Arts Council England today announced the winner of The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2008 in association with Champagne Taittinger: Belgian author Paul Verhaeghen for his novel Omega Minor, which Dalkey Archive published last November. Verhaeghen is the first author to have both written and translated the winning title and has therefore won the full £10,000 prize for his work translated from Dutch into English. 

We are pleased to announce that veteran literary agent Lucienne Diver, previously with Spectrum Literary Agency, has joined on as the newest member of the Knight Agency’s talented group of agents. For full details please visit the Knight Agencies blog at www.knightagency.net

DC Comics is teaming up with children's book and graphic novel publisher Stone Arch Books to produce a series of illustrated chapter books based on DC’s famous characters Batman and Superman. The new line of books, called DC Super Heroes, will launch later this spring with 12 titles and publish a total of 48 titles over the next four seasons. The following season the line will add chapter books based on DC’s Wonder Woman character.

debut novel, self-published by its author after he couldn't interest an agent or a Canadian publisher, has won the $10,000 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

Toronto's Terry Fallis, who is president of the well-known public-relations firm Thornley Fallis, received the medal and cheque yesterday for The Best Laid Plans at a luncheon in Orillia, Ont., the hometown of Sunshine Sketches creator Stephen Leacock and 100 kilometres north of Toronto.

In an interview, the 48-year-old rookie writer described winning Canada's most prestigious annual prize for a humorous book as "a head-on collision of shock and joy." Previously, "it was not even on my radar screen to be nominated," he said, and when he was, "I was pretty close to having an aneurysm."

New York State Governor David Paterson signed a bill into law yesterday that will make it harder for “libel tourists” to threaten authors and publishers with foreign libel suits. The Libel Terrorism Protection Act prohibits the enforcement of a foreign libel judgment unless a New York court determines that it satisfies the free speech and free press protections guaranteed by the First Amendment and the New York State Constitution. It also allows New York courts, under certain circumstances, to exercise jurisdiction over non-residents who obtain foreign libel judgments against New Yorkers. 

The presentation of the award, for sustained excellence in the genre of crime writing, will be made by M. Arnaud Bamberger of Cartier and will take place at a champagne reception at the Gore Hotel, Kensington, London SW7 6:30–8:30pm.

SUE GRAFTON was born in Kentucky in 1940, the daughter of mystery writer CW Grafton. After receiving a bachelors degree in English Literature from the University of Louisville, she worked as a TV scriptwriter before her Kinsey Millhone alphabet series of PI mystery novels found success. The first in the series, 'A is for Alibi' was famously inspired by her own divorce. "For months I lay in bed and plotted to kill my ex-husband, but I knew I'd bungle it and get caught so I wrote it in a book instead."

Nebula Awards Winners

Winners of this year's Nebula Awards, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, were announced this evening, Saturday April 26, 2008, in Austin, Texas. The SFWA News page has a photograph of the winners.

NOVEL 

The Yiddish Policemen's Union , Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)

NOVELLA 

"Fountain of Age", Nancy Kress (Asimov's Jul 2007)

NOVELETTE 

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", Ted Chiang (F&SF Sep 2007; Subterranean Press)

SHORT STORY 

"Always", Karen Joy Fowler (Asimov's Apr/May 2007)

SCRIPT 

Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro

ANDRE NORTON AWARD 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling (Scholastic)

Audible has formed a new imprint, Audible Frontiers, which will feature a range of exclusive science fiction and fantasy titles that will be available as digital downloads solely through its Web site. The imprint, found at audible.com/scifi will feature original works from a number of authors such as Jack Campbell, Harry Turtledove, Mike Resnick, Allen Steele and Connie Willis. In addition, through deals with HarperCollins, Macmillan Audio, Recorded Books, Blackstone Audio, Harlequin and Wonder Audio Audible is offering exclusive digital downloads from some of those publishers’ bestselling science fiction writers.

