Breaking news on authors, publishers, and book-related topics

South Carolina votes to give Amazon sales tax break

Apr 20 2011: By a 15-5 vote yesterday, the South Carolina Senate Finance Committee agreed to give Amazon "a break from collecting sales taxes after the company threatened to pull out of building a 1,200-job distribution center.

Update: from Florence Morning News ... "In the end, ...

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'A Visit From the Goon Squad' wins Pulitzer

Apr 18 2011: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Browse an excerpt and reviews of Goon Squad and reviews of the winners in the nonfiction, poetry, biography and history categories at BookBrowse...

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'60 Minutes' questions validity of 'Three Cups of Tea' by Greg Mortenson

Apr 18 2011: Yesterday, the CBS documentary "60 Minutes" ran a 15 minute piece that called into question some of the work of Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute and charged that some key sections of his bestselling memoir Three Cups of Tea are untrue. View the broadcast, and ...

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Ebook sales up 200%, now 20% of total sales

Apr 15 2011: Net book sales in February fell 10.6%, to $442.2 million, as reported by 84 publishers to the Association of American Publishers. For the year, net book sales are down 5% Sales of e-books rose 202% to $90.3 million and represented 20.4% of total sales (even though ...

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Senate introducing sales tax legislation

Apr 13 2011: Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes....

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Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2010

Apr 12 2011: The American Library Association has released its list of the top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2010. This year's top 10 are:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson Reasons
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ...

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Harper Collins wavering on ebook lending limit

Apr 07 2011: A little over 6 weeks ago the Big 6 publisher HarperCollins announced that it would no longer allow library eBooks to be checked out indefinitely. Today it looks like HC might have changed its mind.

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Publishers doubt Borders' restructuring plans

Apr 07 2011: Borders presented a restructuring plan to its creditors on Wednesday that promised publishers and landlords a sleeker, more efficient company poised to emerge successfully from bankruptcy through increased online sales and revamped stores. But publishers characterized ...

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