News and Updates

Coming to you from a country that has seen sales of children’s books boom in recent years, we are so pleased to share news and new books from the world of children’s and YA publishing in Australia in this Bologna issue of Think Australian, which is produced in partnership with the Australian Publishers Association (APA)...

Publishers attending the Bologna book fair in person on the Australian Publishers Association (APA) Australian Collective Stand are Allen & Unwin, Berbay Publishing, CSIRO Publishing, Five Mile, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing, Interactive Publications, Magabala, Pascal Press, Scribble, UQP and Windy Hollow Books. They will be joined on the stand by literary agencies the Annabel Barker...

Australian publishers Affirm Press, EK Books, Magabala Books, Starfish Bay and Wilkins Farago have been shortlisted in this year’s Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher of the Year in the Oceania category. For Affirm Press, EK Books and Magabala it is the second shortlisting in a row. The winners will be announced at the fair....

The Australian book market is trading well above the last pre-Covid year of 2019 after three consecutive years of growth. Sales of books in Australia grew 7.2% last year to A$1.3 billion, up from A$1.26 billion in 2021, according to Nielsen BookData, while the total number of unit sales for 2022 was 70.9 million, an...

A debut young adult title by Lystra Rose, a descendant of the Guugu Yimithirr, Birri Gubba, Erub and Scottish nations, took out the prestigious $25,000 Indigenous writing prize in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. The Upwelling (Lothian) is the outcome of Rose’s research over many years and of her time as a participant of the black&write...

In junior fiction on offer at Bologna this year, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing has Monsties: The Lost Bunny (Zanni Louise & Kyla May) featuring Orla, Pearl, Mig, Boo and Oops—five best friend monsters who live in Scaryland, surrounded by scary monsters, but who are hopeless at being scary. They much prefer candy and cupcakes to...

Experiences in nature fill many of the picture books on offer from Australian publishers at Bologna this year. Thank you rain! (Sally Morgan & Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr, Magabala Books) is full of the plants and animals that welcome rain: raindrops in the treetops; birds singing in the rain; raindrops wetting the dry earth and filling...

In nonfiction the ‘long-awaited’ picture book Your Brain is a Lump of Goo from Idan Ben-Barak (A&U), the award-winning author of Do Not Lick This Book, and Christopher Nielsen. It explores ‘the biggest and most mysterious organ in the human body’ with expertise and humour, says A&U, while All About the Heart (Berbay) will give curious...

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...

Children’s and young adult (CYA) titles have been driving the growth of the Australian book market in the past year, with titles like Heartstopper, Bluey and The Bad Guys becoming regular presences on the bestsellers chart. The numbers from Nielsen BookData confirm this: looking at children’s and young adult fiction alone, the CYA fiction category...

Lystra Rose has won the $25,000 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing for her YA debut novel The Upwelling (Hachette Australia), while We Who Hunt the Hollow (Kate Murray, HGCP) took out the $25,000 YA category in the awards. In other state-based awards, Ella and the Ocean (Lian Tanner & Jonathan Bentley, A&U) took out...

Sophie Splatt, an editor of books for children and young adults at Allen & Unwin for the past decade, is the Australian Publishers Association’s (APA) 2023 Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellow. Her research project will take her to the US and Canada to meet with graphic novel publishers, editors, agents and creators for her research project...

The launch of your own agency was quickly followed by the pandemic; how did that affect what you were pitching and how you were making deals? Like others, I had to cancel my trip to Bologna Book Fair with two weeks’ notice and pivoting to digital meetings was, to begin with, really challenging. The deals...

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...

Australian creators tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why.   Illustrator and author Jess Racklyeft will attend this year’s Bologna Book Fair as the winner of a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) International scholarship: ‘I am a huge fan of Claire Saxby’s work (I have been...

Australians have spent most of the past two years confined to our home country (and much of that time confined to our homes!), so it is wonderful to report that representatives from 14 Australian publishing businesses will attend Frankfurt this year as part of the Australian Publishers Association (APA) stand. A further 14 will be...

Memoir and biography  Look out for Ash Barty’s memoir My Dream Time (HarperCollins), which reflects on Barty’s tennis career, her family, and ‘finding the path to being the best I could be, not just as an athlete but as a person’. Hachette is excited to pitch Ellidy Pullin’s memoir Heartstrong, which debuted at number five...

Picture books Allen & Unwin Children’s (A&U) is pitching a list of exciting new titles from beloved authors, including the picture book Shadow Catchers by award-winning team Kirsty Murray and Karen Blair, that captures the joy of playing with shadows; and Big Cat, a richly illustrated story about finding your inner wildness in unexpected places,...

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%),...

As well as a wealth of trade offerings, Australia boasts a healthy educational publishing sector. Attending in person on the Australia stand at Frankfurt this year will be ATF Press Publishing Group an Australian-based independent publisher with an international reach, established in 1993. ATF publishes trade books as well as academic books and peer-referred journals...

Among recent fiction acquisitions by Australian publishers are literary speculative fiction books, a plethora of debut authors, and more poetry and short story collections. HarperCollins Australia has acquired ANZ rights to The Visitors by Jane Harrison, in a highly competitive auction brokered by Danielle Binks of Jacinta di Mase Management Literacy Agency. Based on Harrison’s...

