She told us: "Well, the second two times I went into rehab, to be honest with you, I had to go because it was a court thing. It was an obligation. I had to do it to stay out of getting any jail time. And I took responsibility for that. And it was like a vacation."

"I love meeting new people and seeing what they've been experiencing. That's what I go through in different characters. And I met some great people.

"It was a nice time to shut everyone off for a while because there was so much noise. There were some things I had done... I had put myself in situations which I probably should have thought through."

The Lafayette County coroner told The A.P. that Mr. Hannah died Monday afternoon of "natural causes," but declined to elaborate until he had provided details to the author's wife, Susan. The coroner said the death was not under investigation.

Mr. Hannah's first novel, Geronimo Rex, the unsparing coming-of-age story of the high schooler Harry Munroe, was nominated for a National Book Award and won the William Faulkner prize after its publication in 1972. His 1996 short story collection, High Lonesome, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and his work is to be among the subjects of the coming Oxford Conference on the Book, which begins on Thursday.

The author Richard Ford, a friend, told The A.P.: "Barry could somehow make the English sentence generous and unpredictable, yet still make wonderful sense, which for readers is thrilling. You never knew the source of the next word. But he seemed to command the short story form and the novel form and make those forms up newly for himself."

Net income dropped to $80.4 million, or $1.40 a share, in the quarter ended Jan. 30 from $81.2 million, or $1.43, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. The fourth-quarter loss will be 85 cents to $1.15 a share, the company said. Five analysts estimated a loss of 61 cents, on average, in a Bloomberg survey.

Gross margin, the percentage of sales left after the cost of goods sold, narrowed 370 basis points to 28.3 percent in the quarter. The Barnes & Noble College bookstores bought in September accounted for 270 basis points of the drop because textbooks are less profitable, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Lombardi said on a conference call. A higher percentage of online sales, including digital books and the Nook e-reading device, also ate into margins, he said.

"The main negative was their guidance for the fourth quarter and the gross margin overhang for Barnes & Noble College as well as the Nook," said Michael Souers, an equity analyst with Standard & Poor's in New York. "There's a longer-term impact there that investors are worrying about."

Reader's Digest, which filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in August, comes out of bankruptcy with $525 million in exit financing and a new board of directors that includes Fredric Reynolds, former chief financial officer of CBS Corp (CBS.N).

The company, best known for its namesake magazine, had been laboring under almost $2.3 billion in debt before filing for bankruptcy. But under its reorganization, the company was able to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and restructure other loans to save money.

Holders of Reader's Digest pre-petition senior secured debt will receive almost all of the new common stock. Private equity firm Ripplewood, which bought the company in 2007 for $1.6 billion, has no ownership stake going forward.

Over time, Reader's Digest has moved away from being known solely for its cornerstone magazine, expanding into some 78 branded websites, and selling as many as 40 million books, music and video products around the world each year. It also publishes food and lifestyle magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray.

"Comics could reach a much larger audience than they do right now," says Patterson, who often works with co-authors and whose thrillers are frequently at or near the top of USA Today's Best-Selling Books list. "With all of the quality work and talent that's out there, this industry could be so much bigger."

First up for release will be a five-part comic series based on the writer's best-selling young-adult novel Witch & Wizard. The new series, subtitled Shadowland, will be written by Dara Naraghi, with Patterson heavily involved in the story direction. (He is not involved with the artwork.) The Wizard series launch will be followed in June by a four-issue comic adaptation of Patterson's 2009 book The Murder of King Tut. Alexander Irvine will do the heavy lifting in terms of writing duties.

Patterson says he is excited at the prospect of translating King Tut -- a "non-fiction thriller" that investigates the mysterious death of the Egyptian pharaoh -- into a comic-book format. "We saw the potential there and worked with IDW to expand on it. It's going to be a very interesting series." Under the agreement, Patterson will also write original comic-book stories. "We're doing an all-new series called Beer Belly and the Fat Boy. I can't get into the details, but it's a lot of fun."

