According to Reuters, “The slow rise of electronic books is paving the way for more safe-bet fiction blockbusters and serial-type books, at least in the short term.”

The digital age has come to libraries but there might be copyright problems.

“Libraries are expanding e-book offerings with out-of-print editions, part of a broader effort to expand borrowing privileges in the Internet Age that could challenge traditional ideas about copyright.”

Agent Andrew Wylie fighting for e-rights for his authors.

“We will take our 700 clients, see what rights are not allocated to publishers, and establish a company on their behalf to license those e-book rights directly to someone like Google, Amazon.com or Apple. It would be another business, set up on parallel tracks to the frontlist book business,” Wylie said.

Borders has jumped into the digital pool. Its e-bookstore went live on July 7th. They want to be a significant player in the e-book sector.

If you don’t have an e-reader and would like to read an e-book, writer Susannah Fraser gives advice on ways to do it.

Thinking of putting one of your old books for sale as an e-book? Or a new one? Zoe Winters talks about why you need to be on Smashwords. Julie Ortolon talks about How to Publish on Smashwords. Natasha Fondren has a series of guides on formatting for Smashwords. Smashwords also has its own guide.

James Patterson is the first fiction writer to sell more than 1 million ebooks. J.A. Konrath has sold more than 100,000, and feels good about it.

Small Stores see Google as an Alley in E-Book Market

“As a wholesaler, Google will play a role similar to that of offline distributors like Ingram Book and Baker & Taylor, which buy books from publishers and resell them to bookstores. Those companies generally keep a single-digit percentage of each sale, and Mr. Turvey said Google would operate along similar lines.

Independent bookstores seem to believe that Google is more interested in working through them than being a direct retailer. In fact, they are banking on it.”

For the non-digital industry news, Jeannie Ruesch of Will Design for Chocolate blogged on Romance University about what a published author needs on her website. These tips are great for the non-published writer too.

Dean Wesley Smith has a fascinating Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing post, titled Writers Need to be Taken Care Of.

Publishers are turning to book bloggers to reach readers.

“Women’s fiction that maybe wouldn’t be covered by traditional book sections is being blogged about, talked about,” says Jennifer Hart, vice president and associate publisher at HarperCollins for its paperback imprints. “There are books blogs for every niche of publishing — from literary and commercial fiction to young adult, to sci-fi, to cookbooks. This offers publishers an incredible opportunity — we can reach the audience for all of our books, no matter the genre.”

Literary Agent Isabel Atherton is looking for commercial women’s fiction.

“Original, unusual and commercial: those are my top three words.”

If you write witty women’s fiction, you might try kt literary.

Agent Taylor Martindale is actively looking for women’s fiction.

A few agents, such as Holly Root and Jessica Faust, are closed to queries until fall. If you’re sending queries, check out their websites/blogs, etc. to see if they’re accepting or not.

On Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents blog, McIntosh & Otis agent Rebecca Strauss posted Allie Larkin’s query for her women’s fiction book, STAY, which Ms. Strauss ended up representing and selling.

New agent Anne Bohner of Pen and Ink Literary is looking for commercial women’s fiction, romance, YA and popular nonfiction. A former senior editor at New American Library, Bohner also worked at Bantam Dell for several years.

Great news for eBook readers. Amazon and Barnes & Noble cut their prices. Amazon is selling their Kindle for $189 now. The B&N Nook is going for $199, but it’s full-featured with free Wifi. They also have the Nook Wifi for $149. And Borders is offering a $20 gift card to go with their $149.99 Kobo eReader.

Because of the slash in prices, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are offering refunds to customers who bought an e-reader from them within 30 days of the announcement.

If you’re thinking of self-publishing, you’ll find this J.A Konrath post interesting.

Is there a book signing in your future? You’ll want to read about the 8 Steps to a Stress Free Book Signing by William C. Mills.

Agent Sara Megibow is looking for romance novel queries.

