"Most of the stuff on Smashwords is porn," Jonathan Bloom, whose ebook Hell Is Above Us is available on Smashwords, tweeted recently. "I feel like someone trying to sell a homemade quilt on the street next to a line of high-end hookers."

On Saturday, February 18, PayPal contacted...

"Maybe nobody will care about hand-copied books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book that's been painstakingly transcribed by hand, I'm handling an object that took a scribe six months to a year to copy," Johannes...

Late last year, I signed up for a review copy of Draculas, an ebook authored by self-publishing guru Joe Konrath and friends. Hundreds of bloggers and reviewers signed up for review copies. Unfortunately, one of the e-mails sent out from Konrath's crew was CC'd -- and not BCC'd -- to...

"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten."

In less capable hands, such a prompt would have resulted in a book that simply replaced the word "insect" with "kitten." But Quirk Books wisely commissioned an extremely...

When I tell friends that I'm going to see Filter, there are two questions that come up: 1) When did they get back together?; and 2) Isn't their singer the Terminator's brother?

The answers are: 1) Although vocalist Richard Patrick formed Army of Anyone with ex-Stone Temple Pilots members...

There's a virus going around the Internet right now that threatens to change the way you look at the world. It seems to be infecting unpublished and "under-published" (unsuccessful) writers at an alarming rate.

Once you're infected, everyone you come into contact with becomes an "arrogant gatekeeper" standing between you,...

I asked literary Twitterers to use the hashtag #WhyIDrink to raise a glass to the publishing stories that drove them up the wall in 2010. From Snooki's book deal to "write" a novel to James Frey's fiction "factory," here are the controversial stories that generated the most votes. Tell us...

Six days before the Steve Martin debacle at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, the comedian gave a delightful reading from his new novel, An Object of Beauty, at the Union Square Barnes & Noble.

"Mr. Martin is here tonight as an author," Barnes & Noble events...

While fond memories of Oktoberfest brats and beers may seem like a lifetime ago now that colder weather is here, that doesn't mean the party ends when the beer gardens close.

"We feature 50 great beer gardens around the city in our app, and all but two of those venues...

When writing sex scenes, there's often a fine line between lust and laughter. The Bad Sex in Fiction Award, presented annually by the British magazine Literary Review, highlights the "best of the worst" sex scenes published in literary fiction.

The judges hope "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless,...

I have a confession: I'm 32 years old and I read a young adult novel about werewolves.

I'm not afraid to admit this, because Andrea Cremer writes with an accomplished and intelligent voice that won't give adult readers headaches. Cremer's Nightshade is a smart blend of romance, action, philosophy,...

This past Halloween weekend, over 1,000 Neil Gaiman fans descended on the House on the Rock and surrounding area in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin for the Gathering of American Gods, a celebration of Gaiman's 2001 novel.

The three-day convention/fan gathering included panel discussions, a costume contest judged by Neil...

The first thing you feel is its weight in your hands, which screams, this is an important book. First Step 2 Forever is a hardcover, multi-colored monstrosity that clocks in at 240 pages... half of which feature full-page pictures of the 16-year-old Bieber. This should please the majority of his...

One Texas school district has taken book banning to an entirely new level. Young adult author Richelle Mead holds the distinction to perhaps be the only author ever to have a book banned... before it was even written.

The ALA reports:

[All six books in her Vampire Academy series...

Dancing With the Stars: where a "star" can be anyone from an actor to a professional wrestler to a reality TV "personality" such as Jersey Shore's The Situation (who will be on the 11th season, beginning September 20th on ABC). Anyone can get an invitation to the dance, it seems,...

When HarperCollins announced that it would be publishing singing sensation Justin Bieber's memoir in October, half of the online world squealed with joy. The other half threw their hands up in exasperation.

For the non-beliebers out there, the news that a 16-year-old boy is writing a memoir was yet another...

GreatPhilosophersBook.com -- the website that I created for my forthcoming Harper Perennial book Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love -- was recently categorized by Internet web filter WebSense as a "dangerous" site.

When my editor tried to access the site from within HarperCollins's computer network, she received...

Even though we haven't heard the last of Twilight (at least not in theaters), the publishing industry and Hollywood have been hard at work looking for something to replace teenage vampires. And they've settled on...more teenage vampires.

Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy saga is set to be the next young adult...

Later this month, I will be hitting the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida for the RWA (Romance Writers of America) Annual Conference. There will be 100 writing workshops, 500 authors signing books, and literary agents and editors galore at the conference taking place July 28-31.

The first annual Book Blogger Convention was officially held on May 28 at the Javits Center in New York City, immediately following the conclusion of BookExpo America. More than 200 bloggers, publishers, and authors attended.

Among the topics covered in presentations and panels: Professionalism/Ethics,...