1. James Patterson - $70 million
2. Stephenie Meyer - $40 million
3. Stephen King - $34 million
4. Danielle Steel - $32 million
5. Ken Follett - $20 million
6. Dean Koontz - $18 million
7. Janet Evanovich - $16 million
8. John Grisham - $15 million
9. Nicholas Sparks - $14 million
10. J.K. Rowling - $10 million

W.W. Norton is canceling its planned party for author Martin Stannard. The event, to celebrate the release of Muriel Spark: The Biography, was supposed to happen on Wednesday night in New York City. Now, with Stannard stuck in England, Norton, which was co-hosting with Sterling Lord, says the party's off. Similarly, Henry Holt has canceled its planned publication party and tour for John Banville, which was to promote the author's newest Benjamin Black novel, Elegy for April.

Claiming a lengthy list of your books, short stories, essays, poems and articles for Google settlement benefits just got much easier. You can now start the process by simply submitting your bibliography to the claims administrator. You need only e-mail -- or send by regular mail -- a list of your books and shorter literary works (poems, short stories, articles) that may appear in books covered by the settlement. When in doubt, we suggest you submit everything.

Although the author's name and the title of the work is enough to get the ball rolling, it's helpful to include this additional information you can find in or on your books: ISBN, publisher, place and year of publication.

E-mail your bibliography to BookSettlement@RustConsulting.com. Feel free to send it as an attachment or paste it into the body of the e-mail itself.

I am not going to rehearse any arguments pro and anti the "Google settlement." You decided to deal with the devil, as it were, and have presented your arguments for doing so. I wish I could accept them. I can't. There are principles involved, above all the whole concept of copyright; and these you have seen fit to abandon to a corporation, on their terms, without a struggle.

So, after being a loyal if invisible member for so long, I am resigning from the Guild. I am, however, retaining membership in the National Writers Union and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, both of which opposed the "Google settlement." They don't have your clout, but their judgment, I think, is sounder, and their courage greater.

"The absence made me nearly speechless." said poet and creative writing professor Cate Marvin, co-founder of new US literary organisation Women in Letters and Literary Arts (WILLA). WILLA has gathered more than 5,500 members since it launched in August with the aim of bringing "increased attention to women's literary accomplishments and [questioning] the American literary establishment's historical slow-footedness in recognising and rewarding women writers' achievements".

The group pointed to new books published this year by Lorrie Moore, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant, Rita Dove, Heather McHugh and Alicia Ostriker. "It continues to surprise me that literary editors are so comfortable with their bias toward male writing, despite the great and obvious contributions that women authors make to our contemporary literary culture," said Marvin.

Announcing the list, novelist and journalist Louisa Ermelino said that PW "wanted [it] to reflect what we thought were the top 10 books of the year with no other consideration". "We ignored gender and genre and who had the buzz. We gave fair chance to the 'big' books of the year, but made them stand on their own two feet," she said, adding that "it disturbed us when we were done that our list was all male".

Poet Erin Belieu, WILLA's other co-founder and director of the creative writing programme at Florida State University, said that "when PW's editors tell us they're not worried about 'political correctness', that's code for 'your concerns as a feminist aren't legitimate'". "They know they're being blatantly sexist, but it looks like they feel good about that," said Belieu. "I, on the other hand, have heard from a whole lot of people -- writers and readers -- who don't feel good about it at all."

The China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) believes Google scanned thousands of books, by over 500 Chinese authors, into its digital library without their permission or compensation, said spokesman Chen Qirong. "Whether you are a small company or big company you still need to respect the copyright of the authors," Chen said.

Google countered by saying it had received permission from over 50 Chinese publishers who allowed the U.S. search giant to digitize more than 30,000 books to be found through Internet searches and for preview. "We believe the book search complies with international copyright law," said Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne.

According to various reports Professor Roland Reuss, a literature professor from Germany's Heidelberg University, struck out at Google and the Settlement, negotiated in the US by the Association of American Publishers, and the US Authors Guild with Google. He described Google's lofty ideals as "just a whole garbage of hysterical propaganda", and warned of a threat to traditional publishing, saying "you revolutionize the market but the cost is that the producers of goods in this market will be demolished".

