Reading, as the Prime Minister has reminded us, got many of us through lockdowns. And there are some major initiatives for writing and publishing in the new national cultural policy.
A new survey of Australian authors finds that while author incomes have (very slightly) grown, they remain perilously low – which makes it hard to find time to write.
What are the consequences of book publishing’s invisible workforce – for respect, wages and diversity? Alice Grundy suggests it’s time for book editors to be more visible.
Fewer than 1% of Australian publishing professionals identify as First Nations. We need better representation to authentically represent First Nations voices. Sandra Phillips explains why – and how.
‘Everything is random,’ the Penguin Random House CEO recently told a US court, about how the publishing business works. It all seemed to be a gamble. But is that how it works in Australia?
Two radically inventive new works of Australian graphic nonfiction dig deep into 21st-century life. They balance critique with hopeful possibilities – of collective change and radical acceptance.
After decades of banned books, arrests and raids, Penguin Books Australia decided to take a stand against literary censorship. A new book tells the inside story.
The University of Queensland Press has a peerless record of discovering, nurturing and supporting Australian writers. A new anthology is a cross-section of many of their writings.
A recent attempt to broaden the Stella Count by measuring the diversity of writers reviewed proved to be a hard ask. Is the bigger problem here the whiteness of our publishing industry?
Five years ago, the death knell was sounded for the bookshop. But the paper book, which offers hours of deliciously deep, screen-free reading, has not gone the way of Kodachrome. In fact, bookstores are staging a minor comeback.
Books contain ideas. They enable minds to shine. Our publishing industry is under pressure on many fronts – yet cultural matters seem of little significance to the federal government.
The uniquely Australian literary voice is worth protecting, but parallel importation restrictions are not the way to do it. Rather, we should lift those restrictions – and subsidise Australian booksellers directly.
A study into the responses of Australian authors, publishers and readers to global changes in the contemporary publishing environment suggests authors are being innovative, but financial rewards can be elusive.
The Book Council of Australia began to take shape last week when MUP director Louise Adler was announced as its chair. But what is its purpose, and how will it embrace the industry’s new voices?
The University of Queensland Press caused controversy when it turned down Campbell Newman’s memoir – but why shouldn’t a publisher be entitled to principled refusal?
The Call for Entries is now open for the 62nd annual Australian Book Design Awards which are seeking the “bravest and brightest, the most original and beautiful” books published before December 31, 2013…