Simon & Schuster Publishers has teamed up with Media Predict; called Project Publish, the initiative allows virtual traders to bet on which book proposal will ultimately get the green light...An interesting departure from the usual system of editors selecting which books to launch. S&S's team will select the grand prize winner among the top scorers, and that author will land the book deal (via The New York Times).

Really, book publishing industry? "American Idol" tactics?

I guess it's the inevitable next step after The New York Times called you out on not being able to predict your own bestsellers (via Bookninja). Ouch.

Posted by Graceanne at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Zooba's got the latest from bestselling author Elmore Leonard, Up In Honey's Room. This is a much better book name than his working title, Hitler's Birthday. (via ElmoreLeonard.com)

Check out a review, and get it now from Zooba.

Posted by Graceanne at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-It's White House Press Secretary lit: Ari Fleischer got a book deal, now Scott McClellan's inked his own. Tony Snow, care to comment? (via GalleyCat)

-May is Get Caught Reading Month, promoted with posters of celebrities with books. The only poster out of stock? Rosie O'Donnell's. (via Book Patrol)

-Oh, snap. Are blogs salting book reviewers' game? (via The New York Times)

Posted by Graceanne at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-It's PEN World Voices Week in New York. (via The Literary Saloon)

-Hey, any Stephen King fans out there? He'll be at the upcoming Edgar Awards. (via David Thayer)

-Author Ray Carver: screenwriter? (New York Magazine via Maud Newton)

Posted by Graceanne at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi, members! When I tried to check if Zooba.com had any George Orwell or Raymond Carver just now, I discovered that the site is temporarily down for my browser, Firefox. (I can get to Zooba if I use Internet Explorer, though.)

If you, too, are having problems accessing your account and would like help, please contact Customer Service:

E-mail: customer.service@zooba.com

Phone: 888-827-1828

We're working to remedy this problem. In the meantime, please be patient. Thank you!

Posted by Graceanne at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-The London Book Fair begins! (via London Book Fair)

-Ray Carver's short story hits the big screen on April 27 (via New York Times)

-The New York Times Book review explores international lit (NYT Book Review via LitKicks)

-Big Brother watches George Orwell's flat (via Slush Pile)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sadly, one of our favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, died last night. (via Shelf Awareness)

Read more via The New York Times. Better yet, read Slaughterhouse-Five for a taste of his sheer brilliance.

Posted by Graceanne at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Miss Snark, literary agent, has some sympathy for Don Imus. After all, "he helped promote a lot of books." (via Miss Snark)

-Newly uncovered manuscript from the late author of Suite Française (via Conversational Reading)

-More mind-blowing poetry videos from Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate (Billy Collins Action Poetry via Very Short List)

-Au revoir, Cody's Books (via SFGate)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Hey, our parent company, Bookspan, is in the news! All publicity is good publicity, right? (via The Wall Street Journal)

-Write your own bite-size fiction threads at Ficlets (via The Olive Reader)

-Guerilla artists' book installation brightens our commute (via New York magazine)

-A moment of clarity in the midst of our rereading addiction (via Moonlight Ambulette)

Posted by Graceanne at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-A book review of The Feminine Mistake: "Are stay-at-home mothers putting themselves—and feminism—at risk?" (via The New Yorker)

-Edith Wharton: "From ugly upper-class duckling to literary queen." (via The New Yorker)

-Publisher FSG lets its brand name do all the work (via GalleyCat)

Posted by Graceanne at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Via the New York Times:

"In a hotly contested deal, the life story of Dewey, a rescued cat who lived for 19 years in a library in a small town in Iowa, has sold for about $1.25 million to Grand Central Publishing."

Actually, I'd rather see the hilarious video Operation Kitten Calendar turned into a book. Who's with me?

Posted by Graceanne at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Size matters over at Boldtype. This literary e-magazine's new issue rounds up books under the theme Tiny; that is, "books that are either physically slight themselves or concerned with tiny subjects."

Brought to you by my zeitgeisty friends at Flavorpill.