Bloomsbury, the publishing house behind the Harry Potter phenomenon, is facing a growing revolt from some of its leading authors upset by its "obsession" with JK Rowling, it emerged yesterday.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed on Thursday that Joanna Trollope, the best-selling writer known as the Queen of the Aga Saga, is defecting to a rival publishing company, Transworld.

Some of her fellow authors are also said to be upset by Bloomsbury's apparent preoccupation with the Harry Potter books, which have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide, at the expense of their own work.

Harlequin, the leading publisher of romance and women’s fiction, announced today that LibreDigital will now handle all of its digital book projects, including its e-books, as well as online browsing capabilities via widgets and its Browse the Book tool.

For her part, Dahl says she's just glad she got her first novel out of the way. "It's been a huge learning curve and actually what I want to do now is write things just so unrelated to me — unrecognizable in any way, be it fantasy or historical murder fiction," she says, then adds with a laugh: "It's going to be about crime from now on."

Eugene Ehrlich, a self-educated lexicographer who wrote 40 dictionaries, thesauruses and phrase books for the “extraordinarily literate,” not to mention people just hoping to sound that way, died on April 5 at his home in Mamaroneck, N.Y. He was 85.

Romance writer Cassie Edwards and publisher Signet Books have decided to break up after allegations emerged in January that in she lifted passages in several of her books from other sources.

"Signet has conducted an extensive review of all its Cassie Edwards novels and due to irreconcilable editorial differences, Ms. Edwards and Signet have mutually agreed to part ways," the publisher said in a statement Friday.

"Cassie Edwards novels will no longer be published with Signet Books. All rights to Ms. Edwards' previously published Signet books have reverted to the author."

J. K. Rowling heard her work described as “gibberish” by a US judge yesterday at the end of a three-day trial into an unauthorised encyclopaedia of her Harry Potter novels.

Rowling has asked the federal court in New York to block publication of The Harry Potter Lexicon, a guide to the characters, places and spells in her novels, written by Steven Vander Ark, 50, a former school librarian.

District Judge Robert Patterson Jr said that he had read the first half of the first Harry Potter novel to his grandchildren, but found the “magical world hard to follow, filled with strange names and words that would be gibberish in any other context.

An Irish author has revealed he published a Harry Potter encyclopaedia -- six months before a high-profile court battle in the US over a similar book.

Author JK Rowling has launched a lawsuit in New York to stop the publication of a reference guide by American writer Stephen Vander Ark.

But 'An A-Z of Harry Potter: Everything You Wanted to Know about the Boy Wizard and his Creator' by Dublin writer Aubrey Malone was published last October.

This week marks a milestone for writer Sara Gruen and her Chapel Hill, N.C.-based publisher Algonquin Books. The paperback edition of her novel Water for Elephants has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for 52 consecutive weeks and has 1.8 million copies in print. The hardcover edition was on the Times list for 13 weeks and has 285,000 copies in print.

Despite Judge Robert P. Patterson’s calling the lawsuit a “so-called three-day trial" at one point during Tuesday’s proceedings, on Wednesday the remaining witnesses took the stand—including J.K. Rowling once more—and closing arguments were delivered in Rowling and Warner Brothers’ trial vs. RDR Books. Although the trial is over, both sides have until May 9 to submit legal paperwork to Judge Patterson, so a decision in the case won’t be forthcoming anytime soon.

Publishing house Penguin said today that it plans to publish new titles simultaneously in ebook, or electronic, format from this autumn in response to signs of growing reader demand for digital books.

The publisher, owned by UK media group Pearson, said titles from its flagship Penguin division, from its travel books collection and from the Dorling Kindersley brand will be available on its website and from digital retailers from September.

The ebooks will come out at the same time as the print edition and will cost the same.

The publisher is already working on turning its 5,000 title Penguin backlist into ebooks for publication this year and next.

American writer Patricia Wood and two other first-time novelists are among six finalists for the Orange Prize for fiction by women.

Wood, 54, is nominated for her debut novel "Lottery," the tale of a jackpot winner that was inspired by her own father's $6 million win in the Washington State lottery.

