Melbourne bookstore Hill of Content is moving to a new location after 103 years at its current address, 86 Bourke St, following the sale of... Read more

Stella Day Out has announced its next iteration will be in Warrnambool, and released the date and full program. The free, one-day festival will take... Read more

Clan Destine Press has acquired world rights to YA novel The Bride Must Be Stopped! and its two sequels by Aotearoa New Zealand author Stephen... Read more

Scribe Publications has acquired world rights to Earthquake: Signposts to the election that shook Australia by Niki Savva. Earthquake is a combination of selections from... Read more

In the UK, Chris Larmour, founder of Europe’s orbital space rocket company Orbex, along with Orbex founding investors Martin Coates and John May, has launched... Read more

At Books+Publishing (B+P) this week, our monthly Book Club round up included new release adult fiction and nonfiction; Cat Colwell, head of TitlePage at the APA, spoke to B+P about upcoming upgrades to TitlePage, launching in 2026; and B+P reviewer Annie Waters spoke to author Amelia Mellor about her new middle-grade adventure series, Oceanforged, which launches with The Wicked Ship (Affirm, August); and Mellor recommends Odo Hirsch’s Bartlett and the Ice Voyage.

In Melbourne, the bookstore Hill of Content is moving location after 103 years at its current address, following the sale of the historic building. The bookstore will move to 1/32 Bourke Street from mid-July.

In awards news, BookPeople has announced the winners of the 2025 Book of the Year Awards, and the Bookseller of the Year awards; Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia announced Touch Grass by Mary Colussi as the 2025 Penguin Literary Prize winner; MARION ACT announced the shortlists for the 2025 ACT Literary Awards; the Coalition for Books announced the ten winners of the inaugural New Voices of Aotearoa competition; the Wilderness Society announced the shortlists for the 2025 Environment Award for Children’s Literature and Karajia Award for First Nations Children’s Storytelling; and the RWA announced the finalists for the 2025 Romantic Book of the Year (Ruby) Awards.

The Central Coast’s writers festival, Words on the Waves, reported a ‘a record number of attendees’ and a 10% increase in ticket sales overall.

This week included a run of acquisitions news including UQP’s acquisition of Melissa Lucashenko’s first nonfiction title Not Quite White in the Head, via Alex Adsett of Alex Adsett Literary; Hachette Australia acquired Always You, a memoir from the Darling, Shine! podcast creator Chloe Fisher with Alley Pascoe; the recently established Perentie Press acquired The Curator, a YA graphic novel by author/illustrator Wendy Tyrer; Powerhouse announced their first literary acquisition: Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath; Affirm Press acquired the picture book Make Them Say Poo by Steve MinOn under the pen name Stephen; Scribe Publications acquired Earthquake: Signposts to the election that shook Australia by Niki Savva; and Clandestine Press acquired both Kill Will: Nightbird in Sunlight by Gordon Thompson and YA novel The Bride Must Be Stopped! and its two sequels by Aotearoa New Zealand author Stephen Ross.

Additionally, Miramax president of film group Alexandra Loewy acquired film rights to Melbourne-based author Amy Taylor’s forthcoming novel Ruins (A&U, July); and, Tim Sharp acquired the film option to Wayne Marshall’s short story ‘A Night Out’ from Marshall’s debut collection Shirl (Affirm Press), via Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary.

In international news, BookBrunch reported on the Data Bill that passed through the House of Commons in the UK with MPs voting 304 vs 189 in favour; the bill did not include amendments suggested by Baroness Beeban Kidron to allow UK creative industries transparency over the copyright works ingested by AI; Chris Larmour, founder of space rocket company Orbex, along with Orbex founding investors Martin Coates and John May, launched Factorial Books in the UK, a digital-first publisher focusing on science fiction; also in the UK, The SafeKeep by Dutch author Yael van der Wouden (Penguin) won the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction and The Story of a Heart by UK author Rachel Clarke (Abacus) won the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction.

---

Did you know that Books+Publishing runs a daily newsletter, as well as the Weekly Book Newsletter? Be among the first to read news like this by subscribing here.

Melbourne-based author Amelia Mellor’s new middle-grade adventure series, Oceanforged, launches with The Wicked Ship (Affirm, August), a ‘rollicking mix of Treasure Island and The Sword... Read more

An in-joke with my sister recently led me to revisit Odo Hirsch’s Bartlett and the Ice Voyage, an audiobook we once listened to on a... Read more

Thomas Neurath, long-time managing director and later chairman of Thames & Hudson (T&H), has died in London at the age of 84. From a statement... Read more

Sales Fiction Jenny Darling & Associates has sold various Tim Winton titles (Penguin): Italian rights to Juice and renewed licence for The Riders to Fazi Editore; French... Read more

Top 10 bestsellers Cozy Corner (Coco Wyo, Penguin) The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins & Sawyer Robbins, Hay House) Cozy Cuties (Coco Wyo, Penguin) A... Read more

The Eagle and the Crow is a work of many layers – lyrical, intellectual and political – all grounded in Gamilaraay knowledge and resistance. JM... Read more

Isn’t It Nice We Both Hate the Same Things by Jessica Seaborn has a lengthy title that might be tricky to remember, but its characters... Read more

Katharine Pollock’s Starry Eyed is delightfully hard to categorise, combining romantic comedy and science fiction elements and loosely held together by a fan fiction narrative.... Read more

Until the Red Leaves Fall is the second novel by Japanese-Australian author and screenwriter Alli Parker (At the Foot of the Cherry Tree). Set primarily... Read more

Adam Cece’s The Locked Room is built on an excellent premise: four teenagers trapped in an escape room must solve a series of puzzles –... Read more

Created by author and illustrator Astred Hicks in collaboration with ecologist Holly Parsons, This Bird: Noticing Our Urban Birds is a vibrant celebration of Australian... Read more

Amelia Mellor follows The Grandest Bookshop series, her bestselling, award-winning historical fantasy trilogy, with the new swashbuckling Oceanforged series for readers aged 8–10. The Wicked... Read more

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

Applications for the Peter Blazey Fellowship are now open!

This award is for a work-in-progress by writers with a publishing record. Worth $20,000 this year, the Fellowship honours the larger-than-life figure of Peter Blazey – journalist, author and gay activist.

We’re calling for entries in the nonfiction fields of biography, autobiography, memoir and life writing. Past winners include Ellen van Neerven, who was supported through the Fellowship to complete their acclaimed work, Personal Score, and Mark Mordue with his highly successful biography of Nick Cave, Boy on Fire.

Applications close 11 August 2025.

Click here for information about how to apply.

Do you have a hack to boost the productivity of your peers, or an example of where AI just doesn’t cut it? We’re looking for submissions of your best tip or trick for incorporating AI within your work, which could be utilised across the industry. This session will consist of five quick fire presentations approximately four minutes long.

BookUp is Australia’s dedicated publishing conference, bringing professionals together to discuss the big topics and trends affecting the sector. This year’s conference takes place on Thursday 7 August 2025 at the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

Does this sound like you? Share your expertise by sending your pitch to present at BookUp in 200 words or less to events@publishers.asn.au by Friday 27 June.