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an online newsletter for publishers, authors, book lovers and booksellers

Vol. 8, No. 11  November 2010

Index (scroll down for stories) 

  1. Literary agent crash-publishes book on party-crashing Salahis
  2. Blogs, Web sites among least likely to drive book buyer decisions
  3. Breaking news from the book barons
  4. Oprah picks Franzen’s ‘Freedom’ despite 2001 flap between the two
  5. News Corp. launches new conservative imprint led by Adam Bellow
  6. Stieg Larsson’s publishers teaming with Barnes & Noble imprint
  7. News about bookstores, publishing, marketing and promotion
  8. Novel by Snooki of MTV’s ‘Jersey Shore’ to be published by S&S
  9. Publishers rush books about BP explosion, spill in Gulf of Mexico
10. Books to movies and movies about books department
11. For fans of mysteries, Masterpiece has some great offerings this fall
12. How bad is it – and what is the book business doing to cope?
13. Reconnoitering the remainders and bargain book markets
14. Remainders market is feeling the impact of market changes
15. William Golding's daughter reveals his darker side in new book
16. New words added to the New Oxford American Dictionary
17. The publishing revolution: News of e-books and other new media
18. Barnes and Noble launches Pubit! to broaden e-book offerings
19. Survey: nearly 1 in 10 use e-readers, and they buy more books
20. New plugin turns Adobe InDesign into Amazon Kindle publishing tool
21. Smashwords’ Coker names seven secrets of e-book publishing failure
22. Barnes & Noble expects $1 billion/year in digital book sales by 2013
23. Graphic novels and comics news
24. Government Printing Office publishes its first comic book – NOT!
25. Simba study finds one in four comic readers is over 65
26. Books in bad taste: Book by unabomber Kaczynski published
27. Self-publishing news: Self-pubbed author Case 101 -  David Daigle
28. Milestones: Records, Prizes and news of note in book publishing
29. PEN Literary Award winners announced
30. HarperCollins apologizes, pulps 72,000 copies of Franzen’s ‘Freedom’
31. Working manuscript of original AA 'Big Book' to be released
32. Smashwords publishes its 20,000th indie ebook
33. News from trade shows, book fairs and book festivals
34. Books by Argentine authors honored at Frankfurt Book Fair
35. Exhibitor and agent attendance at Frankfurt up from 2009
36. Major upcoming trade shows, book fairs and book festivals
 

1. Literary agent crash-publishes book on party-crashing Salahis

First it was Andrew Wylie of the Wylie Agency who made book publishing waves when he decided to branch from literary agenting into publishing. He created his own publishing imprint, Odyssey Editions, to produce e-book editions of 20 titles by popular authors to be sold exclusively on Amazon.com.

The titles that Wylie contracted to market as e-books through Amazon.com were evergreen best-sellers by authors such as Philip Roth and Vladimir Nabokov.

That ended with Random House Inc. saying it would no longer do business with Wylie. Wylie backed down, announcing that Random House, which had claimed to own the electronic rights to the titles, would instead publish the e-books.

Now, uber agent Sharlene Martin, who lives on ritzy North Bainbridge Island offshore Seattle, has become a publisher as well as a literary agent. Her agency, Martin Literary Management, mostly represents inspirational memoirs, celebrity biographies, true crime and commercial nonfiction.
 

Rushing a book to market is called “crash publishing.” It was Martin, on behalf of the family of Ron Goldman, who was murdered along with Nicole Simpson, who arranged in 2007 to crash-publish O.J. Simpson’s controversial If I Did It at Beaufort Books, the book publishing division of Eric Kampmann’s Midpoint Trade Books distributorship.
 

If I Did It was one of several titles that Beaufort has crash-published since then, according to Associate Publisher Margot Atwell. She covered the subject in a Sept. 20 article in Publishing Perspectives, a free online newsletter edited by Ed Nawotka of Publishers Weekly and published by the German Book Office.
 

Martin’s agency crash-published Cirque Du Salahi: Be Careful Who You Trust in September. It’s the story of Tareq and Michaele Salahi, whom Martin represents along with the book’s author, investigative journalist Diane Dimond.
 

The Kindle and trade paperback version of Cirque Du Salahi became available from Amazon.com's CreateSpace on Sept. 15 and 20 respectively.
 

“I am not ‘following in the footsteps of Andrew Wylie,'” Martin noted in a comment posted to Publishing Perspectives. “This was an exception to the rule and Martin Literary Management remains committed to working with traditional publishers whenever they are able to handle publication of a book that meets a time sensitive nature for natural publicity.”
 

Since publication, the book and author Diane Dimond have been panned by a number of reviewers. On Amazon.com, for example, the reviews have been scathing. Of the first 46 reviews posted, 36 reviewers gave it only 1 star out of a possible 5. That’s bad news for a book being distributed by CreateSpace, a division of Amazon.com.

Critic Antonio, for example, writes "As a Virginia resident, I have read about the Salahis antics over the years. I met them once at a party at the Australian Embassy in D.C. I had respect for Diane Dimond from watching her on the cable networks - that respect is now gone. She fell for all of the Salahis' nonsense and hype and lies. Cirque du Salahi is embarrassing to read for anyone... who hoped to learn the truth about what really happened. This book is fictional nonsense, not a serious work of non-fiction."

At least one reviewer on Amazon has pointed out that the title of the book - Cirque Du Salahi: Be Careful Who You Trust - contains a grammatical error (using “who” where the correct word would be “whom”). Had Ernest Hemingway’s editors followed that construction, his novel would have ended up being titled For Who the Bell Tolls. Since literary conventions call for prepositions in titles and headlines to be lower-cased, the title Cirque Du Salahi should perhaps be Cirque du Salahi, as in “Cirque du Soliel,” but the capitalization of the pronoun is less egregious. Then there's the matter of number. Since the book is about two Salahis - Tarek and Michaele Salahi - the main title should probably read Cirque du Salahis (not Salahi).

Is it fair to judge a book by its cover - or title, for that matter? Perhaps not. But one is reminded of a comment by Walter Hines Page, the co-founder in 1900 with F.N. Doubleday of the publishing house of Doubleday, Page & Co. When a wannabe author accused him of not reading an entire manuscript, Page responded, "You don't have to eat the whole egg to tell that it's rotten."

In fairness, some of those critical of the work on Amazon appear to be Michael Jackson fans unhappy with Dimond’s prior coverage of the pop superstar. And not every review is unfavorable. There are a few five-stars as well. One of the five-stars, for example, says "The book tells an in-depth story about this peculiar couple who seemed to come out of nowhere to arrive at the White House. It gave me insight into the kind of person who would pull this stunt. Ms. Dimond peels back the skin of these publicity addicts exposing what makes them tick... If this subject interests you, I highly recommend this book." Interestingly, that one comes from J. Weiland of Bainbridge Island, Wash., where agent Martin lives.
 

The Salahis are the Washington D.C. couple who made headlines in November 2009 when they got past the Secret Service to crash Barack Obama’s first White House state dinner. Of late, Michaele Salahi has been on the reality TV show “The Real Housewives of D.C.”

As for the Salahis themselves, Just down the road, who lives "just down the road" from the Salahis, posted some interesting background on the couple in the most popular comment on the book posted to Amazon.com.
 

The book’s author, Diane Dimond, began her career at KOB Radio in Albuquerque, N.M. By 1990, she had become a correspondent for both “Hard Copy” and “Extra.” She moved to CNBC in 1998 to co-host the news-related program “Upfront Tonight” with Geraldo Rivera. Following that show’s cancellation in 2000, Dimond joined MSNBC as a reporter and host. After a brief stint with the Fox News Channel, she joined Court TV as a sometime anchor and regular reporter, gaining notoriety for her work as a correspondent during the Michael Jackson child molestation trial.

