Weekly Book Newsletter (end March 2022)
26 October 2016

‘WBN’ published Thursday next week

Please note that, due to the Melbourne Cup public holiday in Victoria on Tuesday, the next Weekly Book Newsletter will be published on Thursday 3 November. The... Read more
 

Labor MP calls for retention of PIRs

Federal Labor MP and opposition spokesperson for tourism Anthony Albanese has written an opinion piece for the Fairfax papers arguing against the repeal of parallel... Read more
 

 

OzCo literature funding drops to 2.7%

Funding for literature has dropped to 2.7% of the Australia Council’s overall funding in 2015-16, according to the Australia Council’s recent annual report. In 2015-16,... Read more
 

 

Frew wins Barbara Jefferis Award for ‘Hope Farm’

Peggy Frew has won the 2016 Barbara Jefferis Award for her second novel, Hope Farm (Scribe). The $50,000 award, which is administered by the Australian Society... Read more
 

 

‘A Guide to Berlin’ wins 2016 Colin Roderick Award

Gail Jones’ A Guide to Berlin (Vintage) has won the 2016 Colin Roderick Award and the HT Priestley Medal, administered by the Foundation for Australian... Read more
 

 

YABBAs 2016 winners announced

The winners of the 2016 Young Australians Best Book Awards (YABBAs), Victoria’s children’s choice awards, have been announced. The winning titles are: Picture storybooks Pig... Read more
 

Booktopia shelves ASX listing due to ‘cooling market sentiment towards retailers’

Online bookseller Booktopia has backed away from its plan to list on the Australian Stock Exchange due to institutional investors’ cooling market sentiment towards retailers,... Read more
 

Affirm announces new kids’ list to launch in 2017 x

Affirm Press is introducing a new list of books for children and young adults in March 2017. Publishing director Martin Hughes told Books+Publishing that he is... Read more
 

Voss Literary Prize 2016 shortlist announced

The shortlist for the 2016 Voss Literary Prize has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Coming Rain (Stephen Daisley, Text) The Life of Houses (Lisa Gorton, Giramondo)... Read more
 

Walkley Book Award 2016 longlist announced

The 2016 Walkley Book Award longlist has been announced. The longlisted titles are: Phillip Schuler: The Remarkable Life of One of Australia’s Greatest War Correspondents... Read more
 

Nine Australian authors and illustrators nominated for 2017 Astrid Lindgren Award

Nine Australian authors and illustrators have been nominated for the 2017 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Randa Abdel-Fattah, Ursula Dubosarsky, Libby Gleeson, Morris Gleitzman, Gus Gordon,... Read more
 

Australians nominated for 2017 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals

Several Australian authors and illustrators have been included in the 2017 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals nominations, which were announced in the UK on 24... Read more
 

Fremantle Press illustrators longlisted for FBF prize

Australian illustrators Kyle Hughes-Odgers and Chris Nixon have been longlisted for the inaugural Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) Global Illustration Award, which has a prize pool... Read more
 

 

Womersley signs three-book deal with Picador

Chris Womersley’s fourth novel will be published by Picador in 2017 as part of a three-book deal. Set against the backdrop of 17th-century France and... Read more
 

 

Scribe signs 2016 Vic Prem’s Unpublished Manuscript finalist

Scribe has signed a two-book deal with young writer Jay Carmichael, who was shortlisted for the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Award for an Unpublished Manuscript for... Read more
 

Australian author’s middle-grade trilogy acquired at auction

A middle-grade trilogy from debut Australian author Jessica Townsend has been acquired at auction by Hachette UK, US and Australia, reports the Bookseller. The first... Read more
 

A&U to publish ‘dinosaur robots’ series from McFarlane and Park x

Allen & Unwin has announced it will publish a new ‘high-concept adventure series’ about ‘dinosaur robots’ from authors Susannah McFarlane and Louise Park. ‘D-Bot Squad’,... Read more
 

