In today's New York Times, writer Motoko Rich is surprisingly rough on Amazon's Kindle, bullying the e-reader by analyzing its best-sellers list - and finding that more than half of them are available for free. Ostensibly, the piece is about how publishers are working to spur sales by giving away titles, hoping "that customers who like what they read will go on to obtain another title for money." But dare we say, this Times piece sounds like it was written by... a blogger. (more...)

Wow, Tina Brown is very smart. The New York Times is reporting that Brown is set to launch a Daily Beast book imprint, Beast Books, in a joint effort with the Perseus Book Group. The imprint will publish both paperbacks and ebooks on a much faster schedule than traditional publishing keeps. Also? The imprint "will select authors from within The Daily Beast’s cadre of writers, most of whom are paid freelancers, to write books with quick turnarounds." Also? Perseus is paying her "a five-figure management advance to cover the costs of editing and designing the books." From the article: (more...)

The New York Times is not going to be scooped by the National Enquirer anymore! The Times is running an A-1 story today about the latest developments in the John Edwards "drama," which according to the story's opening graf is "moving slowly but deliberately to its conclusion." Slightly less slowly and perhaps more deliberately after this piece! Reading between the lines, it seems the New York Times got its hands on a hot book proposal and rushed its contents to press before anyone else was able to beat them to the punch, or, for that matter, go on record about it. (more...)