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Nora Ephron, author of the best-selling novel, Heartburn, and Oscar-nominated screenwriter, passed away yesterday in New York City; a consortium of California library systems is working out an agreement with self-publishing platform Smashwords; Bloomberg reports Google will unveil a tablet device at its developers conference in San Francisco; and other news.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is considering dividing its publishing operations from its film and television divisions; Print magazine gathered visual art by famous writers, including work by Arthur Rimbaud, Edgar Allen Poe, and Sylvia Plath; novelist and essayist Meghan Daum answers an English teacher's request to write his students about success; and other news.
Judge Denise Cote set a trial date for the Justice's Department's e-book antitrust suit; the New Tork Times visits with London transplant Martin Amis at his brownstone in Brooklyn, New York; Flavorwire rounded up inspiring letters from authors to young fans, including Roald Dahl, Harold Pinter, and Harper Lee; and other news.
The U.S. government claims Apple is trying to rush the antitrust lawsuit filed against it, Poetry Parnassus plans to drop 100,000 poems from a helicopter over London, only 12 percent of e-book readers borrowed digital books from libraries last year, and more.
Ken Auletta discusses how the e-book pricing war may alter the future of publishing; the New York Times looks at the book market in France, where independent book stores are thriving, and price-fixing reigns; the Millions profiles "America’s greatest self-published novelist," New Jersey public defender Sergio De La Pava; and other news.
Best-selling author Alice Walker has refused an offer to publish a new Israeli edition of The Color Purple; Laura Miller explains why a filmed adaptation of the erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey may not be a bad idea; the Wall Street Journal details the battle for proper grammar at the the workplace; and other news.
The New Yorker unravels the history of the early stories of Mary McCarthy, including “The Weeds,” which cast a spotlight on her troubled marriage to critic Edmund Wilson; Microsoft announced its eventual entry into the tablet market with new devices called Surface; NPR looks at the life and times of Nightwood author Djuna Barnes; and other news.
A group of writers unhappy with PublishAmerica have filed a lawsuit alleging it charges fees for services that traditional publishers perform at no cost; entrepreneur Seth Godin funded his new book on Kickstarter within three hours; George Saunders explains why Donald Antrim's The Verificationist is an underappreciated masterpiece; and other news.
Net sales for the first quarter of 2012 are down for adult hardcovers, and up for e-books; the Wall Street Journal takes a look at the strange world of fan fiction; Nathan Englander reveals his love for the international storytelling series called the Moth; and other news.
GalleyCat's recent list of self-published best sellers included SpellBound Cafe by Nora A. Roberts—a pen name that attempts to fool readers into mistakenly believing the book is by best-selling author Nora Roberts; the editors of n+1 examine the vagaries and pleasures of Twitter; Book Riot rounded up the best covers of BookExpo America; and other news.