Spelling, whose acting credits include TV show Beverly Hills 90210, has already written an autobiography sTORI Telling and follow-up book Mommywood about being a Hollywood mother of young children. Her third adult book, tentatively titled Uncharted terriTORI, is due to go on sale in June.

***

"I love reading to my kids. It's our special time together. That and my passion for story telling inspired me to write a children's book of my own to read to them and children everywhere," said Spelling, 36, in a statement.

The new book, Sweet Valley Confidential, takes place 12 years after the high school series, when the twins and their friends are in their late 20s and early 30s. It will, according to publisher St Martin's Press, see "the real world intrude after a perfect childhood". "I've had thousand of queries from fans over the years wondering what Jessica and Elizabeth would be like as adults. Well, Sweet Valley Confidential should give them all the answers," said Pascal, who was originally inspired to write the series by the experiences of her three daughters. "And I can guarantee they will be very surprised. Actually, more like shocked."

*****

St Martin's Press, which will publish the novel in early 2011, gave away little about the plot but fans are already speculating about which direction Pascal will take her characters. "Most everyone hopes Elizabeth and Todd are married, but we all have an idea Liz is having an affair if that's the case," said one reader, who has written about the entire series on her blog, Shannon's Sweet Valley High blog. "We figure Jessica has probably gone to Hollywood to be a star, but some of us are kind of hoping she's failed. Because seriously, that girl has had it too easy. And of course we all want to see the return of Lila, Bruce and the other side characters. It just wouldn't be Sweet Valley without them. A few of my readers are hoping Lila and Bruce are married, but I'd rather see Lila and Jessica trolling for guys together like they always have."

With independents blaming increased competition from the internet, supermarkets, a declining British high street and the credit crunch for their troubles, figures from the Booksellers Association show that 102 independent stores closed in 2009, leaving just 1,289 left in the UK -- a decline of 27% since 1999. Last year also saw the 45-store book chain Borders fall into administration, while like-for-like sales at Waterstone's were down by 8.5% in the crucial Christmas trading period.

"The current economic climate is undeniably tough and the book retail sector is suffering across the board," said the Booksellers Association's head of membership services Meryl Halls. She called on readers to support independents, saying that those shops which "are fighting so hard to survive continue to deliver an outstanding service – knowing the books they recommend and sell, knowing their customers, focusing on things that the deep price cutters can't offer and running fantastic and value-adding events".

"These booksellers are at the centre of their communities but, as with all retailers, they need to be supported in order to survive," she said.

Reese Witherspoon was previously attached to take on the role, but the project has been dormant for several years. Heigl's interest has put the project back on the fast track, with Andrea Giannetti overseeing for the studio. Col[umbia] and Lakeshore will next look to attach a director.

Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing "One for the Money" with Wendy Finerman ("The Devil Wears Prada"). Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith penned the screenplay, and Liz Brixius has been brought onboard to do a polish.

In addition to her continuing gig on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," Heigl has upcoming film roles in "Killers" for Lionsgate and "Life as We Know It" for Warner Bros.

The reality star is scheduled to release I Just Want You to Know: Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith and Family on April 13 by Zondervan Publishers. The personal book will feature prayers, excerpts from her journal and eight individual letters addressed to each one of her children.

"Each day the thought crosses my mind that when they get older, my kids are going to look back and think about how they were raised," Gosselin says in a statement. "I know they will have a lot of questions about things that may not make sense because they were raised so unconventionally. I don't want them to grow up and wonder; I want them to know without a shadow of a doubt how much I love them and how much every sacrifice made was worth it for them."

After being printed overseas, the books were shipped by boat to the west coast, then transferred to a train and later a truck; the driver discovered the books were missing after a stop in the Midwest.

Flanimals Pop-Up, illustrated by Rob Steen, will be released on March 9. According to the publisher, the theft will have no impact on the book's availability on that date. Flanimals Pop-Up is the first Flanimals title from Candlewick; Putnam has published two Flanimals picture books: Flanimals (2005) and More Flanimals (2006).

