‘The “traditional” publicity function will not be a focus of our marketing strategies’—Hardie Grant Egmont managing director Natasha Besliev on the restructure of Hardie Grant’s... Read more |
Sales Fiction—HarperCollins has sold Spanish translation rights to Fresh Fields (Peter Kocan) and My Brilliant Career (Miles Franklin); and US, European and Irish English-language rights... Read more |
US journalist and author Michael Hastings has died, aged 33. Hastings worked as a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and as a reporter for Newsweek,... Read more |
US science-fiction author and screenwriter Richard Matheson has died, aged 87. Matheson is the author of a number of novels, including I Am Legend, The Shrinking... Read more |
Global revenues at Random House increased by 22.5% in 2012 in large part due to the success of E L James’ ‘Fifty Shades’ series, which... Read more |
US author Vince Flynn has died, aged 47. Flynn is best known for his bestselling ‘Mitch Rapp’ series of political thriller novels. His most recent... Read more |
Collins Booksellers has partnered with the Australian newspaper to offer its customers 20% off the price of books reviewed in the Weekend Australian each week.... Read more |
Australian ebook retail platform Bkclb, which launched in the second half of 2012, has been relaunched with the new name Tomely. The platform, which is aimed... Read more |
The winners of the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards were announced at a ceremony in Christchurch on 24 June. The winners are: New... Read more |
Keiran Rogers, former senior sales manager at Hinkler and sales director at Hardie Grant, has joined Affirm Press in the newly created role of sales... Read more |
Black Inc. is publishing the 50th issue of Quarterly Essay this year. The journal was founded in 2001 by Black Inc. owner and the Monthly... Read more |
Booksellers New Zealand has elected a new board during the association’s annual general meeting, held during the 2013 Booksellers NZ conference. The members elected to the 2013/14 board are: Stella... Read more |
In The Devil Wears Prada (HarperCollins), Lauren Weisberger wrote what was speculated to be a semi-autobiographical account of her experience as an assistant to the... Read more |
The 2013 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards will be presented in early 2014 instead of September this year. In previous years, the awards have been presented in the... Read more |
The winners of the 2013 Booksellers New Zealand Industry Awards have been announced, with Random House New Zealand dominating the publishing categories for the second year in... Read more |
Online bookseller Boomerang Books has announced that its ebookstore Booku will close on 30 June. In a letter sent to customers this week, Booku said... Read more |
Fremantle Press has partnered with Curtin University to produce book trailers for a number of its new titles. The partnership involved students from the university’s... Read more |
The NSW Government has announced that the Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF), the Sydney Festival and the Biennale of Sydney will share in $6.2 million of funding as part of 2013-14 Budget.... Read more |
Hardie Grant has announced a restructure of its sales and marketing team, which has led to the closure of its Auckland office, affecting three staff,... Read more |
Books by Australian authors Tom Keneally, Robert Gray and Amy Espeseth have been nominated for the 2013 Warwick Prize for Writing. Keneally’s The Daughters of... Read more |
‘I dishonour my craft and I piss on my vocation if give in to my laziness to not write’—author Christos Tsiolkas reflects on his writing... Read more |
Eighty booksellers from around 50 bookshops attended this year’s Leading Edge Books Conference, which was held at the Hilton Adelaide from 14-16 June. As previously reported... Read more |
The 2013 Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) Conference was held at the Hilton Adelaide from 16-17 June. Approximately 260 members of the industry attended the first day... Read more |
Michelle de Kretser’s Questions of Travel (A&U) has won this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award. De Kretser’s novel was chosen from a shortlist of five,... Read more |
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced the appointment of Michael Gordon-Smith as interim CEO following the resignation of long-time CEO Maree McCaskill last week.... Read more |
The winners for this year’s Books I Love Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards, the children’s choice book awards for Queensland, have been announced. The winning titles... Read more |
A number of changes to the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) management committee were announced at this year’s annual conference, which was held in Adelaide from... Read more |
The shortlist for this year’s Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Tiwi: Arts, History, Culture (Jennifer Isaacs, Miegunyah)... Read more |
New Zealand’s Guest of Honour Pavilion at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair has won the Supreme Award and the Installation category at the 2013 Interior Awards in New Zealand. The... Read more |
Bookselling chain QBD now operates 50 stores across Australia, following the opening of a new store in New South Wales in April. A QBD outlet... Read more |
Sydney creative agency Droga5 has won a Gold Medal in this year’s Cannes Lions Awards for advertising for its ‘Stories for Every Journey’ collection of... Read more |
Online bookseller Booktopia has been named as a finalist in the New South Wales Telstra Business Awards in the medium-sized category for the third year... Read more |