Agent Rachelle Gardner gives advice on writing one-sentence pitches.

She also gives advice on Sussing Out Legitimate Publishers.

Harlequin announced a new licensing deal with a Russian publishing house. Good news for Harlequin writers and readers as Harlequin expands their market.

Harlequin recognizes a rapidly growing market in Europe and Asia. In 2008, the publisher launched an office in Mumbai, India, to print and distribute books locally. In the first half of 2010, the women’s publishing giant has already opened an office in Turkey and acquired full ownership of their German operation. In the past 18 months, Harlequin has also signed new licensing deals in Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. Harlequin currently has licensees in 15 countries.

AmazonEncore Announces Fall 2010 Publishing List. One of the 10 books is women’s fiction:

A Scattered Life” by Karen McQuestion has already attracted the praise of author Delia Ephron, who calls the book “an emotional and engaging novel about family.” Throughout one pivotal year in the life of three women–free spirit Skyla Plinka, her neighbor Roxanne, and her intrusive mother-in-law, Audrey–each will learn what it means to love unconditionally. McQuestion’s essays have appeared in Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, the Denver Post, the Christian Science Monitor and several anthologies. Originally published through the Kindle Digital Text Platform, “A Scattered Life” is the first self-published Kindle book to ever be optioned for film. McQuestion lives with her family in Hartland, Wis. “A Scattered Life” will be published on August 10.

Trouble is brewing between Bloomberg Press and the Authors Guild. John Wiley & Sons, which acquired Bloomberg Press recently, is trying to amend the way they pay royalties to their authors. The Authors Guild is saying the royalties will be sliced up to 50%. Wiley claims they “believe[s] former Bloomberg authors will be paid higher royalties in most instances.”

If you’d like to know what went on during BEA, check out Janet Reid’s posts from last week. You’ll be entertained as well as informed.

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, talks about 5 Ways a company can benefit from twitter. I’m sure this advice goes for writers, too.

Once again e-publishing is in the news. First up, Taiwan’s Green Book unveils lightest e-book reader. It’s only .4 pounds. The ipad is about 1.5 pounds.

From Publishers Marketplace Lunch on May 26:

Penguin Peace with Amazon; iBooks Allows Publisher Submission
Penguin executives David Shanks and Susan Petersen Kennedy report that the company has reached an agreement with Amazon.com, almost two months after the launch of the agency model and introduction of Apple’s iBookstore. Ebooks for the company’s titles released since April 1, which Amazon has declined to sell up until now, are in the process of being restored to Amazon’s site, though it will likely be a matter of days before all of those titles are available. Presumably all of Penguin’s ebooks sold by Amazon will also be repriced to reflect agency pricing.

Kindle will expand to all Target stores as of June 6th. They’ll be selling for $259. Kobo is selling for $149.99. It’s should be available at Borders and Walmart stores in time for Father’s Day. Borders is also selling the Libre e-Reader for only $119.99. It should be in the Borders stores in July, and it’s available for pre-order.

Barnes & Noble Pubit! will be offering Kindle competition.

“The new service—which will become available this summer—allows users to upload a document, convert it to epub, and sell it on the B&N reader system, including on the Nook and iPad.”

They’ll announce the royalty they charge later on this summer, but they say it will be competitive. Their biggest competitor, Amazon, is dropping their royalties to 30%, starting this July, which gives self-published authors 70% of the amount charged.

Apple has gotten into the act too, and has opened iBookstore to self-published writers.

Asus netbooks will come loaded with Kindle.

“Kindle is something our customers have been asking for and by pre-installing Kindle for PC on select long battery life products, we believe we are providing our customers an even richer PC experience,” said Asus’ Ben Thacker.

Sony executive Steve Haber predicts that eBooks will overtake print within 5 years.

“Within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content. Three years ago, I said within ten years but I realised that was wrong – it’s within five.”