Posted by Graceanne at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-The Washington Post reviews Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes. Check out the excerpt, too. (via Washington Post)

-Publishers revamp Jane Austen (via New York Times)

-Farrar, Straus & Giroux Publishers launches a poetry blog for National Poetry Month (The Best Words in the Best Order via Bookdwarf) 

-It's never too early to celebrate July, part II. Here's part I. (Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You via Moonlight Ambulette)

Posted by Graceanne at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-How did Gabriel García Márquez get that shiner? (via New York Times)

-The first rule of promoting Chuck Palahniuk's new book is: You do not talk about Chuck Palahniuk's new book! (ChuckPalahniuk.net via Bookninja)

-PopMatters reviews Sheridan Hay's upcoming The Secret of Lost Things (via PopMatters)

-Mitch Albom's secret? Keyboard shortcuts. (via Yankee Pot Roast)

*Update: Is The Namesake based on a man author Jhumpa Lahiri briefly dated? Probably! (via New York Magazine)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Dan Brown: not a plagiarist, but still a possible murderer...of fiction! (via BBC News)

-TC Boyle's story "Balto" will appear in the upcoming Best American Short Stories 2007 (via The Paris Review)

-GalleyCat has your first glimpse of the upcoming Harry Potter cover (via GalleyCat)

-Read a review of Cormac McCarthy's The Road (via PopMatters)

-NYC: Check out Jonathan Lethem, George Saunders, and The Night Time at Housing Works Used Book Cafe this Friday 3/30 (via New York magazine)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...And the winner is Cormac McCarthy's The Road!

Oprah takes the highbrow fiction route this time. Well played, Winfrey. Well played. (via Oprah.com)

Posted by Graceanne at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Literary heavyweights criticize EU's failure to end Darfur violence (The Independent via Critical Mass)

-"For $10,000 to $15,000, you, too, can be a best-selling author." (via Wall Street Journal)

-Top authors pick their favorite books of all time (via Washington Post)

-China pirates around 500 million books per year (via Conversational Reading) 

-Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue": just as good as a short story (via The Onion's AV Club)

Posted by Graceanne at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Graceanne at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

-Nice to know that Posh Spice is one of England's bestselling authors. And that she can read. (via Gawker)

-Andre Agassi memoir deal in the works (via GalleyCat)

-Jon Bon Jovi and Amy Grant + BookExpo America = ultimate synergy! (via GalleyCat) 

Posted by Graceanne at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Former president Bill Clinton collaborates on upcoming book (via Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

-Stephen King is editing the upcoming The Best American Short Stories 2007 (via USA Today)

-GalleyCat rounds up novels that rock (via GalleyCat)

-Publishers' marketing approach: pitch books like movies (via USA Today) 

Posted by Graceanne at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-At HarperCollins, Lisa Sharkey replaces ousted editor Judith Regan (via GalleyCat)

-Author films are the new "author tour" (via Bookninja)

-But without author tours, how will book nerds meet and fall in love? (via GalleyCat)

-Bookforum interviews edgy author A.M. Homes (Bookforum via Bookninja)

Posted by Graceanne at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Author Dean Koontz challenges fans to create the best book trailer for his upcoming novel, The Good Guy. (Dean Koontz via Buzz, Balls & Hype)

Man! First, we had to write our own novel wiki-style...Now we have to market someone else's?

Posted by Graceanne at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-A closer look at the Broadway adaptation of Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking (via New York Magazine)

-Random House introduces audio widget (via The Book Standard)

-Jack Kerouac was conservative? (via The Columbia Spectator)

-New survey finds that Brits read only half the books they buy (via Conversational Reading)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Madonna's nanny gets book deal, loses book deal (via The Book Standard)

-Announced first print run for upcoming Harry Potter? 12 million--a new record (via Publishers Weekly)

-Ex-CIA Director George Tenet's autobiography At the Center of the Storm drops April 30 (via Publishers Weekly)

-Up for grabs: film rights to Jonathan Lethem's newest book, You Don't Love Me Yet (JonathanLethem.com via NPR)

-UK announces "Blooker" prize shortlist for the best books based on blogs. PostSecret, anyone? (via Librarian's Place)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gawker reports that Dave Eggers's highbrow satire magazine McSweeney's wants to rescind their lifetime subscriptions offer.

Specifically, the mag's letter to lifetime subscribers says, "You know, move on."

Ouch.

Maybe they're just being ironic?

Posted by Graceanne at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-PEN appoints author Francine Prose as president (via Boston Herald)

-A Long Way Down author Nick Hornby writes children's book (via Publisher's Weekly)

-Penguin Books UK blog discusses South by Southwests' Blogs to Books panel (via The Penguin Blog)

-Random House and Whole Foods team up to promote memoir (via Publisher's Weekly)

Posted by Graceanne at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Lance Bass pens memoir. The title? Out of Sync. No, I'm not making that up. (via People)

*Update: Get his ex's memoir from Zooba. I'm not making that up, either!