The shortlist includes two other first novels: "The Outcast," by Britain's Sadie Jones; and "Lullabies for Little Criminals," by Canadian writer Heather O'Neill.

Borders’ BookZone website has now gone live, featuring interviews with more than 100 authors, divided into sections devoted to fiction, non-fiction, children’s and also special features, reader reviews, and competitions.

It’s a good place to see what works and doesn’t work in terms of how authors present their work.

HarperCollins' new imprint will offer low or no advances to authors and won't accept returns from booksellers. Laine Cunningham, a publishing consultant for fifteen years, applauds the company for attacking the biggest problem in the industry today. But the damage to authors, she says, will cause publishers to suffer, as well. Cunningham recommends that authors use the FSA Rule when considering contract offers.

Hyperion has lost two more execs to HarperCollins. After last week’s big news that Hyperion adult group founder Bob Miller was defecting to launch a new imprint at HC, Donna Bray and Alessandra Balzer, editorial director and executive editor at Hyperion Books for Children, respectively, have been lured away by Harper as well. The two, who have worked together for 12 years, will start their own eponymous imprint, called Balzer & Bray, beginning in May.

The new imprint, which is slated to launch in fall 2009, will be releasing picture books through YA titles; no figure has been set for the first list. Bray and Balzer told PW that the list will reflect the same work they’ve been doing at

Balzer

Hyperion. Balzer is the editor of bestselling author and artist Mo Willems, who has won three Caldecott Honors; she also edited Sold by Patricia McCormick, a National Book Award finalist, and John, Paul, George, & Ben by Lane Smith. She works with Eoin Colfer, author of the internationally bestselling Artemis Fowl series, and Jonathan Stroud, who wrote the Bartimaeus trilogy. Among the books that Bray has edited are the Newbery Medal-winning Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi; National Book Award finalist The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich; Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee, I’d Tell You I Love You But I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter, We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson and Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio and LeUyen Pham. She also launched the Baby Einstein book publishing program at Hyperion.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has received an outstanding achievement prize at the 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards in London.

The writer was one of several honoured at the event, which also saw awards go to Ian McEwan, Afghan novelist Khaled Hosseini and actor Ewan McGregor.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown sent a video message praising Rowling for work that had "the whole country reading".

PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, has added its voice to those against Amazon’s move to make publishers print their print-on-demand titles through its BookSurge subsidiary in order to sell directly through the Web site. In a statement released yesterday, PMA executive director Terry Nathan said the policy “imposes a significant financial burden on tens of thousands of small and independent publishers who can least afford it. Without the opportunity to benefit from competitive pricing, small publishers risk at best an expensive and needless overhaul of their manufacturing process, and at worst, the loss of their livelihood.”

"It's extraordinary how many people read a book that's new and weird and befriended it," a stunned Diaz said, shortly after learning that his tale about a nerdy Dominican immigrant and his family had won the £10,000 award for "distinguished fiction by an American author".

Borders Group has finalized its new financing agreement with Pershing Square Capital Management, its largest shareholder, under terms more favorable than the original deal. One major change is the lowering of the interest rate from 12.5% to 9.8% that Borders will pay on the $42.5 million loan from Pershing. The 12.5% rate had caused some concern among analysts and publishers about the high cost Borders would be paying for the financing.

US writer Lauren Groff has been chosen for The Monsters of Templeton, about a woman returning to her ancestral home in the wake of a disastrous affair.

Leicester-born Joanna Kavenna is also shortlisted for Inglorious, about a London journalist facing a crisis.

Lauren Liebenberg's The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam completes this year's shortlist.

The winner of the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award was announced today: Bill Loehfelm, author of Fresh Kills, a noir mystery about lower-middle-class life in Staten Island, home to the famous garbage dump Fresh Kills. Representatives from Penguin and Amazon made the announcement at a breakfast at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City this morning. 

Loehfelm, who works as a bartender in New Orleans during the day and wrote Fresh Kills at night, won a $25,000 publishing contract with Penguin, which will publish the novel in late summer.

