Barnes and Noble Predicts Big Books for Fall

Barnes & Noble today announced that it expects an outstanding title selection for fall 2010 in both fiction and non-fiction with strong titles ranging from thrillers, paranormal romance and mystery, to political memoirs, historical biographies and a strong line up in teen and young adult titles. Market Watch

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Tony Blair cancels London book and audio book signing over protest fears

Tony Blair on Monday canceled a high-profile book-signing session of his best-selling memoirs in the British capital, amid mounting security fears and expected large-scale protests.

“I’m really sorry for those — as ever a majority — who would have come to have their books signed by me in person. I hope they understand,” the former Labour prime minister said in a statement.

His decision to call off the high-profile signing in London came two days after anti-war protestors threw eggs and shoes at him at a signing in Dublin, the Irish capital.    Boston Herald

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Author plans to bypass publisher to get books and audiobooks distributed.

Author Seth Godin

Famous book author wants to get his books and audiobooks out directly to his readers. One of his many concerns about the current publishing  is that it often takes 12 months or more to get a new book and audiobook into the hands of his readers.  PCSpeed.net

Apple Users Download 35 Million Books

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that iTunes users had downloaded 35 million books  and audiobook on iTunes and is now launching iTunes 10.

Tech blog GDGT quoted Jobs as saying: “People have downloaded over 11.7 billion songs from iTunes, and we’re just about to cross 12b. Over 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 35 million books, and over 160 million accounts with credit cards and 1-click shopping in 23 countries.”   Media Bistro

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Freedom advance reviews have declared it the book of the century

Praise has ranged from Time magazine, who plastered author Jonathan Franzen on its cover with the headline “Great American Novelist,” to The New York Times (The Audio  Book’s So Nice, We Reviewed It Twice). President Obama even chose it as his beach audio book reading on Martha’s Vineyard.

The drumbeat of hype has been so relentless that it has already sparked a backlash, with bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner – who feel they deserve a bit of the ink splashed on Franzen – arguing that the Times offers such accolades mostly to white males living in New York. Weiner’s Twitter hashtag, Franzenfreude, is pretty funny.  Christian Science Monitor

Chinas Google Offers E-Books, Games, Audiobooks in Search of New Revenue

Baidu Inc., operator of China’s most used website, started an e-book service today and added 500 applications to its website to diversify beyond Internet search.

Readers will be able to read and store purchased electronic books on the website, Chief Executive Officer Robin Li said at a conference in Beijing today. Baidu is offering applications by developers including PopCap Games Inc., maker of hit mobile games such as “Peggle” and “Bejeweled2,” the company said today. Bloomberg

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Browse for books and audio books at Simonandschuster.com

The multimedia section also features audio interviews with authors and offers contests where participants can enter to win a free download of entire audio books. Finally, if you register with the site for free, you can post and read other teen reviews of audio books they have read or particular authors they are hooked on. Kansas City Star

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The Best eReaders Compared Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Reader Throw Down

With Amazon’s recent announcement that digital e-books outsold hardcover books for the first time, and paperbacks destined to a similar fate in the near future, we can safely say the e-book revolution is upon us. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that the devices upon which we read those books — digital e-readers, tablet computers, smartphones — are anywhere near their final form. Last December, we took a look at the most popular e-readers on the market, and, while many companies have made only incremental alterations to their lineups since then, a few new additions and serious price-drops among others have vastly changed the landscape.  Switched

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How to react when Social Media Attacks Your Brand

Social media disasters occur for a number of reasons, the first being that your company probably messed up. It may not have been intentional, but something, somewhere down the line, went wrong enough for someone to complain and it was enough for others to vocalize that complaint en masse. One mistake is all it takes for social media to turn against your brand.

Ten Best Websites For Free Audio Books

Busy times call for some workarounds. One of the distinct advantages of audio books over its more physical form is that it saves time. Audio books take away a sliver of fun from the enjoyment of a book, but if the voiceover is well done, it makes up for it.

With the explosion of personal media players like iPods and even mobile phones which can carry media files, even a routine walk can be turned into an education.  Make Use Of

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