It was announced yesterday that Stephenie Meyer has penned a new novella in the Twilight series called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Little Brown HC 9780545128285 $13.99) that will street June 5th.

The book centers around a character featured in the third novel Eclipse, and judging from the title, perhaps she spends a lot of time online?

Sorry, that was a bad joke related to the online virtual world of Second Life (in case you’re too lazy to click on the link).

Two thoughts I have on this

A) Since Hachette is going to sell ebooks via an agency model, is this a way of getting some leverage from Amazon with regards to ebook pricing? There’s nothing like having a guaranteed bestseller to use as either a carrot or a stick.

B) I think it’s hysterical that Hachette is going to spend (according to the solicitation that I received today) $250,000 on publicity for this book. Talk about a book that doesn’t need it. It was on the front page of USA Today on Tuesday, and will have countless more outlets counting down the days till it’s released.

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There isn’t a whole lot going on, as the publishing world holds its collective awaiting the debut of Apple’s iPad (Saturday, April 3rd), and we nurse a hangover from attending the PLA conference in Portland this past week.

So rather than ranting and raving, here’s a slide show from the Huffington Post of the creepiest children’s books ever.

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The Penguin Press has reportedly ponied up $5 million to the authors of the bestselling Game Change, John Heilemann & Mark Halprin, for a sequel that will cover the 2012 presidential election.

It’s a big risk that assumes A) that election will have as much red meat as the 2008 election (the wife of a former, philandering president as a candidate, a former V-P candidate cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, and Sarah Palin), and B) that readers will still care.

(via GalleyCat)

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For Stephenie Meyer fans, it seems you can never have too many versions of the same book.

According to The Beat, the graphic novel adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (Yen Press HC 9780759529434 $19.99) has sold over 66,000 copies in its first week of release, making a record for US graphic novel sales.

While the cynic in me is seeing just another chance for Team Meyer to milk the cash cow, the optimist in me is seeing this as an opportunity to broaden the audience for graphic novels and manga.

If even a third of Twilight readers decide to pick up an extra graphic novel on their way to the point of sale, that would be good news for all concerned, and makes a good argument for shelving the Twilight graphic novel in both the graphic novel section of your stores as well as with the series proper in YA.

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Things just keep getting interesting on the Amazon front.

Indie press OR Books has decided that they will not be selling their titles through Amazon, choosing instead to focus on their direct-to-customer sales.

It’s a gutsy move to ditch the big A, and, while it’s difficult to imagine other publishers following suit, I wouldn’t rule it out.

OR Books publisher Colin Robinson lays out the calculus in an essay at the Huffington Post (charmingly titled Bedtime for Bezos), where he compares the situation publishers find themselves in to an abusive relationship:

It’s doing little for you that you can’t do better yourselves. It’s time to say “IT’S OVER”

Iconoclastic move or commercial suicide? Only time will tell.

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I’m telling you now, this is going to be big. Okay, it may not be in the magnitude of a new Harry Potter, but for comics and video game geeks, this is Harry Potter, Twilight and Percy Jackson rolled into one.

The sixth and final volume of the Scott Pilgrim saga, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, is set to be released July 20th; timed to coincide with the premiere of the Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead) directed adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Come July, it’s going to be a Scott Pilgrim world. Don’t be caught short when the hype machine starts working overtime.

(via The Beat)

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This video has been making the rounds of the Internet over the past few days, explaining the future of publishing.

Frankly, after watching it, I felt kinda meh. It’s not that I disagree with the tone or sentiment expressed, it’s just that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that respecting your audience’s intelligence, and acknowledging the changing contours of the industry are paramount to survival.

At the end of the day, this younger generation (and their offspring) and gaining on us in a rear-view mirror that says objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

But, I will say this for the video, it reminded me of the music video for Cibo Matto’s song Sugar Water, directed by Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). The embedding has been disabled at the request of Cibo Matto’s label, but it’s worth checking out-it’s cool, trippy and a bit creepy.

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After scoring a tactical PR victory when it stood up to Macmillan over ebook pricing (not), Amazon has decided to go after publishers operating outside the large ones working to implement an agency pricing model.

According to a report on Publishers Lunch (which MobyLives has nicely summarized), these publishers are being told by Amazon that if they insist on agency pricing, then both print and electronic versions of their books will be removed.

Yes I guess for Amazon it is better to sell no books at all than to sell fewer $14.00 ebooks. Oh, wait, that’s not the plan. The plan is for Amazon to dig into their much deeper pockets and ride out the storm to the financial detriment of the publishers.

Stay classy, guys!

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I don’t know anything about Karl Rove’s opponent in this attack-ad style book trailer, but I have to admit that I liked how it was done, right down to the sneaky way they compare themselves on their book’s difference in price from Rove’s.

(via GalleyCat)

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MobyLives reports of the Amazon customer reviews for Michael Lewis’ new book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (WW Norton 9780393072235 $27.95), the majority of which are one-star reviews by folks who haven’t actually read the book, but have done so because there is no Kindle edition of the book available.

It’s easy to see how this would anger readers; this is a hot book, and these customers of Amazon’s paid a lot of money for an e-reader with the lure of cheap, readily-available eb0oks to fill it up.

Would these customers be so vociferous if there was a Kindle edition if it was being sold at $15.00 (instead of the usual $9.99)? Or, would they be just as whiny, giving one-star reviews because the book was overpriced?

I realize that ultimately, the customers are kings, but this does seem kind of silly. There was never any uproar of this sort when a book was released in hardcover only. I don’t recall one-star reviews from customers telling Amazon that, until a $9.99 edition in paperback was available, they would never buy the book.

What this boils down to is the ridiculous sense of entitlement on the part of e-book owners who believe that by giving Amazon 300 bones, they would get a Vegas-style unlimited buffet of books.

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