The Book Source
Subscribe to our newsletter The Inside Track
Deals · Australia

Fremantle Press acquires Dockers season book The Season with Snaps Truly

The pseudonymous Fremantle Shipping News columnist takes a comic look at the Dockers' 2026 AFL season, co-edited by Geoff Hutchison and Michael Barker.

By The Book Source19 September 20261 minute read

Fremantle Press has acquired The Season with Snaps Truly, a comic account of the Fremantle Dockers' 2026 AFL season, announcing the deal on 19 September during grand final week.

The book is written by Snaps Truly, the pseudonymous football columnist for the Fremantle Shipping News, whose identity has not been revealed. It was co-edited by journalist Geoff Hutchison, who represents the columnist, and Michael Barker, a retired Federal Court judge and the longtime editor and publisher of the Fremantle Shipping News.

Hutchison said the book was not a match-by-match record of the year but a run of attacks on blandness in the AFL, written from an openly one-eyed Dockers point of view. He described the columnist as the sharp-tongued figure who says what Fremantle supporters are thinking.

Fremantle Press chief executive Alex Allan said the deal was done without ever meeting the author. Barker likened the elusive columnist to a "purple pimpernel" who turns up everywhere and nowhere.

The book is available for pre-order at $34.99 including GST. The publisher has not announced a publication date, format or territory.

Original source: Fremantle Press ↗

More from The Book Source

Deal UQP acquires world rights to Suri Matondkar's Cheatercock The memoir and critique, inaugural winner of the UQP Mentorship Prize for Under-represented Writers, will be published in July 2027. Deal UWA Publishing acquires Megan Cheong's literary novella Exchange UWA Publishing has bought Australian and New Zealand rights to Exchange, an autofiction novella by writer and critic Megan Cheong, for release in the second half of 2027. Deal Wakefield Press acquires Jake Dean's debut story collection Flat Spell The South Australian writer's collection, shortlisted in manuscript for the 2025 Richell Prize, is due out in July 2027.