A. M. Homes wins Women's Prize for Fiction for May We Be Forgiven
May We Be Forgiven, an often breathtakingly dark and crazy satire on modern American life caused a literary upset on Wednesday night when it won the women's prize for fiction (formerly the Orange...
View ArticleFrench government pledges further $11.8 million dollars to support...
Aurélie Filippetti, the French culture minister, is "mulling a ban on free postage offers and a current system allowing 5% discounts on books". She has also announced a €9 million (about $11.8 million)...
View ArticleTom Sharpe, Porterhouse Blue novelist, dies aged 85
British author Tom Sharpe, author of more than a dozen comedic novels including Porterhouse Blue (1974) and Blott on the Landscape (1975), has died aged 85.
View ArticleIain Banks dies aged 59
Author Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer. He was best known for his novels The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Complicity. In a statement, his publisher...
View ArticleKenn Nesbitt is new Children's Poet Laureate
Kenn Nesbitt has been named the new Children's Poet Laureate: Consultant in Children's Poetry to the Poetry Foundation, which noted that the two-year position comes with a $25,000 prize and "aims to...
View ArticleAuthor & journalist Michael Hastings killed in car crash
Author and journalist Michael Hastings died in a car crash in Los Angeles early Tuesday at the age of 33. The author of two nonfiction books about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he will probably be...
View ArticleAmazon cuts off 5200 affiliates in Minnesota
With Minnesota's online sales tax law due to take effect July 1, Amazon has played a familiar card by cutting ties with 5,200 members of its Associates program in the state, the Pioneer Press reported....
View ArticleAlice Munro wins Trillium Book Award and announces that she's retiring from...
Alice Munro won the Trillium Book Award for "Dear Life" on Tuesday, and also announced her retirement, saying, "I'm probably not going to write anymore. And, so, it's nice to go out with a bang...Not...
View ArticleB&N reports very poor 4th quarter results
Barnes & Noble reported significantly poorer than expected fourth quarter results: Sales of $1.28 billion were down 7.4 percent from a year ago, and the net loss doubled to $118.6 million ($2.11...
View ArticleB&N to open 5 stores and close 15-20 others
Barnes & Noble plans to open five stores and close 15-20 in the current fiscal year; in the past year, B&N opened two stores and closed 18. The company also said that despite speculation to the...
View ArticleMore Americans under 30 read a print book in last year than those aged 30+
The latest Pew survey indicates that while almost all Americans under age 30 are online, and they are more likely than older patrons to use libraries' computer and internet connections; they are also...
View ArticlePenguin, Random House merger complete
The merger of Penguin and Random House (except for Random House Germany) has now officially been completed. Headquartered in New York, the new company employs over 10,000 people, and publishes over...
View ArticleUSA public libraries to launch monthly Top-10 list this Fall.
Starting this fall, public library staff from across the country will select a monthly top-10 list of their favorite new adult releases. The volunteer program, called LibraryReads, has been in the...
View ArticleText book publisher, Cengage Learning, files for bankruptcy protection
Cengage Learning, a private equity-backed education company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday as part of an effort to shrink its $5.8 billion debt load. The company, based in...
View ArticleBarnes & Noble CEO resigns
With its Nook Media strategy floundering, the architect of that effort, William Lynch, resigned Monday as CEO of parent company Barnes & Noble. With Lynch's departure, Michael Huseby, who joined...
View ArticleJudge rules that Apple colluded with major publishers to fix e-book prices
In a major blow, Judge Denise Cote today ruled that Apple did indeed collude with five major publishers to fix e-book prices in 2010. The decision comes following the June 20 close of Apple's high...
View ArticleJK Rowling used pseudonym to write crime novel.
JK Rowling has secretly written a crime novel under the guise of male debut writer Robert Galbraith. The Harry Potter author was acclaimed for The Cuckoo's Calling, about a war veteran turned private...
View ArticleAttorney's wife's best friend reveals J.K. Rowling's secret identity. Rowling...
JK Rowling's London law firm has admitted that one of their partners was responsible for revealing that Rowling is the author of Robert Galbraith's The Cuckoo's Calling. Apparently, one of the partners...
View ArticleLatin American countries successfully block Amazon from registering .amazon...
A group of Latin American countries appears to have succeeded in an effort to block Amazon, the online retailer, from using .amazon as a new suffix for Internet addresses. A committee of the Internet...
View ArticleAmazon "declares war" on publishers
Yesterday Amazon began discounting many bestselling hardcover titles between 50% and 65%, levels never seen in the history of Amazon or in the bricks-and-mortar price wars of the past. "It's an open...
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