The American Society of Journalists and Authors, the nation's trade association for freelance nonfiction writers, announced that it

"is disgusted with Amazon's announced move requiring that all print-on-demand (POD) books sold on Amazon's site be printed by their own print-on-demand house, BookSurge.

Saying it is reviewing the antitrust and other legal implications of Amazon’s “bold move,” the Authors Guild sent an e-mail late Friday to its membership questioning the motives—and implications—of the e-tailer’s new position on print-on-demand that makes publishers use its BookSurge division if they want the sell their titles on Amazon in the traditional manner. While Amazon is pitching the move as a consumer-friendly change that will improve the speed of shipping books and other products, the Guild says it suspects the motivation has more to do with profit margin than customer service.

HarperCollins Publishers is forming a new publishing group that will substitute profit-sharing with authors for cash advances and will try to eliminate the costly practice of allowing booksellers to return unsold copies.

An online price war for books has broken out, pitching Amazon against some of Britain’s biggest publishers.

Amazon is angry that Penguin, Bloomsbury and others are discounting titles on their websites, encouraging customers to buy direct instead of using the online retailer.

Penguin’s online store has reduced a boxed set of 20 Penguin Epics from £100 to £55. Amazon sells the collection at £98.64. Bloomsbury offers a 25 per cent discount on all its books, with free postage and packing on British deliveries over £20.

More than four months after Amazon.com released the Kindle, no one is sure whether the latest e-book reader is really hot — or not. But publishers believe that the Kindle has helped, if not revolutionized, the tiny electronic market.

Amazon.com has received extensive media coverage since unveiling the Kindle on the Monday before Thanksgiving and announcing that the first run had sold out within a few hours. Amazon.com has declined to give sales figures for the Kindle — at least 2,000, judging from the number of customer reviews — but has said repeatedly that supply is not keeping up with demand, with the device often out of stock.

Publishing officials are reluctant to discuss sales figures, but say that they have seen double digit increases in e-book sales since the Kindle's release, including renewed interest in downloads on the Sony Reader. Sales for the most popular books are in the hundreds, comparable to the number for the Sony, which came out in 2006.

"The Kindle has increased awareness. Publishers have told me that in some cases the Sony numbers were double or triple to what they had been," says Michael Smith, head of the International Digital Publishing Forum, which tracks e-book sales.

In response to complaints from authors, Bookoff Corp., a large chain of secondhand bookshops based here, has offered to pay 100 million yen to groups representing copyright holders, sources said.

Bookoff resells secondhand books in like-new condition. Authors have complained the sales cut into their new book sales and undercut their royalty income.

The chain extended its offer to the Japan Writer's Association, the Copyright Network for Comic Authors in the 21st Century and other groups, the sources said.

Amazon has a new way to sell products: cell phone text messaging. The company’s new TextBuyIt service lets customers find and buy items from Amazon.com using their mobile phones. 

Like ShopText, which began selling books via text message last summer, TextBuyIt asks customers to send a text message to the company with the name of the book (or other product), and responds quickly for confirmation. A customer must have already set up an account with the company. With TextBuyIt, merely having an Amazon account does not allow a customer to buy a product via text. The customer must first log in to his or her account on Amazon.com and activate the TextBuyIt option.

This Thursday, March 27, Penguin Group will do a global release of the Chinese hit, Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong. The book, acquired by Penguin chairman John Makinson, won the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize last year and was a publishing phenomenon in China, where it has sold more than six million copies—two million legitimately published versions as well as approximately four million pirated ones—since its 2004 release. The author, a Chinese dissident who writes under a pen name, has tried to stay out of the spotlight, and will not tour to promote the U.S. publication of Wolf Totem. However, the book's translator, Howard Goldblatt, will make appearances to promote the book in the U.S.

Penguin paid an unprecedented (for a Chinese book) amount for Wolf Totem in 2005: The Guardian reported $100,000.

Canada's most lucrative literary prize for fiction is getting a little bit richer for its 15th anniversary, with two internationally renowned authors also slated to judge the upcoming edition.

