Age Book of the Year awards shortlist (Australia)

The judges have shortlisted 15 books in three categories (fiction, nonfiction and poetry) for the Age Book of the Year awards. Category winners will receive $2,500, with the overall winner netting $10,000. The awards will be presented August 23 at the Melbourne Writers Festival

Robert Hughes,art critic, dies at 74

Robert Hughes, the eloquent, combative art critic and historian who lived with operatic flair and wrote with a sense of authority that owed more to Zola or Ruskin than to his own century, died on Monday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. He was 74 and had lived for many years in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.

Philip Marlowe set to return in novel by John Banville

Philip Marlowe is making another comeback. Henry Holt & Company said on Tuesday that Raymond Chandler's creation, one of the world's most famous private eyes, will star in a novel written by John Banville to be published in 2013

Lennoxlove Book Festival 2012 (Scotland)

Lennoxlove Book Festival 2012 - a weekend of entertainment, enlightenment and ideas with a glittering cast of writers and artists, as well as fun events and activities for children. Set in the stunning location of Lennoxlove House, Haddington, East Lothian. Aimed at book lovers of all ages and includes the Knight Frank family festival - 2-4 November 2011

Isle of Man author launches latest novel

Isle of Man-based author Chris Ewan has launched his latest crime novel Safe House at an event hosted by the Henry Bloom Noble Library in the community room of Noble's Park Pavilion

Top literary agency scouts for new talent at Foyles open day (UK)

Aspiring novelists can pitch their book ideas directly to top literary agents from Curtis Brown for free at Foyles book store in London. At Foyles' Discovery Day, Curtis Brown literary and talent agents are in the Charing Cross store on Saturday 22 September to find the best new literary talent

Amazon sells more eBooks than printed titles

Amazon.co.uk now sells more Kindle books than printed books, according to figures released by the internet retailer. The company, which started selling the downloadable books in the UK in August 2010, said this year it has sold 114 Kindle titles for every 100 print books. That includes both hardback and paperback but does not include Kindle titles that are available free

BTB #306: Copyright on the Continent Update for July 2012

In Washington, the political stalemate continues - and with the November 2012 elections approaching fast, hopes dim of opening up the legislative logjam. Meanwhile in Europe, copyright law, at least, is seeing plenty of changes, with the prospects looming of a sweeping reform of collective rights management. Today, we turn our attention to Europe for another edition of "Copyright & the Continent" with Victoriano Colodron of Copyright Clearance Center

BTB #305: A Golden Age for Self-Publishing?

The wild growth in e-books and self-publishing has spurred a fiery debate over the future direction of the industry. While some argue that the growing mountain of books makes it harder than ever for any single title to succeed, people like Keith Ogorek, author of 7 Secrets of Successful Self-Published Authors, say that this time, our time, is the best time ever to be an author

BTB #304: Textbooks Should Be Great Books!

In her keynote presentation for the 25th annual conference of the Text & Academic Authors Association, author Joy Hakim declared, "Textbook writing is, or should be, an artistic task. What we do is very important. We need to do nothing less than write great books, books good enough to inspire and educate a generation of learners."