Interesting News & Links

Author Anne McCaffrey died Monday, Nov. 21. She was 85. She was a prolific writer of over 100 science fiction and fantasy novels, with well-known series Pern, Crystal Singer, Freedom, Doona, Tower&Hive, and many others. She won the Hugo and Nebula awards, the Robert A. Heinlein award, was a SFWA Grand Master, and was a NY Times bestseller.

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2011/11/anne-mccaffrey-1926-2011/?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+PW+Daily&utm_campaign=c616a44ee5-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email

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Nora Roberts: The woman who rewrote the rules of romantic fiction

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/20/nora-roberts-interview-romance-fiction?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+PW+Daily&utm_campaign=b1b22915cd-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email
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Amazon Reader Reviews: 12 Things Everybody and His Grandmother Needs to Know

http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2011/11/amazon-reader-reviews-12-things.html
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From the Shelf Awareness e-newsletter (10/12/11), reporting on the Publishers Launch conference:

The digital shift is happening faster than predicted, David Naggar, v-p, global Kindle content acquisition for Amazon, said. Digital now represents 20% of U.S. publishers' sales in dollars, and Amazon is now selling more Kindle books than print books in both the U.S. and U.K. "The transition is happening quickly and accelerating."

Readers who have been Amazon customers for at least a year buy three times as many print and digital books after they purchase a Kindle, David Naggar said.

Nook owners also "consume three times the content than before," Hilt [B&N's v-p of e-books] said, usually "a combination of digital and print." "If they were buying print, they still buy print books and use the Nook to enhance their library. We've learned that the print book isn't dead." In addition, new owners of the Nook buy "a tremendous amount of content for three to six months and then move into a more natural state of usage."

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Bad Sex Awards shortlist:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/stephen-king-haruki-murakami-top-bad-sex-in-literature-shortlist_b42761
or
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/22/bad-sex-awards-the-contenders?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+PW+Daily&utm_campaign=7e842f74de-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry
The Final Testament of the Holy Bible by James Frey
Parallel Stories by Péter Nádas
11.22.63 by Stephen King
Ed King by David Guterson
The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M Auel
The Affair by Lee Child
Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas
Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller
Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy
The Great Night by Chris Adrian