Among the most recent nonfiction acquisitions by Australian publishers are a plethora of memoir titles, including actor Sam Neill’s memoir Did I Ever Tell You This?, for which Text acquired world rights and which is due to be published in the first half of 2023. Described by the publisher as ‘the work of a natural...

The Australian children’s middle-grade market continues to grow, and recent acquisitions show it won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired ANZ, Oceania and non-exclusive Asia rights to Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky, the new middle-grade novel by Rebecca Lim, via the Annabel Barker Agency. From the author of Tiger...

Melbourne writer Jennifer Down took out Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award, for her second novel Bodies of Light (Text). The winner was chosen from a shortlist announced in June, in a headline-grabbing year for the Miles Franklin that featured a plagiarism scandal as well as the shortlisting of a...

Nerrilee Weir, former Penguin Random House Australia senior rights manager and Fiona Henderson, former Simon & Schuster Australia publishing director, have joined forces to create new rights agency Bold Type Agency, which will focus on book-to-screen adaptations and representing Australian literary agents and publishers in international markets. Weir tells Think Australian what they’ll be pitching...

Australian authors tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why.   Michelle Kadarusman is the author of the middle-grade book on animal activism Berani (A&U Children’s, November). I usually have a few books on the go, both children and adult reads. Two newer books that really stood out for me...

After more than two years attending rights fairs virtually, several Australian publishers will be attending the 2022 London Book Fair (LBF) in person next week. ‘We’re excited to attend LBF in person for the first time since 2020,’ Allen & Unwin (A&U) rights and international sales manager Sandra Buol told Think Australian. Buol will be...

After more than two years attending rights fairs virtually, several Australian publishers will be attending the 2022 London Book Fair (LBF) in person next week. ‘We’re excited to attend LBF in person for the first time since 2020,’ Allen & Unwin (A&U) rights and international sales manager Sandra Buol told Think Australian. Buol will be...

Trent Dalton, whose 2018 debut Boy Swallows Universe remains in the top 10 Australian fiction bestsellers over three years after its publication, is at the top of Australian nonfiction charts for the year to date with his collection Love Stories, released in October last year. Love Stories is closely followed in the Australian nonfiction chart...

A biography of Australian surfer Owen Wright (world rights acquired by S&S Australia) tells the story of the surfer’s recovery after a serious brain injury ahead of the Pipeline Masters competition in Hawaii: in a single moment, he went from being ranked fifth in the world to having to learn how to walk and talk...

Of all the titles being pitched at LBF, perhap the most instantly recognisable as Australian is forthcoming nonfiction title Koala by biologist Danielle Clode (Black Inc., September), which promises ‘an immersive, entertaining journey into the hidden life of the koala’, which, despite their iconic status and celebrity, ‘remain something of a mystery’ says the publisher....

After a pandemic-fuelled record year in 2020—during which sales of books in Australia grew 7.8% to A$1.25 billion (unit sales for the year were 67 million) according to Nielsen BookScan—in 2021, the Australian book market experienced more modest growth of only 2.5% in value to A$1.3 billion. (Nielsen reported book sales in 2021 fell 1% in volume compared...

Among recent acquisitions are a spate of two-book deals. MacLehose Press, an imprint of Hachette-owned UK publisher Quercus, has acquired world rights to two new novels by Australian author Peter Papathanasiou in a deal brokered by Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary. The new books follow on from Papathanasiou’s debut crime novel The Stoning (Transit Lounge),...

Australian authors tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why.   Hayley Scrivenor is the author of forthcoming crime novel Dirt Town (Macmillan, May). ‘I was fortunate enough to see Larissa Behrendt speak at the 2021 BAD Sydney Crime Writers festival about her book After Story (UQP). I got the...

Australian publishing continues to ride a literary crime wave, with several local publishers bringing crime offerings to London. ‘We are delighted to share Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone,’ says Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) senior rights executive Jordan Meek. Described by the publisher as ‘Agatha Christie meets Knives Out meets Richard...

In February this year, first-time author Veronica Gorrie took home Australia’s richest literary prize, the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature at the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, for her memoir Black and Blue: A memoir of racism and resilience (Scribe). ‘Her personal journey, from thinking she can change Aboriginal worlds through joining the police force...

Of all the titles being pitched at LBF, perhap the most instantly recognisable as Australian is forthcoming nonfiction title Koala by biologist Danielle Clode (Black Inc., September), which promises ‘an immersive, entertaining journey into the hidden life of the koala’, which, despite their iconic status and celebrity, ‘remain something of a mystery’ says the publisher....

After a pandemic-fuelled record year in 2020—during which sales of books in Australia grew 7.8% to A$1.25 billion (unit sales for the year were 67 million) according to Nielsen BookScan—in 2021, the Australian book market experienced more modest growth of only 2.5% in value to A$1.3 billion. (Nielsen reported book sales in 2021 fell 1% in volume compared...

Among recent acquisitions are a spate of two-book deals. MacLehose Press, an imprint of Hachette-owned UK publisher Quercus, has acquired world rights to two new novels by Australian author Peter Papathanasiou in a deal brokered by Martin Shaw at Shaw Literary. The new books follow on from Papathanasiou’s debut crime novel The Stoning (Transit Lounge),...

