The PW Morning Report, April 6, 2009

By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 4/6/2009 5:55:00 AM

Monday, April 6, 2009

A daily round-up of the latest publishing news: Can "Vook" Save Publishing?; Google’s Out-of-Print Plan Challenged; Rupert Murdoch’s Kindle Envy; Obama Wins British Book Award; Schindler’s List Found in Sydney Library; Michael Crichton Posthumous Novels to be Published; Author Solutions Acquires Trafford; Targeting Kids for National Financial Literacy Month; Tom Braden, Author/Pundit, Dead; and Gloria Vanderbilt’s Smutty Novel

Can "Vook" Save Publishing?
The New York Times has an interesting piece about Bradley Inman who wants to revolutionize publishing with a multimedia hybrid called "Vook," which targets the rapidly growing number of digital reading devices

Google’s Out-of-Print Plan Challenged, reports New York Times
Groups that plan to raise concerns with the court include the ALA, the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School and a group of lawyers led by Prof. Charles R. Nesson of Harvard Law School

Rupert Murdoch’s Kindle Envy
All Things Digital is reporting that Murdoch is interested in investing in his own version of the Kindle. One wonders if books by authors like Michael Moore and Paul Krugman will play on Rupert’s book toy

President Obama Wins British Book Award, reports The Bookseller
Obama wins for Dreams From My Father, which took the Tesco Biography of the Year at the 2009 Galaxy British Book Awards

Schindler’s List Found in Sydney Library, reports Agence France Presse
The list of 801 Jews that inspired Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s List, was found in a Sydney, Australia library. The 13-page document, a yellowed and fragile carbon typescript copy of the original, was found between research notes and German newspaper clippings in one of the boxes donated to the library by Keneally

Michael Crichton Posthumous Novels to be Published, reports New York Times
The late author of The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park left behind two novels which HarperCollins hopes to publish within the next two years

Author Solutions Acquires Trafford Publishing, reports Wall Street Journal
Author Solutions Inc., one of the largest self-publishers in the U.S., has acquired smaller Canadian rival Trafford Publishing, consolidating the self-publishing sector at a time when the traditional book industry is in turmoil

Color of Money Book Club Targets Kids for National Financial Literacy Month, reports Washington Post
Don’t want to have your kids end up in the debt-hole you’re in? Well, Michelle Singletary in her "The Color of Money" column has some suggested bedtime reading for your kids

Tom Braden, Author/Pundit, Dead at 92, reports New York Times
Besides developing the Crossfire format on CNN he was best known as the author of Eight Is Enough, which became a bestseller and a TV show

Gloria Vanderbilt’s Smutty Novel Due in June, reports New York Post
From the O Tempora, O Mores Dept.: Anderson Cooper’s 85-year-old mom—I wonder if Anderson saw this 360 coming—will publish an erotic novel, Obsession: An Erotic Tale, with Ecco/HarperCollins in June