLER+PUBLISHER magazine has commenced work on a special report into technology and innovation in the book industry, to be published in March 2007.The report will focus on how technology can...

Monday, 20 November 2006
Your Summer Holiday - Booked!, a summer fiction promotional sampler, will be distributed to participating booksellers next week.Produced by BOOKSELLER+PUBLISHER magazine and designed by award-winning designer Ellie Exarchos, the 16-page colour...

Monday, 20 November 2006
Anthologist John Leonard (who edited Seven Centuries of Poetry in English; Australian Verse, an Oxford Anthology; New Music; and Contemporary Australian Poetry) has announced the establishment of the John Leonard...

Monday, 20 November 2006
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) has announced the launch of digical, a forum for online discussion about key issues on copyright issues for writers, publishers and all rightsholders.‘digical comes at a...

Sunday, 19 November 2006
As reported in a WBN Special Bulletin on Monday, John Wiley & Sons has entered into a ‘definitive agreement' to buy Blackwell Publishing, at a cost of £572 million (A$1.35...

Wednesday, 15 November 2006
The inaugural $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature, the most valuable literary award in Australia, was awarded to Helen Garner at a well-attended ceremony at Melbourne's Federation Square last week.The prize, which...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
In news from our Around the World blog this week: the winner of Canada's prestigious Giller Prize; a 'challenging' year for UK indie (and Text Publishing's partner) Cannongate; HarperCollins figures...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Writers Peter Temple (The Broken Shore, Text) and Laurie Duggan (The Passenger, UQP) have been named as the recipients of this year's Australia Council Fellowship awards--each worth $90,000--in the latest...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Copyright Amendment Bill has released its report. A link to the report can be found here. Ian McDonald, senior legal officer...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has raised concerns that publishers are claiming an unfair cut of copyright earnings, in the wake of significant increases in copying, scanning and downloading...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The new copyright exceptions proposed by the government were the topic of discussion at Copyright Society function held on 7 November in Sydney, where speakers Libby Baulch, executive officer of...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Clare Forster, previously publisher--books for adults at Penguin, has joined Curtis Brown, Australia's largest literary agency. The agency, which is based in Sydney, described Forster as ‘one of the most...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Gideon Haigh's Asbestos House (Scribe) is the winning title in this year's Westfield/Waverly Library award for literature, worth $15,000, which recognises ‘research undertaken for the outstanding works by Australian writers...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Fiona Henderson, head of publishing for the Bantam and Doubleday imprints at Random House, has announced her resignation. As reported in WBN last week, Jane Palfreyman, executive publisher at Random...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Peter Temple's crime novel The Broken Shore (Text) has been named the winner of the 2006 Colin Roderick Award for the best Australian book of the year, winning the author...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Publisher Pan Macmillan yesterday presented author John Marsden with an award in recognition of the fact that his ‘Tomorrow' series has now sold two million copies and become the highest...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The winning titles in this year's YABBAs (Young  Australian Best Book Awards) were announced this morning. Dougal the Garage Dump Bear (Matt Dray, Penguin) was named best picture book; Selby's...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Two new sequels to those popular Australian dieting and cleaning bibles flank this week's top 10. At number one is The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Book 2; at 10 is...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Trade events coming up over the next week, as shown on our events calendar, include: the Asialink Yogyakarta Fundraiser on 16 November; the free-trade seminar for Australian businesses (Melbourne session)...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Pat Woolley from Wild & Woolley writes: Nick Vine Hall, the doyen of family history researchers in Australia, has died of cancer, aged 62. Among his 35 books, Tracing Your...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Australian journalist and author Liz Collins has died at the age of 85. Her early published work includes the novels The Second Step and The Copper Crucible. Later in her...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
British author Lucilla Andrews, best known for her ‘hospital fiction' romances (also published under the pseudonyms Diana Gordon and Joanna Marcus), has died of lung cancer at the age of...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Ernestine Carey, co-author of the bestselling memoir Cheaper by the Dozen (various imprints), among other books, has died at the age of 98.

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
A number of books by Australian and New Zealand authors have been included in the 138-title longlist for the 2007 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.Geraldine Brooks (March, HarperCollins), Brian Castro (The...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
The Macquarie Dictionary and Macquarie Library, the Macmillan-owned company that publishes it, have left Macquarie University after more than 25 years and moved to the University of Sydney.According to recent...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
French literary festival Les Belles Étrangères is focusing on New Zealand this year. The 2006 festival, which runs from 13 to 26 November, will include the participation of 12 New...

Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Juggling Truths by Unity Dow (Spinifex) has been named runner-up in South Africa's Percy FitzPatrick Award.‘This is the fourth international award our authors have had in the last six months,'...