Australian publishing continues to ride a literary crime wave, with several local publishers bringing crime offerings to London. ‘We are delighted to share Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone,’ says Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) senior rights executive Jordan Meek. Described by the publisher as ‘Agatha Christie meets Knives Out meets Richard...

A biography of Australian surfer Owen Wright (world rights acquired by S&S Australia) tells the story of the surfer’s recovery after a serious brain injury ahead of the Pipeline Masters competition in Hawaii: in a single moment, he went from being ranked fifth in the world to having to learn how to walk and talk...

If you’re on the ground in Bologna for this year’s fair, pop by the Australian stand, Hall 25, Stand B78. The Australian Publishers Association stand will be managed by Rome-based Australian freelance editor, English-language consultant and former bookseller and publisher Kabita Dhara, and will this year feature 15 Australian publishers. Books from Bologna Prize nominee...

After a bumper year of sales in 2020, in which the children’s category was up 9.6% on 2019, the Australian children’s book market fell ever so slightly in 2021 (-0.2%), according to Nielsen Bookscan. Nonetheless, sales of children’s books in Australia in 2021 were still well above pre-pandemic levels. And children’s book authors dominated bestseller...

Children’s publisher Tash Besliev intoduces Melbourne independent Affirm Press. How and why did the Affirm Press children’s division begin its life? After successfully publishing across many other categories, Affirm Press began publishing books for children in 2017 as a way of continuing to grow the business and its list of books that ‘influence by delight’...

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...

Publisher Anouska Jones introduces health and wellbeing press Exisle Publishing’s children’s imprint EK Books. How and why did Exisle’s children’s imprint EK begin its life? Exisle Publishing began 30 years ago as an independently owned nonfiction publishing company. Over the years, we’ve developed a very strong self-help/health and wellbeing list, and in 2013 we launched...

From a nonfiction book about how trees talk to a slam poetry adaptation, Australian publishers are pitching some picture books with a difference at Bologna this year. Jordan Collins’ debut picture book Where?, illustrated by Phil Lesnie, started as a slam poem Collins wrote and performed when they were 14. ‘It challenges racism, is both...

Ahead of this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair, running 21–24 March, we are thrilled to share the latest children’s and YA titles from Australian publishers in this issue of Think Australian, which is being distributed by Publishers Weekly and BookBrunch. After two years away from in-person fairs, Australian rights managers are keen to meet up...

Australian publishers will be pitching several new series at Bologna—from some well established names, as well as emerging authors. In middle-grade, Penguin Random House Australia has a ‘charming’ new series from Jacqueline Harvey, whose previous series have sold widely: ‘Kensy and Max’ to North America; the Clementine Rose series to the UK, Brazil and Sri...

Australia’s ‘golden age’ of middle-grade fiction doesn’t look it’s ending any time soon, with several high-profile fiction acquisitions in the age bracket. Fans of Amelia Mellor around the world will be excited to hear Affirm Press has acquired world rights to The Bookseller’s Apprentice, the prequel to The Grandest Bookshop in the World. The Grandest...

Australian children’s author Gabrielle Wang is the new Australian Children’s Laureate for 2022–23. Wang is the award-winning author and illustrator of over 20 books, including The Lion Drummer (illus by Andrew McLean), A Ghost in My Suitcase and The Wishbird (all Puffin), which each received the Notable Book commendation in Australia’s prestigeous Children’s Book Council...

After saving the world from Kiala, the ancient spirit of destruction, Alex longs for more adventure—and the chance to feel special again. Compared to riding through the Tasmanian wilderness on a talking alpaca, home seems pretty dull. So, when Kiala’s prison crumbles, Alex is secretly thrilled. Enter Ivette, a mysterious, talented and very competitive American...

From horror to fantasy with some wit and mystery along the way, Australian YA shows its range in several recent deals. Two recent acquisitions by Australian publishers present a similar premise: What We All Saw (Mike Lucas, Penguin) is ‘an upmarket horror tale between four friends, four truths and one nightmare which brings them all...

By the new Australian Children’s Laureate, Gabrielle Wang.  Meet Zadie Ma, a girl who writes magical stories that sometimes come true. Zadie’s dearest wish is to have a dog of her own and so she starts to write the story of a poor unwanted dog called Jupiter, who’s just waiting to be rescued by a...

Jacinta di Mase is the founder and lead agent at Jacinta di Mase Management, which she established after working under ‘formidable’ agents Lyn Tranter and Jenny Darling. She spoke to Think Australian. How did you become a literary agent? I followed advice from Australian book designer Sandy Cull on how to get into the publishing...

Unlimited Futures is a YA anthology of sci-fi and speculative fiction edited by Rafeif Ismail and Ellen van Neerven. What makes it so different from other collections like it is the anthology’s centring of Blak and Black lives in an Australian context. Unlimited Futures contains a mix of genres including poetry, which is rare in...

Zach Jones’s debut novel Growing Up in Flames is as gritty as bushfire ash. Written for a doctorate in creative writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast, the novel’s provenance is evident in Jones’s masterly use of the extended metaphor of fire to explore the relationship between intergenerational trauma and adolescent identity formation. In...

Pearly Woe is not your average 10-year-old. She can speak 27 languages, talk to and understand most animals and, in this tale, travels to Antarctica. However, this is no holiday. Pearly and her faithful friend Pig (a pig) are representatives of the Adventurologists Guild and need to find Pearly’s missing parents—all the while trying to...