Dimond's coverage of Jackson has generated controversy - and animosity - among Jackson fans.

In 2005, Court TV decided not to renew Dimond's contract and her investigative unit was disbanded. After leaving Court TV, Dimond's book on Jackson entitled, Be Careful Who You Love - Inside the Michael Jackson Case was published by Simon and Shuster's Atria books.

On her Web site, author Dimond describes Cirque Du Salahi in the following blurb: “But this book is about more than what happens when the unsuspecting find themselves in the crosshairs of the national media. It reveals the truth about Michaele and Tareq Salahi: where they came from; what shaped their personalities; what obstacles they overcame; and what motivates them to do what they do... ”

Martin says she decided to publish the Salahis’ story on her own because she wanted the book to come out before the Real Housewives TV series ended on Oct. 7.
 

“It’s a decision I consciously made. I did not shop this to traditional New York publishers,” Martin told Jim Thomsen, a neighbor who covers the book beat for the local Kitsap Sun. 
 

Martin relocated to North Bainbridge Island a few years ago, from Los Angeles, with her partner, author Anthony Flacco.
 

“There was no way traditional publishing could accommodate the window of sales opportunity for this book - it would have been obsolete by the time they could have gotten it ready,” Martin told Thomsen.

Martin decided to get the book out quickly, short-circuiting the normal one- to two-year publishing process, by publishing it through Amazon.com’s CreateSpace, which is distributing print and electronic versions of the book. Everything else fell to Martin and her crew.
 

Her literary agency had to develop new skills. Martin had to handle editing, legal vetting, proofing, cover and interior design, marketing and other tasks. Flacco edited the book’s content.

As for the questionable grammar in the book's title, author Flacco, the book's editor, says the title selection was a branding decision and that he had no control over the wording.
 

According to Martin, everybody involved in the book is taking whatever financial rewards may result on the back end of the book’s release, in lieu of the advance money arrangements usually made in traditional book deals.
 

Instead of a traditional book tour with on-site signings in bookstores to promote the book, Martin arranged virtual book chats through Book Candy Studios in which, at scheduled times, people could log on for a live chat with Dimond and the Salahis.

Now, for those critical reviews.

“Like the other reviewers, I too wanted to hear the Salahi's side of the story with the facts verified by a journalist,” writes Amazon.com reviewer K. Rila ""Be Veggie"" of Ashburn, Va., in a typical negative review of Dimond’s book. “I figured there would be an added bonus as Diane Dimond promises in the Introduction that the Salahis had no editorial control of the content. Well, Ms. Diamond apparently had a hard time getting anyone but the Salahis to comment on any of the facts. Over and over again you read how this or that person refused to contribute to the book leaving only the Salahis' side of things… This book is a complete waste of time and you will learn absolutely nothing more than what you have already heard in the press.”

Several reviewers question the accuracy of Dimond’s information in the book. A laundry lists of alleged misinformation has been posted on at least one Web site.

Dimond has on occasion since the book was published been defensive about the widespread critical comment. She responded cuttingly to a critical review by DC socialite blogger Andrea Rodgers at Andrea’s Ask Miss A website.

Ms. Dimond, for her part, blames the critical reviews on Michael Jackson fans upset with her.
 

“Ever since I began reporting on entertainer Michael Jackson and police suspicions that he was a child molester back in 1993 I've been besieged by his most zealous fans,” she says. “No matter where I appear on television or what I write, no matter where I'm published - from books, magazine articles or my frequent pieces at The Daily Beast - they continue to stalk me and leave internet comments about their hatred for me. I'm a big girl. I can take it and have for many years.

“With Cirque Du Salahi,” she continues, “those Jackson fanatics were joined by people who had such a deep-seated anti-Salahi feeling (fed by 10 long months of negative media coverage) that even though they never read the book they felt compelled to slam the work. I am so appreciative of CreateSpace and all their hard work on getting the Cirque Du Salahi manuscript ready but it’s clear the companion Amazon.com public review page is ripe for misuse. As a long-time journalist I can never get behind the idea of censorship, but I believe there needs to be some adjustments made. Perhaps an Amazon administrator who can make sure those leaving reviews on the page are leaving legitimate criticism.”

Literary agent Martin had her own first book published in November 2009. She co-wrote Publish Your Nonfiction Book  with Flacco. The book was published by Writer’s Digest Books. (Sources: Jim Thomsen, “The Literary Agent Who Became a Book Publisher,” Kitsap Sun, Sept. 19, 2010; past Southern Review of Books stories; Margot Atwell, “Market Crash: How to Publish a Bestseller in 33 Days,” Publishing Perspectives newsletter, Sept. 20, 2010; Noel Griese, “Agent Sharlene Martin Publishes E-book on Obama Party Crashers,” Publishing Perspectives, Sept. 29, 2010; Wikipedia; reviews and comments posted to Amazon.com ; Andrea Rodgers Web site; and direct comments from Sharlene Martin and Diane Dimond).

2. Blogs, Web sites among least likely to drive book buyer decisions

According to an informal survey of 431 book buyers by Kristin McLean on Survey Monkey, author Web sites, advertising and social networking sites are among the least likely media to influence the decisions of book buyers.

McLean is the executive director of The Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), a national non-profit trade association for the children’s book industry.

The factor most likely to drive book-buying decisions, named by 68.4 percent of responders, is “I’ve enjoyed the author’s previous books.” The only other influence named as a major factor in book-buying decisions is “books my friends and family recommended” (56.7 percent).

Named as “moderate” influences are “book reviews in magazines and newspapers,” “browsing in bookstores” and “award-winning books.”

Topping the list of factors least likely to influence decisions to buy are publisher websites, author websites and advertisements.

Since visitors to Survey Monkey were allowed to select themselves into the sample, the survey results are non-random and non-scientific. Still, they are interesting and likely to be of value to those seeking to sell their books – especially self-published authors. McLean’s survey is available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/T8VYRWR.

Here’s how the overall results shook out:

MAJOR INFLUENCE
I’ve enjoyed the author’s previous books (68.4%)
Books my friends or family have recommended (56.7%)

MODERATE INFLUENCE
Book reviews in magazines/newspapers (38.3%)
Browsing in bookstores (37.1%)
Award-winning books (33.9%)

SOME INFLUENCE
Books on the Bestseller Lists (32.2%)

LITTLE OR NO INFLUENCE
Publisher websites (72.3%)
Author websites (63.3%)
Advertisements (57.8%)
Social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Goodreads, etc.) (54.0%)
Book and reader blogs (50.7%)
Book-oriented websites with reviews, interviews, etc. (38.7%)
In-store displays (37.3%)
Online book seller websites (Amazon.com, BN.com, Borders.com) (34.5%)
Browsing in libraries (25.7%)

According to McLean, “As you will have noticed, the majority of ‘traditional marketing efforts’ are falling into that last category, which I think speaks volumes about how many dollars are going down the drain in the effort to connect with consumers.”

McLean also notes that those who selected themselves into the sample “correspond pretty closely to the typical demographics of who buys books–73.5% female versus 26.5% male, and a nice range of ages with the center of the curve in the 36-45 age range.”

