Hardie Grant Children’s launches new illustrated imprint
25 November 2020
Hardie Grant Children's Publishing (HGCP) has announced the creation of Bright Light, a new illustrated imprint that will publish 20 titles a year exploring privilege, race, equality, the environment, bodies...
Booktopia, Amazon Australia to use robots for fulfilment
25 November 2020
Booktopia and Amazon will implement the use of robots in their Australian fulfilment centres in 2021. Booktopia announced it will trial autonomous robots at its Lidcombe Distribution Centre in Sydney...
Hueston awarded 2020 Medal for Excellence in Translation
25 November 2020
Text Publishing director and a senior editor Penny Hueston is the winner of the 2020 Australian Academy of the Humanities Medal for Excellence in Translation for Being Here: The life...
Wright resigns from PRH
25 November 2020
Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) head of trade sales Kaye Wright has resigned after almost 12 years in the role. Wright told Books+Publishing the role was ‘my most favoured in...
Giggs shortlisted for ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal
18 November 2020
Australian writer Rebecca Giggs has been shortlisted for the American Library Association's (ALA) 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction for Fathoms: The world in the whale (Scribe). Giggs's consideration of whales...
S&S to publish Kerr children’s series and World Cup diary
18 November 2020
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to a new children’s series by Sam Kerr, captain of the Australian national women’s soccer team the Matildas, in a six-book...
Walkley Book Award 2020 shortlist announced
11 November 2020
The Walkley Book Award shortlist for 2020 has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know (Sophie McNeill, ABC Books) Fallen (Lucie Morris-Marr, A&U) The Altar Boys (Suzanne Smith,...
Gay YA rom-com wins 2020 Ampersand Prize
11 November 2020
Hardie Grant Children's Publishing (HGCP) has announced that Auckland teacher and writer Helen Valley has won the 2020 Ampersand Prize for her YA novel Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean...
Riwoe wins inaugural $50k ARA Historical Novel Prize
11 November 2020
Brisbane writer Mirandi Riwoe has won the $50,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize for Stone Sky Gold Mountain (UQP). Selected from more than 185 entries and a shortlist of three announced in...
Chowdhury releases Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship report
11 November 2020
Penguin Random House Australia senior audio producer and commissioning editor Radhiah Chowdhury has released her Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship report on the experiences and perspectives of BAME (Black, Asian and...
UQP acquires Behrendt’s ‘After Story’
5 November 2020
The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired rights to After Story, the third novel by academic, broadcaster and author Larissa Behrendt. UQP said After Story is an ‘ambitious and...
Australia Reads campaign: Nielsen reports sales up almost 5%
5 November 2020
Nielsen Book Australia reports that sales of print books are up nearly 5% on the previous year. Territory manager Bianca Whiteley said that, for the year to the week ending...
Bloomsbury to repay pandemic pay cuts
5 November 2020
Bloomsbury Australia’s parent company in the UK has announced it will repay almost £700,000 (A$985,000) to staff who took a pay cut during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic,...
Text acquires Webb ‘anti-usage’ guide
28 October 2020
Text Publishing has acquired world rights to an 'anti-usage' language guide by ABC journalist Tiger Webb. Webb is the ABC’s language research specialist, providing broadcasters with pronunciation guidelines, updating the...
QBD to open two new Melbourne stores as Covid restrictions ease
28 October 2020
The QBD bookselling chain has opened a new Parramatta store and will open two new stores in Melbourne before Christmas. The Parramatta store, in Westfield Shopping Centre, opened on 24...
Ibrahim wins 2020 Heyman Mentorship Award
28 October 2020
HarperCollins Australia and Kathryn Heyman of the Australian Writers Mentoring Program have announced Naima Ibrahim as the winner of the 2020 Heyman Mentorship Award. Ibrahim’s winning fiction manuscript follows 10-year-old...
Copyright Agency grants to Castagna, Cohen, Ord, Savage
28 October 2020
Felicity Castagna, Bernard Cohen, Mandy Ord and Ellena Savage are among the six recipients of a combined $95,000 from Copyright Agency as part of its most recent Create Grants. Castagna...
Ampersand Prize 2020 shortlist announced
21 October 2020
Hardie Grant Children's Publishing (HGCP) has announced the shortlist for its 2020 Ampersand Prize for unpublished young adult and middle-grade fiction. The five shortlisted authors and their works are: Conan...
S&S creates new audiobook role as audio sales on track to double
21 October 2020
Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has promoted Anthea Bariamis to a new position focusing on local audio titles, among a number of staff changes designed to support the publisher’s local...
McLean receives inaugural $10k Albert Ullin Award
21 October 2020
Andrew McLean is the winner of the inaugural Albert Ullin Award. The $10,000 biennial award, created with a bequest from the late The Little Book Room co-founder Albert Ullin, is...
Craig appointed Ultimo Press publisher
21 October 2020
Former Picador Australia publisher Alex Craig has been appointed publisher of Ultimo Press. Craig spent 12 years at Pan Macmillan, including five as Picador publisher, before resigning from the company...
New $10k Albert Ullin Award for children’s book creators
14 October 2020
The Victorian branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) will administer a new $10,000 award for children's book creators, established with a bequest from the late Albert Ullin,...
HarperCollins acquires Benns’s ‘The Dying Diplomats’ Club’
14 October 2020
HarperCollins has acquired world rights to The Dying Diplomats’ Club, a ‘Nick and La Contessa novel’ written by the Daily Telegraph editor-at-large Matthew Benns. Benns began the serialised mystery novel Dangerous...
BookUp: APA announces online panels
14 October 2020
The Australian Publishers Association (APA), which in March postponed its planned one-day BookUp conference due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will instead present a series of online panel and conversation sessions...
Hachette acquires Wilson picture book series
7 October 2020
Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to a ‘funny and heartfelt’ picture book series by Australian comic actress Rebel Wilson. The ‘Bella the Brave’ series, to be published in hardback...
Victorian literary orgs to receive Creative Vic funding
7 October 2020
Creative Victoria has announced the 78 arts and cultural organisations that will share in $7.85 million in grants in stage two of its Strategic Investment Fund. The funding is ‘focused...
Inaugural $50k Historical Novel Prize longlist announced
7 October 2020
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) has announced the longlist for the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize. The HNSA has also confirmed sponsor ARA has doubled its funding for the...
ALIA welcomes library budget announcement
7 October 2020
The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has welcomed the ‘positive outcomes’ for library and information workers announced in the Federal government’s 2020-21 budget. The federal government announced $31.2 million...
The Turning Page Bookshop to become co-op
30 September 2020
The owners of the Turning Page Bookshop in the Blue Mountains suburb of Springwood, NSW are in the process of transforming the business into a co-operative, after putting the shop...
Affirm acquires Bontempelli picture book
30 September 2020
Affirm Press has acquired world rights to a children’s picture book by Western Bulldogs AFL player Marcus Bontempelli, via Tom Petroro of TLA. To be co-authored with Fiona Harris, the...