According to this Wall Street Journal article, digital self-publishing is shaking up the traditional book industry.

Ballantine Books and Harlequin Teen “plan to issue short standalone digital works intended to serve as ‘bridges’ to coming novels.”

Author Mitchell Reiss, a former diplomat, says e-pub is the way of the future.

As sales for traditional books remain flat and as the e-book market quickly expands — up to 8 percent for some publishers, more than double from a year ago — authors become more likely to take chances. Prize-winning author John Edgar Wideman recently published a collection of “micro stories” through Internet publisher Lulu.com. Crime writer J.A. Konrath, who has enjoyed strong sales from self-publishing e-books, is releasing a novel through Amazon.com’s AmazonEncore, a program for “exceptional overlooked books and authors.”

From Nathan Bransford’s blog:

“More e-reader news afoot as Borders will be selling the e-ink Kobo e-reader for the cheaper-than-Kindle price of $149.99 starting in June. And in tablet news, Google is apparently teaming up with Verizon to createa a tablet device amid news that a whopping 28% of Americans expect to buy an e-reader or tablet in the next year, and 49% within three years (via PubLunch).”

Hatchette Book Group, the world’s 2nd largest publisher, has chosen “RoyaltyShare Service to Handle Growing Demands of Digital Book Sales.”

“Digital Advantage for eBooks delivers substantial cost savings while increasing the accuracy and transparency of digital revenue data. The platform currently supports the revenue data feeds from over 30 digital retailers and distributors worldwide, supporting both the agency model and retail model. They include Amazon (Kindle, Audible, Create Space and AmazonMP3), Apple (iBookStore, AppStore, and iTunes), Barnes & Noble, Sony, Ingram Digital, Ingram Lightning Source, Overdrive, and others.”

Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary is actively seeking new clients. One of the genres she’s interested in is women’s fiction.

“As always, I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy — my first choice would be one for a YA audience, but I love women’s fiction as well.”

STET!, the Backspace blog, has a summary of what many of the 30 agents who attended the Backspace Writer’s Conference are looking for.

According to the NY Times, self-publishing numbers are up and they’re gaining in cachet.

Cheap, digital-publishing technology — especially print-on-demand options, which let individual buyers essentially commission copies of books — has been a godsend to writers without agents or footholds at traditional publishing houses. It has also been a quiet godsend to literary history. Books that defy traditional classification now appear in print, and reprints of public-domain titles account for the biggest category of self-published books.

Change isn’t coming, according to the Book Industry Study Group’s Making Information Pay conference, it’s already here.

“St. Martin’s Press v-p and associate publisher Matt Baldacci said the point of no return came to him last year when a bestseller that eventually sold 30,000 copies in hardcover sold 11,000 e-book copies within the first few weeks of release.”

In this Media Bistro interview, agent Meredith Bernstein says “many editors have told me that they are looking for really good women’s fiction.”

“What I am looking for is pretty much always the same thing: A BOOK I CAN’T PUT DOWN. I really don’t care what the subject matter is or the genre or the setting. Just give me a STORY and CHARACTERS that I want to inhale and you’ll have me at “hello”!”

Taylor Martindale joined Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. One of her interests is women’s fiction.

Donald Maass mentioned RWA-WF member Susan Wiggs in his recent Writer Unboxed post this week, in which he talked about using multiple point of view to give depth to a novel and “to create a true sense of scale.”

Whether you’ve gotten rejections lately or not, this list of 30 famous authors whose works were (repeatedly and rudely) rejected is interesting.

Random House has reorganized for the second time this year. If you want the details of the restructuring, you’ll find them here.

According to this New York Times article, Random House’s decision to release the digital rights to some of William Styron’s books could “potentially open … the way for other authors to take their e-books away from traditional publishers.”

Chuck Sambuchino at Guide to Literary Agents says Be (Slightly) Afraid of Posting Your Work Online. It could be stolen.

