Weekly Book Newsletter (end March 2022)
13 May 2015

Queensland government to support state literary awards

Queensland premier and arts minister Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced the state government will contribute up to $175,000 annually to the Queensland Literary Awards (QLA), matching... Read more
 

Hockey confirms GST will be imposed on ebooks from mid-2017

Federal treasurer Joe Hockey has announced the government will extend the 10% GST to digital downloads, including ebooks, from overseas from 1 July 2017, under... Read more
 

Booksellers to benefit from small business tax breaks

Booksellers are among the beneficiaries of a new tax breaks for small businesses introduced in the 2015-16 federal budget on 12 May. From budget night... Read more
 

Changes to Australia Council announced in budget

The government will cut $110m from the Australia Council over the next four years as part of changes announced in the 2015-16 federal budget on 12... Read more
 

Leading Edge restructured; books manager Papadopoulos to leave the group x

Leading Edge Group has announced a restructure of its business, which will see marketing and operations teams centralised and the general manager for books, video... Read more
 

Shortlist announced for inaugural Russell Prize for Humour Writing x

The State Library of NSW has announced the shortlist for the inaugural Russell Prize for Humour Writing. The shortlisted titles are: A Short History of... Read more
 

HarperCollins to reprint ‘Paul Keating: The Biography’ with amendments

HarperCollins Australia will reprint David Day’s Paul Keating: The Biography with amendments, after the former Prime Minister disputed the book’s claim he suffers from dyslexia... Read more
 

‘The Strays’ sold to North America following Stella win x

US and Canadian rights to Emily Bitto’s Stella Prize-winning novel The Strays (Affirm Press) have been sold to Hachette US imprint TWELVE and Penguin Canada respectively,... Read more
 

Little Gnome bookshop to open in Brisbane

A new bookstore, Little Gnome, will open in the Brisbane suburb of Wynnum on 30 May. Belinda Ellis, who will run the store with her... Read more
 

New online bookshop for self-published authors launched

A new online bookshop that allows self-published authors to sell print copies of their books direct to consumers has launched this week. Bocabel, which is... Read more
 

Affirm Press, Varuna launch new mentorship award

Affirm Press and Varuna, the Writers’ House, have announced a new publisher partnership. The Affirm Press Mentorship Award offers up to four local writers at any... Read more
 

School bullying memoir ‘Bad Behaviour’ optioned for TV

TV rights to Rebecca Starford’s debut memoir Bad Behaviour: A Memoir of Bullying and Boarding School (A&U) have been optioned by director Pip Karmel and... Read more
 

Krien shortlisted for British Sports Book Awards

Night Games: Sex, Power and a Journey into the Dark Heart of Sport (Black Inc.) has been shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards. The... Read more
 

Quote of the week

‘It drives home the point that the technology is there to charge GST to all goods and services coming from offshore’—ABA CEO Joel Becker on... Read more
 

Rights round-up x

Sales Fiction—Alex Adsett Publishing Services has sold North American rights to the ‘Alex Caine Trilogy’, books 1-3 (Alex Baxter) to Ragnarok Press. Black Inc. has... Read more
 

Bestsellers this week

Nora Roberts’ The Liar (Hachette) continues its run as Australia’s number one bestseller for the third consecutive week, followed by Truth or Die (James Patterson,... Read more
 

Crowdfunded book wins inaugural Book of the Year at UK Bookseller Industry Awards

In the UK, Paul Kingsnorth’s The Wake, published by crowdfunding platform Unbound, has been awarded the inaugural Book of the Year at the 2015 Bookseller... Read more
 

Neel Mukherjee’s ‘The Lives of Others’ wins Encore Award

In the UK, British-Indian writer Neel Mukherjee has won the 2014 Encore Award for his novel The Lives of Others (Vintage). Mukherjee’s novel, which was... Read more
 

Little Rebels Children’s Book Award winner announced

Gill Lewis has won the Little Rebels Children’s Book Award for radical children’s fiction for her book Scarlet Ibis (OUP), reports the Guardian. Lewis’ book... Read more
 

UK Bookseller Industry Awards 2015 winners announced

The winners of the UK’s Bookseller Industry Awards have been announced, reports the Bookseller. Bookselling chain Waterstones won the Book Retailer of the Year Award for its ‘watershed’ year,... Read more
 

UK publishers’ revenues flat in 2014

In the UK, the Publisher’s Association (PA) Statistics Yearbook has found publishers’ annual sales totalled £4.3bn (A$8.4bn) in 2014, the same as in 2013, reports... Read more
 

Report shows ebooks have greater share in English-language markets

An international ebook report has found significant disparity in growth rates between English-speaking and non-English-speaking markets, reports the Bookseller. The 2015 Global E-book Report, compiled... Read more
 

