• Oxford English Dictionary Will Probably Never Be Printed Again
The Telegraph reports that the Oxford English Dictionary will never be printed again. Oxford University Press says the print dictionary market is rapidly fading away. The dictionary will probably only be printed online from now on.
"The print dictionary market is just disappearing, it is falling away by tens of per cent a year," Nigel Portwood, the chief executive of OUP, told the Sunday Times. Asked if he thought the third edition would be printed, he said: "I don't think so."
Almost one thi...
• Laura Lippman's New Thriller Sells More Ebooks Than Hardcovers
The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog reports that Laura Lippman's new thriller, I'd Know You Anywhere, sold more ebooks than hardcovers during its first five days on sale. Frank Albanese, a senior vice president at HarperCollins, says enough people now have ereaders that a good review can give a book a "faster lift on the digital side."
"This is the first book of ours of any consequence that has sold more e-books than hardcovers in the first week," said Frank Albanese, a senior vice president ...
• Songwriter George David Weiss Dies at 89
Songwriter George David Weiss has died at age 89. Weiss created pop music and collaborated on several Broadway musicals. Some of Weiss' biggest hits included "What a Wonderful World," which was recorded by Louis Armstrong. He also wrote
"Can't Help Falling in Love" for Elvis Presley and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which was recorded by the Tokens. Weiss was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984.
You can read obits for George David Weiss here, here and here.
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• Publishers Weekly Launches Fee-Based Service for Self-Published Authors
Publishers Weekly (PW) has announced the launch of PW Select, a fee-based service for self-published authors. PW Select will charge authors a $149 fee to have their book listed in a seasonal supplement that will be bound into issues of Publishers Weekly as well as in a digital edition and online database.
PW is also holding a carrot to self-published authors by offering them the chance at getting their book reviewed. Publishers Weekly President George W. Slowik Jr. says that "at least 25 of the...
• Forbes Lists the Ten Highest-Paid Authors
Forbes has a story containing details about the top ten highest earning authors. Forbes says James Patterson signed a $100 million deal last year that has him writing 17 books by the end of 2012. Some of the $40 million Stephenie Meyer earned in 2009 came from the Twilight film. J.K. Rowling was near the end of the list of top earning authors because her income has slowed somewhat now that the Harry Potter series is finished.
Here is a list of the top ten highest earning authors.
James Patters...
• Orbit Books Shares Details About 2009 Fantasy Cover Art Trends
Orbit Books has been running a series of fascinating infographics that reveal fantasy novel cover art trends for 2009. Orbit's Trends in Fantasy Cover Art chart shows that swords, glowy magic and dragons were the most popular fantasy cover art elements in 2009. Orbit Books also has information and infographics about heroines in urbany fantasy, the most popular color choices for dragons and a word cloud showing word trends in fantasy titles in 2009.
Image: Orbit Books
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• J.D. Salinger's Toilet for Sale on eBay
The listing on eBay for J.D. Salinger's toilet says, "Here's an item you won't come across everyday!" The listing also promises that the toilet will come to you "uncleaned and in it's original condition when it was removed from Salinger's old home."
The asking price for the commode is $1 million. It is unclear why anyone would want to pay anywhere near that much for it. The listing tries to entice buyers by suggesting that Salinger may have thought up some of his stories while sitting on the t...
• Author Jonathan Franzen Dislikes Author Videos
Author Jonathan Franzen is back on the literary radar with his new novel, called Freedom. Franzen has landed the cover of Time and he has a write-up in Vogue. Jonathan Franzen made an author video even though he dislikes them. The fact that a lot of commerce now happens online seems to have made him willing to make them.
Jonathan Franzen says, "This might be a good place for me to register my profound discomfort at having to make videos like this. To me, the point of a novel is to take you to a...
• List of the Most Overused Marketing Buzzwords
Search and PR strategist Adam Sherk has compiled a list of the most overused terms in press releases. He used PRWeb's press release archive to find the most frequently used terms. Many press releases are full of words used to praise the products and the people mentioned in them. Words like leader, best, top, unique, innovative and great made the list. Below is a list of the top ten most overused press release buzzwords. You can view the top 100 list here.
Overused TermMentions in Press Release...
• Website Provides Database of Writers' Houses
A. N. Devers launched an interesting website earlier this year called Writers' Houses. A. N. Devers says his decision to launch a site dedicated to documenting writers' houses came from "a growing obsession, since childhood, with books, travel, and making connections between a writer's work and place."
