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Personal by Lee Child has joined Apple’s Top Paid iBooks in the U.S. this week at No. 1.

Apple has released its top selling books list for paid books from iBooks in the U.S. for week ending 9/8/14. If I Stay by Gayle Forman and Mean Streak by Sandra Brown continue to hold top positions on this list this week.

We’ve included Apple’s entire list after the jump. (more…)

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At Powell's, our book buyers select all the new books in our vast inventory. If we need a book recommendation, we turn to our team of resident experts. Need a gift idea for a fan of vampire novels? Looking for a guide that will best demonstrate how to knit argyle socks? Need a book for [...]

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Do you like to read digital shorts? The website and company Thin Reads launched today, dedicated entirely to the eBook singles marketplace.

Thin Reads will feature reviews, news, interviews, writer profiles and analysis of eBook singles. The company has created a database of over 700 singles, tracking digital books released since 2010. Thin Reads also released a few fascinating data points:

*54% of all e-book singles available in the database are listed as Original, which means they were created especially as short works of non-fiction or fiction intended to be read on an electronic platform for its original release.
*12% of all e-book singles available in the database are listed as Encore, which means they were originally published or presented previously in another format. 2% of all e-book singles in the database are listed as Encore+, which means that new or updated content was added to a story that was previously published.
* 31% of e-book singles in the database are fiction. 69% are non-fiction. Narrative non-fiction accounted for 20% of all e-book singles in the database.

continued…

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For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including disappearing books, a Wal-Mart library and Tom Cruise playing Lee Child‘s thriller hero, Jack Reacher (video embedded above).

Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. Tom Cruise Plays Jack Reacher in New Trailer
2. Wal-Mart Converted into a Library
3. Free Sites to Promote Your eBook
4. CJ Lyons Sweeps Self-Published Bestseller List with 99-Cent Sale
5. Twitter Cheat Sheet for Writers
6. Book That Disappears As You Read
7. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey
8. 5 Ways to Promote Your Book Right Now
9. J. K. Rowling eBook Will Cost $19.99
10. Jennifer Weiner on Social Media, Blogging & Writing About Controversial Issues

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including disappearing books, a Wal-Mart library and Tom Cruise playing Lee Child‘s thriller hero, Jack Reacher (video embedded above).

Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. Tom Cruise Plays Jack Reacher in New Trailer
2. Wal-Mart Converted into a Library
3. Free Sites to Promote Your eBook
4. CJ Lyons Sweeps Self-Published Bestseller List with 99-Cent Sale
5. Twitter Cheat Sheet for Writers
6. Book That Disappears As You Read
7. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey
8. 5 Ways to Promote Your Book Right Now
9. J. K. Rowling eBook Will Cost $19.99
10. Jennifer Weiner on Social Media, Blogging & Writing About Controversial Issues

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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I’m going to go ahead and toss the illusion of journalistic objectivity out the window for a second, and put this on the table: I love ThrillerFest.

We sponsor it every year, and in 2011 I attended for the first time. I was blown away. There are craft sessions taught by bestselling writers. Lively panels. A pitch slam. Some of the most fun cocktail parties in publishing (I was reduced to a giggling teenager when I saw Margaret Atwood wandering around).

Perhaps the best part: Everyone is approachable, from the debut authors to the heavy hitters.

This year, ThrillerFest is July 11-14 in New York. Of the dozens and dozens of authors on hand, Jack Higgins, R.L. Stine, Lee Child, Catherine Coulter, John Sandford, Ann Rule, Richard North Patterson and Karin Slaughter will be there.

And here’s the scoop on how you can be part of it. Executive director Kimberley Howe is giving one WD reader a Day Pass for Friday, July 13—one of the best days of the conference. The pass includes full access to all ThrillerFest programming for the day, as well as a ticket to the Love is Murder cocktail party that celebrates the release of the International Thriller Writers’ third anthology.

Event programming runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and includes spotlight interviews with Lee Child and Catherine Coulter. Former FBI and counterterrorism expert David Major will also share his tales from his days at the White House.

… So how do you win the pass? Easy enough.

In the comments section below, just tell us who your favorite thriller writer is by 2 p.m. next Friday. We’ll put all the names of the commenters into a hat and randomly draw one winner. We’ll announce the winner Monday, July 19.

Good luck! Hope to see you there.

For more on ThrillerFest, visit thrillerfest.com.

Now, back to being objective and such.

 

Zachary Petit is an award-winning journalist, the managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, and the co-author of A Year of Writing Prompts: 366 Story Ideas for Honing Your Craft and Eliminating Writer’s Block.

Like what you read from WD online? Don’t miss an issue in print!

 

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I was lucky enough to be part of a Skype conference call with author Lee Child a few weeks ago--I know, you're a little jealous. To tell you the truth, I didn't talk much. There were a few other debut authors who were asking these really smart questions, so I mostly listened.