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...

Family Tree shares the beauty of life through the growth of a tree, one that unites families and communities around the world, spreading joy, love and spirit—and it all starts with one seed. Australian singer–songwriter and children’s author Josh Pyke delivers this deeply poignant and lyrical narrative that touches every fibre of our being. Representative...

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...

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...

Australia’s leading publisher of books on the visual arts, Thames & Hudson Australia, has been publishing—and exporting—local titles for many years.   ‘We find there is a real thirst for Australian illustrated books in the international market,’ says publisher Kirsten Abbott. ‘Thames & Hudson usually publishes at the higher end of the market, but even...

After almost 20 years of her books on our shelves, a new Freya Blackwood is always cause for delight. The Boy and the Elephant—Blackwood’s first wordless picture book—allows her quiet images to shine and tell their own story. Blackwood has described her work in the past as having both ‘softness and darkness’, able to be...

Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day is an ode to making a mistake and then making things right. It follows two children—friends with different styles—who come into conflict with each other and those around them. The wrongdoings range from small (spilling a bowl of cereal) to large (ripping up a book) and the rhyming text insightfully...

UK independent publisher Old Barn Books has bought UK and Commonwealth (ex Canada and ANZ) rights to Lisa Fuller’s YA novel Ghost Bird from University of Queensland Press (UQP). The deal was handled by UQP rights manager Kate McCormack in negotiation with Old Barn Books publisher Ruth Huddleston. Ghost Bird won the David Unaipon Award...

Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the winners of the 2021 Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women. The winners in each category are:  Adult crime novel The Good Sister (Sally Hepworth, Macmillan) Young adult crime novel  Where We Begin (Christie Nieman, Pan) Children’s crime novel A Clue for Clara (Lian Tanner, A&U) Nonfiction crime...

The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the winners of the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards. Crime novels released by Text Publishing swept the fiction categories, with the winning titles as follows: Best crime fiction Consolation (Garry Disher, Text) Best debut crime fiction The Second Son (Loraine Peck, Text) Best true crime Stalking Claremont: Inside the...

How to Repaint a Life is the latest offering from Steven Herrick, author of award-winning young adult titles including The Simple Gift and The Bogan Mondrian. This is gritty, heartbreaking prose that delves into topics such as homelessness, domestic violence and #MeToo, and is best suited to mature teenage readers. However, the narrative is written with sensitivity and offers...

The winners of the 2021 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The winning titles and honour books in each category are: Older readers: winner The End of the World is Bigger than Love (Davina Bell, Text) Older readers: honour books Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Cath Moore, Text) Where We...

In The First Scientists, Corey Tutt, founder of the Deadly Science charity and NSW Young Person of the Year 2020, brings us an extremely engaging, informative and at times funny account of the much-overlooked contribution of early First Nations people to various scientific fields. The text is presented in loosely chronological segments including First Astronomers, First Engineers,...

Acclaimed Australian children’s writer Peter Carnavas has followed up his wonderful first novel The Elephant with another book equally full of heart. An ode to sibling relationships, growing up and the natural world, My Brother Ben tells the story of 10-year-old Luke, whose love for birds and birdwatching is eclipsed only by his adoration for his older brother, Ben....

Melbourne graphic novel publisher Twelve Panels Press has sold world English rights (ex ANZ) to Safdar Ahmed’s Still Alive to Gary Groth at Fantagraphics, to be published under the Fantagraphics Underground imprint. Interweaving journalism, history and autobiography, Still Alive is the result of Ahmed’s visits to Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, beginning in 2011, where he...

Will is on the run from the men who killed his mother. When a terrifying artefact is unleashed on the Thames docks, Will finds himself thrust into a hidden world of danger and forgotten magic, defended by the Stewards, an ancient order of knights dedicated to the Light. To prevent the rise of a terrible...

Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia has acquired world rights to the contemporary middle-grade graphic novel Oh, Brother by Adelaide author-illustrator Georgina Chadderton. Rights were acquired in a joint deal between PRH Australia, Random House Graphic (US), PRH Children’s (UK) and Tundra Books (Canada), via Annabel Barker at Annabel Barker Agency and Daniel Lazar at Writers House....

Dragon Skin is the much-anticipated new novel by Karen Foxlee, author of cherished modern classics including the internationally successful Lenny’s Book of Everything. Foxlee is skilled at writing brave yet vulnerable young characters who steal readers’ hearts forever, and Dragon Skin is no different. Ten-year-old Pip is going through a tough time. Her best friend Mika has left,...

Simon & Schuster Australia has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to two adult novels by Jodi McAlister, author of the YA series ‘Valentine’, via Alex Adsett from Alex Adsett Literary. Here for the Right Reasons and Can I Steal You for a Second? are, according to S&S, two ‘adorable romantic comedies’ set on the same...

Nardi Simpson has won the 2021 Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal for Song of the Crocodile (Hachette). Song of the Crocodile is Simpson’s debut novel, and was the winner of the 2018 black&write! Writing Fellowship. An intergenerational family saga, the novel charts the experiences of Billymil family as their rural town undergoes social and environmental...

Amanda Lohrey has won the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her seventh novel, The Labyrinth (Text). Lohrey, the second Tasmanian writer to win the Miles Franklin in its 64-year history, has twice been shortlisted for the award, with her shortlisted novel Camille’s Bread (Fourth Estate) winning the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal in 1996....