3. Breaking news from the book barons

President Barack Obama, who has become a multimillionaire as the result of his book-writing, has a new children's book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, slated for publication on Nov. 16 by Knopf Children's. The book will have an announced 500,000-copy first printing. Illustrated by Loren Long, it profiles 13 Americans from the artistry of Georgia O'Keeffe, to the courage of Jackie Robinson, to the patriotism of George Washington. The book was both sold (as part of his deal with Crown and Knopf Children's in 2004) and written before Obama took office in 2009. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to a scholarship fund for the children of fallen and disabled soldiers serving America… Adrian Zackheim, the publisher of Penguin imprint Sentinel, has announced that the title of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's memoir, scheduled to be published Jan. 25, 201, will be Known and Unknown. Zackheim said the book "pulls no punches" and "delivers everything I was hoping for and much more."
 

4. Oprah picks Franzen’s ‘Freedom’ despite 2001 flap between the two

Oprah’s Book Club has been a popular feature on her TV talk show since 1996. Of the 64 titles that she has chosen, many have gone on to become talked-about books and best-sellers.

The influence her recommendations have had on subsequent book sales - keep in mind that Oprah’s audience is women, and women buy far more books than men -  has been nicknamed the “Oprah Effect.”

Perhaps the only author who objected to his book being chosen was Jonathan Franzen, who in September 2001 objected to his novel The Corrections being selected for the book club.

Although Franzen told www.powells.com at the time that he thought Winfrey was “really smart” and “fighting the good fight,” he criticized her fiction choices as “schmaltzy” and “one dimensional,” and later told the Philadelphia Inquirer that The Corrections was “a hard book for that audience.”

Franzen in 2001 expressed concern that being endorsed by Winfrey could discourage male readers from buying the book.

As a result, Winfrey withdrew her invitation for Franzen to appear on her show, although The Corrections remained an official book club pick.

The story came full circle with the publication of Franzen’s new novel Freedom, however, which became Oprah’s September book club book choice after Winfrey sent Franzen a note asking for permission to feature it.

5. News Corp. launches new conservative imprint led by Adam Bellow

Thinking of writing or reading a book with a conservative slant as America becomes increasingly polarized?

Simon & Schuster, owned by CBS, uses its Threshold Editions imprint to publish the likes of Glenn Beck, while Penguin and Random House publish conservative books through imprints Sentinel and Crown Forum.

Now, HarperCollins, owned by conservative curmudgeon Rupert Murdoch, has  jumped aboard the bandwagon with a planned January 2011 launch of Broadside Books, a new imprint spearheaded by Adam Bellow.

Bellow, son of novelist Saul Bellow, has been at HarperCollins since 2008, after being lured away from Random House's Doubleday imprint.

Bellow has edited books by conservative pundits and leaders Jonah Goldberg, J.R. Dunn and Bruce Bawer. More importantly, he landed Going Rogue by Sarah Palin for the Collins imprint. That book sold approximately three million copies. Seven-figure sales are expected for Palin's next book, America by Heart.

Palin is already a paid commentator for News Corp.’s FOX News.

America by Heart won't be part of the new Broadside Books imprint. It stays with HarperCollins. And Bill O'Reilly, whose newest bestseller Pinheads and Patriots is published by another company division, William Morrow, stays there.

The new imprint will mostly publish authors from Rupert Murdoch-owned media FOX News and the Wall Street Journal.

6. Stieg Larsson’s publishers teaming with Barnes & Noble imprint

Quercus Publishing has announced that it will enter the U.S. and Canadian fiction market next year through a joint venture with Sterling Publishing, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble Inc.

Quercus has agreed an initial three-year deal with Sterling to publish a book through a new imprint named Silver Oak.

The new imprint, which will be owned equally by Quercus and Sterling, will publish books selected by Quercus from its list of fiction titles. However, Silver Oak’s titles won’t include the hugely popular Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson - for which Quercus owns English language rights - because existing licensing deals with North American publishers will remain in place, Chief Executive Mark Smith told Dow Jones Newswires.

Silver Oak will launch in January with publication of crime novel Three Seconds by Swedish authors Roslund and Hellstrom.

Smith said Silver Oak will allow Quercus to realize far greater profits on North American sales. “When we have licensed titles we get a share of the author’s royalties - it’s a cut of a cut,” he said. “This way we get 50 percent of the publisher’s profits.”

Smith said gross profit for each book sold could be five to 10 times higher under the new model.

7. News about bookstores, publishing, marketing and promotion

Publishers of literary fiction are approving fewer book deals and signing fewer new writers. Most of those getting published are receiving smaller advances. Independent book publishers who are picking up some of  the slack offer on average $1,000 to $5,000 in advances, a fraction of the $50,000 to $100,000 advances that established publishers typically paid in the past for debut literary fiction. Much of the decline is due to e-books. A new $28 hardcover book returns half, or $14, to the publisher, and 15 percent, or $4.20, to the author. Under most e-book deals, a digital book sells for $12.99, returning 70 percent, or $9.09, to the publisher and typically 25 percent, or $2.27, to the author. The lower revenue from e-books is making worse the decline in book sales and in reading, that were already under way. Sales of consumer books peaked in 2008 at 1.63 billion and are expected to decline to 1.47 billion this year and 1.43 billion by 2012, says Albert Greco, a book industry market researcher. Meanwhile, e-books sales are exploding.

8. Novel by Snooki of MTV’s ‘Jersey Shore’ to be published by S&S

In yet another genuflect to the stars created by TV reality shows, Simon & Schuster plans to publish a novel by Nicole Polizzi, better known as Snooki on MTV's “Jersey Shore.”

Simon & Schuster is betting that to the 5.5 million viewers who watch her weekly train wreck on TV and the 575,000 or so followers she has on Twitter will buy a book by her.

Only eight months ago, Polizzi declared on Twitter that she was reading her first book, Nicholas Sparks' Dear John.

S&S's Gallery Books imprint announced it will issue Polizzi's first novel in January 2011. Polizzi’s A Shore Thing will be the story of a woman looking for love amid "big hair, dark tans and fights galore" on the coast of New Jersey. "

"I'm pumped to announce to my fans a project that I've been working on for some time," Polizzi said in announcing the book deal. "This book will have you falling in love at the shore. It's 'A Shore Thing!'"

Polizzi's foray into the written word is emblematic of how bookstores, like television and partly because of it, have found the need to have shelf space for the literati and the glitterati alike.

Among recent tomes alleged to have been written by the 15-minutes-of-fame glitterati are the novel Priceless by Paris Hilton friend Nicole Richie,

the cookbook Skinny Italian by Teresa Giudice of "The Real Housewives of N.J." and autobiographies First Step 2 Forever: My Story by 16-year-old singing idol Justin Bieber and Kardashian Konfidential by reality TV's Kardashian sisters Kourtney, Kim and Khloe. (Source: Phil Rosenthal, The Tribune)

9. Publishers rush books about BP explosion, spill in Gulf of Mexico

It was only in April that the Deepwater Horizon rig drilling for British Petroleum in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the loss of 11 lives. Since then, the well was capped, subsequently killed and a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling for gas and oil was lifted.

Publishers have moved quickly to release books on the accident while there was still public interest in the accident and subsequent effects of the massive crude oil spill on the Gulf ecosystem.

By June, St. Martin's Michael Flamini had bought journalist Mike Magner's book on BP in a major six-figure deal. That title is due out in March 2011.

In July, OR Books, the startup behind the Sarah Palin spoof Going Rouge, had crash-published In Deep Water: The Anatomy of a Disaster, the Fate of the Gulf, and How to End Our Oil Addiction by Peter Lehner with Bob Deans.

