August bookstore sales fall 4.5% year on year
August bookstore sales fell 4.5% compared to August 2012, according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau, which were delayed two weeks because of the government shutdown. For the year to...
View ArticleMichael Palmer dies aged 71
Michael Palmer, physician and best-selling suspense author whose "Extreme Measures" was adapted into a 1996 film of the same name starring Hugh Grant and Gene Hackman, has died aged 71 from...
View ArticleChef and author Charlie Trotter dies aged 54
Charlie Trotter, author of many cookbooks, whose eponymous Chicago restaurant was considered one of the finest in the world, has died of a brain aneurysm aged 54.
View ArticleAmazon offers indie booksellers commission to sell Kindles!
To the astonishment of many independent booksellers, yesterday Amazon announced a program whereby indies and other retailers can sell Kindle e-readers and accessories and, in some cases, receive a...
View ArticleGoogle wins digital library legal battle
Google has defeated a legal action mounted to stop it scanning and uploading millions of books. In 2005, the US Authors Guild sued Google alleging that its plans to create a digital library amounted to...
View ArticleMore Than 700 Authors to Take Part in Indies First
More than 700 authors have signed up to handsell their favorite titles at over 400 independent bookstores during Indies First on Small Business Saturday, November 30. Last week, the American...
View ArticleNobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing dies aged 94
British author Doris Lessing died today, aged 94. She became the oldest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature when in 2007, at the age of 88, she won the award for her life's work. Her best-known...
View ArticleBarbara Park, Junie B. Jones author, dies age 66
Park died Friday after a long battle with ovarian cancer, according to a statement released Sunday by Random House Books for Young Readers. She was a longtime resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., where she...
View ArticleWilliam Weaver, renowned translator of Umberto Eco etc, dies aged 90
William Weaver, who has died aged 90, was the greatest of all Italian translators. Before him, the professional translator was considered little better than a superior sort of typist. Weaver helped to...
View ArticleUS bookstore sales rise 6.3% in September after falling for previous three...
After falling for three consecutive months, US bookstore sales rose 6.3% in September, to $1.30 billion, according to preliminary estimates released Wednesday morning by the Census Bureau.
View ArticleNational Book Award Winners announced
The National Book Award winners are: Fiction: James McBride for The Good Lord Bird Nonfiction: George Packer for The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America Poetry: Mary Szybist for Incarnadine...
View ArticleDonal Ryan wins Guardian first book award with The Spinning Heart
Novelist Donal Ryan has won the 2013 Guardian first book award with an angry portrait of rural life in post-crash Ireland, The Spinning Heart. Steerforth will publish it in the USA in February 2014.
View ArticleFirst ever Indies First event on Small Business Saturday proves great success
The first ever Indies First event, proposed by Sherman Alexie just three months ago, has proved a great success. Last Saturday, Nov 30, more than 1000 authors handsold books at more than 400 indie...
View ArticleSupreme Court declines to review Amazon & Overstock's lawsuit about paying...
The Supreme Court has declined to review the lawsuit by Amazon and Overstock challenging New York State's 2008 law requiring them to collect sales tax. American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher...
View ArticleA Man Called Intrepid author dies aged 89
William Stevenson, a journalist and author who drew on his close ties with intelligence sources to write two best-selling books in the 1970s, A Man Called Intrepid and 90 Minutes at Entebbe, which he...
View ArticleOldest romance writer in the world dies aged 105. Books #124 and #125 to be...
Ida Pollock, author of more than 120 books, and believed to be the world's oldest romantic novelist, has died at the age of 105. Born in London in 1908 and raised by a single mother, Pollock had her...
View ArticleResearch shows that 90% of Americans value public libraries
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, about 90% of Americans aged 16 and older said that the closing of their local public library would have an impact on their community, with 63% saying...
View ArticleNumber of independent bookstores in USA grew 6.4% in 2013.
The Washington Post reports on the growth of independent bookstores: "In an e-tailing world, their resurgence is driven by e-book growth that has leveled off, dyed-in-the-wool print lovers who won't...
View ArticleWriter hired for fourth Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book
The Swedish publisher of the late Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, has hired David Lagercrantz write a fourth novel which is scheduled to be published in 2015. Lagercrantz is...
View ArticleAuthor of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen dies
British novelist Paul Torday, who had a surprise best-seller with his debut novel "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," has died at age 67, his publisher said Thursday.
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