UQP has sold world English rights (ex ANZ) for The White Girl by Tony Birch to HarperCollins imprint HarperVia. The deal was handled by UQP rights manager Kate McCormack in negotiation with Judith Curr and Rosie Black from HarperVia. Curr said The White Girl ‘helps us understand the history, struggles, and culture of Aboriginal Australians’....

Michael Robotham has won the UK Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for best thriller for his novel When She Was Good (Hachette). The judges praised Robotham’s novel as ‘an urgent, poignant and terrifying thriller’. ‘This page-turner will hold your attention until you get to the very last page,’ the judges said....

Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to Sydney author Dianne Yarwood’s debut novel The Wakes in a ‘hotly contested’ international auction. The six-figure, two-book deal was struck with Catherine Drayton at InkWell Management, while UK and Commonwealth rights (ex ANZ) were sold to Francesca Main at Phoenix, an imprint of Orion. Set in Sydney, and...

Affirm Press has acquired world rights to nutritionist and podcast host Lola Berry’s new personal development book Fearlessly Failing. Affirm said Fearlessly Failing is ‘a guide to embracing challenges and learning from mistakes, told with refreshing candour from Lola—someone eminently qualified in failing without fear.’ Fearlessly Failing is the first acquisition by Affirm’s commercial publisher...

Aquarius Films has acquired all development and production rights to Clementine Ford’s nonfiction book Fight Like a Girl (A&U), in a deal negotiated by Jacinta Dimase at Jacinta Dimase Management. The production company will develop the memoir for television as a comedy drama series of six 30-minute episodes, to be created by Ford and Lou...

Nakkiah Lui has won the $10,000 biennial Russell Prize for Humour Writing for Black is the New White (A&U), the book of her play of the same name. Judges Mark Dapin, Joy Lawn, Piers Grove and Bernard Cohen chose Lui’s work from 48 entries and a shortlist of six announced in May. ‘Lui reminds us...

The shortlist for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award has been announced. The six shortlisted novels, chosen from a longlist of 12, are: Amnesty (Aravind Adiga, Picador) The Rain Heron (Robbie Arnott, Text) At the Edge of the Solid World (Daniel Davis Wood, Brio) The Labyrinth (Amanda Lohrey, Text) Lucky’s (Andrew Pippos, Picador) The Inland Sea (Madeleine Watts, Pushkin Press). Each...

Ultimo Press has acquired world rights to Canticle Creek and a second book by crime writer Adrian Hyland. ‘When Adam Lawson’s wrecked car is found a kilometre from Daisy Baker’s body, the whole town assumes it’s an open and shut case. But Jesse Redpath isn’t from Canticle Creek,’ says Ultimo of the novel. ‘When Jesse...

Screen adaptation rights to crime novel The Nancys by Melbourne-based New Zealand author R W R McDonald (A&U) have been optioned by Queensland production company Hoodlum Entertainment, via Grace Heifetz of Left Bank Literary Agency. The Nancys, which won the best first novel award at the 2020 New Zealand Ngaio Marsh awards for crime writing,...

After joining the rights team at Penguin Random House Australia three years ago, Jordan Meek now manages the publisher’s children’s rights in translation markets. She spoke to Think Australian. How did you get into rights management? It was luck that I stumbled into the world of selling rights. I was a fresh Masters of Publishing...

Tara June Winch’s 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award-winning novel The Yield (Penguin) has been optioned for screen adaptation. Winch is represented by Melanie Ostell Literary with the option and purchase negotiated by Penguin Random House Australia. The project is currently slated for development, with Tony Briggs and Damienne Pradier to co-produce for their company Typecast...

Amazon Prime Video has announced it has commissioned production on a seven-part series adaptation of Holly Ringland’s 2018 novel The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Fourth Estate), with Sigourney Weaver set to star and serve as an executive producer. The adaptation will launch in over 240 countries and territories and will be produced by Amazon Studios,...

Amazon Prime Video has announced it has commissioned production on a seven-part series adaptation of Holly Ringland’s 2018 novel The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Fourth Estate), with Sigourney Weaver set to star and serve as an executive producer. The adaptation will launch in over 240 countries and territories and will be produced by Amazon Studios,...

The longlist for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award, worth $60,000, has been announced. The 12 longlisted novels are: Amnesty (Aravind Adiga, Picador) The Rain Heron (Robbie Arnott, Text) At the Edge of the Solid World (Daniel Davis Wood, Brio) Our Shadows (Gail Jones, Text) Infinite Splendours (Sofie Laguna, A&U) The Labyrinth (Amanda Lohrey, Text) The Animals...

The longlist for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award, worth $60,000, has been announced. The 12 longlisted novels are: Amnesty (Aravind Adiga, Picador) The Rain Heron (Robbie Arnott, Text) At the Edge of the Solid World (Daniel Davis Wood, Brio) Our Shadows (Gail Jones, Text) Infinite Splendours (Sofie Laguna, A&U) The Labyrinth (Amanda Lohrey, Text) The Animals...

Gordon Reece’s 2010 young adult novel Mice (A&U) will be adapted into a feature film by Nicole Kidman’s production company Blossom Films and Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories. Mice is a psychological thriller that follows 16-year-old Shelley and her mother who, after moving to the country to escape bullying and trauma, are menaced by an intruder in...