The Writers' Houses database can be browsed by author, city, state and country. Some of the authors in the database include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, Thomas Wolfe and ...
• Dorchester Publishing Switching From Paperback to Digital Books
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that paperback publisher Dorchester Publishing has decided to all digital. Staring Monday, Dorchester will switch from mass paperback to ebooks and print-on-demand. The WSJ says Dorchester decided to make the switch to digital books after its book unit sales fell 25% last year.
Dorchester publishes 25 to 30 books a month. Nearly 65% of its titles are romance novels. The WSJ article says romance readers have been embracing ebooks. One reason why romance reade...
• Lindsay Lohan Was Busy Writing in Prison
TMZ reports that Lindsay Lohan was busy writing during the fourteen days she spent behind bars. TMZ says its sources tell them the actress filed up several notebooks. She reportedly documented "every single thing" about the time she spent in her 12-foot-by-8 foot jail cell at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California. She even wrote about her dreams.
TMZ says Lindsay plans to turn her journals into a book about her experience. This has been a very highly publicized event so...
• Video: Kate Price Shows Authors How to Do a Booksigning in Style
Now this is how you do a book signing, authors. Glamour model Katie Price's second novel Paradise has zoomed to the top of the British fiction bestseller charts and we're sure the elegant ensemble she wore to her first booksigning had something to do with it. The ghostwriter (oh, come on now, you know there's a ghostwriter) is no doubt cashing her check and drowning her sorrows in a stiff drink. Take a look:
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• Anne Rice Quits Christianity
Anne Rice has posted on her Facebook page that she has quit being a Christian.
Anne Rice says she remains committed to Christ but not to "being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity." She posted the following message on her Facebook account today.
As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism....
• Sloppy Joe's Bar Holds 30th Annual Hemingway Look-Alike Contest
Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West host a Hemingway Look-Alike contest each year. This year was the 30th Hemingway Look-Alike contest. The contest is one of many events in Key West to celebrate the birthday of Ernest Hemingway and honor his work as author and sportsman.
The winner of this year's Hemingway Look-Alike contest was Charles Bicht from Vero Beach, Florida. Bicht, a retired construction project manager, told the Sun-Sentinel that his favorite Hemingway novel is To Have and Have Not. You ca...
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• Books of The Times: Simon Wiesenthal, the Man Who Refused to Forget
A detailed biography of the legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal shows him to be a complicated hero, an angel with dirty wings.
• Books of The Times: At the Center of the Storm, but Still a Mystery
Tony Blair?s memoir, ?A Journey,? sheds little light on his political vision or on why he took Britain to war against Iraq.
• Books of The Times: Young Man Seeks Poetry in World War II?s Ruins
A British author links his grandfather?s World War II bombing missions to the war poetry of the time.
• Roger Ebert: No Longer an Eater, Still a Cook
After losing his lower jaw to cancer, the film critic, who can?t eat, has written a cookbook that is an ode to the rice cooker.
• Vance Bourjaily, Novelist Exploring Postwar America, Dies at 87
Mr. Bourjaily?s novels often explored what it meant to be an American at a particular historical moment.
• Books of The Times: The Lives Gained by Fleeing Jim Crow
In ?The Warmth of Other Suns,? Isabel Wilkerson documents the sweeping 55-year-long migration of black Americans from the South.
• At Bookstore, Even Nonbuyers Regret Its End
With more people choosing to buy books online, a Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side prepared to close early next year.
• Books of The Times: Preppily Perplexed? A New Guidebook
?True Prep,? Lisa Birnbach?s successor to ?The Official Preppy Handbook,? addresses the adult world of funerals and second marriages and the post-1980 world of cellphones, the Internet and synthetic fleece.
• Peace and War
Like Jonathan Franzen?s previous novel, ?The Corrections,? this is a masterly portrait of a nuclear family in turmoil, with a majestic sweep that gathers every sociocultural morsel of our shared millennial life.
• Where It Hurts
An expansive mix of medical reportage, history and memoir explores our relationship to pain.
• The Language of Exile
Milan Kundera?s essays illuminate music, painting and writing in the context of what he calls a ?post-art? era.
• Den of Antiquities
Craig Childs explores archaeology?s ethical debates and the costs of discovering lost history.
• Long Island Confidential
A hapless teacher is hurled from one unsavory spot to the next in this fiercely satirical novel.
• Revolutionary Road
Seeing the march of American history in the story of the Boston Post Road, a colonial highway turned modern-day ribbon of retail.
