• Fiction: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Random House)
• Nonfiction: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Poetry: Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop (University of California Press)
• Young People's Literature: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Waterstone's has launched a standalone Marketplace site in conjunction with Alibris, the giant online bookshop that sells used and rare books via a network of independent bookellers. In addition, individual book searches on the Waterstone's site now show secondhand copies, which are available to buy via a marketplace link.

Waterstone's said the development meant it could offer "access to tens of millions of items stocked by independent sellers from 45 countries around the world". Featured shops on the marketplace site include, Bailey Hill Book Shop, Castle Cary, Somerset; Literary Cat Books and Prints, Wales; Cromer Books; and Spinetinglers, Ballygowan.

Academic bookseller Blackwell signed a similar deal with Alibris in February last year. Borders made the same deal in September thus year. Waterstone's will also be competing with Amazon and Play.com, which both offer secondhand books.

Author Solutions will handle all aspects of the venture, although Harlequin Horizons will exist as an imprint of Harlequin, and the publisher will be able to monitor sales and sign authors to a traditional imprint. This is the second deal Author Solutions has signed with a major publisher. Earlier, it reached an agreement with Thomas Nelson to publish self-published authors interested in reaching the Christian market under Nelson's WestBow imprint. The Author Solutions spokesperson said additional agreements with other traditional houses are in the works.

"There was a different ending to 'New Moon.' Originally it was much quieter [and took place] in Bella's head," she said. Meyer changed it at the urging of her mom, Candy Morgan. She introduced the Volturi earlier, and — voila! — a Volturi smack-down jazzes up the end. Thanks, Candy.

Otherwise, Oprah and Meyer went over very familiar territory: "Twilight" came to Meyer in a dream; she imagined a hot vampire who was in love with a mortal girl; she wanted to know more; that dream became Chapter 13 of "Twilight." "In the dream it was two people in a circular meadow and one of them was a sparkly boy and one was just a girl who was human and normal and the boy was a vampire, which was bizarre," Meyer said. "It was a passion and frenzy when I started writing."

And of course, there was a question about Robert Pattinson. His hygiene having often been called into question, Oprah wanted to know, "What does he smell like?" "He smells great," Meyer said. "Rob is hilarious. He is the funniest person. He's not at all like the Edward character. He's so different. He just doesn't look like anyone else, in a good way. He's very striking looking."

"While my past works have piqued interest in biblical prophecy on a global level, The End series includes many prophecies that were not covered in Left Behind," LaHaye said in a statement. Parshall is the author of the Chamber of Justice legal thrillers series. The Left Behind series, published by Tyndale House, has sold more 65 million units.

Dr Strlic told BBC News that the idea for new test came from observing museum conservators as they worked. "I often noticed that conservators smelled paper during their assessment," he recalled. "I thought, if there was a way we could smell paper and tell how degraded it is from the compounds it emits, that would be great."

The test does just that. It pinpoints ingredients contained within the blend of volatile compounds emanating from the paper. That mixture, the researchers say, "is dependent on the original composition of the... paper substrate, applied media, and binding". Their new method is called "material degradomics". The scientists are able to use it to find what chemicals books release, without damaging the paper. It involves an analytical technique called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This simply "sniffs" the paper and separates out the different compounds.

The news has been warmly welcomed by Australian publishers and authors, who had campaigned against the proposed changes to parallel importation restrictions, which could have led to an an open-market in the country. But booksellers, some of whom wanted restrictions scrapped or reduced, have been left disappointed.

Under the existing rules, a title qualifies for protection if the Australian publisher releases the book within 30 days of its overseas release. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the government is believed to have explored a compromise that would have reduced this 30-day period to seven or 14 days. But that plan, as well as an alternative proposal of a price cap similar to one in place in Canada, were rejected.

Consumer affairs minister Craig Emerson said in a statement: "In the circumstances of intense competition from online books and e-books, the government judged that changing the regulations governing book imports is unlikely to have any material effect on the availability of books in Australia."

Beyond a Nov. 16 television interview with Oprah Winfrey, nothing is scheduled for Chicago. New York will feature media appearances only. Instead, the itinerary for Palin, whose "Going Rogue" comes out Nov. 17, includes Noblesville, Ind.; Washington, Pa.; and Rochester, N.Y. "She wants to be unconventional. She is unconventional," HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Wednesday. "She feels like this is where her fans are and Harper feels this is where she'll sell the most books."

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The tour starts Nov. 18 at a Barnes & Noble in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, and running mate Sen. John McCain made a campaign appearance last fall.

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The tour will last about three weeks, with a break for Thanksgiving, and will end around Dec. 10, after which the increase in holiday shoppers makes it difficult for stores to hold events, Andreadis said. Palin will travel by bus for much of the time, likely accompanied by family and by aide Meg Stapleton.

