Affirm Press is an independent Melbourne-based book publisher.

History

In 2010, Affirm Press began publishing several books a year as a part-time operation between Martin Hughes, former editor of '' The Big Issue'', and Graeme Wise, founder of The Body Shop Australia. In 2014 Affirm Press appointed Keiran Rogers as its Sales and Marketing Director, and became a full-time publishing house. Affirm Press publishes a broad range of non-fiction books and a select fiction list. In 2017 they added a kids list. Each year Affirm Press partners with a charity to publish a profit-for-purpose book. These projects have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and include bestsellers ''Letters of Love'' with the Alannah & Madeline Foundation and ''The Silver Sea'' by

Alison Lester Alison Jean Lester (born 17 November 1952) is an Australian author and illustrator who has published over 25 children's picture books and two young adult novels; ''The Quickstand Pony'' and ''The Snow Pony''. In 2005 Lester won the Children's ...

and

Jane Godwin Jane Godwin (born 1964 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian author, and is a publisher at Penguin Books Australia for children and young adult books. Godwin has sole-authored fifteen books which have been published internationally, and she ...

Awards

In 2019 Affirm Press was named Small Publisher of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards. Its books have won several major awards, including the

Stella Prize The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Baileys W ...

(''The Strays'' by Emily Bitto), the Booksellers Choice Award (''The Birdman’s Wife'' by

Melissa Ashley Melissa Ashley (born 1973) is an Australian novelist. In the 2017 Queensland Literary Awards, her novel ''The Birdman's Wife'' won the University of Queensland Fiction Book Award. It also received the Australian Booksellers Association Nielsen Bo ...

), and The Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Picture Book of the Year Award (''A Walk in the Bush'' by Gwyn Perkins). In August 2018 Christian White became the fastest-selling Australian debut novelist on record when Affirm Press published his book ''The Nowhere Child''.

Corporate affairs

Affirm Press’s in-house sales staff are supported by Hachette Australia and New Zealand and its books are distributed by Alliance Distribution Services. The publisher also represents two international publishing houses in Australia and New Zealand: Orenda Books (London) and The Experiment (New York City). Affirm Press sells rights to overseas publishers and audio and film producers, and has a partnership with the prestigious Kaplan/DeFiore Rights Agency (New York City) and Rights People (London).

References

{{reflist Publishing companies of Australia Book publishing companies of Australia Small press publishing companies Publishing companies established in 2010