Reuss then rounded on Bertelsmann's Richard Sarnoff, who negotiated the deal as chair of the AAP, calling him "naive" and arguing that the deal disregarded the Berne Convention, and the rights of copyright holders to determine how their work was used. According to Publishers Weekly, Sarnoff said the parties to the deal did not anticipate the backlash in Europe. And he added that European works may indeed have to be removed from the settlement.

The parties in the Google Book Search Settlement have asked the court to adjourn the scheduled October 7th fairness hearing, telling the court the parties intend to amend the deal. "Because the parties, after consultation with the DOJ, have determined that the Settlement Agreement that was approved preliminarily in November 2008 will be amended, plaintiffs respectfully submit that the Fairness Hearing should not be held, as scheduled, on October 7," reads a memorandum appended to the parties motion to adjourn. "To continue on the current schedule would put the Court in a position of reviewing and having participants at the hearing speak to the original Settlement Agreement, which will not be the subject of a motion for final approval." The court is expected to grant the motion.

The memorandum notes that the parties met with senior DOJ officials on September 17, one day before the DOJ filed its brief with the court outlining a range of concerns with the current settlement agreement. "Of key importance is that the U.S. Statement of Interest confirmed the DOJ's reciprocal desire to work with the parties to address concerns," the memo states. "It is because the parties wish to work with the DOJ to the fullest extent possible that they have engaged, and plan to continue to engage, in negotiations in an effort to address and resolve the concerns expressed in the U.S. Statement of Interest." The parties reiterated their commitment to "rapidly advancing" discussions with the DOJ. The delay marks the second time the fairness hearing has been pushed back, the first time coming after lawyers for a group of authors led by Gail Steinbeck won a four month extension to the opt-out deadline.

After Amazon came out against the Google Settlement earlier this week, the Authors Guild has come back with a letter slamming the e-tailer, claiming that "Amazon's hypocrisy is breathtaking." The Guild likened Amazon's control of bookselling and the up-and-coming e-book market to a choke-hold, noting that everyone is waiting for the moment when the company will stop selling e-books at a loss and start to "squeeze publishers and authors" when everyone is locked in to the Kindle. The Guild said that, sadly, the Google plan won't infringe on Amazon's control of the business: "Amazon needn't worry, really: this agreement is about out-of-print books. Its lock on the online distribution of in-print books, unfortunately, seems secure."

After a recent meeting of its delegates held in Chicago, the National Writers Union has announced its opposition to the Google Book settlement with NWU president Larry Goldbetter calling the proposed agreement, "grossly unfair to writers." Goldbetter said that "compared to the number and seriousness" of the copyright violations engaged in by Google in scanning copyrighted materials, the offer to pay writers between $60 and $300 for each book is "ridiculously low." That only $45 million out of the $125 million in the settlement is allocated to pay writers, "seems way short of the amount needed to compensate authors of millions of books," Goldbetter said.

The NWU also objects to the deal because it believes it is burdensome to require writers to opt out rather than having Google ask permission to use their material. Finally, the NWU said the settlement could interfere with the relationship between writers and their publishers. "The settlement makes assumptions about electronic rights that writers may or may not have assigned to publishers and it sets up an unfair binding arbitration process to resolve disputes between writers and publishers. These disputes must be arbitrated on a case-by-case basis. The settlement does not allow for writers, who were collectively targeted, to collectively negotiate to settle these disputes."

But the vitriol Hoffman used to express her dissatisfaction was extreme. "Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron," one tweet began. "Now any idiot can be a critic," stated another.

At first, Hoffman defended her right to express herself any way she wanted. "Girls are taught to be gracious and keep their mouths shut. We don't have to," she wrote, and then continued a minute later: "And we writers don't have to say nothing when someone tries to destroy us."

That's not all: Hoffman tweeted Silman's phone number and e-mail address, encouraging readers to "Tell her what u think of snarky critics."

