APA industry awards

The APA industry awards were on last Wednesday night. Given the compostion of the publishers association with the weight at the big end of town, it seemed a remarkably fair and interesting result. It was Text's well-deserved night with Michael Heyward popping up and down like a yo-yo. Susie of Riverbend (independent bookshop of the year) had my speech of the night award: Russ, a pensioner and regular customer, came in to the shop one day just before she left and gave her $20 to make sure she'd be able to have a good time in Sydney; and that was his book money for the month - he buys one book a month, always for under $20. Henry Rosenbloom was very close runner up with his speech, as Henry interestingly pointed out that most of the independents are in Melbourne and most of the mulitnationals in Melbourne. Allen & Unwin received Publisher of the Year which seemed pretty well-deserved. And my good friends from that particularly exciting Melbourne suburb of Camberwell did quite nicely.