Borders Group, Inc. has announced it will be delaying payments to some vendors — including major publishers — while they try to refinance their considerable debt. This follows a warning on December 9, 2010 that the company might have a “liquidity shortfall” in early 2011. They will likely attempt to “restructure their payment arrangements” regarding [...]

Harlan Ellison is selling his first typewriter, a Remington “noiseless” from “around 1936-1940,” with an asking price of $40,000” (though that price is negotiable). The typewriter was on display at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle from 2004-2010. Ellison talks a bit about the typewriter’s history at his website, and in a recent interview with The [...]

Global e-book sales at Random House are up 250% from 2009, as announced by chief executive Markus Dohle in an end-of-year letter to staff. According to Dohle, e-books comprised nearly half of overall first-week sales in the US this fall for some lead titles. Dohle expects growth to continue in 2011 despite troubled economies: “With [...]

Editor Lee Harris of Angry Robot has announced the publisher’s plans to consider unagented, unsolicited manuscripts during the month of March, 2011. A team of readers will “diligently work through every submission received,” with the best to be considered for publication. If “Open Door Month” is successful, Angry Robot may implement additional one-month open reading [...]

Alfonso Frank Frazetta – son of the late artist Frank Frazetta — has filed a lawsuit in Fort Myers FL against his three siblings, alleging they violated the terms of their April 2010 settlement agreement by failing to pay him a 25% share of the estate, not providing an accounting of their business dealings, and refusing to [...]

Baen Books has redesigned their website with free fiction, non-fiction, and other monthly features. The debut story is “Space Hero” by Patrick Lundrigan, the 2010 winner of the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest; original works by Larry Correia, Gregory Benford, Robert Buettner, and others are also planned. The new website will also include free [...]

Dorchester Publishing is on probation as a SFWA qualifying market from December 10, 2010 through December 10, 2011. Sales made to Dorchester during that time will not qualify authors for SFWA membership; however, sales may retroactively qualify if the probation period is successfully completed. According to the statement issued by SFWA president John Scalzi, the [...]

Amazon has made some Nielsen Bookscan data available free to authors via their Author Central program. Authors who sign up for the free program can see geographic weekly sales data for their print books. Amazon vice president Russ Grandinetti said, “Authors are an important community for us … We’re really happy to make it easy and [...]

The application period for the six-week Clarion writing workshop is open from December 1, 2010 through March 1, 2011. The six-week workshop will be held June 26 through August 6, 2011, at the University of California, San Diego. Scheduled instructors include Nina Kiriki Hoffman, John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, David Anthony Durham, John Kessel, and Kij [...]

Google launched its new Google eBookstore on December 6, 2010, also offering a new Google web reader with free apps for Apple and Android. Google has also partnered indy bookstores Powell’s, Alibris, and set of participating members – currently 220 stores — of the American Booksellers Association, allowing the booksellers to sell Google eBooks on their [...]