Publishing software company Typefi wins Qld Premier’s Export Award

Publishing software company Typefi has won the Small Business Award in the Queensland Premier’s Export Awards, recognising its ‘outstanding success and contribution’ to the state’s... Read more
 

 

More than 50 guests announced for Sisters in Crime’s 25th-anniversary convention

Sisters in Crime Australia will celebrate its 25th anniversary at a one-day convention at the St Kilda Town Hall in Melbourne on 19 November, with... Read more
 

 

SWF’s ‘Russ the Story Bus’ to make first trip to regional NSW

The Sydney Writers Festival’s (SWF) Russ the Story Bus tour will visit regional NSW towns for the first time, as part of SWF’s Children’s Festival... Read more
 

 

Beatty wins 2016 Man Booker Prize

US author Paul Beatty has become the first American to win the Man Booker Prize for his satirical novel The Sellout (Oneworld). Beatty’s novel follows the... Read more
 

 

‘The Summer that Melted Everything’ wins 2016 Not the Booker Prize

US author Tiffany McDaniel’s debut novel The Summer that Melted Everything (Scribe) has won this year’s Not the Booker Prize, which is run by the... Read more
 

New literary prize offers US$100,000 book deal

A new literary prize has been launched that comes with a US$100,000 (A$131,480) publishing deal with Cambridge University Press, reports the Guardian. The biennial Nine... Read more
 

European authors’ average earnings at €17,500, report finds x

A newly released European Commission report has found that authors in Europe earned on average €17,500 (A$24,986) per year, reports the Bookseller. The findings, based... Read more
 

Virtual reality rights sold for YA trilogy in ‘world first’ deal

Virtual reality rights to a YA trilogy have been sold to an ‘interactive entertainment company’ in what is being described as a ‘world first’ deal,... Read more
 

Rights round-up x

Sales Fiction—Black Inc. has sold world audio rights to The Angel’s Share (Kayte Nunn) to Wavesound. Nonfiction—Black Inc. has sold Italian rights to The Shortest... Read more
 

 

Bestsellers this week x

The film tie-in edition of The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins, Black Swan) has climbed to the top of this week’s top 10 bestsellers... Read more
 

Julia Baird’s ‘Victoria the Queen’ x

‘Julia Baird’s excellent and sadly out-of-print first book, Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians, was an engrossing dissection of gender, politics and... Read more
 

Quote of the week

‘If we rely on individual artists to do their development in private, we risk a national literature where only the privileged can afford to contribute’—freelance writer and editor Samantha Forge calls for greater funding for literature following the release of the Australia Council’s annual report

 

SLV and Vic public libraries launch statewide early literacy program

The State Library of Victoria (SLV) and Public Libraries Victoria Network (PLVN) have jointly launched ‘1000 Books Before School’, a statewide early literacy program designed... Read more
 

New ALIA award for library design to be presented in 2017

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has announced the inaugural Australian Library Design Awards will be presented in 2017, in partnership with the Australian... Read more
 

NSW councils call on state government to fund its share of public libraries x

Blacktown mayor Stephen Bali has criticised the NSW government for gradually decreasing its commitment to public libraries, in a speech at the NSW Local Government... Read more
 

US copyright register removed by Librarian of Congress x

In the US, creators and media organisations are ‘surprised and dismayed’ at the sudden removal of US register of copyrights Maria Pallante—the first dismissal from... Read more
 

Booking ahead: 2017 nonfiction preview x

Each year we ask publishers to tell us about their most anticipated titles for 2017. Read about their top adult nonfiction titles from the latest... Read more
 

Small publisher spotlight: Threekookaburras x

Launched in Melbourne in 2013, Threekookaburras has a focus on ‘perennially useful nonfiction and experimental fiction’ and a ‘low-cost, profit-sharing model that slots between self-publishers... Read more
 

Society of Women Writers NSW: November Literary Luncheon x

The Society of Women Writers NSW will hold its monthly literary luncheon on Wednesday, 9 November 2016 from 12pm to 2pm. The keynote speaker will... Read more

Walker Books Signs New Alex Rider Novel x

Walker Books have signed a new Alex Rider novel from Anthony Horowitz, for publication in June 2017. The new novel, Never Say Die, promises to be the most action packed and thrilling instalment of the series so far, with sequences set in Egypt, London and Europe. Horowitz had previously announced that the series was finished, but was inspired to continue his hero’s story while preparing a collection of Alex Rider short stories, to be published in 2018.