Motoko Rich, my colleague, spoke with a person who had a direct conversation with a person at Macmillan familiar with the conversations with Amazon. Macmillan offered Amazon the opportunity to buy Kindle editions on the same "agency" model as it will sell e-books to Apple for the iPad. Under this model, the publisher sets the consumer book price and takes 70 percent of each sale, leaving 30 percent to the retailer. Macmillan said Amazon could continue to buy e-books under its current wholesale model, paying the publisher 50 percent of the hardcover list price while pricing the e-book at any level Amazon chooses, but that Macmillan would delay those e-book editions by seven months after hardcover release. Amazon's removal of Macmillan titles on Friday appears to be a direct reaction to that.

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

In the newest round of cuts, 124 corporate jobs were eliminated at Borders’ Ann Arbor headquarters and other offices with 40 coming at its warehouses and distribution centers. The downsizing is a response to poor holiday sales and the closing of 183 outlets in the Walden specialty group. A majority of the corporate cuts came in the company's finance and information technology divisions. The company said in an e-mail to employees that it is evaluating the staffing needs of its stores and changes could come in a few weeks. Employee blogs are filled with speculation that store cuts are imminent.

The author died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire, according to a family statement that his literary agent, Phyllis Westberg, provided Thursday. "Despite having broken his hip in May, his health had been excellent until a rather sudden decline after the new year," the statement said. "He was not in any pain before or at the time of his death."

Salinger has long been known for his reclusiveness, and "in keeping with his life long, uncompromising desire to protect and defend his privacy there will be no service," the statement said. "The family asks that people's respect for him, his work, and his privacy be extended to them, individually and collectively, during this time." Though he wrote more than 30 short stories and a handful of novellas -- many published in The New Yorker and collected in works such as "Nine Stories" and "Seymour: An Introduction" -- Salinger's fame rests on "Catcher," his only novel.

The book is narrated by a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, who is expelled from a private school, Pencey Prep, in Pennsylvania, and spends the next three days wandering around New York. Caulfield is mistrustful of authority, railing against corrupt adults and "phonies," and plans to decamp for the west.

"We've chosen to make HBR Short Cuts available in the Kindle Store so that our readers can easily stay up to date on the latest business books we publish, as well as reference their previous favorites," said Joshua D. Macht, group publisher, Harvard Business Review Group. "Kindle makes the possibility of purchasing, downloading and reading a select and relevant chapter en route to a business meeting or while on a business trip a reality." HBP has priced the chapters at $3.95 and Amazon is selling them for $3.16.

Le Guin's petition asks Judge Denny Chin to exempt the United States from the revised legal settlement reached between Google and US authors and publishers over the Internet giant's vast digital book-scanning project. Chin is scheduled to hold a hearing on the revised agreement on February 18.

*****

In her petition, which is available on her website, ursulakleguin.com, Le Guin said the settlement was negotiated by the Authors Guild "without consultation with any other group of authors or American authors as a whole." "The Guild cannot and does not speak for all American writers," she said. "Its settlement cannot be seen as reflecting the will or interest of any group but the Guild." She said the National Writers Union, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America were among those opposed to the settlement.

"We ask that the United States also be exempted from the settlement," she said. "We ask that the principle of copyright, which is directly threatened by the settlement, be honored and upheld in the United States." "We urge our government and our courts to allow no corporation to circumvent copyright law or dictate the terms of that control," Le Guin said.

In response, a Borders spokesperson said, "Borders Group has continued to pay its vendors and is not aware of any material disputes related to its December 2009 payments." Interviews with a number of publishers, both large and small, by PW found Borders to be current with its payments, though one small publisher stopped doing business with the chain at the end of 2008 because of its fragile financial condition. And while one of the large publishers interviewed by PW said Borders was current "on our terms," he nonetheless said the poor holiday performance and the continuing financial struggles of the chain were "very worrying."