Now That I See You by Canberra author Emma Batchelor is the winner of this year’s $20,000 Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award, for an unpublished manuscript by an author under the age of 35. Publisher Allen & Unwin said the the novel ‘details the breakdown of a long-term relationship after one partner discloses to the other that...

North American rights to Anwen Crawford’s nonfiction work No Document have been sold to Transit Books. Adam Levy and Ashley Nelson Levy from Transit acquired rights from Nick Tapper at Giramondo. Adam Levy said of the acquisition: ‘No Document explores the space between activism and art, friendship and grief, political violence and the violence of language....

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...

Evie Wyld has won the 2021 Stella Prize, worth $50,000, for her novel The Bass Rock (Vintage). Judging panel chair Zoya Patel said the novel was ‘a consuming and perplexing book, one that forces the reader to think and engage with the unique narrative structure, but in a way that feels effortless, so engaged are...

Simon & Schuster Australia (S&S) has acquired world rights to Be You Be Free by Shreen El Masry. El Masry is a non-diet, body inclusive and Health At Every Size (HAES) personal trainer and the owner of the Sydney-based Be You Be Free fitness and wellbeing community. Be You Be Free ‘will present a special...

Pan Macmillan Australia has sold US and UK rights to debut nonfiction title Heartsick (Jessie Stephens) after ‘a highly contested auction’. US rights were sold to Henry Holt in a deal negotiated by Dan Lazar at Writers House and UK rights were sold to Macmillan UK, which is also representing translation rights. Heartsick, a work...

Magabala Books has sold US and UK rights in Benevolence by Julie Janson to HarperCollins imprint HarperVia, in a deal negotiated by Natasha Solomun at The Rights Hive. ‘Benevolence is an engaging work of historical fiction that transports us back to 1800s Sydney and surrounds,’ Magabala publisher Rachel Bin Salleh said of the 2020 novel,...

The shortlists for the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) have been announced. The titles in each category are: General fiction book of the year The Dictionary of Lost Words (Pip Williams, Affirm) The Godmothers (Monica McInerney, Michael Joseph) The Good Turn (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins) The Morbids (Ewa Ramsey, A&U) The Survivors (Jane Harper, Macmillan)...

Perth science fiction author Amanda Bridgeman’s novel The Subjugate (Watkins) will be adapted into a dystopian crime thriller series by independent production companies Aquarius Films and Anonymous Content. The development and production rights deal was brokered by agent Alex Adsett of Alex Adsett Publishing Services. Bridgeman’s novel is set in 2040, when a series of...

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its 2021 Book of the Year shortlists. The shortlisted books in each category are: Older readers The End of the World is Bigger than Love (Davina Bell, Text) The Lost Soul Atlas (Zana Fraillon, Lothian) When Rain Turns to Snow (Jane Godwin, Lothian) Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Cath Moore, Text)...

MidnightSun Publishing has acquired debut novel Tank Water by Michael Burge, a story of homophobic hate crimes and the dangers of growing up feeling different in rural Australia. Burge met MidnightSun publisher Anna Solding at a pitch session hosted by New England Writers Centre in 2018. ‘From the first time I met Michael, when he...

The shortlist for the 2021 Stella Prize, worth $50,000, has been announced. The six shortlisted books are: Fathoms: The world in the whale (Rebecca Giggs, Scribe) Revenge: Murder in Three Parts (S L Lim, Transit Lounge) The Animals in That Country (Laura Jean McKay, Scribe) Witness (Louise Milligan, Hachette) Stone Sky Gold Mountain (Mirandi Riwoe, UQP) The Bass Rock (Evie...

Three out of the five books shortlisted for the £25,000 (A$44,900) Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction are by Australian authors. The five shortlisted novels are: The Tolstoy Estate (Steven Conte, Fourth Estate) A Room Made of Leaves (Kate Grenville, Text) The Mirror and the Light (Hilary Mantel, Fourth Estate) Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell, Tinder Press) The Dictionary of Lost...

Pip Williams’s debut novel The Dictionary of Lost Words (Affirm) has been named Book of the Year at the 2021 Indie Book Awards, presented by Leading Edge Books. The winning titles in each category are: Fiction Honeybee (Craig Silvey, A&U) Nonfiction Phosphorescence (Julia Baird, Fourth Estate) Debut fiction The Dictionary of Lost Words (Pip Williams, Affirm) Illustrated nonfiction...

The first issue for 2021 of Books+Publishing’s sister publication Think Australian is shining a spotlight on debut and early-career authors. In this preview, Think Australian asked Australian publishers and literary agents to nominate their most promising new authors, whose debut or second books would appeal to an international readership. To sign up for Think Australian,...

Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired ANZ rights to The Matchmaker by debut Pakistani–Australian author Saman Shad via Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown. It is the first local adult commission from PRH commissioning editor Radhiah Chowdhury. The Matchmaker is a romantic comedy about love, marriage and ‘mistaking your own identity’, set in Sydney’s South-Asian...

Sally Piper’s 2018 novel The Geography of Friendship (UQP) will be adapted for television as a six-part series. Dollhouse Pictures, a creative collective and independent production company founded by actress Rose Byrne alongside Krew Boylan, Jessica Carrera, Shannon Murphy and Gracie Otto, has partnered with Aquarius Films to develop the work for television, in a...