The funny thing? I never thought that joining organizations like International Thriller Writers would do a whole lot, other than maybe make me look like I know what I'm doing. But ITW has this great debut authors program that gives you a boost by helping promote your book, find other newbies, and get advice.

From Lee Child. How cool is that?

Anthony J. Franze wrote up an article about what we learned; check it out here.

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David Guterson has won the Literary Review‘s Bad Sex in Literature Award for his novel, Ed King. The shortlist included books by Lee Child, Haruki Murakami and James Frey.

Washington Post book critic Ron Charles actually predicted the win in his review of the novel in early November.

Here’s more from Charles’ review: “I wouldn’t blame you for skipping this book entirely, but if you must, turn to page 236. What follows are three pages that might very well win the Literary Review’s annual Bad Sex Award, including my personal ‘ick’ moment: ‘Ed smelled vulnerably digestive.’”

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Spending on printed books slumped £1.1m last week, as the UK riots caused retailers to shut stores early and the public to avoid the high street.

Although bookshops remained largely unscathed during the rioting, spending slumped by 4% on the previous week, to £26.6m, and was down 9% (£2.6.m) on the same week last year. With digital books continuing to steal sales from traditional booksellers, spending on printed books last week hit a six-year low for the month of August.

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Authors Janet Evanovich and Kathryn Stockett have each sold more than a million Kindle books, joining what Amazon has termed the “Kindle Million Club.”

The authors join the likes of Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins, Michael Connelly and John Locke, who have also passed the million mark in sales of their eBooks in the Kindle Store. According to the release, Stockett is the first debut novelist to reach this milestone.

Evanovich’s latest novel Smokin’ Seventeen has spent more than 100 days on the Kindle Best Seller list. Stockett’s novel, The Help, has been No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list and was just adapted into a film.

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Deadline New York broke the news that Tom Cruise is currently considering the role of thriller hero Jack Reacher in an adaptation of a novel from Lee Child‘s bestselling Reacher series.

Do you think Cruise could handle this hardboiled role? Christopher McQuarrie will direct the film,  One Shot. Follow this link to read an excerpt from the novel.

Here’s more from the article: “I’m told that the author himself is excited about Cruise playing the role, that Cruise personifies the qualities Reacher displays in the books. As for Reacher’s hulking physical size, Child wasn’t locked into an oversized actor (one reason the film took so long to get off the ground), and it was more about establishing an intimidating presence.”

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Do blurbs matter when you buy a book?

Over at The Awl, six authors shared vastly different opinions about blurbs. They also offered some practical advice about getting blurbs for your own work–add your thoughts and advice in the comments.

Mystery novelist Stefanie Pintoff (pictured, via) defended blurbs: “I believe they can be very helpful to debut novels, for which of course there are no reviews in place. The best blurbs come from an author writing within the same genre, since they will take advantage of a shared audience. For example, for a thriller debut, a blurb from Michael Connelly or Lee Child is an instant attention-getter and lends an air of credibility to the book. Authors can be very busy, so connections matter (sharing an agent or editor for example).”

Novelist Kate Christensen shared her blurb memories: “Two close friends blurbed my first novel. I am forever in their debt, and I found the whole process a bit humiliating. No strangers were willing to blurb me on the strength of the book itself, and my editor asked many people, far and wide … My later books were beautifully blurbed by a several generous fellow writers I barely knew—people I now adore and feel indebted to, although I still barely know them.”

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BEA Panels

There is so much to do, see, and find at BEA that I wasn't able to attend all the talks and panels that I would have liked.   One of the highlights of my BEA 2010 was the Thrillers panel with Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novels,  Karen Slaughter, author of Broken, and Justin Cronin, author of The Passage,  on Thursday.

I attended the Thrillers panel to hear Lee Child speak.  I'd attended his talk about writing series characters during Thrillerfest 2009. He was funny, insightful, and made curious about his character Jack Reacher.  I quickly read my first Jack Reacher novel, and then proceeded to read the other 12 in the order that I could get them!  The book signing of Lee Child's 14th novel, 61 Hours: A Reacher Novel (Jack Reacher Novels) was another highpoint for me!

I'll write more about 61 Hours, but I thought this is the perfect time to introduce Jack Reacher.  A self-described "military brat,"  Reacher's father was a U.S. Marine and his mother was French.  Reacher was born in Berlin and grew up on military bases all over the world (including  in a base outside of Manila in the Philippines).  Although people called his brother "Joe",  everyone always called him "Reacher."  Even his mother calls him by his last name. 

Lee Child was careful not to give too much details, so each person paints his own picture of Jack Reacher.  We do know him from the reactions that other people have, as well as from some basic details.  The first impression people have of Jack Reacher is his size: hands as big as chickens....

Reacher's vitals:

1 Comments on The Thriller Panel at BEA 2010: Lee Child, Karin Slaughter & Justin Cronin, last added: 6/5/2010