Brian Murray, the chief executive of HarperCollins, said in December that e-books enhanced with video, author interviews and social-networking applications could command higher retail prices for publishers than current e-books. Many of the country's largest publishing houses are worried about the sale of new bestsellers for only $9.99 in the e-book format. New releases of enhanced e-books could sell for $14.99 to $19.99, a person familiar with the situation said. HarperCollins is a unit of News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal.

The HarperCollins negotiations with Apple represent a direct challenge to Amazon, which dominates the fast-growing e-book market but which could face significant competition from an Apple tablet.

HarperCollins is one of several major publishing houses that are holding back e-book versions of some new hardcover best sellers. The HarperCollins account of the 2008 presidential election, "Game Change," by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, was released in hardcover Jan. 11 but the e-book edition doesn't go on sale until Feb. 23. Enhanced e-books likely would be available for sale simultaneously with the hardcovers.

Last month, corporate parent Borders announced they will soon be closing 200 Waldenbooks book stores in communities nationwide. Current Waldenbooks employees have come forward to alert the public that the company plans to dispose of many unsold books in the cheapest, easiest, least responsible way possible - by trashing them.

"This is going to be happening in all the Waldenbooks stores at the end of their liquidation sales to anything left on the shelves," said Heather L., a Waldenbooks employee. "And it gives us all stomach aches to think about."

*****

Former Waldenbooks employees say they have previously witnessed and participated in the destruction of unsold books. "I used to work at a Waldenbooks and we would trash books, tons of books, like every two weeks," said Brooke Bennett, a former employee from Little Rock, AR. "It just killed me." Known in the bookselling industry as "dumpstering," this method of book disposal is standard practice not only at Borders-owned stores, but at many other chain book stores and mass retailers.

Robert B. Parker, the best-selling mystery writer who created Spenser, a tough, glib, Boston private detective who was the hero of nearly 40 novels, died on Monday at home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 77.

The cause was a heart attack, said his agent of 37 years, Helen Brann. She said Mr. Parker had been thought to be in splendid health, and that he died at his desk, working on a book. He wrote every single day, she said.

HarperCollins has acquired several frontlist and backlist titles from Dorchester publishing and has also extended its distribution partnership. Authors include titles from Victoria Alexander, Nina Bangs, Christine Feehan, Sandra Hill, Marjorie M. Liu, Katie MacAlister, Lynsay Sands and CL Wilson. We are currently scheduling the Avon release of these books, and will sell, market and publish all acquired titles by these authors on a go-forward basis. We look forward to working with these talented authors to futher grow their brand recognition.

I am now writing for Avon, who will publish the entire Dirk & Steele series--the nine titles that have already been released, and two new books that are upcoming. I admit: I am very excited by this. When I first confirmed the news on Twitter, I think some folks were understandably confused by what it all means, and whether it's a good thing or not...but from my point of view, it's great. This is a new adventure and a fantastic opportunity, and I'm looking forward, very much, to writing my next two books with Avon.

Dirk & Steele has moved to a good home, and as an author who cares deeply about her books, that's a gift.

This March, UK-based Kommixx Entertainment, the film and television production company backed by Swiss venture fund EAM Private Capital, intends to go out into the market for RHCSE in March. It may yet approach an existing film and television financier such as Aramid Capital to help it raise the money. The $100M will be used to develop cartoons and live-action films and television series based on RHCB properties, as well as video games and toys. The deal includes authors like Jacqueline Wilson, whose Tracy Beaker character is already a hit for the BBC, The Golden Compass author Philip Pullman; and Terry Pratchett, whose Discworld novels are enormously popular with UK readers. Children's illustrators on Random House’s books include Quentin Blake, Shirley Hughes and John Burningham.

Hachette will handle sales and distribution of Peterson's titles into traditional and nontraditional trade channels internationally, for both physical and e-book formats. Hachette Book Group COO Kenneth Michaels said, "We're excited to be working with Peterson's, and look forward to helping them expand their brand both domestically and internationally, as well as supporting them in their developing e-book strategy."