I feel this whole situation has been completely blown out of proportion. Of course I was dismayed by Roberta Silman's review which gave away the plot of the novel, and in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn't. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Reviewers are entitled to their opinions and that's the name of the game in publishing. I hope my readers understand that I didn't mean to hurt anyone and I'm truly sorry if I did.

Best,
Alice Hoffman

A report in the Telegraph yesterday suggested that Rendell, 79, didn't want to write any more Wexford novels after this autumn's publication of The Monster in the Box, her 22nd mystery featuring Detective Chief Inspector Reg Wexford. But her longtime editor, Paul Sidey at Hutchinson, said this morning that Wexford was still "living and breathing".

"I was rather surprised to hear the news, and having just spoken to Ruth she said nothing of the kind," he said. "So on it goes. I'm in my 27th year as her editor and I'd be very disappointed to lose Reggie from my life."

The Monster in the Box is published this October and casts a new light on the diligent inspector who first appeared in Rendell's 1964 debut From Doon with Death, seeing him grapple with an unsolved mystery from his past when the suspected killer returns to Kingsmarkham. Rendell also depicts Wexford's courtship of the woman who would later become his wife. "It does reframe the Wexford story. You see him in his early years as a young policeman, meeting his wife-to-be. It's quite clever the way she's used a contemporary story and framed it with something which happened in his early years. It gives another view on the whole Wexford story," said Sidey.

Steinbeck, the driving force behind the extension, called the ruling great news. "We now have to time to really sink our teeth into what this agreement will mean," she said. She suggested that four months should be sufficient to determine whether changes made to the deal will make it more acceptable, or whether to opt out—or perhaps even object to the deal.

The Internet Archive (IA), which had a motion to intervene denied by Chin last week, also praised the decision. "We think this is very good news," IA's Peter Brantley told PW. "We are very interested in working with partners to...more squarely identify our concerns and articulate them to a broader audience."

Authors Guild president Paul Aiken shrugged off the extension. "We'd hoped for a shorter extension of time, since we’re eager to get on to the next phase of the process," he told PW. "It's not surprising, however. Nothing about this settlement has happened quickly."

The 69-year-old author of novels including A Summer Birdcage and The Ice Age told the Radio 4 arts programme Front Row last week that she had stopped writing fiction. "What I don't like is the idea that I'm repeating myself without knowing it, which is what old people do endlessly. The numbers of times I've heard people tell the same stories -- the numbers of times I've told the same stories -- and you don't really want to start doing that in novels, when somebody can say hmm, you wrote that in 1972," she said.

Drabble, who was made a dame of the British empire last year, went on to relate an incident from her latest book, The Pattern in the Carpet - part-memoir, part jigsaw history - in which she tells a story about her aunt finding a horse's head in a rubbish dump and feeding bits of it to her dog. She couldn't, she said, remember if she had used the scenario in a novel before, and felt that meant it was time to stop. "The fact that I can't remember whether I've used it or not means the barrier, the line between writing and remembering and thinking, is more blurred for me than it used to be," she said.

Drabble said she had told her publisher that she wouldn't be writing any more fiction, "but they don't believe me". Her literary agent, Jim Gill at United Agents, said today that the comments were "based on how she feels at the minute". "Of course she would reserve the option to change her mind and write a novel if she felt like it," he said.

Waugh died Dec. 8 in a nursing facility in Torrington after a brief illness, his son Lawrence said Saturday. Waugh's dozens of novels — numbering almost 50, including some he wrote under pen names — earned him a Grand Master Award in 1989 from the Mystery Writers of America. The honor places him in the company of such writers as Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Mickey Spillane, Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie.

*****

His first novel, Madame Will Not Dine Tonight, was published in 1947 and began a long string of mysteries in which the characters used real police techniques to solve mysteries. That was a clear departure from the genre in which a private detective, squirreling away facts and relying on his or her wits and instinct, emerged with all the answers. "I was tired of reading about these super-detectives and a police force composed of a bunch of bumbling idiots," Waugh told The New York Times in 1990.

"I wanted to get away from the neat little corpses with the perfect bullet through the head, and instead write a story as it really happened."