News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, giveaways on this and other blogs, and other cool stuff.
Books & Ebooks in the News:
- Publishers Weekly reports on a BEA discussion between Macmillan CEO John Sargent and outgoing ABA president Becky Anderson. Sargent had some pretty negative things to say about the DoJ, essentially claiming their lawyers were incompetent. (I’m with Dear Author on this one: how incompetent can they be if they got all five of the major publishers involved to settle for millions?)
- The dispute between Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster is affecting some authors’ sales. Author Sarah Ockler weighs in on what readers can do, while author William Kent Krueger notes that S&S authors have been told they can’t even visit or do signings at B&N stores.
- In the “gee, I could have told you that” category, The New York Times reports that one-day deals on ebooks increase sales, sometimes propelling older books into the bestseller lists. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer — and feature — daily deals.
- “How to Share Books & eBooks with Our Troops” (GalleyCat.) A heads-up: Books for Soldiers recently experienced a major disruption of their database and basically has to start over, so you may be better off with another organization until they’ve got things running smoothly again.
- “Tor.com eBookstore Turns One” — or rather, it doesn’t, since apparently parent company Macmillan has yet to get it off the ground. But I believe Tor books are still DRM-free in most other bookstores. (I’m a little unclear as to whether Amazon applies its own DRM to Kindle books regardless.) (Nate Hoffelder, The Digital Reader blog)
- Shannon Hale will write a third Princess Academy book, according to her blog. The post also features some amusing titles we will not see in that series.
- Stephen King has teamed up with musicians John Cougar Mellencamp and T Bone Burnett to create an interactive multimedia gothic ebook, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. You’ll have to have an iPad to read/watch/listen to it, though. (Dianna Dilworth, Appnewser)
Worth Reading:
- The Strange Country, a guest post about fairy tales and beauty, on the blog Spinning Straw into Gold, and the follow-up post The Horns of Elfland.
Free & Bargain books:
- Remember that the Sync free audiobook downloads begin May 30! You will need to download the Overdrive Media Console to be able to download the audiobooks. Here are this week’s titles:
- May 30 to June 5: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks (read by Rebecca Gibel) and Shakespeare’s Shakespeare’s The Tempest (performed by a full BBC Radio cast.)
- June 6 to June 12: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 1: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood (read by Katherine Kellgren) and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (read by Wanda McCaddon)
- Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear, $2.99 on Kindle and Google
- Cold Magic, by Kate Elliott, $1.99 on Kindle and Nook
Really Cool:
Here’s the new cover for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The artist, Kazo Kibuishi, is obviously drawing from the movies (literally.) I have to wonder why he picked this early scene, though, instead of something more obviously connected with the Chamber of Secrets.
I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles, lists, and links for News & Notes, so please let me know if you see (or write!) anything that might be good for this feature. You can leave me a comment or send me an email — my address is on the About/Review Policy/Contact page.
Bea's Book Nook
Re Tor and DRM: I have bought several Tor kindle books via Amazon and the were DRM-free. I hope Tor continues to offer DRM-free books.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Thank you, Bea, that’s good to know! I hope they do, too, not least because it means that once you’ve bought the book, you can convert it to another e-reader format without breaking the law.
George
Regarding the cover for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I think most covers have either focused on the flying car aspect or some very, very innocuous allusions to the Chamber of Secrets. My guess as to why 1) the flying car is rather fun & exciting & 2) not wanting to give too much away as to what the Chamber of Secrets means.
Although by now it’s not really a secret about the Chamber any more.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
You make a good point! Even if most adults and teens have already read the books or at least seen the movies, there are plenty of children who are just coming of age to read Harry Potter, and don’t know much about the books yet.