"I love the connection I've made with my readers through my books and am so excited to update them on all the stories that have happened since Mommywood," Tori said in a statement on Thursday. "It's been an amazing and emotional journey so far and being able to share it is a gift."

*****

"[The book] will once again allow readers to share Tori's unique and very public life and misadventures -- complete with growing children, daredevil husband Dean, a tight circle of friends, welcome and invasive cameras, and an infamous mother -- with humor and candor," Gallery Books said in a release. "The new book will offer fans the latest updates in her never complacent life balancing parenthood with the pressures of living in Tinseltown, including reaction to the tabloid scrutiny of her weight, the truth behind the latest 'feud' making headlines [and] becoming a mini-mogul via her many business ventures and lines."

The company's previous third-quarter earnings guidance was in a range of $1.30 to $1.50 per share. The book retailer said total holiday store sales for the nine-week period from Nov. 1, 2009 to Jan. 2, 2010. fell 5% to $1.1 billion. Same-store sales, that is, sales at stores open at least one year, declined 5.4%

Online sales through Barnes & Noble.com increased 17% for the holiday selling season and totaled $134 million. Barnes & Noble.com sales include revenue from the new Nook electronic-book reading device from when the product began shipping after Thanksgiving.

Both the Samsung E6 and E101 are 6 and 10 inches in size respectively, and both let you handwrite directly onto the screen. At last, ebook versions of textbooks will be as easy for students to vandalise as their paper equivalents.

The Samsung E6 and Samsung E101 both feature calendars, to-do lists and work with an electromagnetic stylus. Samsung says by using a special stylus, rather than a plain plastic one, it can avoid mistypes caused by hands and other objects touching the screen.

You can draw too, with the e-reader letting you change the pen's "thickness" on screen. There's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in too, letting the Samsung E6 and E101 download newspapers and books from the web wirelessly. Samsung also says they can "share certain content with other devices."

The Canadian book scene was shaken by news that its largest independent bookseller, McNally Robinson Booksellers, has entered bankruptcy protection with the expectation of restructuring. The mini-chain of four large format stores will close its two newest stores in Toronto and Winnipeg, but expects the court will approve a reorganization that will allow its long-established stores in Saskatoon and Winnipeg to survive, along with its e-commerce Web site and wholesale division Skylight Books.

McNally-Robinson was the only independent to challenge Indigo Books & Music’s monopoly on large format stores in Canada. Each of its stores included a Prairie Ink restaurant. About 170 employees are losing their jobs.

The owners were not available for comment, but in a statement on behalf of the McNally family, co-owner Paul McNally said, "It is heartbreaking to see so many hardworking booksellers and restaurant staff lose their jobs." But he added that "we are very hopeful, however, that we can save many more jobs and renew the company."

According to his statement, the bankruptcy filing "follows two difficult years in which market conditions reduced the profitability of McNally Robinson's established stores even as two new stores proved substantially unprofitable."

It is working with iPhone app creation platform Mobile Roadie, using an author-focused variation of Mobile Roadie's app creator that currently supports apps by musicians including Brad Paisley and Alice in Chains. Releasing today are apps for authors Steve Berry, Sophie Kinsella, and Karen Marie Moning.

The apps will let fans preview books, access bonus content, interact with other fans, check upcoming author appearances, listen to audiobook clips, and watch author videos and book trailers.

One hack reportedly resulted from a Kindle DRM challenge issued on Israeli forum Hacking.org. On that site, an Israeli hacker known as Labba claims to have created a tool that lets e-books stored on the Kindle be transferred as PDF files.

A U.S. hacker who goes by the name "i*cabbages," meanwhile, created a program called Unswindle that promises to convert books stored in the Kindle for PC application into a different file format. The free Kindle for PC app lets book buyers read their books right from their PCs without having to buy a Kindle reader. Unswindle has to be used in conjunction with MobiDeDRM, a program by another hacker named "darkreverser."

Posters on i*cabbages' blog give Unswindle mixed reviews, ranging from "works like a charm" and "worked flawlessly" to descriptions of various errors.

