Norway has Kindle Concerns, New “E-paper” Displays Expected in 2010, and More

by
Adrian Versteegh
11.4.09

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:

From its terms of use to its lack of privacy protections to its paltry one-year warranty, Amazon’s Kindle simply doesn’t meet Norwegian standards, the country’s powerful Consumer Council has warned (Register).

In a potential challenge to Google’s Book Search service, the Internet Archive is hoping that libraries will use its recently launched BookServer technology to scan and digitally lend so-called “copyright orphans” (Forbes).

Former Smithsonian Books editor Elisabeth Dyssegaard joins Hyperion this month as editor in chief, filling a position left vacant earlier this fall when Will Balliett departed to head up Thames and Hudson (Publishers Weekly).

Can poetry turn a profit? Sourcebooks founder Dominique Raccah has launched the PoetrySpeaks project to find out (Wall Street Journal).

A new partnership between microprocessor company Marvell and display manufacturer E Ink is driving the development of the next generation of “electronic paper” devices (Publishers Weekly).

PS, I Love You author Cecelia Ahern is undertaking what HarperCollins calls the world’s first “virtual” author tour to promote her latest books (Press Release).

After years of estimates, fundraising, squabbling, and delays, San Diego is moving ahead with construction bids on a new nine-story central library (Library Journal).

Serial fiction platform Textnovel has announced the semifinalists in Dorchester Publishing’s “Next Best Celler” contest (Textnovelblog).

This April, Lebanon will host “Beirut39,” an event organized by the Hay Festival of Literature that will feature thirty-nine of the most noteworthy Arab writers under the age of forty (Publishing Perspectives).