Scotiabank Giller Prize organizers announced Tuesday that the purse for the annual fiction-writing honour would increase to $70,000 — $50,000 for the winner and $5,000 to each of the four other finalists.

An advocacy group for writers appealed to U.S. officials yesterday to review the exclusion of a British author whose most recent book chronicles his years of heavy drug use and visits to prostitutes.

Sebastian Horsley was questioned for eight hours on March 18 by Customs and Border officials at Newark Liberty International Airport, who barred him from entering the country on grounds of ``moral turpitude.''

Andy Heidel offers another take on the battle lines being drawn by Amazon.com between its Booksurge program and the rest of the print-on-demand publishing world:

"PW has reported that 'BookSurge, Amazon's print-on-demand subsidiary, is making an offer that most publishers would like to refuse, but don't feel they can. According to talks with several pod houses, BookSurge has told them that unless their titles are printed by BookSurge, the buy buttons on Amazon for their titles will be disabled.'

(UPDATE: Amazon has made an official statement on the new policy.)

"So, what's so terrible about their consignment program?

"Angela Hoy, co-owner of booklocker.com and the person who broke this story on her site, writersweekly.com, told GalleyCat, 'Amazon Advantage costs $29.95 per year and they then demand 55% of each sale. Furthermore, the publisher has to pay to ship the books to Amazon (our books are currently drop-shipped directly to Amazon customers by our printer). If we were to participate in the Amazon Advantage program, our prices would need to be raised significantly to accommodate all of these new fees." Angela went on to say that "we have been told by more than one source that April 1st is the deadline Amazon has given to some publishers to sign the contract, or else.'"

For users who rely on productivity apps to get them through the day, one major advantage that desktop apps have over online suites is that they are accessible at any time or any place—no Internet connection needed. Google is moving towards eliminating that barrier, however, by allowing Google Docs to be used offline. That's right—thanks to offline storage, users can now access their online documents while stuck in pockets of offline hell (such as on an airplane). Or, as Google Docs software engineer Philip Tucker puts it, users can now bring the "cloud" with them.

Actually, Google has not yet rolled out this feature for all Google Docs users. As usual, the company is turning the feature on slowly, starting with a select number of users and planning to cover everybody in the coming weeks. Anyone with a Google Gears-compatible browser will be able to use Google Docs offline—that means IE and Firefox for Windows users, Firefox for Mac users, and Firefox for Linux users (sorry, no Safari). For those not familiar with Google Gears, it's an open-source project that Google rolled out last May, allowing web application developers to access resources on a local computer.

eMusic, the digital entertainment retailer of music and the first digital service to offer audio books in the MP3 format, and McSweeney's, the tastemaking literary journal, have partnered to release an unusual series of audio books based on essays from McSweeney's Quarterly Concern.

McSweeney's Field Recordings, the audio book, is a collection of readings created specifically for, and now available on, eMusic. As with all eMusic audio books, it is available in the universally compatible MP3 format. The first installment features Jonathan Ames, Jessica Anthony, Jack Pendarvis, Claire Light, and Keith Pille recounting perilous sagas of phony detectives, a female bullfighter, poisonous snakes, murder in space, and a freshman COBRA recruit. McSweeney's will publish future installments of Field Recordings with eMusic on a quarterly basis.

"When eMusic approached us, their track record with independent music seemed a perfect fit for our authors," said Eli Horowitz, publisher of McSweeney's. "It's our first audio book, so we're still learning, but so far everything has come together well. We're excited to keep experimenting, and eMusic has been encouraging every step of the way."

In 1869, a year before Charles Dickens died, he wrote in his will that he wanted to be remembered for his work alone. No plaques, no statues, "no monument memorial or testimonial whatever" were to be allowed to commemorate the life of one of Britain's greatest authors.

Now, almost 140 years after his death, Dickens' final request has sparked an impassioned debate among his most ardent fans – and his family are suggesting his dying wish be laid to rest.