The company also reported that its Kindle electronic reader became the most "gifted" item in Amazon history. Are bound books soon to be the eight-track tapes of the reading world?

In another alarming sign for traditional publishers, it seems that Amazon's already cheaper-than-a-physical-book price point of roughly $9.99 is still too expensive for many consumers. An analysis by the lit bloggers at Galley Cat found that 64 of the 100 e-books topping the Kindle best-seller list yesterday were priced at $0.00. Yes, that's right: free. The list of free Kindle best-sellers includes some classics that are in the public domain (e.g., Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Jane Austen's zombie-free Pride and Prejudice).

But it also features recent titles from mostly smaller publishers, like the current No. 1, Noel Hynd's Midnight in Madrid, about a U.S. Treasury agent investigating the theft a mysterious relic from a Madrid museum.

Hachette UK is appearing in the high court tomorrow [18th December] in a bid to stop Borders UK selling further books and to obtain payment for stock that has already been sold. Peter Roche, deputy chief executive of Hachette, said the court hearing "represents [MCR's] last stand--if they lose here they might have to pay up to everyone else as well". Other publishers could "follow us" in pursuing legal action, "depending on the size of their debts", he said.

*****

The final decision on legal action was taken yesterday (16th) after the retailer's administrator MCR failed to respond to a formal letter sent by the publisher last week, seeking to establish Retention of Title (ROT) claims.

*****

Roche has previously described MCR as being "extremely obstructive" over ROT claims, despite having told publishers it had "sufficient funds" to settle.

The PubTrack survey of book buyers found that 34% of Americans have reduced the number of books they are buying, while 19% of consumers are either buying more used books or swapping books with others. Other ways consumers are looking to save money when buying books include buying fewer hardcovers and more paperbacks, and only buying books that are being sold at steep discounts or that are on sale. And in a direct contrast to the hope that consumers might buy books as an inexpensive form of entertainment, only 2% of consumers said they are buying more books as an alternative to more expensive kinds of entertainment.

Under a memorandum of understanding to be signed by the two organisations today, they will collaborate on the task of provising greater digital access to the British Library's archive of more than 150m items collected over the past 250 years, as well as nearly 1m hours of TV and radio output from the BBC, which has been broadcasting since 1922.

*****

"Unlocking the wealth of content in the British Library and BBC archives is a great opportunity as well as an immense challenge," said the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, who will sign the agreement with the British Library chief executive, Dame Lynne Brindley. "It is vital we partner, harnessing the power of digital technology to give the public the access they deserve."

Although it is unclear when the last issue of Kirkus Reviews will be published, the staff for the prepub book review will be gone by the end of the year, a spokesperson for parent company Nielsen Business Media said. On Thursday morning, Nielsen announced that Kirkus, along with Editor & Publisher, will cease operations while the company sells its core business-to-business magazines to the newly formed investment group e5 Global Media Holdings. There are no plans to run online Kirkus reviews or a strategy to try to keep the Kirkus brand alive. It is also uncertain what Nielsen will do with the Kirkus review archive. A total of 18 people worked at Kirkus and E&P.

Simon & Schuster is delaying by four months the electronic-book editions of about 35 leading titles coming out early next year, taking a dramatic stand against the cut-rate $9.99 pricing of e-book best sellers. A second publisher, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, said it has similar plans in the works.

"The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback," said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. "We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible."

The efforts cap a tumultuous year for publishers as the industry begins a migration from traditional truck-and-bookshelf distribution to nearly simultaneous wireless delivery to consumers. It is also an acknowledgment that book pricing has become the most significant issue on the publishing landscape.

*****

David Young, chief executive of the Hachette Book Group, said that Hachette, beginning in January or February, will delay the e-book publication of the vast majority of its titles for three to four months. "We're doing this to preserve our industry," Mr. Young said. "I can't sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It's about the future of the business."

Yesterday (30th November), The Bookseller reported that the administrators of Borders made 36 staff at the store support office on Charing Cross Road redundant, but added that "considerable interest has been expressed either in the business and/or certain stores and this interest". MCR said this interest was being "actively being pursued". The administrator added: "I can confirm that no redundancies have been made in-store."

