TODAY'S NEWS

Connelly Stays with Little, Brown
Little, Brown has kept another of its bestselling authors in the fold, signing a new five-book deal with Michael Connelly. The Scarecrow, Connelly’s newest, is a national bestseller and his books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. LB publisher Michael Pietsch did the deal with Philip Spitzer. Connelly’s next book, Nine Dragons, is set to be released in October.

Textnovel Lets Writers Publish Via Cellphone
By Lynn Andriani
Dorchester Publishing announced this week it is partnering with serialized fiction service Textnovel on a writing competition for aspiring novelists. The winner of America’s Next Best Celler will land a $2,000 advance and will be published by Dorchester next year. The partnership is the latest development in Textnovel’s year-long life: founded by a literary agent as a way for unknown writers to find readers, it is also turning out to be a sort of feeder for publishers. Earlier this year, writer Saoirse Redgrave, winner of Textnovel’s 2008 Writing Contest, signed a three-book deal with St. Martin’s. Read on »

Upper Access Offering Business Software for Free
Effective immediately, Upper Access, Inc. is making the Lyric version of its business software program, Publishers’ Assistant, available for free. Upper Access has been publishing Publishers’ Assistant, which was developed by Ron Lawrence, since 1989, but company president Steve Carlson said he had been thinking about thinking about making it available for free for awhile. “We’ve been considering this for some time,” Carlson, who is president of Independent Publishers of New England, said. “Now with publishers struggling in a tough economy, it seemed the right time.” He said the program is most effective for startups through midsized publishers that do about 100 titles per year. Read on »

Rizzoli and Empire Open Hamptons Store/Gallery
By Lynn Andriani
This summer, Rizzoli and Empire Gallery in Sag Harbor, N.Y., are joining forces to open the Rizzoli Bookstore at Empire Gallery at 197 Madison Street, Sag Harbor, on the East End of Long Island. The hybrid bookstore/art gallery is selling more than 90 new Rizzoli titles and will host author events throughout the summer. Among the books for sale are Frank Lloyd Wright: The Heroic Years by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Eric Fischl: Beach Painting and Casa No Name by Deborah Turbeville. The space opened last weekend and is open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. until October 15. Read on »

Rand Expands, Hires Writers Via Contest
By Lynn Andriani
Earlier this year, entrepreneur, attorney and finance and real estate expert Jim Randel launched a line of brief self-help books offering advice and expertise under Rand Publishing . The books—paperbacks priced between $12.95 and $14.95 and illustrated with drawings of stick figures—can be read in about an hour. The first book, The Skinny on Willpower: How to Develop Self-Discipline, pubbed in February. Two more followed in April: The Skinny on Credit Cards: How to Master the Credit Card Game and The Skinny on the Housing Crisis: What Every Homeowner and Homebuyer Needs to Know; and another in May: The Skinny on Real Estate Investing: An Introduction to the Subject (Part 1). Randel wrote all the books, published them himself, and sold them through BN.com, Amazon and his own site, TheSkinnyOn.com. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Monday's Reviews Today: Lusdan's Stories & de Waal on the Human Animal
In James Lusdan's story collection, It's Beginning to Hurt, the poet/novelist "packs a devastating punch" in a series featuring "middle-aged, middle-class" characters dealing with everything from bouts with cancer to infidelity. Per our review: "Jewels of resignation and transformative personal disaster, these stories are written so simply and cleanly that the formidable craft looks effortless." And in primatologist Frans de Waal's The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lesson for a Kinder Society, the author "deflates the human assumption that animals lack the characteristics often referred to as 'humane.'" But de Waal isn't out to prove that animals can think and feel but "that humans are not greedy or belligerent because animals are; such traits are far from organic or inevitable but patently manmade." Read on »

The PW Morning Report
More Kindle Competition; Bertelsmann Denies Job Cuts; Eggers Optimistic; Famous Authors’ Summer Recommendations Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Jim Rogers; Dannion Brinkley; Azadeh Moaveni
This morning on the Today show, bestseller Jim Rogers delivered A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing (Random House, 978-1400067541, $16; Tantor Media unabridged CD, $19.99). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

The LB Clique
At BookExpo America, Little, Brown staffers donned t-shirts and gave out ARCs, posters and nail files to promote Alphas, a Clique spinoff from Lisi Harrison, which arrives August 25. For more pictures from the show, check out PW’s children's BEA photo gallery here. Submit your pictures here»

JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION

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