Three more books out now or coming soon on the subject:

Disaster on the Horizon: The Deepwater Well Blowout: What Happened and Why by Bob Cavnar (Chelsea Green). Publication dates: print books ship by Oct. 15; e-books on sale sooner. Cavnar wrote it in a month. The author was most recently president and CEO of Milagro Exploration, an oil and gas exploration firm with operations on the Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America by William R. Freudenburg and Robert Gramling (MIT Press). E-book available now; print book ready October 21. MIT has never before produced a book so quickly. The publisher received the manuscript in late August and edited it within a month. Freudenburg is Dehlsen professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Gramling is professor of sociology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

In Too Deep: BP and the Drilling Race That Took It Down by Stanley Reed and Alison Fitzgerald (Bloomberg Press). Print and e-books will publish in January. In June, John Wiley's Pamela van Giessen (Wiley had just acquired Bloomberg Press) learned Bloomberg had beat reporters who covered BP and contacted them. Reed is a journalist who has covered BP for more than 10 years. Fitzgerald is an investigative reporter.
 

10. Books to movies and movies about books department

Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, (Plexus Publishing, Mendham, N.J.), by New Jersey Superior Court trial judge Nelson Johnson, is the basis for an HBO series that premiered on Sept. 19. Plexus has brought out a new edition of the book to tie in to the TV special, with a foreword by Terence Winter, the show's lead writer who also was a principal writer on “The Sopranos.” The original book, which had a 2,000-copy regional printing, is getting a new 85,000 press run from publisher Plexus. The TV series, produced by Martin Scorsese, is based on a real-life historical character, Nuckie Johnson, who ran the city’s liquor trade during Prohibition. The series renames him “Nuckie Thompson” in order to take liberties with history, making Nuckie a murderer - which he likely was not. Unfortunately, author Johnson is prohibited from speaking publicly about the book, which is likely to make the best-seller lists in tandem with the TV series. Johnson cannot speak publicly until the state Superior Court determines whether or not he has violated the state code of conduct for judicial employees by "self-promoting." The judge is making a counterargument to the committee, but a final decision may be months away.

11. For fans of mysteries, Masterpiece has some great offerings this fall

PBS’s Masterpiece will air some great BBC-produced mysteries based on books this fall.

Oct. 3 launches a new set of Wallander mysteries, adapted from the fiction by Henning Mankell. Like the books by Steig Larsson, the series is gloomy, but the acting, stories or production design are great.

On Oct. 23, BBC’s modern-day retelling of Sherlock Holmes stories starts, and will be aired for three consecutive weeks.

On Nov. 14, Masterpiece presents “Framed,” adapted by Frank Cottrell-Boyce from his novel in a feature-length drama starring Trevor Eve. The story line has flooding at the National Gallery forcing the curator (Eve) to return the entire collection to the disused quarry in North Wales where the paintings had been stored during the Second World War."

12. How bad is it – and what is the book business doing to cope?

July bookstore sales slipped 2.4 percent, to $1.079 billion, compared to July 2009, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. For the year to date, total bookstore sales have dropped 0.7 percent, to $8.499 billion. Putting book sales in perspective, total retail sales in July rose 5.4 percent, to $372.7 billion, compared to the same period a year ago. For the year, total retail sales were up 6.4percent, to $2,492.3 billion. Under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include "electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale" or used book sales… According to the Association of American Publishers, net book sales fell 1.3 percent to $1.5 billion in July. AAP stats are based on reports by 87 publishers. AAP says that for the year to date, sales have risen 8.1percent to $5.7 billion. E-book sales have risen much more dramatically. For the year to date, e-book sales are up 191 percent to $219.5 million, although the rate of increase slowed slightly in July… Currently, e-book self-publishing accounts for an estimated eight percent of total book revenue, up from five percent a year ago. Mike Shatzkin, a publishing consultant, estimates e-books could be 20 to 25 percent of total unit sales by the end of 2012. While some book industry experts say that lower e-book prices could increase overall unit sales eventually, whether they will make up for the loss of hardcover income remains to be seen. Most authors are likely to earn less as e-books continue to make inroads… Unable to unload its financially imperiled Alyson Books publishing unit, Here Media's Paul Colichman and Steve Jarchow are instead doing away with the "publishing" part of it. Alyson is now going e-book only. Alyson won’t immediately start churning out e-books: They're about a year away at least, says Knoebel. Between now and then Alyson will contact the two dozen authors still under contract whose book publishing dates came and went without anything reaching store shelves. Alyson  essentially ceased operation in late 2009. Its unpublished authors will have the opportunity to take back ownership rights or move forward with an e-book plan. Alyson publishes a largely LGBT slate of products to a niche audience.

13. Reconnoitering the remainders and bargain book markets

Birmingham, Ala.-based Books-A-Million has set up a retail division that will buy and sell used books, movies, music and computer games. It is opening the first of the stores, called 2nd & Charles, in Birmingham, Ala., according to the Birmingham Business Journal. BAM has more than 200 stores in 19 states and the District of Columbia selling new books and other merchandise.  The new move is motivated by the recession, which has made "value" retailing the strongest segment in general retail in the last two years.

14. Remainders market is feeling the impact of market changes

The 20^th Anniversary Chicago International Remainder and Overstock Book Exposition (CIROBE) will be held Oct. 28-31

The show vies with the Spring Book Show held in Atlanta each March for the title of the biggest of the bargain book shows in the country.

The remainder book industry, like much of the book world, is in flux. As Judith Rosen pointed out in a recent Publishers Weekly article, four of the largest wholesalers have closed their doors in the past four years. The four are Book Club of America, Kudzu Book Traders, Strictly-by-the-Book and A1 Books.

While things may not be booming, consumers, given the weak U.S. economy, are looking for cheap books, and that’s good for the bargain book business.

On the negative side, the shrinking of Borders and difficulty of getting titles into Barnes & Noble is making the world tough for bargain book wholesalers. So are the shrinking number of independent bookstores in the country, and the shrinking budgets of the indie stores that remain. Also seen as negative factors for the bargain book business are e-readers and Amazon.

"Diversity today is the key for all of us to survive," says Larry May, who co-owns the Great American Bargain Book Show and the Spring Book Show.

CIROBE was extended to five days this year to include a preshow to enable buyers to start earlier. One of the common criticisms of the show is that the most important business is done in private hotel suites before the show opens.

15. William Golding's daughter reveals his darker side in new book

Judy Carver's father, William Golding, was the Nobel Prize-winning author of Lord of the Flies, which is still required reading for many high school and college students in the UK, U.S. and other nations.

Her book about her father, The Children of Lovers,  will be published in May 2011 by Faber & Faber in observance of the 100^th anniversary of her father’s birth.

Based on the folk saying, “The children of lovers are orphans,” is described by the author as "a dialogue between his life and mine."

Carver, 65, has been pondering, collecting notes and setting down memories ever since her father died in 1993.

The centenary will also be marked with a conference, centenary editions of his novels and the opening of the archive of correspondence between Golding and his long-time editor at Faber, Charles Monteith, who plucked Lord of the Flies from the slush pile.

Golding was "in many ways very kind and very understanding and very sweet" as a father, said Carver. "In many ways he was a very warm person, and tremendously funny. What's strange is that no one believes that - they think he was all doom and gloom."

But there was also a "painful side" to her childhood and that of her brother, David Golding.

"Both my brother and I had problems growing up. My brother now, very sadly, though he's completely open about it, has a mental illness. While I can't say it was my parents, it is a tricky business. I'm sure they wondered all their lives had they been instrumental, or made it worse or better or no difference.