European Commission to hold ecommerce competition inquiry

The European Commission will hold a competition inquiry into the ecommerce sector in the European Union as part of a broader push towards a digital... Read more
 

St John Mandel wins 2015 Arthur C Clarke Award

Canadian author Emily St John Mandel has won the 2015 Arthur C Clarke Award for science-fiction writing for her novel Station Eleven (Picador). St John Mandel’s book was... Read more
 

PRH UK Children’s division creates one editorial team

In the UK, Penguin Random House (PRH) has restructured its children’s division to create one editorial team, reports the Bookseller. Editors at Random House Children’s... Read more
 

Antonia Hayes’ ‘Relativity’

Antonia Hayes’ debut novel Relativity is magnetising. Its highly original plot artfully reveals the mysteries behind a family rupture, at the heart of which is... Read more
 

Local author launches readathon for ILF

Australian author Jane Rawson has launched a readathon for June and July to raise money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF). Rawson has set up... Read more
 

NSW Public Library Association collects 70,000 signatures for funding petition x

The NSW Public Libraries Association (NSWPLA) has collected more than 70,000 signatures for its petition for a new public library funding model, saying the current system... Read more
 

National Archives Digital Excellent Awards announced x

The National Archives of Australia (NAA) has announced the winners of its inaugural Digital Excellence Awards, reports PSnewsonline. The awards, which were presented to Australian... Read more
 

International library news x

Obama Presidential Library coming to ChicagoThe Obama Foundation has announced that the Barack Obama Presidential Centre, including the Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum, will be... Read more
 

Alex Ross on book design and the ABDA shortlist x

The Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) will announce the winners of the 2015 Book Design Awards at a ceremony in Sydney on 22 May. Books+Publishing... Read more
 

TitlePage ‘Select All’ Option x

If you are a TitlePage user and you select and download TitlePage search results you can now select all results on a page by clicking on the check box in the header of the ‘Select’ column. Once you have done this you can deselect individual titles if you want to. The ‘Select all’ option only affects the titles on the current screen, not all results of a search if there is more than one screen’s worth. We hope you like this new feature. If you have any questions please contact TitlePage Support: titlepagesupport@thorpe.com.au.

 

Omnibus Books’ Dyan Blacklock Thanks Authors and Colleagues x

Dyan Blacklock wishes to thank the many creators who made Omnibus Books extraordinary. Working closely with friends such as Emily Rodda and discovering other wonderful writers such as Markus Zusak, Michael Gerard Bauer, David Cornish and many others have made the past 19 and a half years deeply rewarding. Special and lasting thanks go to Omnibus co-workers Celia Jellett and Patricia Howes.

Dyan can be contacted on 0417 809 777 or at joedb66@gmail.com.

 

Clive James ‘Latest Readings’—His Final Reading List x

Clive James new literary criticism Latest Readings is to be published in August by Yale University Press in hardback ISBN 9780300213195, and is available from Footprint Books at $32.95.

Diagnosed with Leukaemia in 2010, this is a look at his favourite books and is also a glimpse into himself, his musings on literature, his children and how he greets death.

Footprint’s David Ludowyk writes ‘Clive James’ love of the written word is evident on every page. His witty analyses of books he had read previously and new ones by Patrick O’Brien given to him by his eldest daughter, has inspired me to read all twenty of his books as James did, and then revisit Conrad and Hemingway.’

 

ETT Imprint Celebrates 20 Years x

To help celebrate 20 years of publishing ETT is creating 29 Arthur Upfield crime novels for world print release in mid-2015, releasing the first 13 Bony TV episodes as downloads in May, producing John Derum reading CJ Dennis for ABC Radio, and publishing 8 new works (below). Publisher Tom Thompson now manages all Arthur Upfield rights in English and translation, all Mudrooroo titles, Henry Miller’s unpublished novel Capricorn (1934) and Tony Gray’s novel The Testudo. More information or review copies from ettimprint@virginbroadband.com.au or call 0422967432.

New titles from ETT Imprint in May:
The Crimson Thread, the Henry Parkes Orations prepared for the anniversary of Parkes’ 200th birthday celebrations on May 27, $30 RRP. Also Power for the People, the history of electricity in NSW by Sandra Darroch, available from May 17 at $40 RRP. Lots of press to come, orders from Dennis Jones.

ETT eBooks in May:
Following the success of publishing all 29 Bony crime books by Arthur Upfield  as ebooks, ETT will have Upfield’s Gripped By Drought, A Royal Abduction, Breakaway House and The House of Cain available, together with The Midnight Pianist by Julia Osborne and Mudrooroo’s new novel An Indecent Obsession as an ebook exclusive; all through Dennis Jones.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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