Weekly Book Newsletter (end March 2022)
4 March 2015

‘WBN’ published Thursday next week

Please note that, due to the public holiday on Monday in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, the next Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday 12... Read more
 

Australia Council report finds 87% of Australians read ‘literature’, more than half read weekly x

Reading is the most popular way for Australians to consume the arts, according to a new Australia Council report. ‘Arts Nation: An Overview of Australian... Read more
 

Print sales steady at Hachette Australia in 2014 x

Print sales at Hachette Australia have stayed at the same level from 2013 to 2014, which joint managing directors Louise Sherwin-Stark and Justin Ractliffe have... Read more
 

Pearson records drop in sales, small profit increase in 2014

Pearson has recorded £4.9bn (A$9.7bn) in sales in 2014, down 4% or £195m (A$386m) from 2013, according to its unaudited financial results. Profits are up 1% over... Read more
 

Avid Reader opens children’s bookshop x

Brisbane’s Avid Reader has opened its specialist children’s, YA and giftware bookstore, Where the Wild Things Are Bookshop, located next to its West End store. Owner Fiona... Read more
 

Copyright Agency to offer publisher, author and copyright research fellowships

The Copyright Agency has established nine fellowships ‘to support innovation in writing, publishing and copyright research’, worth $120,000 annually. The first round of fellowships consist of... Read more
 

Aurealis Awards 2014 finalists announced

The finalists for the 2014 Aurealis Awards, presented for science-fiction, fantasy and horror writing in Australia, have been announced. Among the categories are: Fantasy novel... Read more
 

Australian titles featured on USBBY outstanding international books list

Four books by Australian authors have been selected for the 2015 United States Board of Books for Young People (USBBY) list of Outstanding International Books... Read more
 

New festival director, board chair for BWF

The Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) has appointed a new festival director and acting CEO for 2015. Julie Beveridge replaces current festival director and CEO Kate Eltham,... Read more
 

UQP rejects Campbell Newman memoir over awards axing

The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has declined to publish former Queensland premier Campbell Newman’s memoir, citing Newman’s axing of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards... Read more
 

Petition against WA Premier’s Book Awards cuts

A petition against the WA government’s decision to cut funding and move the WA Premier’s Book Awards to a biennial format has been launched online. The petition,... Read more
 

‘West Australian’ cuts book coverage

The West Australian newspaper will cut its Tuesday-edition book coverage by 50%, reducing the double-page spread to a single page. In a statement, writingWA said... Read more
 

‘Island’ magazine partners with MONA

Tasmania-based literary magazine Island has announced it will form a ‘literary partnership’ with Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). The partnership initially involves... Read more
 

Canberra’s Noted writers’ festival launches program

Canberra’s ‘experimental’ writers’ festival Noted has launched its first program. The program is divided into three streams—live, digital and professional development—and features a range of... Read more
 

‘The Lifted Brow’ Prize for Experimental Nonfiction shortlist announced

Melbourne-based publisher and literary magazine the Lifted Brow has announced the shortlist for its Prize for Experimental Nonfiction. The shortlisted works are: Sophia O’Rourke for ‘Flaming June:... Read more
 

Quote of the week

‘Newman condemned himself to being published outside of Queensland when he axed the Awards. Perhaps his future memoir will reflect on this with the benefit... Read more
 

Rights round-up x

Sales Fiction—Giramondo has sold Chinese rights to The Tribe (Michael Mohammed Ahmad) to the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing Company; and Latin American Spanish-language... Read more
 

Bestsellers this week

American Sniper (Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen & Jim DeFelice, HarperCollins) is back at number one this week as last week’s number one, The Ruby Circle... Read more
 

RiP Jess Ainscough x

Australian author and ‘Wellness Warrior’ Jess Ainscough has died, aged 30. Ainscough’s publisher, Hay House, writes: ‘It is with great sadness that we at Hay House... Read more
 

Johnson wins RBC Taylor Prize for nonfiction

In Canada, Plum Johnson has won the RBC Taylor Prize for nonfiction for her memoir They Left Us Everything (Penguin Canada), reports Publishers Weekly. The... Read more
 

German independent bookshops to launch online store

An alliance of 600 German independent bookstores will launch online store Genialokal.de on 12 March, the first day of the Leipzig Book Fair, reports The Bookseller.... Read more
 

HarperCollins announces two-book deal with Veronica Roth

HarperCollins has acquired world English rights to a new YA series from ‘Divergent’ author Veronica Roth. The duology, described as being ‘in the vein of... Read more
 

Shortlist announced for 2015 Diagram Prize for oddest book title

The shortlist for the 2015 Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year, presented by the Bookseller, has been announced. The seven titles selected... Read more
 

