New Zealand’s book sales are up in volume and value in the first half of 2015, according to new figures released by Nielsen Book. New... Read more

Literary journal Overland and the National Union of Workers (NUW) have announced the shortlists for the inaugural Fair Australia Prize.  Shortlists have been released for... Read more

Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia will launch its first local digital serial in July. Lethal in Love, a six-part serialised suspense romance by Australian author... Read more

Following reports of its record-breaking sales overseas, E L James’ Grey (Arrow), a retelling of Fifty Shades of Grey (Arrow) from the character Christian Grey’s... Read more

Film and TV rights to Jen Banyard’s children’s books Riddle Gully Runaway and Mystery at Riddle Gully (Fremantle Press) have been optioned by Australia-based production company... Read more

Bernard Cohen’s The Antibiography of Robert F Menzies (HarperCollins) has won the inaugural Russell Prize for Humour Writing. The book was chosen for the $10,000... Read more

Aviva Tuffield has been appointed publisher at Black Inc. Tuffield will specialise in fiction but will also acquire nonfiction titles. She will work part-time, continuing... Read more

Allen & Unwin NZ director Melanie Laville-Moore has been elected president of the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) at the organisation’s recent AGM. Laville-Moore,... Read more

Simon & Schuster UK has purchased UK, Commonwealth and ANZ rights for a novel by Australian author Aoife Clifford. All These Perfect Strangers is the... Read more

CSIRO Publishing has launched a children’s book publishing program and will release its first title in September. The press, which has been publishing science and technology books... Read more

Allen & Unwin (A&U) and Murdoch Books have recently launched new websites. A&U’s website has been redeveloped with a responsive design, and similar websites have... Read more

Lonely Planet has launched a series of ‘destination’ cookbooks called ‘From the Source’. The publisher will release the first two cookbooks in August—From the Source:... Read more

Former News Corp CEO Kim Williams has been appointed chair of the Copyright Agency. Williams replaces Hardie Grant Publishing chief executive Sandy Grant, who has... Read more

Rhonda Black has retired as publisher at Aboriginal Studies Press (ASP) after 12 years in the role. Black was instrumental in developing many resources at... Read more

Digital-first publisher Editia has won a $5000 Walkley Grant for Innovation in Journalism.  The grants offer seed funding for innovative projects that will benefit Australian journalism,... Read more

Tasmanian publisher Transportation Press has announced plans to publish a second collection of short stories from Tasmania and abroad. ‘The Third Script will include stories... Read more

‘While total NZ-published sales increased, NZ Fiction decreased by just over 50% in both volume and value—no titles have replaced the impact that The Luminaries... Read more

Sales Fiction—A&U has sold US and UK & Commonwealth (ex ANZ) rights to To Name Those Lost (Rohan Wilson) to Europa Editions US and UK,... Read more

Pearson has topped the ‘Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry’, an annual survey of publisher revenues, compiled on behalf of Livres Hebdo, Buchreport, the Bookseller... Read more

The winners of the 2015 Locus Awards for science-fiction and fantasy writing have been announced. Winners include: Ancillary Sword (Ann Leckie, Orbit) in the Science-fiction... Read more

In the US, the American Library Association (ALA) has announced the winners of the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medals. Anthony Doerr won the Andrew Carnegie Medal... Read more

French publishers’ net income fell by 1.3% to €2652m ($A3842m) in 2014—the fourth year running that French publishers have recorded a decline, reports the Bookseller. Book... Read more

Amazon’s UK website has recorded sales of £5.3bn (A$10.8bn) for the year ending December 2014, up 14% from £4.49bn (A$9.1bn) the previous year, reports the... Read more

The £3000 (A$6115) PEN/Ackerley Prize for a work of memoir or autobiography has been awarded to neurosurgeon Henry Marsh for his memoir Do No Harm:... Read more

In the US, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Judge Denise Cote’s 2013 finding that Apple conspired to fix ebook prices with publishers, reports... Read more

In the US, the Walt Disney Company will combine the division that includes its publishing arm with its interactive media division, reports Digital Book World.... Read more

Caleb Zelic’s deafness has made him an astute observer of the minute details of world around him, and of people in particular, a skill he... Read more

The State Library of NSW’s collection has recently been valued at $3.15 billion, an increase of nearly $1 billion since 2010. The collection is the... Read more

The National Library of New Zealand may close its Palmerston North branch at the end of the year in favour of a centralised service, reports... Read more

Ebook pricing discussed at American library conference Ebook pricing was a key issue discussed at the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual conference, which ran from... Read more

Lili Wilkinson’s latest YA novel Green Valentine (A&U) is a romantic comedy with an environmental twist, that explores ‘the cliché that popular girls are always mean girls’. Read... Read more

Aviva Tuffield has been appointed publisher at Black Inc. after recently finishing up Affirm Press. (See news.)

Rhonda Black has retired as publisher at Aboriginal Studies Press. (See news.) 

Former News Corp CEO Kim Williams has been appointed chair of the Copyright Agency. Williams replaces Hardie Grant Publishing chief executive Sandy Grant, who will... Read more

Allen & Unwin NZ director Melanie Laville-Moore has been elected president of the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ), replacing Auckland University Press director Sam... Read more

Don’t miss out—get your entry or nomination in. With a combined prize pool over $100,000, entries in the Melbourne Prize for Literature 2015, Best Writing Award 2015 and the new Writers Prize 2015 close on 20 July 2015 at 5pm. Open to Victorian residents only, all writing genres are eligible.

Please visit www.melbourneprize.org for the entry form and detailed information.

Aboriginal Studies Press (AIATSIS) farewells Rhonda Black who leaves after twelve years as publisher. ‘Rhonda has made an invaluable contribution to the work of AIATSIS in positioning Aboriginal Studies Press as a leader in Australian Indigenous publishing,’ said AIATSIS Principal Mr Russell Taylor. Rhonda has had a long and outstanding career in publishing and we wish her all the very best for the future.