The readers’s advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online, the subscription database based on Libraries Unlimited’s Genreflecting Advisory series. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us at rablog@lu.com.
By Cindy Orr
Titles New to the Bestseller Lists This Week
Fiction
Kay Hooper – Blood Ties
Nonfiction
Ozzy Osbourne – I Am Ozzy
Marc A. Thiessen – Courting Disaster
Andrew Young – The Politician
To see the entire list of this week’s hottest books, check the Most Wanted Mashup in the righthand column.
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We have a long list of titles which will be released this week including these, or check our complete New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer list.
Jackie Collins – Poor Little Bitch Girl – Tuesday
Tim Green – False Convictions – Tuesday
Peter Straub – A Dark Matter – Tuesday
Paul Theroux – A Dead Hand – Thursday
Adriana Trigiani – Brava, Valentine – Tuesday
And many more. Scroll down to the next entry to see the whole list, or click here.
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Our Under the Radar list this week is Past and Present Oscar Nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay. Look in the righthand column just under the Most Wanted Mashup for this list.
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And now on to the news of the week:
The big news of the week is the ongoing “negotiations” between Amazon and Macmillan. The saga is a complicated one, and has now extended to HarperCollins and Hachette as well. In a nutshell, when Amazon and Macmillan disagreed on terms of their eBooks agreement, Amazon pulled all the “Buy” buttons off of Macmillan titles…paper and electronic…so that their Kindle customers could not buy them, and bewildered print customers who knew nothing about any controversy, couldn’t figure out why there was no way to buy the book they had chosen.
Authors were the helpless victims of this bullying tactic, doubtless losing royalties on sales that went awry, and the story still continues with huge implications for the future. The argument is between Amazon’s desire to move toward controlling a bigger piece of the supply chain and the publishers’ position that they want to use the agency model. Writer Charles Stross does a great job of explaining the difference.
The announcement of the iPad last week and Apple’s agreement to use the agency model, has added to the pressure on Amazon. Amazon’s one public statement (other than removing the “Buy” buttons) has been to their Kindle users on a forum, “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.” Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles seems like saying Reese’s has a monopoly on Peanut Butter Cups…um, okay…monopoly?
By the end of the week the buttons were restored to Macmillan titles, but distrust of Amazon had caused the Authors Guild to design a website for authors which will automatically track whether their buy buttons are working in the future, and email them if not. Here are a few more good links in case you’d like to follow the controversy more closely:
The Daily Beast: The Great eBook Wars
Mediabistro: Hachette Books Transitions to Agency Model
Idealog.com: Amazon vs. Macmillan: What It Might Mean for eBooks
Early Word: from Nora Rawlinson
The Atlantic: Amazon vs. Apple: What Should E-Book Prices Be?
Huffington Post: An Analysis of the Financials
More News:
Will the iPad Become the Favorite eBook Reader?
Authors Vie for the Lost 1970 Booker Prize
New Walter Scott Prize for Historical Novels
The Most Popular Book Reviewers on Twitter
Romance Writers of America Reaffirms It Position Against Self-Publishing
Salinger and Zinn Books Spike Big Sales After Their Recent Deaths
Sarah Palin’s PAC Spends Big Money Buying Her Books
Verso’s 2009 Survey of Book-Buying Behavior
Why Is Auntie Mame Suddenly a Bestseller in Italy?
Trends in Romance
Rachel Maddow Reads from The Lorax When Clean Coal Company Steals the Name
What They’re Reading in Public
American Psycho from Book to Movie to…Musical?
Al’s Book Club Chooses 100 Cupboards
Why Are You For Killing Bookstores?
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Books on Screen
The Literary Side of the Oscars
Brad Pitt Options the Big Short by Michael Lewis
Emily Giffin’s Something Borrowed Fastracked to the Movies
Ron Howard to Produce The Lost Symbol
Movie Based on Twelve by Nick McDonell a Hit At Sundance, Headed for Wider Release
Dark Falls by Kat Falls Optioned for Film
Ken Baker’s Man Made: a Memoir to be a Movie
Movie Based on Temple Grandin’s Thinking in Pictures
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Awards
Amelia Bloomer Awards
Best Spoken Word Grammy Nominees
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Authors
Martin Amis - my life, my work, my women
Roberto Bolaño – short story in the New Yorker
Don DeLillo – interview
Terry Pratchett – offers to be test case for assisted suicide
Rebecca Skloot - interview
Bill Watterson – first interview in 20 years with the father of Calvin and Hobbes
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Lists
New Cookbooks from Top Chef Alums
Spring Baseball Roundup
GalleyCat Reviews the Books of Lost
What They’re Reading on College Campuses
Top Ten Nonfiction Black History Month Books
Top 10 Literary Stepmothers
LJ’s Most Borrowed Titles in Public Libraries in 2009
The Fix’s Favorite Political Books of All Time
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Lighthearted Links of the Week
A Compendium of Sexy Librarianness from Library Journal
Oddest Book Title of the Year Longlist