Puffin, PRH and Pan Macmillan winners at UK marketing awards

In the UK, Puffin, Penguin Random House (PRH) and Pan Macmillan were the winners of the Book Marketing Society’s best Christmas campaigns, reports the Bookseller. Puffin... Read more
 

Wattpad releases romance and erotica app After Dark

Online writing platform Wattpad has released the After Dark app, which offers readers a curated selection of romance and erotica stories, reports Publishers Weekly. The app... Read more
 

Inaugural London Book & Screen Week announced

The London Book Fair (LBF) has announced its first London Book & Screen Week (LBSW) to celebrate books, film and television. The event will run from 13-19... Read more
 

Lisa Gorton’s ‘The Life of Houses’

Gorton’s ability to describe the inner worlds of her characters creates moments of breathtaking insight on almost every page. The writing is graceful and accessible, and Gorton’s... Read more
 

Australian recipe site Cooked launches in the UK

Local Australian recipe subscription website Cooked has expanded into the UK, reports the Bookseller. The new site was launched by Hardie Grant, Quadrille and Bloomsbury and will... Read more
 

Proposal to cut WA state library hours

The State Library of WA (SLWA) is considering cuts to its opening hours, including closing the library on weekends and earlier during the week, in... Read more
 

Melbourne Cricket Club Library expands online services

The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) Library has replaced its library management system with Softlink’s Australian-based cloud-hosting service, Liberty. The new service provides online access to... Read more
 

International library news

US libraries concerned about lack of Kindle ebook titles through OverDrive A number of US libraries have expressed concern that the majority of new ebook... Read more
 

The poet’s market: on print sales of poetry titles

The poetry scene might be flourishing with slams and spoken-word events, but print sales remain in the low hundreds for most titles, writes Hilary Simmons.... Read more
 

Beveridge appointed BWF festival director, acting CEO

The Brisbane Writers Festival has appointed Julie Beveridge as 2015 festival director and acting CEO. She replaces Kate Eltham, who is taking maternity leave from... Read more
 

McColl retires after 35 years at Penguin x

Penguin contracts and rights manager Peg McColl has retired after 35 years with the publisher.
 

Peribo Ceases Distribution of Old Street Publishing x

Peribo ceases distribution of Old Street Publishing on 31/03/2015. Returns requests must be received by Peribo no later than 31 March 2015 and all authorised returns received in our warehouse by 30 April 2015.

 

Order Now: ‘Committed Undone’ by Elizabeth Lowrie (ISBN 9780987476104) x

Committed Undone by Elizabeth Lowrie will be published on Monday 6 April at $29.99pbk and $16.99e. Published by Good Karma Books, available to bookstores via IngramSpark and Lightning Source and their distributors. 

Elizabeth Lowrie’s story of love and love lost, retirement, travel and spiritual healing deals with Lowrie’s deep shock in the wake of the global publicity campaign for Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. Elizabeth Lowrie is the first wife of José Nunes (AKA Filipe in Gilberts’ books) and Committed Undone is Lowrie’s attempt to make known her truth. Media interest is high with Australian Women’s Weekly running an interview and photoshoot in their March edition and more media to follow.

Be sure to order copies as Elizabeth is the only person selling hard copies retail from her website dreamwithinsight.com.au.  

Email Elizabeth on info@dreamwithinsight.com.au for further information.

 

Parragon Changes Trade and Specialty Distribution in Australia x

Parragon wishes to announce that distribution will be moving in-house, from Herron Book Distributors, with effect from 1 April 2015.

‘We would like to thank Herron for their hard work and commitment over the last 15 years. We look forward to further developing and growing our trade and specialty business through our internal sales force,’ said Darren Busuttil, Managing Director Parragon ANZ.

Herron will be accepting Parragon returns from 1 April 2015 to 30 June 2015 in line with normal return conditions. Any returns not received by the 30 June 2015 will be deemed firm sale.

Trade customers will be seeing Herron representatives with Parragon product for the last time in March. A Parragon representative will start calling from April.

Parragon and Herron are both committed to a smooth transition and continuing excellent service with no disruption to customers.

For all sales queries please contact Colleen O’Meara, National Sales Manager, Parragon
colleen.omeara@parragon.com | Tel: +61 3 8825 3307

For all other queries please contact Shannon Ryan, Marketing Manager, Parragon
shannon.ryan@parragon.com | Tel: +61 3 8825 3325

 

Footprint Books: Increase in Small Order Surcharge x

Footprint Books regrets to advise that due to the increases in our ANZ freight charges we are forced to increase our small order surcharge. The current surcharge has been in place for 15 years as we have absorbed the steady increases from our courier companies over that time. Effective, April 1, 2015 our new small order surcharge will be A$10.00 on all orders less than A$120 net.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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