Horowitz says: ‘For the first time in over three years, and contrary to my expectations, I found myself revisiting my character, Alex Rider. And I realized how much I had missed him. I have loved writing the new book and I am certain it will appeal not just to new readers but to young people in their teens and twenties who grew up with Alex.’

 

Walker Books Australia Congratulates Meg McKinlay x

Walker Books Australia congratulates Meg McKinlay on A Single Stone’s most recent shortlisting for the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

A Single Stone has been shortlisted for ten awards and won both the Aurealis Award and the Queensland Literary Award.

To order copies (ISBN 9781925126471) call Harper Entertainment Distribution Services on 1300 551 721.

 

NewSouth Congratulates Madeline Gleeson on the 2016 Walkley Book Award Longlist x

NewSouth are pleased to announce that Madeline Gleeson’s Offshore: Behind the Wire on Manus and Nauru has been longlisted for the 2016 Walkley Book Award. In Offshore, Gleeson provides a comprehensive overview of the first three years of offshore processing—why the policy was introduced, the experiences of asylum seekers and staff in the centres, and why the truth has been so hard to find.

To order contact TL Distribution (P: +61(2) 8778 9999, E: orders@tldistribution.com.au).

 

Bloomsbury Australia Congratulates Paul Beatty—Winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize x

Bloomsbury Australia is delighted to congratulate Paul Beatty and Oneworld Publications on winning the 2016 Man Booker Prize for The Sellout.

Reprinted stock of 9781786070173—The Sellout will be available from United Book Distributors on Monday 31 October.

 

Alliance Distribution Services Christmas Trading x

Alliance Distribution Services (ADS) wish to advise the following changes to assist customers in maximising opportunities in the period leading up to Christmas.

  1. ADS will reduce the normal minimum order value to $175 rrp from Wednesday 30 November until Wednesday 21 December. This will enable customers to have their orders despatched prior to Christmas without needing to reach the higher minimum.
  2. ADS will expand the customer service department hours to open from 7.30am to 5.30pm AEST weekdays for the same period. Further extensions of service may be added should activity demand.
  3. ADS has commenced an additional picking shift to ensure orders are despatched to maintain our usual high average daily turnaround throughout this busy period.

The ADS Customer Service and warehouse operations will be open on all days throughout the Christmas and New Year period other than public holidays.

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Contact us

Subscriptions
subscriptions@booksandpublishing.com.au
Phone (02) 8227-6486

Editorial
News editor
Brad Jefferies
brad@booksandpublishing.com.au

Acting editor, newsletters
Matthia Dempsey
matthia@booksandpublishing.com.au

Digital producer
Andrew Wrathall
andrew@booksandpublishing.com.au

Classifieds, jobs and notices
submit.booksandpublishing.com.au
classifieds@booksandpublishing.com.au

Display advertising
advertising@booksandpublishing.com.au

Company: Books and Publishing Pty Ltd

Address: Books+Publishing, PO Box 42, Prahran VIC 3181, Australia

Books+Publishing’s website and publications contain content that is exclusive to subscribers. To photocopy, email or otherwise reproduce all or part of Books+Publishing’s content without the written permission of the publisher is illegal.

News

Do you want to submit news to Books+Publishing?
Read the editorial submissions page.

Classifieds

Classifieds, job ads and notices can be placed in Books+Publishing via the advertising submissions page.

Select newsletters

Select which newsletters you’d like to receive here.
Unsubscribe from individual newsletters here.
Or unsubscribe from all newsletters here.

View articles

Purchase a subscription to Books+Publishing to view all articles on the website.

If you need help with your subscription, please email the subscriptions team.

Follow us