Across Australia, the 2020 ABIAs were streamed into our homes, where winners were toasted, writers celebrated, and history made. The 2020 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) were announced on Wednesday 13th May via a Virtual Awards Event streamed on YouTube, hosted by musician and performer Casey Bennetto. The awards are judged by an academy of more than 250 respected publishing industry figures and…

By Think Australian Trent Dalton’s 2018 debut novel Boy Swallows Universe has topped the Nielsen BookScan’s Australian fiction chart for the year to date, having sold more than 80,000 copies in 2020. Literary, historical and crime fiction are all represented in the top 10, including a number of bestsellers from 2019 or earlier—indeed, only two of the…

Making history, MPs and Senators discussed Bruce Pascoe’s book, Dark Emu at the first Australian Parliamentary Book Club last night. During a nation-wide call out for nominations, Pascoe’s award-winning non-fiction book was a clear favourite. Bruce Pascoe and Anna Moulton, CEO of Dark Emu publisher Magabala Books, attended the evening and had a conversation with…

The Australia Council has released the results of its research into Australian international book rights sales. The original research for the report was based at Macquarie University and supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund. Success Story: International rights sales of Australian-authored books looks at data reported by…

It’s hard to find a theme more urgent in publishing today—and one that unites fiction and nonfiction—than climate change.   Australian independent publisher Black Inc. has been particularly active in publishing books about the environment and climate change—and its titles have been picked up by numerous publishers around the world. ‘Books about the environment—particularly books…

By Think Australian Kate McCormack has been the rights and contracts manager for Brisbane-based independent UQP for the past four years, joining the publisher after 10 years at Penguin Random House Australia and stints in the UK and India. She spoke to Think Australian about her rights list and how Covid-19 has changed the way she works….

The Australian Reading Hour has become the flagship event of a new 17-day books and reading festival Australia Reads! Reaching more than 11 million Australians in 2019, The Australian Reading Hour has become the most successful campaign to unite the nation to pick up a book and discover the joys of reading. This year, this major event has…

Australian artist and mother of three Kat Macleod was inspired by the challenge of entertaining small children during lockdown to create her first picture book for Thames & Hudson Australia. The Tiny Explorers takes readers on a treasure hunt through the garden, exploring the natural world—including grass, leaves, bugs and flowers—up close through what the…