Seeking an appropriate means of marking the 200th anniversary of his birth, several of Dickens' descendants have come out in support of a commemorative statue at Eastgate House, Rochester, Kent, a building that appears in many of his novels, including The Pickwick Papers.

The writer's great-great grandson, Mark Charles Dickens, said a statue was "long overdue". Ian Dickens, another relative, asked: "Can you obey the desires set out in a will when numerous 'monuments' have appeared in the last hundred years?

Penguin Publishing is one of the most innovative users of new media to get people to read. Here's their latest cool idea:

They are launching an Alternative Reality Game called "We Tell Stories." Six Penguin authors , including Nicci French, Kevin Brooks, and Mohsin Hamid, will create six stories for online reading over a period of six weeks. Within these there will be clues that lead readers to a seventh story hidden somewhere on the internet.

You can find out more and read the stories here, at www.wetellstories.co.uk/ The first story, "The 21 Steps," is live now, the next one arrives on March 25.

On February 20, Pocket Books bestselling author Sandra Brown thought she was attending a black-tie dinner party at the City Club in Fort Worth, Tex., for pianist Van Cliburn. But when she arrived at the event, she received two surprise gifts: an honorary degree from Texas Christian University, and notification that a $50,000 scholarship had been established by her husband, Michael Brown, in her name. Sandra Brown now has an honorary Doctorate of Human Letters degree from TCU, and the Sandra Brown Excellence in Fiction Writing Scholarship Award will be awarded to young writers annually (the start date has not yet been determined). CBS News's Bob Schieffer was master of ceremonies and TCU chancellor Victor Boschini conducted the hooding ceremony.

Unbeknown to Sandra Brown, Michael set the scholarship up a few months ago with a sizable donation to TCU in Sandra’s name. The fund will provide a $50,000 scholarship annually.

The alternate-reality game genre has a new friend, and a new format, thanks to Penguin Books, the famous British publishing house.

On Tuesday, Penguin and startup Six to Start launched their new ARG, We Tell Stories, a new-style game that its creators say is a hybrid of traditional story-telling, Web 2.0-style mashups, interactive games and classic novels.

We Tell Stories is actually a seven-part adventure, said Jeremy Ettinghausen, the digital publisher for Penguin. It will begin with six weekly installments, each of which is based on a classic novel--and written by a different Penguin author--and which tasks participants with finding their way through the story using tools developed for the game.

A rare 1937 first issue of the first edition of the childrens' classic was sold at Bonhams earlier today, going for twice its pre-sale estimate. The copy, inscribed by the author with a message of thanks to his friend Elaine Griffiths, who helped the author see the work into print, went to an anonymous telephone bidder. The £60,000 price tag sets a new world record for signed copies of the book, which remains Tolkien's bestselling work, having sold over 100m copies since its first publication.

Seven début novelists have made it onto the 20-strong longlist for this year's Orange Broadcast Prize for Fiction.

The selection features Anita Amirrezvani's The Blood of Flowers (Headline Review), Sadie Jones's The Outcast (Chatto), Lauren Liebenberg's The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam (Virago), Heather O’Neill's Lullabies for Little Criminals (Quercus), Dalia Sofer's The Septembers of Shiraz (Picador), Carol Topolski's Monster Love (Fig Tree), Patricia Wood's Lottery (Heinemann). More established authors featured include Anne Enright, Rose Tremain and Deborah Moggach.

A former German World War II fighter pilot has claimed he shot down French literary hero Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, 63 years after the event.

Award-winning author Alexander McCall Smith, whose best-selling books about a Botswanan female detective are printed in more than 30 languages, is accused by human rights campaigners of stereotyping tribal groups in Africa.

Ending its second recent legal scuffle with an author, Regnery has had another successful round. The publisher received a favorable ruling in a March 10 arbitration decision that calls for author Richard Miniter to repay nearly $150,000. Regnery was awarded the ruling after claiming Miniter, who wrote the 2005 book Disinformation for the house, did not live up to his two book contract and, instead, took a second work to Simon & Schuster.