"When I was growing up I did have a breakdown,” Carver says of her own life. “I am robust in the extreme now, but this is why it's called The Children of Lovers. There was not that much room, really, for the two of us. I didn't feel we had enough from them.” “I do feel there is a major difficulty there in the way we were brought up... My father was tremendously affected by the war. We were aware the war had done something to him, and that affected our childhood too," she said.

Golding had a darker side, she says, a "feeling of self-contempt which came from very far back. Sometimes it was dealt with funnily, with self-deprecating jokes, but sometimes it was a much darker business which he couldn't live with.

"I know he referred to himself as a monster. Very occasionally I remember him behaving quite badly, being unkind, but that was very unusual and was usually when he had a lot to drink," Carver said. "He was in spurts a heavy drinker. Often he was happy not drinking at all. It was one thing or the other."

When she originally set out to write the book, she found it was straying too close to a biography of her father, something she felt she was too close to him to write. In the end the family asked John Carey to write the biography,

16. New words added to the New Oxford American Dictionary

It’s the list we writers wait for every year - new words and phrases added to the dictionary.

We haven’t the room to list all of the additions to the 2010 New Oxford American Dictionary, but here’s a sampling of those that we found intriguing.  

BFF n. (pl. BFFs) informal a girl’s best friend: my BFF’s boyfriend is cheating on her.
bromance n. informal a close but nonsexual relationship between two men.

cloud computing n. the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.

credit crunch n. a sudden sharp reduction in the availability of money or credit from banks and other lenders: the beleaguered company has become the latest victim of the credit crunch.

defriend v. another term for unfriend.

green audit n. an assessment of a business in terms of its impact on the environment.

hashtag n. (on social networking websites such as Twitter) a hash or pound sign (#) used to identify a particular keyword or phrase in a posting.

hockey mom n. informal.  A mother who devotes a great deal of time and effort to supporting her children’s participation in ice hockey.

homeshoring n. the practice of transferring employment that was previously carried out in a company’s office or factory to employees’ homes. Origin: opposite of offshoring.

homesourcing n. another term for homeshoring.

lipstick lesbian n. informal. A lesbian who favors a glamorous, traditionally feminine style.

LMAO abbr. vulgar slang for laughing my ass off.

megachurch n. a church with an unusually large congregation, typically one preaching a conservative or evangelical form of Christianity.

social networking n. the use of dedicated websites and applications to communicate informally with other users, or to find people with similar interests to oneself.

staycation n. informal a vacation spent in one’s home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions.

steampunk n. a genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology.

tramp stamp n. informal. A tattoo on a woman’s lower back.

TTYL abbr. informal talk to you later: Anyway, gotta run now! TTYL.

unfriend v. [with obj.] informal. Remove (someone) from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site: she broke up with her boyfriend, but she hasn’t unfriended him.

vuvuzela n. S. African. A long horn blown by fans at soccer matches.
Perhaps derived from Zulu.

17. The publishing revolution: News of e-books and other new media

A recent Harris Interactive Poll of 2,775 adults found that people with e-book devices are reading more than other Americans, and more than they did before they bought the technology, Information Week reports.  "Those who have e-readers do, in fact, read more," said Regina A. Corso, director of the Harris Poll. However, the margin is small. "Overall, two in five Americans (40 percent) read 11 or more books a year with one in five reading 21 or more books in a year (19 percent). But among those who have an e-reader, over one-third read 11-20 books a year (36 percent) and over one-quarter read 21 or more books in an average year (26 percent)." The survey also found that users of e-readers are more likely to purchase books. 'One in five Americans (21 percent) say they have not purchased any books in the past year compared to only eight percent of e-reader users who say the same, according to Harris.... Tech pundit Steve Greenberg, author of Gadget Nation and a frequent contributor to NBC's "Today," grew frustrated with how Sterling, the publisher of Gadget Nation, wanted to hold off on a version for the iPad, Kindle or other e-readers. So he renegotiated his deal with Sterling to allow FastPencil to roll out an e-book. Some authors and their agents, Wilson said, are growing interested in moving out of the big houses entirely because FastPencil can give them bigger royalties. Agents, too, could wind up feeling a squeeze as publishing dynamics change, he noted.

18. Barnes and Noble launches Pubit! to broaden e-book offerings

Barnes and Noble has launched an independent e-book publishing platform known as Pubit!. 

The new platform seeks to attract independent and do-it-yourself publishers to the Nook e-reader. 

Books released through the platform may be priced as low as 99 cents and as high as $199.99. In the range between $2.99 and $9.99, publishers will be able to take 65 percent of the money collected. Titles listed below $2.98 and above $10 earn 40 percent of the list price for the publisher. 

While Barnes and Noble is paying five percent less in royalties than Amazon.com’s DTP service, the company says that Pubit! is free of “hidden fees” related to file size and print publishing disparities that exist in Amazon’s contract.

One competitive advantage for the Nook platform is the fact that it is designed with peer sharing and casual content browsing in mind. A “Read in Store” feature allows users to browse an e-book in its entirety as long as the reader is physically in a Barnes and Nobile store. 

The “LendMe” feature allows for the loan of an e-book out to a friend for up to 14 days.

Pubit! Is designed to offer self-publishing tools to independent and DIY publishers in an effort to broaden content within the B&N e-book stores. 

"The launch of our PubIt! platform further reinforces our long-standing commitment to authors and writers, and offers a significant opportunity to provide an even greater selection of reading material to our millions of customers," said Theresa Horner, director of digital products for Barnes & Noble.

19. Survey: nearly one in 10 use e-readers, and they buy more books

CNet reports on a Harris Interactive poll that says eight percent of American adults are now using e-readers, and another 12 percent expect to buy one within the next six months. (See story above in “The Publishing Revolution.)

The poll also noted that current e-reader owners are significantly more likely than average to buy a book:

Among the e-reader users polled, 17 percent said they bought between 11 and 20 e-books, while 20 percent purchased 21 or more over the past year. By contrast, 11 percent of all Americans bought between 11 and 20 books last year, while 12 percent bought more than 21.

Only eight percent of the e-reader audience said they bought no books this past year, compared with 21 percent of people in general.

Also, 53 percent of e-reader owners read more now than they did six months ago—compared to 18 percent of those who don’t own e-readers.

20. New plugin turns Adobe InDesign into Amazon Kindle publishing tool

Adobe has launched the beta version of a new plugin for desktop publishing software InDesign that converts InDesign project files into Amazon Kindle books.

The plugin lets InDesign book and document files keep their font styles, and text and paragraph alignment, after being converted to Kindle Format, and allows links, images, tables and lists (bulleted or numbered) to be embedded as well.

"Our aim is to make it simple, fast and cost-effective for publishers to create Kindle books," said Russ Grandinetti, vice president, Kindle Content.

Rather than simply trying to attract consumers to the Kindle platform, Amazon is also trying to attract independent publishers. Last June, Amazon announced a 70 percent royalty option to entice publishers to use its Digital Text Platform. (Source: Tim Conneally, BetaNews, Oct. 1, 2010)

21. Smashwords’ Coker names seven secrets of e-book publishing failure

Mark Coker, the CEO of Smashwords, gave a talk at the Self Publishing Expo Conference in New York on Oct. 2 entitled "The Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Failure."

“We all make multiple decisions every day, and some of our decisions will inevitably prove incorrect or ill-conceived,” Coker said on his blog, where he expounds on the seven secrets.”The secret to success is to recognize our mistakes before they become business-limiting.”

If you’re an e-book author, you owe it to yourself to visit the article. Meanwhile, here are the seven points Coker discusses in detail.