Sally Piper’s 2018 novel The Geography of Friendship (UQP) will be adapted for television as a six-part series. Dollhouse Pictures, a creative collective and independent production company founded by actress Rose Byrne alongside Krew Boylan, Jessica Carrera, Shannon Murphy and Gracie Otto, has partnered with Aquarius Films to develop the work for television, in a...

Black Inc. has sold world English-language rights (ex ANZ) to Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna to Stephen Morrow at Dutton, Penguin USA. McKenna’s history–true crime hybrid addresses the actions of Bill McKinnon, a Northern Territory police officer who shot and killed unarmed Indigenous man Yokununna at Uluru in 1934, and the resultant trial. Black...

The longlist for the 2021 Stella Prize, worth $50,000, has been announced. The longlisted titles are: Fathoms: The World in the Whale (Rebecca Giggs, Scribe) Revenge: Murder in Three Parts (S L Lim, Transit Lounge) The Animals in That Country (Laura Jean McKay, Scribe) Witness (Louise Milligan, Hachette) Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Cath Moore, Text)...

Pantera Press has acquired world rights to The Scarlet Cross, a ‘gripping debut psychological thriller’ by Lyn McFarlane, from Jane Novak Literary Agency. McFarlane said she is ‘delighted to be working with the team at Pantera Press, who share my belief in the power of story to spark and transform’ and looks forward to introducing...

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its list of Notable Books for 2021. The books in each category are: Older readers The F Team (Rawah Arja, Giramondo) Future Girl (Asphyxia, A&U) The End of the World is Bigger than Love (Davina Bell, Text) When It Drops (Alex Dyson, Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)...

Simon & Schuster (S&S) has acquired world rights to The Understudy, a historical fiction debut by Julie Bennett. ‘The Understudy is set in 1973, the year the Opera House opened. Two days before opening night, the female lead disappears and the understudy steps in, winning the hearts of the audience and her male lead. But...

The longlists for the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced. The titles in each category are: General fiction book of the year The Bluffs (Kyle Perry, Michael Joseph) The Dictionary of Lost Words (Pip Williams, Affirm) The Godmothers (Monica McInerney, Michael Joseph) The Good Turn (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins) The Morbids (Ewa Ramsey,...

Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has acquired the first book by journalist and activist Antoinette Lattouf, How to Lose Friends and Influence White People. The book was acquired at auction in a deal agented by Tara Wynne of Curtis Brown. PRH said How to Lose Friends and Influence White People explores how to be effective...

As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Scholastic Australia rights manager Claire Pretyman. How did you get into rights management? After a number of years working in Japan, I was delighted to take up a role in Penguin UK’s...

Melbourne-based writer Jessica Au has won the inaugural Novel Prize for her work Cold Enough for Snow. Au, whose novel was selected from an international field of almost 1500 submissions and a shortlist of six, receives a US$10,000 (A$12,926) advance against royalties and simultaneous publication by Giramondo Publishing in Australia and New Zealand, Fitzcarraldo Editions in...

US production company New Regency has acquired the film and television rights to Meg Mason’s 2020 novel Sorrow and Bliss in a deal brokered by Casarotto Ramsay and HarperCollins Australia. According to HarperCollins, New Regency, whose production credits include the Oscar-winning films The Revenant, 12 Years a Slave and Birdman, acquired screen rights in a ‘competitive auction’. The...

In the US, Australian writer Rebecca Giggs has won the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction for Fathoms: The world in the whale (Scribe). The Andrew Carnegie Medals, chosen by a panel of library professionals from across the country, recognise the best fiction and nonfiction books written for adult readers and published...

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...

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...

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...

As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Pantera Press rights manager Katy McEwen. How did you get into rights management? I first worked in publishing in London after finishing university—in various publicity and marketing roles both for a small...

As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Pantera Press rights manager Katy McEwen. How did you get into rights management? I first worked in publishing in London after finishing university—in various publicity and marketing roles both for a small...

As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing’s Think Australian publication is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Hachette Australia head of rights Sarah Brooks. How did you get into rights management? I accidentally fell into rights when I quit my job in recruitment (to...

As the pandemic keeps rights sellers from meeting face-to-face, Books+Publishing’s Think Australian publication is shining a regular spotlight on the work of Australian rights agents. Today, we hear from Hachette Australia head of rights Sarah Brooks. How did you get into rights management? I accidentally fell into rights when I quit my job in recruitment (to...

One of our key Frankfurt initiatives for the online fair put Australian writers and publishers in the spotlight around the world as part of BOOKFEST digital. This is a day-long international festival of books that will stream live on YouTube, Facebook and the Frankfurt Book Fair website on Saturday 17 October. A panel facilitated by Benjamin Law, with authors...

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...

By Think Australian Three Australian books have collected several prestigious awards and shortlistings over the past six months: Tara June Winch’s novel The Yield (Hamish Hamilton), ‘a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity’, which won the Miles Franklin Literary Award; journalist Jess Hill’s investigation of domestic violence, See What You Made Me Do (Black Inc.), which picked up...

By Think Australian After a decade in print, Sally Rippin’s bestselling Billie B Brown junior fiction series (Hardie Grant Egmont) is finally heading to the screen. Global production company Fremantle and development partner 720 Creative have acquired screen rights to the children’s book character Billie B Brown, describing the brand as having ‘enormous potential for an international screen...