Australian author Margo Lanagan has been nominated for the 2013 British Fantasy Awards. Lanagan is shortlisted in the Best Fantasy Novel category for her book... Read more |
A study into New Zealand’s goods and services tax (GST) arrangements that was commissioned by Booksellers New Zealand will be considered by the New Zealand... Read more |
In the US, bookselling chain Barnes & Noble has announced that it will discontinue production of its Nook tablet devices, reports DigitalBookWorld. The Nook Simple Touch and... Read more |
In the US, a film and television production company will launch a new fan fiction platform called Outlier Digital, reports Digital Book World. Like Amazon’s Kindle Worlds,... Read more |
French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti has revealed that the French Government plans to introduce a law to prevent Amazon from offering both discounts and free delivery for... Read more |
In the US, Penguin and its self-publishing subsidiary Author Solutions have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against them in April by three... Read more |
UK-based publishers have topped the 2012 ‘Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry’, an annual survey of publisher revenues, compiled on behalf of Livres Hebdo, Buchreport... Read more |
In the US, a sales rep has been charged with stealing US$2.8 million (A$2.58 million) worth of textbooks from his former employer, the US arm... Read more |
In the US, Simon & Schuster has formed a new partnership with New York’s Algonquin Hotel, which will offer guests the opportunity to stay in the... Read more |
Testimonies have concluded in the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ebook pricing trial against Apple, which began on 3 June, with Judge Denise Cote commenting... Read more |
In the UK, Sally Gardner has won the Carnegie Medal for Maggot Moon (Hot Key Books) and Levi Pinfold has won the Kate Greenaway Medal... Read more |
In France, the Paris Commercial Court has ordered the Virgin Megastore retail chain into liquidation, reports the Bookseller. The order comes a week after the... Read more |
Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute is working on a new digital rights management (DRM) system called SiDiM, which aims to prevent ebook piracy by altering the text of an... Read more |
In the US, Penguin has launched a new book discoverability platform called First to Read, reports Publishers Weekly. The platform allows users to access digital proofs... Read more |
Librarians recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours Librarians have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Brisbane City Council Library Service (BCCLS) manager Sharan Harvey... Read more |
The State Library of Victoria (SLV) and the Public Libraries Victoria Network (PLVN) launched a new strategic framework for public libraries in Victoria this month.... Read more |
Twenty library services across Australia will participate in a pilot program for eSmart Libraries, a cyber-bullying and internet safety program developed by the Alannah and... Read more |
PNG library to open, more books needed A library in the formerly war-torn island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea opened on 21 June, but continues... Read more |
Library for All gives digital content to schools in developing nations New York charity Library for All will run a pilot for a digital library... Read more |
The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) will receive approximately $3 million in new funding as part of the NSW Government’s 2013-14 Budget. A... Read more |
Softlink to launch Scout platform for primary schools Australian library supplier Softlink is preparing to launch Scout, a library management software platform that gives primary schools... Read more |
In a new instalment in our series of opinion pieces from booksellers, Louise Fay from Dymocks Adelaide calls on publishers to deliver new-release titles more... Read more |
Last year, Ruth Jelley interviewed several Australian fiction publishers—one large multinational, one medium-sized independent and one small independent—about their digital publishing programs. Find out what... Read more |
This short book is the first in what promises to be a great new series from Black Inc. called ‘Redbacks’. The series aims to introduce... Read more |
Ali Alizadeh’s critically acclaimed book of poetry Ashes in the Air was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards last year and I would be... Read more |
New members elected to the 2013/14 board of Booksellers New Zealand are: Stella Chrysostomou of Page & Blackmore in Nelson, Chris Lumsden of Paper Plus in Wanaka,... Read more |
Keiran Rogers, former senior sales manager at Hinkler and sales director at Hardie Grant, has joined Affirm Press in the newly created role of sales... Read more |
The 19th annual Deadlys, also known as the National Indigenous Music, Sport, Arts and Community Awards, will be held at the Sydney Opera House on 10 September,... Read more |
The Australian Educational Publishing Awards 2013 are open for nominations. The awards, presented by the Australian Publishers Association(APA), recognise the best educational materials published during the year in... Read more |
Lonely Planet’s warehouse will be closed for stocktake from Wednesday 26th of June to Friday 28th of June. Orders received during this time will dispatch... Read more |
Registrations are now open for this year’s September Get Reading! campaign, which will feature an all-Australian Top 50 Books You Can’t Put Down. The... Read more |
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