Wollongong author Hayley Scrivenor parties with publishers after winning ABIA Fiction Book of the Year

Hayley Scrivenor was awarded the best General Fiction Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs), and revealed the industry definitely knows how to party.

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"It's a really fun party, I kind of had no idea," the Dirt Town author told the Mercury, well after the hang-over subsided.

"The whole industry seems to rock up and ... until you publish a book you don't realise just how many people are in publishing and how many different kind of aspects have to come together for a book to reach the world.

"It was really nice to party with those people ... everyone lets their hair down."

Around 7000 books are published in Australia annually, with just more than a dozen recognised with a very heavy ABIA trophy last week.

"Our publisher actually told me that night it was the best selling book by a debut author in 2022, I was like, 'oh, that's pretty good, can't complain about that'," Scrivenor said.

But she is also level-headed about her success as she believes you can't just live for the dream, as there's many factors out of a writer's control.

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"You could write a beautiful book that would have done really well the year before, but it's a little similar to something else that came out that you didn't even know about," she said.

"But you can't count on [winning awards] and at the end of the day if you're writing something you really love, that has to be its own reward and everything that comes after is like a wonderful bonus."

Scrivenor's novel has also been nominated for four other awards at the moment, including in the UK and US, but she won't be hitting up the swanky soiree in New York.

Instead, her stereotypical alter-ego of a writer will be deep into the throws of writing book two, while it's likely to be a rare occurrence to emerge from her North Wollongong study and from her pyjamas.

The new book kicks off with a death and is shrouded in "mystery", it's also not set in Wollongong - though Scrivenor wouldn't rule that setting out for a future work.

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She wouldn't say much more about the project except it could be hitting bookstore shelves in 2024.

"I'm still in my happy place where I'm, Lord of my kingdom and I'm just developing these characters in this world," she said.

Scrivenor will, however, be stopping by plenty of writers' festivals around Australia to promote her latest book, including curating a panel of authors for the upcoming South Coast Writers Festival in August.

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