1. Failing to respect the reader

2. Limiting your distribution

3. Limiting your sampling

4. Laziness

5. False expectations and Impatience

6. Playing the blame game

7. Failing to trust your partners

Coker said he would further elaborate on the seven points on his blog after he made the Oct. 2 presentation.

22. Barnes & Noble expects $1 billion/year in digital book sales by 2013

Barnes & Noble expects to take in $1 billion in revenue from sales of digital books, including e-books and e-textbooks, by 2013, the company said on Sept. 16.

The company hopes to capture a 25 percent share in the e-book market by then, said B&N CEO William Lynch in a letter to shareholders.

The announcement comes as shares in the company have tumbled 28.9 percent in the last year. In the wake of the announcement about digital market share, an analyst at Bank of America /Merrill Lynch downgraded Barnes & Noble to “underperform,” arguing that the company’s digital strategy faced major challenges from wealthier rivals like Amazon.com and Apple."

Revenue from B&N's digital division, B&N.com, totaled $144 million in the first quarter of 2011, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 9.

B&N sells the Nook e-reader, which was announced in October 2009. The company has said that its digital strategy includes delivering books, magazines and newspapers not only to the Nook, but to multiple devices.

Strong Nook sales and the company's 717 physical stores have helped fuel healthy e-book sales.

"We've gone from zero share to capturing over 20 percent of the digital trade book market - a higher share than the 18 percent we possess of the physical book market," Lynch said. (Source: Agam Shah, IDG News/PC World, Sept. 16, 2010)

23. Graphic novels and comics news

DC Entertainment will move its digital, multimedia, and consumer product operations as well as administrative functions to Burbank, Calif., and keep its editorial and publishing operations in New York City, where DC Comics has been for the past 75 years. DCE president Diane Nelson acknowledged there will be layoffs, and one report claims as many as 50 people may be let go, about 20 percent of DC's current workforce. Relocation should be complete by the end of 2011.

24. Government Printing Office publishes its first comic book – NOT!

According to a recent press release, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has published the agency's first comic book in observance of its 150^th anniversary.

The news release says GPO employees created the comic book "Squeaks Discovers Type!" as a teaching tool.

Problem is, the GPO publicity people got it wrong. “Squeaks” is by no means GPO’s first comic book – although it might be the first created wholly by GPO employees.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Library’s Government Comics Collection has at least 14  scanned comic books made by the GPO dating from Al Capp’s 1954 The Youth You Supervise.

As for “Squeaks,” the comic book focuses on the important role printing has played from the beginnings of civilization down to today's digital world.

The comic book's concept, story and illustrations were created at GPO. Jim Cameron wrote the story and Creative Services' Graphic Designer Nick Crawford provided the illustrations.

"Squeaks Discovers Type!" is available at GPO's newly designed and renovated bookstore in Washington, DC or available online. The price is $5 for a 24-page comic.

The GPO has posted a video about the comic book's launch on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/gpoprinter.

25. Simba study finds one in four comic readers is over 65

Simba Information has found that nearly one in four adult comic readers is 65 years of age or older, according to the newly released second edition of its "Overview of the U.S. Comic Book and Graphic Novel Market" report.

The burgeoning market for comics has been driven recently by a series of successful film adaptations, most notably Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight," which stands as one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Yet, as "Overview of the U.S. Comic Book and Graphic Novel Market 2009-2010" clearly shows, the industry remains misunderstood at best.

"Despite notable efforts from many in the industry, comics and graphic novels continue to be repeatedly mislabeled as just another children's book category," said Warren Pawlowski, online publishing manager for Simba Information and an analyst within the company's Trade Books Group. "With nearly a quarter of the comic reading audience beyond the age of retirement, there is a misconception that needs to be corrected."

"Overview of the U.S. Comic Book and Graphic Novel Market 2009-2010" delves deeper into clarifying and personifying the modern-day comic reader, with detailed demographic comparisons to book buyers and the general population. The report also provides bestseller analysis of the three major segments within the comic industry - comic books, graphic novels and manga - featuring multiple listings of the top titles and publishers by both title output and total dollar sales, as well as sales forecasts for the coming year.

Other new additions include a lengthy analysis of publishers' digital publishing and distribution adoption efforts, an exploration of the effect of price increases and movie adaptations on overall sales. Additionally, the report contains fully-revised profiles of top industry publishers that include a discussion of publishing strategies, estimated publishing revenues, an overview of bestselling titles and more.

26. Books in bad taste: Book by unabomber Kaczynski published

Theodore J. Kaczynski, perhaps best known as the unabomber - who argued that technology is at fault for society's current problems and drew attention to his argument with bombings for nearly two decades - has published a book through a small Washington State publisher.

His publisher is short of the hyperbole book publishers usually devote to their authors.
"He is a murderer, and he is a sociopath," said Adam Parfrey, who published Technological Slavery by the imprisoned Kaczynski.

But Parfrey says that Kaczynski "is also provocative and intelligent. He is a genius and a very good writer who can add to the discussion about technology," said Parfrey.

Kaczynski, 68, sent 16 package bombs between 1978 and 1995 which exploded, killing three people and injuring 23.

He blackmailed The New York Times and The Washington Post into publishing his manifesto in 1995, saying that he would continue his bombings unless the papers ran the document.

After publication, Kaczynski's brother recognized the writing style and made the identification that led to an arrest in a Montana cabin in 1996.

Technological Slavery is a reworked version of the original manifesto that includes Kaczynski's other writings that have been edited only slightly, according to Parfrey.

Prior to publication Kaczynski, Parfrey and a University of Michigan professor corresponded frequently, and the author - serving a life sentence in a federal maximum-security prison in Colorado - provided strict instructions to his publisher.

"He did not want to have any typos, which were present in the last edition of the book," Parfrey said. The previous edition was published in Europe.

Kaczynski did not have any control over the Technological Slavery cover, which shows a picture of an FBI replica of one of his bombs.  He also had no say in the cover copy, promotion or marketing.

Kaczynski wrote that he expected the book "to be advertised and promoted in ways that I find offensive, (but) think it is important to make the book available in its corrected and improved form."

Parfrey has given the book a 3,000-copy first printing, the low number due to the tastes of bookstores and the public. Interest could catch on, he said, if readers are able to separate Kaczynski's ideas from his crimes.

Parfrey, 53, began his book career as a "dumpster diver" who explored the books that were tossed away by the Goodwill store near his California home.

"I found that the books they were throwing away were far better than the ones they kept, so I struck a deal where they would give me those books, and I would sell them," he said.

He opened a wholesale book business and moved to New York to work for a publisher.

Twenty years ago, he founded his company, Feral House, publishing an average of 10 books each year.

He and his wife moved to the Port Townsend, Wash., area about three years ago.

Parfrey also has an imprint called the self-reliance series, publishing books about urban survival and sustainable life.

He said he does not share Kaczynski's anti-technology opinions, although he sees how innovation has harmed publishing.

"A lot of people resist the idea of paying for anything digital," Parfrey said. "It has become hard to make a profit as a publisher."

Kaczynski is forbidden by the "Son of Sam Law" from profiting from his crimes, so he won't receive book royalties.

Parfrey has said he will donate an acceptable royalty rate - 10 percent of any profits - to the American Red Cross. (Source: Charlie Bermant, Peninsula Daily News)

27. Self-publishing news: Self-pubbed author Case 101 -  David Daigle

David E. Daigle has a day job in Coos Bay, Ore., as a chiropractor. But for years, he’s sought fame and fortune by writing in his spare time.