*****

Hachette UK's deputy chief executive Peter Roche told The Bookseller yesterday that he was still awaiting a response from Borders UK administrators MCR to questions put by him on behalf of the publishing-wide committee established by the Publishers Association to try to find a way for publishers to continue trading with the bookseller. A number of questions sent by The Bookseller to the administrator have also so far been left unanswered.

Books translated in "hostile countries" will soon be allowed to be sold in Israel, after the Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided yesterday to support a bill overturning a World War II-era law aimed at blocking information from enemy states. This will allow the Arabic translations of best-selling children's books like "Harry Potter" and "Pinocchio," as well as Arabic versions of prominent Israeli authors, to be sold here.

Until now, Arabic translations of popular children's books and works by authors like Amos Oz, Yoram Kaniuk and Eshkol Nevo were not available in Israel, because they were printed in hostile countries like Syria and Lebanon. This was because a 1939 British-Mandate era law prohibited literature from being imported from enemy states.

Given the relatively low readership of Arabic-language books in Israel, and the resulting low returns on translations, almost none have been produced in Israel. The present bill, initiated by MKs Yuli Tamir, Yariv Levin and Zeev Bielski, aims to make literature in Arabic more readily available. Tamir (Labor) said yesterday, "This would be an important law, one that ensures the freedom of literature and culture of all citizens. Every citizen is entitled to read literature in his mother tongue. This law would end the absence of children's books and belles-lettres for Arabic readers."

Borders UK, one of Britain's biggest booksellers, which also owns Books Etc, was seeking a buyer on Friday a day after going into administration, a spokesman said, brought down by competition from online and supermarket competitors. The company has been hit hard by falling book sales as customers increasingly turned to the Internet and low-cost supermarket chains for their reading material.

It is unclear what lies in store for the chain's 1,150 employees, who have been left fearing for their jobs. Borders has appointed restructuring firm MCR to take control of the business and it is understood that buyers have been lined up for some of the shops. An MCR spokesman told AFP: "All stores are open. The company is trading through this administration and I can confirm that nobody has been made redundant. It's business as usual at the moment.

"They are trying to find a buyer. There is some interest out there in the market." The administrators said Borders, which has 45 stores across Britain, had been struggling with "severe" cash flow problems and several of the company's suppliers had stopped or reduced its credit limits recently.

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.

"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.

[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.

In an interview, Mr. King said that he wanted to delay the e-book edition in hopes of helping independent bookstores and the national bookstore chains sell the hardcover edition.

"I never thought we'd see people preordering a copy for $8.98," he said. "My thinking was to give bookstores a chance to make some money."

The e-book edition of "Under the Dome," which has a list price of $35, will probably retail for $9.99. Mr. King said that those who receive e-book readers for Christmas gifts will be able to download the book on Christmas day. "Six weeks isn't too long to wait," he added.

The contract calls for Browne to publish the titles over the course of three years and will also see HarperOne create The Sylvia Browne Collection, a series that will feature books about spirituality and the supernatural that Browne will have a large role, per the publisher, in selecting and also supporting through various ways, from writing introductions to promoting on her Web site.

Shortly before Labor Day rumors surfaced that Weinstein Books was being shut down, but publisher Judy Hottensen, while acknowledging that its staff had been cut from five to four and was looking to control expenses, said Weinstein Books was continuing to acquire titles. Hottensen, along with the Weinstein Books team, will remain in its current offices and "will participate in the development of the longer-term plan for the JV," the press release said.

First new books to come from the venture, which will still be called Weinstein Books, will be titles that had been in the Weinstein Books pipeline including All Things at Once by Mika Brezinski, a Raquel Welch beauty guide and The Overnight Socialite by Bridie Clark.