• Hangover in a Strange Land
This memoir of traveling Europe is not shy about reporting on sex, drinking marathons or personal humiliation.
• Bum Phillips Releases Autobiography
Bum Phillips, a former NFL coach, has released his autobiography. Bum Phillips became the head coach of the National Football League's Houston Oilers in 1975. He retired from the league 10 years later as one of its most colorful characters of all time. Phillips was known for his cowboy hat and boots, but he also survived deadly battles during World War II and found Jesus during a trip to prison.
The book covers Phillips' accounts of his pro footaball coaching career, his favorite NFL stories, a...
• Socialite Tinsley Mortimer Writing a Book
Socialite Tinsley Mortimer is writing a novel. The New York Post reports that the socialite, who used to have a CW reality show called High Society, has landed a book deal with Simon & Schuster.
Tinsley has no novel writing experience, but she did contribute a chapter to a nonfiction book, Dr. Stuart Fisher's The Park Avenue Diet.
Tinsley is also a designer - she has a line of handbags and apparel in Japan for Samantha Thavasa. Her Twitter account can be found here.
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• Jimmy Wayne to Publish Book Called Paper Angels
Country music star Jimmy Wayne is writing a book. Wayne's first book, Paper Angels, will be published by Howard Books, in September 2011. The book will be co-authored by novelist Travis Thrasher.
Wayne was abandoned at a young age by his father and growing up in foster care due to his mother being in prison. Wayne and his sister were both recipients of the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program. Wayne went on to be awarded the William Booth Award from the Salvation Army, the youngest ever recipien...
• Betty White to Publish Two Books
Betty White will write two books for G. P. Putnam's Sons. The first book, titled Listen Up!, will draw upon life lessons learned during her long career in Hollywood, with an emphasis on the extraordinary past 15 years of the star's life. The second book, titled The Zoo and I: Betty and Her Friends, will be filled with stories and photographs capturing the daily life of her animal friends at the zoo. Betty White is a long-time member of the board of the Los Angeles Zoo, and she has been a passion...
• Ricky Martin's Memoir to be Published November 2nd
Ricky Martin has released the cover art and the release date for his memoir. The book, entitled Me, will be published by Celebra on November 2nd.
A statement released by his publicist said the book will discuss Ricky Martin's experience as a member of the boy band Menudo. It will also reveal his challenges dealing fame and the popularity of Livin' La Vida Loca. Ricky Martin writes about his decision to come out as a gay and his family life. He also discusses his devotion to helping children ar...
• Emma Thompson to Write Peter Rabbit Book
BBC News reports that Emma Thompson will be writing a new Peter Rabbit story to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's original story. Emma Thompson says she plans to take Peter Rabbit to Scotalnd in the story she writes. The story will be published in 2012 by Frederick Warne.
Emma Thompson other written work includes the screenplays for Sense and Sensibility and Nanny McPhee.
Image: Frederick Warne & Co.
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• Adena Halpern's 29 Headed to the Big Screen
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Fox is going to turn 29: A Novel by Adena Halpern into a film. John Davis will produce the movie. The novel follows Ellie Jerome, a young-at-heart seventy-five-year-old who feels she has more in common with her twenty-nine-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, than her fifty-five-year-old daughter, Barbara. On her 75th birthday, she wishes she was 29 again. Her wish comes true and she goes on an adventure with her granddaughter. Meanwhile, Ellie's daughter and close ...
• Green Eggs and Ham Turns Fifty
Today is the 50th anniversary of the Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham. You can watch a video of President Obama reading the book here. ABC News reports that the children's book was the result of a bet between Dr. Seuss and publisher Random House. The bet was "Could Dr. Seuss, using 50 words, write an intelligent, entertaining children's book?" Take a look:
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• NPR Publishes Top 100 Thriller List
NPR has published a list of the top 100 "Killer Thrillers." The NPR audience nominated about 600 novels to the poll and cast over 17,000 ballots. Stephen King has six titles in the top 100 list. Below is the top ten. You can see the complete list here.
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Kiss the Girls by James Patterson
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Shining by Stephen...
• Gordon Brown Book About Fiscal Crisis Coming in November
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is publishing a book about the global economic crisis. The book will be published by Simon & Schuster's Free Press imprint in November 2010. Gordon Brown's book promises to offer insight into the events that led to the fiscal downward spiral and the reactions of world leaders as they took steps to avoid further disaster. The book will also offer measures Brown believes the world should adopt to regain fiscal stability.
Gordon Brown says, "We now live i...
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