Breaking news on authors, publishers, and book-related topics

Scribd launches new ebook subscription service

Oct 25 2013: Scribd has launched an updated subscription service that lets you read unlimited books for $8.99/month with the first month free. In their email to existing Scribd users they claim to have available "thousands of bestsellers and new releases, including titles by well-...

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35 titles for World Book Night 2014. titles announced. Half a million copies to be given away on October 23 2014

Oct 24 2013: World Book Night 2014 will be on October 23 in both the UK and USA. Half a million copies will be given away for free in the USA. The 35 World Book Night U.S. titles for 2014 are:

• The Zookeeper’s Wife, Diane Ackerman (W.W. Norton)
• Kitchen Confidential, Anthony ...

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Brouhaha brewing at GoodReads from disaffected longtime members. Extensive article at Salon

Oct 24 2013: Salon has an extensive article about the small but growing faction of longtime, deeply involved Goodreads members who are up in arms about recent changes to the site's enforcement of its policies on what members are permitted to say when reviewing books, and many of ...

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Amazon raises minimum "free super saver shipping" order to $35

Oct 23 2013: Amazon has raised its minimum order for "Free Super Saver Shipping" from $25 to $35, saying to customers that "this is the first time in more than a decade that Amazon has altered the minimum order for free shipping in the U.S."

Analyst Paulo Santos describes the ...

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Get your textbooks delivered by drone!

Oct 18 2013: Australia may soon be the first country in the world to see commercial courier deliveries by drone, if a launch by a textbook rental service and an Australian tech start-up goes according to plan. From March next year and pending regulatory approval, students will be ...

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National Book Award Finalists announced

Oct 16 2013: The National Book Award finalists have been announced (with half of the titles coming from the newly formed Penguin Random House. The winners will be announced on November 20:

Fiction
Tenth of December, George Saunders (Random House)
The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri ...

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Eleanor Catton wins Booker Prize for The Luminaries

Oct 15 2013: New Zealand author Eleanor Catton has, at the age of 28, become the youngest ever winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for her novel The Luminaries (published in the USA today).

Chair of judges Robert Macfarlane described The Luminaries as a "dazzling work, ...

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McDonald's to give away 20 million books

Oct 10 2013: For the first two weeks in November, McDonald’s in the USA plans to distribute children’s books with their happy meals. Five nutrition themed books will be offered with 20 million total copies; all five have been written for McDonalds. This promotion follows a somewhat...

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