Events

The 2023 Independent Publishing Conference will be held over three days from 23–25 November at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre and livestreamed online. Thursday 23 November will be Research Day, with the theme ‘Renew and Revive’, co-ordinated by Dr Claire Parnell, Dr Katherine Day and Caitlin Parker (all from the University of Melbourne). The keynote speaker will be Associate […]

The 2022 Independent Publishing Conference will be held over three days from 24–26 November at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre, SLV Theaterette and online. Thursday 24 November will be Research Day, with the theme ‘Publishing Futures’, co-ordinated by Dr Claire Parnell (RMIT) and Dr Katherine Day (University of Melbourne). The keynote speaker will be Richard Jean So […]

The final day of the 2023 Independent Publishing Conference will entail practical workshops. These will include sessions on what goes into the production of audiobooks, tips on career progression, the challenges of setting up a publishing business, the popularisation of new review platforms and much more. Scroll down to see an outline of the day’s […]

The second day of the 2023 Independent Publishing Conference will feature industry professionals speaking on important topics such as ‘First Nations – Story, Culture and Community’, ‘Creating Author Communities’ and ‘AI and the Literary World’.  Discussions will entail inclusion, diversity and innovation in bookselling, new directions in children’s books and strategic develop for small publishers. […]

Dr Sandra Phillips is a keynote speaker for the research day. Sandra is Wakka Wakka and was raised on the Country of her family’s ancestors, she is also proudly Gooreng Gooreng. These First Nations are in the jurisdiction now known as Queensland. Sandra does research in relation to Indigenous writing and Australian publishing following an […]

Our keynote speaker, Richard Jean So, will open the first day of the 2022 Independent Publishing Conference. Richard has recently published his second book, Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction (Columbia University Press), a data-driven exploration of the pervasiveness and persistence of white supremacy within the American publishing industry. We will be featuring multiple panels […]

The second day of the 2022 Independent Publishing Conference will feature industry professionals speaking on important topics such as ‘Sustainability’, ‘Cultural policy review’ and ‘Diversity’. Discussions will entail how libraries select and buy their books, the history of independent publishing in Australia as well as data from the Nielsen BookScan market report. Dr Ben Eltham (Monash […]

The final day of the 2022 Independent Publishing Conference will entail practical workshops. These will include sessions on what goes into the production of audiobooks, tips on career progression, the challenges of setting up a publishing business, the popularisation of new review platforms and much more. Scroll down to see an outline of the day’s […]

The 2021 Independent Publishing Conference will be held over three days from 25–27 November. At this stage, we’re expecting to hold the conference entirely online, allowing remote participation from across Australia and around the world. However, we’re keeping a close eye on Covid restrictions and haven’t ruled out the possibility of an in-person component. Thursday […]

On the first day of the 2021 Independent Publishing Conference, we will hear from our keynote speaker, Laura Jean McKay, winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her book The Animals in That Country. The day will feature academic experts on multiple panels discussing their research within the […]

On the second day of the 2021 Independent Publishing Conference, we will hear from our keynote speaker, Dr Anita Heiss, who will discuss the role of publishers supporting their authors to push the boundaries in Australian publishing. The day will feature many industry professionals on multiple panels discussing a range of important topics. These sessions […]

On the final day of the 2021 Independent Publishing Conference, we will hear from our keynote speaker, a veteran of the publishing industry: Terri-ann White. She will discuss launching her new imprint Upswell during a pandemic, being realistic about the pitfalls of publishing, and will share advice on keeping the passion alive. The rest of […]

The 2020 Independent Publishing Conference will be held entirely online on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 November 2020. This will be the ninth consecutive year for the conference, the only annual industry-wide event for the book publishing sector in Australia. Ticket sales are now live at https://www.trybooking.com/BMBCB. There are deep discounts for all SPN members, students […]

At the close of the first day of the Independent Publishing Conference, pour yourself a drink, grab a bowl of salty snacks and join us for the shortlist announcement for the inaugural SPN Book of the Year Award! Our amazing judges – bookseller Jackie Tang, author and editor Jane Rawson and broadcaster Mel Cranenburgh (below) […]

Featuring panels on funding, publishing in colour, metadata, rights and more, the second day of the conference covers a variety of aspects of publishing. The day concludes with a virtual drinks, and a sneaky celebration of Monash University Publishing’s 10th birthday.

Featuring panels on ethical editing and publishing, BookScan, service providers and more; the first day of the conference includes the keynote session and closes with the announcement of the 2020 Book of The Year Shortlist. 

The 2019 Independent Publishing Conference will be held at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne from Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 November 2019. Details will be uploaded here as the program is developed. The Independent Publishing Conference is generously supported by Copyright Agency.

Academics and researchers from across Australia will present papers on a range of topics responding to the theme the Sites of Publishing.