The Academy of America Poets, one of the major nonprofits devoted to poetry and the organization that created National Poetry Month, has adapted its Web site for use on the iPhone and other mobile devices, according to Robin Beth Schaer, chief online coordinator. The Academy’s site, poets.org, features an expansive online archive of poems tagged by theme, essays about poetry, links to poetry related resources and other related content, and is a popular tool for finding poems to read at occasions, such as weddings and funerals. Using Web 2.0 standards as well as Apple’s Developer’s Guidelines, the Academy has added a new section to its site—poets.org/m—that refits and optimizes its content for mobile devices. 

Penguin is committed to trying different things in the digital space and things that work will be continued and those that don’t will be stopped, company chairman John Makinson told journalists at a luncheon in New York Wednesday. In that spirit, Penguin USA will launch a line of enhanced e-book classics this May, beginning with Pride and Prejudice. The new e-books, which will be compatible with all e-book devices, will feature an array of features, including a filmography, period book reviews, recipes and black-and-white illustrations. Price will be the same as the print edition, $8. Nine other Penguin classics will be released in the enhanced format in the fall. Makinson said the classics are a “great place to start” to test the possibilities of the electronic format.

Tsaba House Press, a Christian publisher of fiction and nonfiction titles, is considering taking legal action against the Romance Writers of America for refusing to consider one of the small California press’s authors for a Rita Award, which honors inspirational romances. According to Pam Schwagerl, Tsaba House publisher, Molly Noble Bull was barred from submitting her latest release, Sanctuary, for a Rita Award, because Tsaba House is not an “RWA approved” publisher. RWA subsequently told Schwagerl that the organization considers Tsaba House to be a subsidy or vanity press, because its boilerplate contract contains such clauses as charging authors if manuscripts have to be retyped or if the press considers it necessary to add frontmatter and backmatter to the manuscript that the author didn’t provide.

Harry Potter was the center of seven novels, but he'll star in eight films.

The final book in the wildly successful series will be made into two films, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

Producers are expected to announce Thursday that J.K. Rowling's last "Potter" installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," will be split into two parts on the big screen. The first film is slated for release in November 2010, with part two following in May 2011.

"It was born out of purely creative reasons," producer David Heyman told the Times. "Unlike every other book, you cannot remove elements of this book."

The two final "Potter" films will be shot concurrently, much like the blockbuster trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel "The Lord of the Rings."

Another famous Tolkien tome, "The Hobbit," is also being split into two live-action movies set for back-to-back shooting to begin next year.

The creator of the Discworld series was diagnosed with a rare early-onset form of the disease in December.

Australian author Sonya Hartnett is the winner of the $818,000 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature, the largest children's book award in the world.

Kate Christensen's "The Great Man," a novel about a celebrated painter and the three essential women in his life, has won the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced Wednesday.

Christensen, author of three previous novels, will receive $15,000. The four other finalists, each of whom will receive $5,000, are: Annie Dillard's "The Maytrees," David Leavitt's "The Indian Clerk," T.M. McNally's "The Gateway" and Ron Rash's "Chemistry and Other Stories."

THE high-profile Borders bookstore chain has been put back on the market after its planned sale to rival operator Angus & Robertson fell through over disagreements about the make-up of the company's future ownership.

Alexander McCall Smith's novel, which follows the adventures of detective Precious Ramotswe, is to be made into 13 episodes.

Samuel J. Hamrick, a former officer in the Foreign Service who, under the pseudonym W. T. Tyler, wrote spy novels about the adventures of burnt-out cases, died on Feb. 29 at his home in Boston, Va. He was 78.

Despite some protests from minority stockholders, Amazon’s $11.50 per share offer for Audible was overwhelmingly accepted yesterday with shareholders holding 87% of Audible’s stock tendering their shares.  Stockholders who have not tendered their shares have until March 14 to do so.

The awards, now in their second year, were set up by the IPG, the Bookseller and the London Book Fair to celebrate the successes of independent publishers.