The game, which has sold about 25,000 copies according to the publisher, follows a Hollywood-based 27-year-old musician who's given a device called a Soul Trap that turns him into an unlikely ghostbuster of sorts, allowing him to capture ghosts on Earth and send them to the great beyond. Although Atria couldn't yet speak to potential publicity plans, it's assumed that the imprint will be able to work off of the existing game platform to create tie-in potential for the books. The story idea was also tracking in Hollywood--we reported back in August that CAA is representing the film rights for the book and there was some interest on the left coast. No word yet about a film deal, though.

The German book industry is a stranger to this new digital world. According to the estimates of Goldmedia, 10,000 readers have already been sold in Germany. But, according to the GfK Group, a leading market-research company, in the first six months of 2009, only 65,000 e-books were sold, excluding specialist works.

Unlike in America, the cost of downloading an e-book in Germany is also frighteningly high. The Kindle's main competitor, the Sony Reader, has been available in German bookshops for a while now for about E250. But the Sony device cannot directly download e-books from the Web. And since e-books are just as expensive as their cheapest printed versions in Germany, they are still fairly expensive when compared to the price of the required hardware.

In fact, the price of an e-book can only go down once the paperback edition has hit the market, which usually takes about two years. Ironically, even Schatzing's "Limit" -- a science fiction novel that celebrates the technology of the future -- has not been able to get past these policies of blockade.

The first new volume, Lost Souls, will be published in May 2010 and begins a new story cycle that will continue with the two subsequent books, to be released in May 2011 and May 2012.

The books in Koontz's original Frankenstein trilogy have been bestsellers, and the third volume, Dead and Alive, debuted at number one on the New York Times paperback bestseller list when it pubbed in July. Lost Souls will pick up where Dead and Alive left off, with the setting moving to the American West and a new villain arriving on the scene. Koontz's longtime editor, Tracy Devine, will edit the new books.

Mandela himself, who bestowed these "traces of my life and those who have lived it with me" on his eponymous foundation, hopes the collection will afford the world a glimpse into his mind and his past. "Anyone who has explored the world of archives will know that it is a treasure house, one that is full of surprises, crossing paths, dead ends, painful reminders and unanswered questions," he said.

Jonny Geller, an agent at the Curtis Brown literary agency and the man entrusted with handling the book's worldwide rights, described the collection on offer as an "utterly remarkable" resource. "I've never heard of a living political leader giving up their entire archive," he said as he waited for his plane to Frankfurt. "I can't think of any other political leader who has opened up their archive without any censorship.

"There's everything from political scribblings to letters to his wife. It's an incredible archive, which will not only have political and historical insights, but which will also provide an emotional insight into the man too. It will give a portrait of the man and his life."

Soon the famed Glow in the Dark tour will be making a comeback, albeit in the form of a 288-page book, accompanying live music CD and a Web-based art video.

On Friday, Kanye took to his blog with stills of the upcoming project, saying, "This is the photo book from the Glow in the Dark Tour. Nabil captured the experience like crazy! When I look at the photos it brings me right back to that time! It's very emotional for me because I didn't want to have to tour but my pain brought my greatest creation to date. Thank you to everybody who came to the shows and experienced this moment in time with me!"

The book will be a sequential journey through the trek, made up of initial set-design sketches by West himself with behind-the-scenes and performance photos by Elderkin, the director behind West's "Champion," "Welcome to Heartbreak" and "Paranoid" videos.

The device is expected to feature a six-inch screen from digital-paper maker E-Ink Corp. with touch input and a virtual keyboard, like the one used on Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The Barnes & Noble device is expected to also use a wireless connection to download books from the online e-book store that the books retailer unveiled in July, those people said.

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In September, Barnes & Noble received approval from the Federal Communications Commission for a device, but the filing concealed details of the product. That filing was submitted on behalf of Barnes & Noble by Taiwanese company Amtek International Co.

The debut of a Barnes & Noble branded device sets the stage for fierce competition among makers of e-readers this holiday shopping season. Barnes & Noble, the largest book retailer in the U.S., could leverage its retail presence to market the product in ways that online-only retailer Amazon.com Inc. can't do as easily.