By Think Australian Australian publishers have been busy acquiring new titles over the past six months, including a kids’ guide to journalism, a ‘vital, groundbreaking book’ about gender transition, and a highly anticipated sequel to Rosalie Ham’s The Dressmaker. Adult fiction acquisitions A 2015 film adaptation of Rosalie Ham’s The Dressmaker (Duffy & Snellgrove) sent the novel to...

Award-winners among recent rights sales successes Despite the Covid-19 pandemic putting a halt to international travel, a majority of Australian rights managers and literary agents have reported a stable rights market over the past year, with strong demand for audio and screen rights. Here are some of the highlights. Adult fiction sales A major award...

by Think Australian Despite the disruption that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the Australian book industry this year, overall sales figures are looking surprisingly healthy. For the first eight months of 2020, adult fiction sales were up 12% in value compared to the same period in 2019, and children’s, YA and educational sales were...

by Think Australian With the Frankfurt Book Fair now purely online, Australian publishers and literary agents are gearing up to pitch their titles via the fair’s—and their own—digital channels. Here are some of their highlights: Adult fiction and nonfiction The rights team at Penguin Random House Australia (PRH)—Nerrilee Weir, Jordan Meek and Alice Richardson—is excited to be...

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....

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...

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...

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...

by Andrea Hanke, published in Publishing Perspectives, sponsored by the Australian Publishers Association The case for publishing diverse voices is ‘self-evident’ in Australia, as books on diverse experiences become a bestselling force in the market. A memoir from Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani—who has been detained by the Australian government for over five years after attempting...

by Andrea Hanke, published in Publishing Perspectives, sponsored by the Australian Publishers Association ‘There has never been a better time for Indigenous publishing,’ says one publisher, as Indigenous writings find staying power on Australia’s bestseller lists. When Melissa Lucashenko became the third Indigenous author to win Australia’s prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for her novel Too Much Lip in...

by Andrea Hanke, published in Publishing Perspectives, sponsored by the Australian Publishers Association Far from the halls of ivy, Australia’s university presses find favor with readers in search of authoritative information in time of fake news. It’s not unusual to find titles from Australia’s university presses stocked in bookshops across Australia, from independent booksellers to airport chains. Melbourne...

Two titles published by Walker Books Australia jointly won the children’s book category of the prestigious and valuable Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in 2021: middle-grade graphic novel Fly on the Wall (Remy Lai) and picture book How to Make a Bird (Meg McKinlay, illus by Matt Ottley). Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Cath Moore, Text) took...

US rights to Ella Baxter’s debut novel New Animal (A&U) have been sold to independent publisher Two Dollar Radio by The Book Group on behalf of Grace Heifetz at Left Bank Literary. New Animal follows a young woman who works as a cosmetician in her family’s mortuary and falls in with a regional BDSM community after experiencing tragedy....

The first book in a fast-paced comedy-adventure series set in a town called Buttburgher where all the adults start turning into zombie cows! Jimmy, Daisy and Hooey will have to deal with cola explosions, bullies, runaway trains, really bad farts—and of course lots of drooling zombie cows!—to save the world. Highly illustrated with commercial, animation-style...

With a dozen adult novels under her belt, Monica McInerney is now turning her hand to children’s fiction and her first foray into middle-grade territory is just as full of heart and laughter as her previous books. Imagine 45 & 47 Stella Street receiving a visit from Salem, Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s familiar and you will have the premise of Marcie Gill...

Pantera Press has acquired world rights to The Reindeer and the Submarine, the debut middle-grade novel by Beverly McWilliams. Inspired by the true story of a reindeer who lived aboard the HMS Trident in 1941, The Reindeer and Submarine follows Pollyanna as she is taken from her beloved herder by a Russian admiral and gifted...

Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s ‘Treehouse’ series—which celebrates 10 years in print this year—has topped the Australian children’s fiction chart (The 130-Storey Treehouse) and Australian children’s/YA nonfiction chart (The Treehouse Joke Book 2) for the year-to-date. It’s one of several children’s book series charting strongly in the first four months of the year. In Australian...

Pip Williams’s lockdown bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words—which was number six on the overall Australian fiction bestsellers chart in 2020—has risen to number one in the chart for the year-to-date. Meanwhile, Jane Harper has an impressive five titles in the Australian fiction top 10, with a film adaptation of her debut crime novel The...

Trent Dalton, whose 2018 debut Boy Swallows Universe remains in the top 10 Australian fiction bestsellers over three years after its publication, is at the top of Australian nonfiction charts for the year to date with his collection Love Stories, released in October last year. Love Stories is closely followed in the Australian nonfiction chart...

Australian authors tell us the most recent book they have read and loved, and why.   Hayley Scrivenor is the author of forthcoming crime novel Dirt Town (Macmillan, May). ‘I was fortunate enough to see Larissa Behrendt speak at the 2021 BAD Sydney Crime Writers festival about her book After Story (UQP). I got the...

In February this year, first-time author Veronica Gorrie took home Australia’s richest literary prize, the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature at the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, for her memoir Black and Blue: A memoir of racism and resilience (Scribe). ‘Her personal journey, from thinking she can change Aboriginal worlds through joining the police force...