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

Poe Award Nominee List Announced

Jan 22 2007: The 2007 nominees for the Edgar Allan Poe Awards awarded by the Mystery Writers of America have been announced:

The nominees for Best Novel are:

• Louis Bayard for The Pale Blue Eye
• Jason Goodwin for The Janissary Tree
• Joanne Harris for Gentleman and Players
...

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First Biography of Barack Obama

Jan 19 2007: Publishers Black Dog & Leventhal plan to be the first to publish a biography (unauthorized) of 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful—Barack Obama. "The Story of Barack Obama" by People magazine writer Steve Dougherty is scheduled for release in February with a 100,000 ...

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James Patterson #1 Bestselling Author

Jan 19 2007: According to his Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch, James Patterson was the #1 bestselling author in America in 2006, selling 12 million books. He sold a further 12 million in the UK. When asked about the novelist's practice of working with co-writers Pietsch ...

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Political Humorist and Columnist Art Buchward Dead

Jan 19 2007: Political humorist and columnist Art Buchwald died on Wednesday 17th Jan of kidney failure at the age of 81. He wrote more than 8,000 newspaper columns and more than 30 books.

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Regan Books Offices to Close

Jan 18 2007: Effective March 1, HarperCollins is closing its Regan Books office in Los Angeles.
"We feel our authors will be best served by being integrated into HarperCollins," Michael Morrison, president and group publisher Harper/Morrow, said in a statement.

Harper ...

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Google Woos Publishers By Selling Titles Online

Jan 17 2007: Google has introduced a new program that will allow publishers to generate revenue from Google Book Search by giving them the ability to sell access to their titles online. The concept is that publishers tell Google what books they ...

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Centennial Birthday of James Michener: Feb 3.

Jan 15 2007: February 3, 2007 marks the centennial birthday of James A. Michener (1907-1997), with many publishers rushing to reprint books by the author who has sold more books than Hemingway and Steinbeck combined. The University Press of Colorado has just published a book about ...

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China Announces 200,000 New Bookstores!

Jan 15 2007: The Chinese government has announced plans to establish 200,000 rural bookstores over the next five years, with the aim of promoting education and popularizing science and technology in rural areas. A spokesman said, "Each rural bookstore project will have at least 1...

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