TODAY'S NEWS

Big Week for (and Big Reactions to) 'Breaking Dawn'
By John A. Sellers
Last weekend, Breaking Dawn, the highly anticipated fourth book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, broke some sales records, but also, it seems, a few hearts. According to Little, Brown, the novel sold 1.3 million copies on its pub date, August 2, the largest single-day sales in the company’s history, while BookScan reported that the book sold 834,000 copies last Saturday through the accounts it measures (usually about 70% of a book's sales).

The novel went on sale at the stroke of midnight, and devoted fans crowded hundreds of bookstores nationwide at late-night release parties. However, Breaking Dawn didn’t meet the stratospheric expectations of every fan, and anguished and, in some cases, angry outcry has arisen this week—though the book appears to have just as many ardent defenders. The recently reopened message board on the Twilight series Web site has been very active, and on Amazon—where the novel remains ranked #1 in sales—the book has generated more than 1,600 reviews (nearly twice the reviews of the previous book, Eclipse) and more than 1,000 “customer discussions.” Unhappy readers expressed a variety of opinions, including incredulity with certain plot points or the way threads were tied up, while others felt the writing wasn’t as strong as in the previous books. Read on »

Amazon, Booklocker Trade Motions in POD Antitrust Case
by Jim Milliot
The legal skirmishing between Booklocker.com and Amazon in Booklocker’s antitrust lawsuit filed against the giant e-tailer got a bit heated last month as Amazon filed a motion to dismiss the case and Booklocker filed its response to keep the lawsuit alive. The case stems from Amazon’s decision to make print-on-demand publishers use its BookSurge subsidiary to manufacture POD titles if they want to sell their titles on Amazon directly (publishers that don’t use BookSurge will have their buy button removed). In May, Booklocker filed suit, charging that Amazon’s action was in violation of antitrust laws. Read on »

Free Book Exhibit in UAE Planned
Attempts by Middle Eastern countries to attract Western publishers to their book fairs have been met with a cool response, but now the United Arab Emirate of Sharjah has joined with the Combined Book Exhibit and the London Book Fair to underwrite an exhibit of American and U.K. titles at the upcoming Sharjah World Book Fair. Read on »

Lulu Teams with weRead
By Lynn Andriani
Self-publishing site Lulu has teamed with weRead, a social networking site for books, to give its books greater visibility online. weRead has more than two million members who list their favorite books, swap book recommendations, and have book discussions online. With the new alliance, those members will also be able to find and discuss books published by Lulu. As of the launch earlier this week, 40,000 Lulu books are in weRead’s collection.

weRead’s members access its site directly, or via Facebook, MySpace or other social networking sites. Collectively, its members have more than 40 million books on their “virtual bookshelves” and have written more than 1.5 million book reviews. The site was founded in 2006 as iRead. It does not sell books; however it does provide links to online booksellers.

Page to Screen: A Sick Mind and a Fantasy Trilogy
By Rachel Deahl
This week in Page to Screen, our roundup of who’s shopping what in Hollywood, a memoir of mental health and a not-just-for-the-kids fantasy trilogy make the rounds. Look for this column to reappear regularly in September.

According to a source at Dutton, the September-slated memoir from former Montague Bookmill proprietor David Lovelace, Scattershot, has garnered interest from Departed screenwriter William Monahan. The book, subtitled My Bipolar Family—Lovelace’s mother, younger brother and father also suffer from bipolar disorder—is the author’s take on growing up with the disease, and in a family crippled by it. Monahan, a Massachusetts native like Lovelace, is supposedly attached to direct with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star. No studio is on board yet.

At AP Watt Rob Kraitt has just sent out the second book in the YA trilogy from Eoin McNamee, City of Time (Wendy Lamb Books). Kraitt, who’s working with co-agent Liza Wachter at RWSH, is shopping the trilogy and said they “got quite close” to an option with The Navigator, the first title in the series. (Navigator made the Times Children’s list in February 2007.) The hope now is that Time, which was released on June 24, can clinch a deal. The series is "quite scary," according to Kraitt, and some adult themes crop up--our hero's father dies in book 1 (likely from suicide) and his mom is depressed. The Times review of Navigator said it "echoes The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books," if that narrows the field.

If you have something out on submission you’d like to discuss, or want to share news of an option you’ve just sold, contact Rachel Deahl at rachel.deahl@reedbusiness.com.

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AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2; I Will Not Be Broken; Generation Debt
Now in theaters: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, starring Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Blake Lively. It’s based on the Ann Brashares novel Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, $9.99; Listening Library unabridged CD, $19.99), which is the fourth book in her popular Sisterhood series. The movie’s tie-in edition is The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (Delacorte, $9.99). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Twin for a Day
Jon Scieszka, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, attended a Minnesota Twins baseball game late last month for a Guys Read Extravaganza, sponsored by the Hennepin County Library. Penguin Young Readers Group donated copies of Scieszka’s Time Warp Trio books, which were given to the first 5,000 kids that attended the game. Scieszka, pictured here in a Twins jersey, signed books between innings. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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