Among the latest children’s and YA acquisitions by Australian publishers: Children’s Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing (HGCP) has acquired two books by Maxine Beneba Clarke. Releasing in June 2023, It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people, is Clarke’s debut collection of poetry for children and teens. Aimed at upper primary through…

The Australian book market posted strong results throughout the Covid-affected years of 2020 and 2021, and has continued this growth in 2022, with overall sales for the year to 18 June up 4.1% year-to-year, for a total of A$544 million. Coming after two years of consecutive growth in 2020 (up 7.8%) and 2021 (up 2.5%),…

Publisher Rachel Bin Salleh introduces Australia’s leading First Nations press Magabala Books. How and why did Magabala’s children’s division begin its life? Magabala has been publishing children’s pictures books since our beginnings in the 80s. Our children’s poetry book Do Not Go Around the Edges by Daisy Utemorrah was first published in 1991 and is…

The winners of the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced. In the business awards, Penguin Random House Australia won publisher of the year while the University of Queensland Press was named small publisher of the year. In retailing, Avid Reader in Brisbane was awarded bookshop of the year and Readings was named…

Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to a book by Nathan Lyons, ‘the Australian TikTok sensation behind Kooking With A Koori’. Lyons, a Wiradjuri man, is a 35-year-old transport worker from Western Sydney who has attracted more than 95,000 followers after launching cooking videos on TikTok in September 2020. ‘The popularity of…

Melbourne-based author and illustrator Jess Racklyeft has been awarded a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) International Bologna Scholarship to attend this year’s Bologna book fair. Here she shares her journey to illustration and writing, upcoming projects, the illustrators she admires and why she cried at Bologna the last time she visited. How…

Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to a book by Nathan Lyons, ‘the Australian TikTok sensation behind Kooking With A Koori’. Lyons, a Wiradjuri man, is a 35-year-old transport worker from Western Sydney who has attracted more than 95,000 followers after launching cooking videos on TikTok in September 2020. ‘The popularity of…

Last week the Australian Publishers Association held the first in its series of international rights online networking events, in collaboration with Canadian counterpart, Livres Canada Books. This free event was an opportunity for Australians to connect and build new relationships with publishers and rights agents, while learning more about the Canadian publishing market. Proceedings began with…