Category: Local news

  • BWF 2019 program announced; first authors for MWF named

    The program has been announced for the 2019 Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF), which runs from 5–8 September. Over 160 writers will appear at the festival, which in recognition of the UN Year of Indigenous Languages will explore the ways in which Australia’s traditional custodians convey story. First Nations guests include authors Tony Birch, Melissa Lucashenko…

  • Program released for Emerging Writers’ Festival 2019

    The program has been announced for this year’s Emerging Writers’ Festival, which runs in Melbourne from 19–29 June. The festival includes the National Writers’ Conference, which is billed as Australia’s largest gathering of emerging writers. Running from 22–23 June at the State Library Victoria, tickets are $80 or $60 concession for a day pass or…

  • Awards wrap-up

    The winners of several Australian and New Zealand unpublished manuscript awards have been announced over the past month. Perth-based writer Rebecca Higgie was named the winner of the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award, worth $20,000, for her YA novel The History of Mischief. Higgie’s novel follows Jessie and Kay after they lose their parents in a…

  • John Reed Books offers bookseller distribution to ASA members

    John Reed Books will provide sales and distribution for new print books by Australian Society of Authors (ASA) members, under an agreement negotiated by the distributor and the ASA. The agreement is an extension of the temporary arrangement put in place following the liquidation of Dennis Jones & Associates last year. The service only covers…

  • New Macquarie Uni research to examine Aus rights sales

    The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and the Australia Council for the Arts will contribute $30,000 each to a new Macquarie University study examining the international rights sales and export of Australian books over the past 10 years. In conjunction with book industry representatives, Macquarie University academics David Throsby, Paul Crosby and Jan Zwar will conduct…

  • ASA advises authors to send takedown notices to Internet Archive

    The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has condemned the activities of the Internet Archive’s Open Library in its unlicensed lending of scanned copies of physical books and is advising authors to contact the Internet Archive and request the removal of their titles from the Library. The ASA’s advice follows a response from the Internet Archive to…

  • Amazon unblocks Oz shoppers from US store

    Australian consumers are now able to purchase and ship items from Amazon’s international website, according to a statement from Amazon. The retailer suspended shipping to Australian addresses from its international website on 1 July 2018 in a move to comply with GST laws affecting online retailers. Amazon had established a ‘global store’ option on its Australian site offering…

  • SPN Independent Publishing Conference 2018 program: publishing in the age of Trump, podcasts, disability awareness

    The Small Press Network (SPN) has announced the full program for its 2018 Independent Publishing Conference, which will run at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne from 22-24 November. The three-day conference comprises an industry research day, a trade day and a ‘fundamentals of publishing’ day, as well as the presentation of the Most Underrated Book…

  • WA Tourism grants help visitor centre self-publish

    The Dryandra Country Visitor Centre in Western Australia has revealed refurbishments and technology updates, including a newly self-published guidebook, after receiving two grants worth nearly $90,000, reports the West Australian. Visitor centre manager Geire Kami said that one of the two grants from Tourism WA was used for refurbishment, including interpretive areas for tourists to…

  • Reading the audience: the LoveOzYA readership survey

    In 2017, the LoveOzYA committee conducted a survey into the reading habits of the Australian YA community. Committee chair Stacey Malacari reports on the survey’s findings. The LoveOzYA movement was launched in May 2015 to support Australian YA authors and to promote local content to local readers. Since then, authors, booksellers, bloggers, teachers and YA…