Weekly Book Newsletter (end March 2022)
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1 September 2021

Readings announces 2021 New Australian Fiction Prize shortlist

Readings has announced the shortlist for its 2021 New Australian Fiction Prize. The shortlisted titles are: New Animal (Ella Baxter, A&U) She is Haunted (Paige... Read more
 
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Hachette acquires Albany debut in two-book deal x

Hachette Australia has acquired world rights to two novels by Northern Rivers journalist and songwriter Megan Albany. The deal was brokered between Hachette Australia head... Read more
 

 

PRH half-yearly profits up 55%

Penguin Random House (PRH) parent company Bertelsmann has reported the publisher posted a profit rise of 55.1% and a 10.9% growth in sales for the... Read more
 
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Booktopia yearly results, latest award winners

Booktopia has posted revenue growth of 35% and a 125% rise in profit for the 2021 financial year—its first full year results as an ASX-listed company.

In other news, Brisbane Writers Festival is engaging five curators to build its 2022 program as the festival celebrates its 60th year, while Hardie Grant Travel has been renamed Hardie Grant Explore.

In a big week for awards, the winners of the WA Premier’s Book Awards, the Ned Kelly and Davitt awards, and the National Biography Award were all announced, as was the longlist for the $20,000 Nib Literary Award. Robert Drewe and Anna Krien were also awarded Copyright Agency writing fellowships worth $80,000 each.

In the US, Barnes & Nobles has reported sales growth of 5–6% for the year to date. The UK Publishers Association has warned there’s £2.2b in book revenue ‘at risk’ in their government’s copyright consultation process. Also in the UK, the winners of the James Tait Black Prizes were announced. Meanwhile, the Sharjah Book Authority’s ‘Into Books’ campaign has spread to Paris, New York and Riyadh.

For all the latest localinternational and rights news, sign up to our Daily newsletter here.

 

 

Melbourne City of Lit meets Azil in Ljubljana

In this series, run in partnership with the Melbourne City of Literature Office, we get to know some of the bookstores in the UNESCO Cities... Read more
 
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Chelsea Watego on ‘Another Day in the Colony’ 

Chelsea Watego is an Indigenist health humanities scholar, prolific writer and public intellectual. Her debut essay collection Another Day in the Colony (UQP, November) examines... Read more
 

 

October reviews round-up x

In October, highly anticipated new novels from Michelle de Kretser, Jennifer Down and Emily Bitto will be hitting bookshelves. From de Kretser is Scary Monsters,... Read more
 

 

Rights round-up x

Sales Children’s/YA Hardie Grant Children’s has sold Japanese, Turkish and Brazilian rights to Walk of the Whales (Nick Bland, November 2021); Spanish language rights in... Read more
 

 

TikTok trends see Hoover and Reid in top 10 x

The rise of TikTok’s #BookTok hashtag has seen Colleen Hoover’s 2016 romance novel It Ends With Us and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2017 historical fiction The... Read more
 

 

Another Day in the Colony (Chelsea Watego, UQP) x

Chelsea Watego’s debut essay collection Another Day in the Colony documents the sustained racism First Peoples suffer in this continent. Through critical race scholarship, memoir and archival... Read more
 

 

The Dogs (John Hughes, Upswell) x

John Hughes, whose last book No One was shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin, grapples with the idea of whether it is possible to ever... Read more
 

 

The Greatest Mistakes That Went Right  (Maddy Mara, illus by Cheryl Orsini, Affirm Press) x

Many kids are afraid to try new things because they are scared of not getting it right the first time; niggling insecurities and latent perfectionism... Read more
 

 

Terciel and Elinor (Garth Nix, A&U) x

Garth Nix’s ‘Old Kingdom’ books have been a perennial staple of YA sections in bookstores for the past 25 years, and I couldn’t even guess... Read more
 

 

Read the latest Publishers Weekly x

Books+Publishing is partnering with US trade news magazine Publishers Weekly to provide our subscribers with exclusive access to the weekly digital edition of PW magazine.... Read more
 

 

Walker Books Australia congratulates Meg McKinlay and Matt Ottley

Walker Books Australia sends massive congratulations to Meg McKinlay and Matt Ottley, with their sublime picture book, How To Make A Bird, being announced as the winner of the WA Premier’s Prize for Writing for Children last week.

This is the second year in a row that Meg McKinlay has taken out the top prize, with Catch a Falling Star winning the award last year.

A huge congratulations to Meg and Matt Ottley for the continued success of this amazing book.

 

 

‘The Book of Chance’ Highly Commended in the Davitt Awards

Walker Books is thrilled to congratulate Sue Whiting! Her book, The Book of Chance, has been Highly Commended in the 2021 Davitt Awards in the ‘best children’s crime book’ category. Well done Sue!

 

 

Walker Book Australia signs up picture book series with Mick Elliott

Walker Books Australia is thrilled to announce they have signed a three book deal with acclaimed Australian author/illustrator Mick Elliott (Squidge Dibley and The Turners), through Fiona Inglis at Curtis Brown.

The three book deal will see Mick publish his first picture books.

‘Walker Books could not be happier to have Mick on board. We are a house of picture book makers and Mick couldn’t have found a better home. Mick brings his own unique humour and talent to every book he creates,’ says Angela Van Den Belt, president of Walker Books.

‘I am absolutely delighted to be collaborating with Walker Books Australia. Developing a picture book series has been one of the most enjoyable creative experiences I’ve ever had. I’m elated that the series will be brought to the world by the Walker Books team. I can’t wait to share it with readers of all ages,’ says Mick Elliott.

Mick Elliott is an author, illustrator, TV producer, screenwriter, literacy ambassador and professional mischief-maker. His debut trilogy, The Turners, was nominated for an Aurealis Award and features on the Premiers’ Reading Challenge. His illustrated middle-grade series, Squidge Dibley, has been sold into six international territories. He has contributed stories and illustrations to many bestselling anthologies.

Mick has written and produced acclaimed children’s programmes for Nickelodeon, the Sesame Workshop, Channel TEN and the ABC. He is an in-demand speaker, running storytelling workshops at hundreds of schools and festivals around Australia.

 
 

Sylph Series: Sylphie is Resilient

Sylphie is unique as she has wings because she is an air elemental known as a Sylph. But there is a problem, Sylphie cannot fly.... Read more
 
 
 

 

 

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