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

John Harold Johnson dies aged 87

Aug 17 2005: John Harold Johnson, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines and the most influential black publisher in history, died last week aged 87.  Born in Arkansas City, his family struggled to save enough money so that his mother, Gertrude Johnson, could take him to ...

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The saga of Google's Print for Libraries program continues.

Aug 17 2005: According to Publishers Weekly, the saga of Google's Print for Libraries program continues. Google has announced that it will make changes to accomodate publishers' concerns, but many publishers are not appeased. Earlier Google said that all books would be a part of ...

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The Playaway

Aug 03 2005: Findaway World, a privately held company based in Cleveland, OH., will launch the Playaway in October, a new product billed as the first "self-playing digital audio book." The Playaway is a ready-for-action digital audio player sized smaller than a deck of cards that ...

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According to Publishers Weekly...

Jul 20 2005:

• 39% of USA adults need help with everyday literacy tasks.
• 20% read at a 5th grade level or below.
• 53% of 3-5 year-olds are read to daily.
• The average household income of those with the highest literacy levels is $45,610, the average for those with the lowest ...

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Ed McBain dies

Jul 20 2005: Ed McBain, author of the 87th Precinct series, died recently from cancer. During his fifty-year career Hunter (born Salvatore Lombino) wrote over 100 novels and is credited with practically inventing the police-procedural with his 87th Precinct series.

He held the ...

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Poetry.com to award $58,000 in prizes

Jul 20 2005: Poetry.com claim they are awarding 1175 prizes totaling $58,000 to amateur poets in the coming months.

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12th Unfortunate Event to Strike in October

Jul 06 2005: The 12th (and penultimate) book in the Series of Unfortunate Events Series will be published in October this year (with a first print run of 2.5 million).

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Five Authors in Best-Paid Celebrities List

Jul 06 2005: Five authors made it on to Forbes Magazine's list of 100 best paid celebrities in 2004. They were Dan Brown ($76.5 million), J.K. Rowling ($59.1 million), James Patterson ($27 million), Nora Roberts ($28.8 million) and Arthur Aatson (author of the South Beach Diet, $16 ...

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