Daigle says he’s spent about $10,000 so far publishing and marketing his four-book fantasy series The Frontmire Histories. The four volumes in that series, with Amazon.com rankings as of Oct. 1 in parentheses, are Prince of the Elves (#706,174), Rise of the Dark Queen (#1,434,620), Kravorctiva: Mistress of Chaos (#1,451,121) and Vanished! – Morlah’s Quest (#895,320). Jerry Halkyard of Dragonfrog/Renderosity did the art for the covers of the books, says Daigle.

Daigle has also written Magic Kingdom - Foreclosed (#95,171) and Two Short Stories and a Play (Kindle only-no ranking). Kindle versions are available for both at 99 cents each.

The four Frontmire Histories cost more. For $6.99, readers can download the Kindle version of Rise of the Dark Queen to their e-readers. The p-book lists on Amazon.com for $13.99.

Daigle says he has sold 800 electronic copies of titles in the self-published, four-volume fantasy series. He's averaging about four downloads a day, he told Traylor.

Paperback sales haven’t kept pace. Daigle has sold only 600 copies since he published his first novel, Prince of the Elves, in 2008.

Daigle attributes his e-book sales to his frequent messaging on Kindle Boards, a Web site where authors and readers can discuss digital literature.

The Web site lists books from top to bottom by order of popularity, which is determined by the amount of conversation surrounding a title.

Daigle can bump up his book sales by swapping comments with other Kindle authors. The back-and-forth chatter promotes the works of all involved.

“Kindle readers are a tighter community. They all talk about what they're reading," Daigle said.

It's a strategy he employs along with reading excerpts over the radio when he can, and setting up booths at community events.

Daigle said he's about at the break-even point financially. His advice to aspiring authors: “Don't quit your day job.” (Thanks to Nate Traylor, business editor of the Coos Bay World, for bringing the case of self-published author David Daigle to our attention.)

28. Milestones: Records, prizes and news of note in book publishing

ReadWriteWeb reports that "boutique book publisher and geek James Bridle has printed the 12,000 edits made to the controversial Wikipedia entry for ‘Iraq War’ between December 2004 to November 2009 as a 7,000 page, 12-volume set of books." "This is historiography," Bridle observed. "This is what culture actually looks like: a process of argument, of dissenting and accreting opinion, of gradual and not always correct codification."

29. PEN Literary Award winners announced

The PEN Literary Awards, sponsored by the PEN American Center, have been announced. A ceremony honoring winners and runners up will take place in New York City on Oct. 13. The awards:

PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers ($35,000): Paul Harding for Tinkers.

PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction ($25,000): Don DeLillo.

PEN/W.G. Sebald Award for a Fiction Writer in Mid-Career ($10,000): Susan Choi.

PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000): Michael Scammell for Koestler.

PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for a Master American Dramatist (prize consists of a gift from Bauman Rare Books): David Mamet.

PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for an American Playwright in Mid-Career ($7,500): Theresa Rebeck.

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing ($5,000): Marshall Jon Fisher for A Terrible Splendor .
PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship ($5,000): Pat Schmatz.

PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry ($5,000): Marilyn Hacker.

PEN/Tuck Award for Paraguayan Literature ($3,000): Esteban Bedoya for El Apocalipsis según Benedicto.

PEN Award for Poetry in Translation ($3,000): Anne Carson for her translation from the Greek of An Oresteia.

PEN Translation Prize ($3,000): Michael Henry Heim for his translation from the Dutch of Wonder by Hugo Claus.

Open Book Awards ($1,000):
Sherwin Bitsui for Flood Song.
Robin D.G. Kelley for Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original.
Canyon Sam for Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge.

30. HarperCollins apologizes, pulps 72,000 copies of Franzen’s ‘Freedom’

HarperCollins UK has apologized to Jonathan Franzen, author of bestselling novel The Corrections, after printing a version of his latest book, Freedom,  that was littered with errors.

The book was published with around 50 punctuation and spelling mistakes after a typesetter sent the incorrect edition from a computer.

Victoria Barnsley, chief executive of HarperCollins UK, said: ''I'd like to apologize profusely to Jonathan, his readers and our customers that our first edition of Freedom does not reflect the author's final corrected version of the novel.

About 8,000 copies had already been sold, out of a total press run of 80,000. Readers who are unhappy can exchange their book for a corrected edition by calling a special hotline.

Franzen, 51, received critical acclaim for his 2001 novel The Corrections. It sold nearly three million copies and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

31. Working manuscript of original AA 'Big Book' to be released

The original 1939 working manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous, the revolutionary “book that started it all” that has sold more than 27 million copies in the U.S. and Canada alone, will be made available to the public for the first time on Oct. 1 by Hazelden.

The original working manuscript was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in 2004 for $1.56 million .

The manuscript’s current owner made high-resolution scans available to addiction treatment center and publisher Hazelden,

The historic manuscript in 1939 became the book Alcoholics Anonymous. As the "bible" for the worldwide fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the Big Book is arguably the most influential and important 20th century book on recovery from alcoholism and other drug addiction. It has been translated into more than 50 languages.

Hazelden will publish the manuscript in a four-color cloth edition.

First written by AA’s co-founder Bill Wilson, with contributions from many of the original 100 AA members, the 161-page working manuscript unveils five layers of handwritten comments and revisions in black, green and red pencil. The edits reveal the intense debates that transpired during six weeks in 1939, when several newly recovering alcoholics discussed how to best share their message of hope with other alcoholics and their families.

“Hazelden’s decision to publish this important manuscript is rooted in our belief that principles within the Twelve Steps are core to helping those that suffer from addiction to experience lifelong recovery,” said Nick Motu, publisher and vice president of marketing and communications at Hazelden. Readers will see the “rejected” suggestions, inserts, cross-outs and last minute proof sheet changes - all of which now provide insights into the thinking behind AA’s founding members as they described their program of recovery in print for the first time.

Of special interest will be the debates in these pages over the role of religion and spirituality in AA - co-author Bill Wilson’s decision to give this book a spiritual rather than explicitly religious character was a turning point that enabled AA to benefit people of all faiths and persuasions.

The four-color cloth edition will be available for $65 (sugg. retail) from bookstores nationwide. In addition, a numbered, leather-bound limited edition, available direct from Hazelden, will be available in October for $125.

32. Smashwords publishes its 20,000th indie ebook

Author Charlene Bays Rothenberger published the 20,000th book at Smashwords.

Smashwords published 140 books in 2008, its first year of operation. By the end of 2009, it reached 6,000. It’s now on track to surpass 25,000 by the end of 2010.

Do numbers matter? Yes. Each new author at Smashwords brings more books, and more books bring more readers and more readers bring more authors who bring more books. It’s a never-ending cycle, catalyzed by the word of mouth of authors and readers who mutually benefit from the dynamic.

A growing number of Smashwords authors have been previously published - or are currently published - by large traditional publishers.

Until recently, most authors aspired to land a traditional book deal. That sentiment is changing. Many authors  have decided to turn their back on traditional publishing because they recognize the creative, economic and time-to-market advantages of indie e-book publishing.

According to Smashwords founder Paul Coker, self-publishing is shedding the negative stigma it once held as successful indie authors bring new credibility and respect to self publishing.

Coker said the growth is driven by the Smashwords distribution network through the addition of new retailers, the organic growth at retailers as they grow their businesses and the sales rank effect as Smashwords books build sales, readership and reviews at each retailer.