Alan Rinzler, Executive Editor at Jossey-Bass, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, writes about How Successful Writers Maintain Confidence.

“The most accomplished and productive writers I work with are able to sustain a level of assurance and optimism. And that’s even when they’re feeling blocked, burned out and unappreciated.”

If you’re interested in Which Book Publishers Tweet Best, you’ll find the list on this Follow The Reader blog.

Curious about effective marketing? At her BookEnds blog, Jessica Faust asked readers questions about PR and got some interesting answers.

Good news for writers! Kristin Nelson thinks they are a hot commodity.

For the last six months, any project Sara or I have wanted, we’ve had to fight for. In other words, when we offered rep, the author already had, bare minimum, five other agent offers on the table in addition to ours.

A not-to-be-missed blog by PC Hutchins on honing your pitch is as important to published writers as nonpubbed.

“Great pitches — and for many of us, this important task occurs most often in agent query letters — are comprised of several key ingredients. Like your fiction, they must have a great hook, and must resonate on intellectual and emotional levels. They’re heavy on sizzle and light on steak; these things are designed to dazzle, not data-dump the plot. Finally, pitches must be brief. A handful of sentences, tops.”

Caren Johnson Literary Agency agent Elana Roth explains how she tackles her queries:

“When I open your letter, I usually do a quick eye scan for both format and keywords that look interesting. These are speed reading tricks. The more cleanly formatted emails are more pleasing to the eye and are usually more inviting for closer reads. The jumbled ones are less so. If there is an attachment, you are most likely going to get a rejection letter, because I explicitly say don’t do that, and it’s 2 extra steps for me to read what you sent, plus you could be trying to poison me or my precious laptop.”

FinePrint agent Suzie Townsend says that even though she loves YA, she’s interested in representing other genres, including women’s fiction.

On another blog post, she gives great pitching advice:

“Come prepared. With possible questions. If you finish the pitch early, you can ask anything – if you can’t think of anything, ask about good book recommendations. We love talking books.”

Do you Twitter? Debbie Ridpath Ohi (aka Inkygirl) has hash tags for Twitter Chats for Writers. If you don’t Twitter, but are interested in learning how to use it, she also has the Writer’s Guide To Twitter.

Kindles will be available at 103 Target stores on April 28th. They’ll be “rolling out to more Target stores later this year.” Starting price is $259.

Agent Kristin Nelson is seeing an increase in book sales:

“In watching Deal Lunch for the last couple of months, I’m starting to see quite a few more sales listed than I have in the past months. This is a good sign as I take it to mean that editors are starting to get back to buying.”

In an interview on Petit Four and Hot Tamale, Chelsea Gilmore with the Maria Carvainis Agency, a former Avalon editor, says she’s looking for women’s fiction:

“I am looking for clients with a can-do attitude. Folks with a real goal of succeeding, and who have ideas for multiple stories. A true passion for writing, and a dream of “making it” as a writer. I want clients who are as eager and hard-working as I am, and who understand that sometimes the process can take a while.”

According to Casey McCormick’s agent spotlight, Signature Literary Agency agent Amy Tipton is also looking for women’s fiction. If you look on the left margin, you can see McCormick has many other agent spotlights.

Agent Lucienne Diver talks about three things every writer should know. Number one is my favorite:

“No matter who you are or how brilliantly you write, someone somewhere won’t like it.”

Tips on promoting your books from debut author Wendy Webb and JA Konrath.

Agent Sarah LaPolla at Curtis Brown LTD is taking on clients:

Sarah is interested in literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, science fiction, literary horror, and young adult fiction. She loves complex characters, coming-of-age stories, and strong narrators.

Why agent Kristin Nelson knows The Tipping Point For eBooks Is Here Or Very Near:

“When I’ve got an older grandmother expressing unabashed enthusiasm in owning an eReader, I can’t help but think the tipping point is near—even if current electronic sales only equal about 2% of the market right now (statistic via a recent PW article).”

