The PW Morning Report, March 4, 2009

By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 3/4/2009 6:09:00 AM

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A daily round-up of the latest publishing news: Amazon Invades Apple Territory; The Mystery of David Foster Wallace Continues; Strawberry On Steroids; Controversy Greets The Kindly Ones; Google Rescues Newspapers; Stephen King’s E-book-Only Novel a Bestseller; Two Comics to the Big Screen; Ramona and Beezus Heads to Film; and Cindy Adams on Blagojevich, Richard Ben Cramer

Amazon Invades Apple Territory, reports New York Times
Amazon will begin selling e-books for reading on Apple’s popular iPhone and iPod Touch. According to the Times, this "signals that the company may be more interested in becoming the pre-eminent retailer of e-books than in being the top manufacturer of reading devices"

The Mystery of David Foster Wallace Continues
Sara Nelson has a piece in the Los Angeles Times about the round-about way Wallace’s last book, The Pale King, will find its way to print

Strawberry Admits He Would Have Tried Steroids
That’s what he told the New York Daily News today. Although there is no mention of his new book, Straw, in the article, you’ll be reading a lot more about what the Strawman of the Mets put in his body in next week’s spring sports feature, coming in PW in the March 9 issue

Controversy Greets The Kindly Ones, reports New York Times
Jonathan Littell’s novel about a remorseless former Nazi SS officer, just published by HarperCollins, is being either praised or vilified

Your Newspaper Going Down the Drain? Google to the Rescue!
The New York Times has a piece rich in technology irony. Google’s settlement with authors over copyright infringement has resulted in spending $7-million dollars in print advertising—sorely needed by the newspaper industry in these trying economic times. Print, for the time being, has triumphed over 21st century technology

Stephen King’s E-book-Only Novel a Bestseller, reports AP
Released to coincided with the debut of Kindle 2.0, UR is an e-reader bestseller

Two Comics Headed to the Big Screen, reports Hollywood Reporter
Actress Megan Fox is hoping to star in movies based on Jonah Hex (DC Comics) and Fathom (Fox Atomic)

Ramona and Beezus Heads to Film, reports Hollywood Reporter
Ginnifer Goodwin, John Corbett and Bridget Moynahan have joined the cast of Ramona and Beezus, a film based on the classic children’s book series written by Beverly Cleary

We Need A Cindy Adams Fix!
Yes, we haven’t had Cindy in these pages in a while and today her column is all about ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich’s deal with Phoenix Books. She also says that Richard Ben Cramer, Joe DiMaggio’s biographer, is writing a book on Alex Rodriguez. PW spoke to Cramer last spring and at that time the project was coming along, but slowly, so don’t expect anything soon