The Smashwords distribution network includes the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo (in addition to operating its own retail store, Kobo also powers Borders in the U.S. and Australia, Whitcoulls in New Zealand, Samsung and others) and the Diesel eBook Store.

On the mobile apps front, Smashwords books are in the native catalogs of Stanza on the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, and in Aldiko for Android devices.

Some 2,000 of the titles listed on Smashwords are available free.

The 20,000 titles so far published with Smashwords are by 8,798 authors and publishers.

33. News from trade shows, book fairs and book festivals

After 15 years at the UCLA campus in Westwood, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which has grown into one of the biggest in the country, is moving to the University of Southern California's University Park Campus, near downtown Los Angeles, when it is held next year, April 30-May 1. Last year more than 140,000 people attended the festival, which offers exhibits, readings, signings, Q&As, children's activities and more… Comic-Con International, which had considered proposals to move to Los Angeles or Anaheim from its longtime home in San Diego, Calif., after its contract with the convention center expires in 2012, has decided to stay in San Diego at least through 2015, the Wrap reported. The grandfather of all comics shows, which began in 1970, capped its attendance at 125,000 three years ago. The next Comic-Con show will be held July 21-24… The Frankfurt Book Fair, which ran Oct. 6-10, saw attendance and titles down slightly from past years. Frankfurt is the biggest book-publishing show in the world. This year, around 7,000 publishers attended.  The bulk of the business was done by some 600 U.S. and 800 British publishers, whose output makes up the main part of fiction and non-fiction in translation round the globe. They sold the rights to reproduce their books in other languages. The overall number of exhibitors this year was down markedly from the 7,300 of one year ago as sales stagnate. A sign of the pain due to the worldwide recession is that many publishers have purged their backlists, the inventories of books that have been on the market for several years, and slowed down new publications as well. The publishers that participated this year had a global sales list of 310,000 titles, nearly a quarter fewer than in 2009.

34. Books by Argentine authors honored at Frankfurt Book Fair

Argentina was the country of honor at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the granddaddy of all book shows worldwide.

Every year, the Fair nominates a special guest for promotion to the German reading public.

Argentina used its five days of glory at the October 6-10 event to highlight younger writers who do not yet enjoy world fame.

Argentina funded visits to Frankfurt for 60 authors and other intellectuals, and mounted 12 exhibitions for the show.

In 2010, Argentina is observing the bicentennial of its independence from Spain.

As part of that observance, the government has funded a program to translate 300 books by 230 Argentine authors, mainly into German, but also into 32 other languages. Many of the books deal with Argentina's years under a brutal military dictatorship.

The ranks of Argentine novelists and essayists with a world following are led by Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar. Others would name Adolfo Bioy Casares, Roberto Arlt, Manuel Puig, Ernesto Sabato, Juan Gelman and Osvaldo Bayer.

Argentine publishers published 22,600 titles in 2009; the books enjoyed distribution of 88 million copies last year. Two thirds of those sales were by traditional publishers selling through bookshops. The remainder were free religious tracts and advertising publications.

35. Exhibitor and agent attendance at Frankfurt up from 2009

Attendance at the Frankfurt Book Fair dipped slightly this year. For the first three days of the fair, before the gates were opened to the public, attendance stood at 149,945, down 1.7 percent from the 152,530 attendees in 2009 for the same three-day period.

At the Oct. 6 opening press conference, Fair officials said that total exhibitors were up, at 7,533, a three percent increase over last year. The Fair occupied the same amount of exhibition space as in the last few years.

Strong demand for tables in the Literary Agents Center produced growth of almost four percent, with 522 agents participating.

Of the more than 7,500 exhibitors, 1,900 had digital offerings as part of their exhibits, while almost all of the exhibitors has digital content to offer. President of the German booksellers and publishers association Gottfried Honnefelder told reporters that only about one percent of the 9.6-billion-euro German book market was currently made up by digital offerings, but he "could see the market rising to 10 percent in the near future."

Fair organizers plan to expand the rights center, where traffic has increased in recent years.

36. Major upcoming trade shows, book fairs and book festivals

October

Oct. 14-16. Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.  www.nciba.com

Oct. 23. Celebrate the Book, Carlisle, Penn. Featured author: John Grogan, author of Marley and Me. http://www.celebratethebook.orgOct. 28-31. CIROBE, Chicago Hilton. www.cirobe.com

Oct. 30. Louisiana Book Festival, Baton Rouge, http://lbf.state.lib.la.us.

October. Great Lakes Booksellers Association.  www.books-glba.org

October. Litquake, San Francisco’s Literary Festival.  Event was held Oct. 9-17 in 2009. We’ll post the 2010 dates when we get ‘em. Meanwhile, visit http://www.litquake.org.

October. Southern California Independent Booksellers Association – www.scbabooks.org

October. Oklahoma Independent Booksellers Association – info@stevessundrybooksmags.com 

November

Nov. 3-7. Vegas Valley Book Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada. http://vegasvalleybookfestival.org.

Nov. 4-6. PubWest 2009, Tucson, Ariz.  www.pubwest.org.

Nov. 14-21. Miami Book Fair International, Miami Dade College, draws hundreds of thousands of people. http://www.miamibookfair.com.

Nov. 27-Dec. 3. Guadalajara International Book Fair, Guadalajara, Mexico. Claims to be the second-largest international book fair in the world, after Frankfurt, with 600,000 attendees. Guadalajara International Book Fair Is Second Largest Book Expo http://www.suite101.com/content/guadalajara-international-book-fair-is-second-largest-book-expo-a279578#ixzz0ywvkmkzR

January 2011

Jan. 7 -11. American Library Association's Midwinter Conference.  www.ala.org 

Jan. 11-13. Inspirational Value Book Show (IVBS).  www.ivbshow.com  

Jan. 16-17. Ciana Remainder Book Show, London.  http://www.ciana.co.uk    

February

Feb. 25-March 1. The National Association of College Stores Conference. www.nacs.org 

Ninth Hispanic Book Festival.  www.hispanicbookfestival.com or call Andres Puello, Festival Director, 281-558-3052

South Carolina Book Festival. http://www.scbookfestival.org

March

March 25-27. Spring Book Show, Cobb Galleria/Renaissance-Waverly Hotel, Atlanta, Ga. SBS is one of the largest remainder and bargain book shows in the world. www.springbookshow.com

National Association of College Stores (CAMEX). www.nacs.org

Bologna Children’s Book Fair.  www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com 

April

April 11-13. London Book Fair . www.londonbookfair.co.uk

April 30-May 1. Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. After 15 years at the UCLA campus in Westwood, the festival, which has grown into one of the biggest in the country, is moving to the University of Southern California's University Park Campus, near downtown Los Angeles. Last year, more than 140,000 people attended.

April 30- May 2. Museum Store Association’s Retail Conference & Expo

May

May 23-26. BookExpo America, New York.  www.bookexpoamerica.com  

National Stationery Show,  New York.

June

June 24-29. American Library Association, Washington, DC. www.ala.org

June 27–30. ICRS - International Christian Retail Show,  St. Louis, Mo www.christianretailshow.com

Printers Row Book Fair, Chicago. http://www.chicagotribune.com/about/events/printersrow  

The Australian Booksellers Association's, Melbourne. The International New Age Trade Show West 

July

July 21-24. Comic-Con International, San Diego, Calif. The grandfather of all comics shows, which began in 1970, and capped its attendance at 125,000 three years ago.

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Telephone:

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Fax:

770-493-7232

 

Postal address:

P.O. Box 2694, Tucker, GA 30085-2694

 

Ground Delivery and Mail Address:

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Last modified: 03/28/11