The Huffington Post tells us “The 50 Best Book People To Follow On Twitter.” Here’s a Tweet from Meg Cabot:

“What if my last Tweet before I die had the word corndogs in it? You know that would so never happen to Nicholas Sparks.”

Orbit, the Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group, plans to publish digital short fiction later this year. It would be interesting to see this happen in all genres, including commercial fiction.

“Orbit (US) has offered to publish digital editions of all original short fiction written by its authors. The digital editions will be distributed widely through major retail channels, for reading on a variety of devices. Authors will be paid a royalty for each story sold, rather than the flat fee more common in the short story market.”

From RWA enNotes (you can read more on Publishers Weekly):

The Bantam Dell and Ballantine imprints have merged into one division under the Random House Publishing Group. Libby McGuire, senior vice president and publisher, will oversee the new Ballantine Bantam Dell unit. The new BBD executive team consists of Jennifer Hershey, senior vice president, editor-in-chief; Scott Shannon, publisher, BBD Mass Market. Gina Wachtel, Bantam associate publisher, takes on the role of associate publisher for BBD Mass Market; Linda Marrow, editorial director, will report to publisher Libby McGuire. Nita Taublib, executive vice president, publisher and editor-in-chief of Bantam Dell is leaving the company.

Another interesting note. MWA (Mystery Writers of America) has reinstated Harlequin onto their Approved Publishers list.

Suzette Saxton on Query Tracker gives advice on using your on-line presence to help build your authorial success.

Thanks to Michelle Diener for telling me about this extremely interesting exploration of a new archetypal structure that fits most women fiction.

The past few weeks I’ve linked to blogs by J.A. Konrath in which he talks about making good money through his ebooks. In this Konrath blog, his guest Mark Terry talks about why he’s made only $10.92 in the last six months from his e-book. After his post, Konrath gives advice on ways to improve his sales. Success doesn’t happen if you don’t work on it.

New agents are looking for women’s fiction. Kristyn Keene, who’s been with ICM (International Creative Management) for almost 4 years, working for fellow ICM agent, Sloan Harris, is taking on her own clients. Among her interests is women’s fiction.

Alisha Sevigny, an associate agent at The Rights Factory, is actively seeking authors to represent.

“I’m open. I love literary fiction, I love non-fiction. I did a lot of creative non-fiction in university, and I like women’s fiction. Basically, if the writing is good, if the story is good, it does not have to fall into any kind of specific category.”

On Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Litarary Agents blog, Greyhaus Literary agent Scott Eagan showcases a successful query letter from Stephanie styles for her women’s fiction, Better Than T.V.

“On December 29th, I signed this author. On the 11th of January, I sent out the proposal. The initial response from the phone calls showed editors had interest. On January 25th, an offer was made on the book!”

Teresa Bergan’s summary of the 13th Annual Public Library Association Conference included a panel on women’s fiction and chick lit by Susan Wiggs, Beth Kendrick, Jane Porter, editor Leah Hultenschmidt, and author and retired librarian Joyce Saricks. One of their subjects was the influence of chick lit on current women’s fiction, and why publishers want to call it something else.

Jane Porter’s publicist recently asked her to delete all references to chick lit, even in her book reviews, from her website. “Publishers now cringe at the label,” she said.

RT BOOKLOVERS CONVENTION is hosting a WOMEN’S FICTION DAY on May 1st at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 350 H. High St., in Columbus, Ohio. New York Times bestselling authors Sabrina Jeffries and Sherryl Woods, new foodie fiction author Louisa Edwards and literary agent/author Deidre Knight are the authors who will entertain during the 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. event the first Saturday in May.

Those who wish to attend Women’s Fiction Day only may register by calling Convention Coordinator Jo Carol Jones at (281) 471-1077. The fee is $95. There is no extra charge for those who register for the full convention for $485 on www.RTConvention.com.