The full schedule has not been completed, but confirmed locations - many of which Palin campaigned at last year - include Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Roanoke, Va.; the Army post in Fort Bragg, N.C.; Orlando, Fla.; and Albuquerque, N.M.

Borders CEO Ron Marshall said that "through this right-sizing, we will reduce the number of stores with operating losses, reduce our overall rent expense and lease-adjusted leverage and generate cash flow through sales and working capital reductions." The closing will result in the elimination of about 1,500 jobs, the majority of which, Borders said, are part-time positions. A company spokesperson said the stores slated for closing "will be fully stocked for the holidays," but will begin clearance sales in mid-December that will run into January. She had no comment on the total amount of sales generated by the stores targeted for closure.

The company also said it plans to integrate the remaining Walden stores into its superstore computer system to create a single platform. Despite attempts to merge the two operations in the past, Borders and Walden have always operated on separate systems, much to the frustration of publishers. The spokesperson said the company hopes to have the stores moved into superstores' inventory and point of sale system within the first quarter.

Aravind Adiga's Booker prize-winning novel The White Tiger has emerged as an early frontrunner for the Impac Dublin literary award, but the Indian writer will have to see off the likes of Nobel laureates Jose Saramago and Toni Morrison if he is to take the world's richest -- and most eclectic -- literary prize.

The Impac, which sees librarians around the world nominate their favourite titles for the award, has longlisted 156 books this year, spanning 46 countries and 18 languages. Bestselling English-language writers Sebastian Barry and Joseph O'Neill are jostling with the largest number of books in translation ever nominated for the prize, including works by Icelandic crime novelist Arnaldur Indridason, Chinese author Ma Jian and Serbian surrealist Zoran Zivkovic. Evelio Rosero's Colombian civil war-set The Armies, which won the Independent foreign fiction prize, also makes the running.

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Adiga is the librarians' favourite, gathering nine nominations for The White Tiger, but he is closely followed by Toni Morrison, who picked up eight for A Mercy, the story of a 17th century slave girl bought by an Anglo-Dutch trader. Muriel Barbery's French bestseller The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Barry's Costa-winning The Secret Scripture and Canadian writer Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo all won eight nominations as well.

"To stand that kind of test of time is pretty formidable," says Levy, who will produce the film through his company, 21 Laps. "People read them as kids and can now read them to their kids. Any piece of culture that proves that enduring has something special in its DNA."

Though his next film is the more adult Tina Fey-Steve Carell comedy Date Night, the Berenstain films "happen to fit firmly within the wheelhouse of family-genre comedy I do, whether it's Cheaper by the Dozen or Night at the Museum," Levy says. "It's warm-hearted comedy about family, and a different kind of family."

Writers have yet to be hired, but Levy says he wants the film to be an original story incorporating details from some of the more popular Berenstain books.

"I'd like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn't oblivious to the fact that they're bears," Levy says. "The comedy comes from this bear family coexisting in a more recognizably real world."

[Techcrunch] reports that the job entails building the international business for BN.com from scratch, hiring the team and "building the infrastructure outside the US".

In the late 1990s Barnes & Noble was rumoured to be looking into a move into the UK, and reportedly even began hiring executives to oversee the development, before its US rival Borders trumped it with the acquisition of Books Etc. Its website BN.com has fought a 10-year battle against the rise of Amazon.com, and recently launch its own e-book reader, the nook in competition to Amazon.com's Kindle.

The digital agency, which is a division of Tangent Communications, already works extensively on the online side of the Borders business, including its email marketing. It also works with Borders in Australia, out of its international office.

This follows the buyout of Borders UK by its management team in July backed by Valco Capital Partners, the private equity arm of restructuring firm, Hilco. Borders UK chief executive Philip Downer said in a statement at the time of the deal that it would allow the business to "develop our innovative approach to bookselling".

For a politician known more for her folksy expressions than her literary prowess, Sarah Palin has made enough money on her yet unpublished first book to make most writers blush.

The former Alaska governor, 2008 vice-presidential candidate and likely 2012 Republican presidential contender earned at least a $1.25m advance for her memoir Going Rogue, to be published next month by HarperCollins.

It is unclear how much the advance will total once the book hits shelves, since book advances are often distributed in several parts. She earlier was reported to have received $7m. Hillary Clinton received $8m total advance for her 2000 memoir Living History.

The book, penned with conservative writer Lynn Vincent, is already a bestseller on reservation lists at Amazon.com and other booksellers. The figure, revealed in a disclosure statement filed today in Alaska, is likely only a portion of the entire advance, because the statement does not include the period since she resigned from office and delivered the manuscript. HarperCollins plans an initial print run of 1.5m copies.