-The Decemberists frontman and former bookseller Colin Meloy will judge Tournament of Books. (via Pitchfork Media)

-Author Chuck Klosterman reveals what's on his playlist. (via The Onion's AV Club)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An open note to Ann Coulter's former corporate sponsors:

Really?

This was why you decided to pull your ads from her site? You sure? Not because of her defamation of 9/11 widows? Not her scathingly right wing book Godless? Not her poor use of satire?

No? OK. Just checking.

Posted by Graceanne at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, I may have to call backsies on this old post regarding the Jenna Bush memoir. GalleyCat announces that HarperCollins won the book auction; USA Today says the memoir is less "The Diary of Jenna Bush" and more...about a 17-year-old living with HIV in Panama.

Yeah, I didn't see that one coming, either.

Posted by Graceanne at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Mark Sarvas, The Elegant Variation blogger, signs with Bloomsbury (via Slush Pile)

-Catherine Sanderson, La Petite Anglaise blogger, gets fired, inks Penguin book deal (via The Independent)

-Jessica Hagy, Indexed blogger, signs with Viking Studio (via Indexed)

Posted by Graceanne at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Literary magazine Granta names their choices for this year's Best of Young American Novelists issue (via The Literary Saloon). Want to read the books? Zooba's got you covered!

-Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

-Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation

-Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead

-Dara Horn, The World to Come

-Yiyun Li, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

Posted by Graceanne at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gawker talks shrinking book advances. It's only a matter of time before $62.5K is the new $125K!

Future novelists, don't quit your day jobs... (via 52 Projects)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tipped off by a letter of complaint, the FBI is considering whether books by Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, and others should be banned from a high school reading list (via Maud Newton). Also from Maud comes this piece about how books originally deemed obscene become classics.

For more on banned literature, check out Reading Lolita in Tehran, a memoir about the power of books during a time of upheaval.

Posted by Graceanne at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Journalist Bob Woodruff and wife co-write memoir (via NPR, with excerpt)

-Lyons Press will publish ReganBooks's aborted Mickey Mantle novel (via USA Today)

-NPR interviews Oil on the Brain author Lisa Margonelli (via NPR)

-Freakonomics author never ceases to surprise readers (via Freakonomics blog)

Posted by Graceanne at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Three Rivers Press (Random House) inks deal for biography of troubled indie rock artist Cat Power (via Publishers Marketplace)

-Hollywood glamorizes Jane Austen in the upcoming film Becoming Jane (via Bookninja)

-Columbia University's writing seminar spawns book deals (via NPR) 

-Salon advises a novelist who fears getting published (Salon via Mediabistro)

Posted by Graceanne at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-For bestselling self help book The Secret, the secret is packaging (via MSN.com)

-Random House launches Browse & Search functionality on their website. Take that, HarperCollins! (via if:book)

-French literature professor: How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read? (via The New York Times)

-Oprah will bring Mitch Albom's For One More Day to the small screen (via ReadersRead.com)

-Remembering author Philip K. Dick on the silver anniversary of his death (The Times via Bookninja)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Philip Roth wins PEN/Faulkner award for Everyman (via San Francisco Chronicle)

-Stewart and Colbert drive book sales (via New York Times)

-HarperCollins launches book widget (via GalleyCat)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Presidential hopefuls promote themselves through their books (via The New York Times)

-Roy Kesey's story will appear in Best American Short Stories 2007 (via GalleyCat)

-With wiki-novels and web writing anthologies, internet lit moves forward (via Literary Kicks)

-Choose Your Own Adventure format makes a comeback (via PrettyLittleMistakes.com and Publishers Marketplace)

Posted by Graceanne at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a year of unbearable sexual tension, Harlequin and Nascar have finally hooked up.

Good for you, NasQuin! Now women all over America can fill their insatiable needs for both steamy reading and racing puns!

(via The New York Times)

Posted by Graceanne at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

-Anna Nicole Smith biography emerges from the backlist (via New York Times and Shelf Awareness)

-Judith Regan inspires upcoming Law & Order episode (via Slush Pile)

-George Tenet works on his overdue memoir (via Galleycat) 

-Manchester University chooses Martin Amis as new creative writing professor (via Literary Saloon)

Posted by Graceanne at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)