According to an internal Random House report, sales of its Kindle e-books through September 2009 came to $22.6 million, an increase of almost 700% over the $2.9 million in revenue that the Kindle generated during the same period in 2008. The Lost Symbol was a big part of that growth. Published Sept. 15, the thriller sold 100,000 e-books its first week out, or about 5% of total sales for the book.

In the first half of 2009, Random House e-book revenue grew by 400%, says a spokesman. He declined to comment on the more recent numbers, which were disclosed to Crain's by an industry insider with access to the report. The majority of e-books are sold through Amazon's Kindle store.

Perseus Distribution is handling sales as well as fulfillment for Grupo Planeta's Spanish-language edition of The Lost Symbol, El Simbolo Perdido. Planeta is printing 1 million copies for worldwide distribution of the $24.95 trade paperback. On sale date is not until November 24 because translation of the book could not begin until the publication of the English-language edition. Perseus reports "big commitments" from Barnes & Noble, Borders (including Borders in Puerto Rico), and such big box stores as Wal-mart, Target, and Costco.

Too many popular authors (Thomas Harris) have followed huge hits (The Silence of the Lambs) with terrible embarrassments (Hannibal). Mr. Brown hasn't done that. Instead, he's bringing sexy back to a genre that had been left for dead.

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Mr. Brown was writing sensational visual scenarios long before his books became movie material. This time he again enlivens his story with amazing imagery. Some particularly hot spots: the unusually suspense-generating setup for Katherine’s laboratory; the innards of the Library of Congress; the huge tank of the architeuthis; and two highly familiar tourist stops, both rendered newly breathtaking by Mr. Brown’s clever shifting of perspective. Thanks to him, picture postcards of the capital’s most famous monuments will never be the same.

Graciously allowing that she doesn't "deny Dan Brown any of his success", Picoult went on to pick apart Brown's best-known novel, declaring that the code-cracking thriller left her cold. "I don't understand the hype over such a poorly written novel - and as an author who does all her own research, I know better than to consider myself an expert in the field I am writing about," she told the Daily Mail. "I believe this was an error in judgment for this particular author."

Picoult, sales of whose page-turning novels of families in crisis have made her a worldwide bestseller, is not the first author to have given Brown a rough ride. Salman Rushdie memorably laid into him in lecture he gave at the University of Kansas in 2005, during which he called The Da Vinci Code "a novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name". The Booker prize winner did, however, allow that despite the apparent paucity of his writing, Brown should be allowed to continue living. "Even Dan Brown must live," he said. "Preferably not write, but live."

The team behind the new film, which is based on an earlier book by Dan Brown, used the surreptitiously-gathered material to digitally recreate many of the famous papal buildings, Tuscan colonnades, fountains and monuments within St Peter's Square.

Special effects supervisor Ryan Cook told Italian film magazine Ciak: "The ban on filming put us in serious difficulty because we were not able to carry out the photographic surveys necessary to reconstruct the setting. So for weeks we sent a team of people who mixed with tourists and took thousands of photos and video footage."

The move was necessary because leaders of the Catholic church, still smarting from The Da Vinci Code's assertion that Christ married and fathered children with Mary Magdalene, had banned the film-makers from filming in or around any of Rome's churches. Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the diocese of Rome, said at the time: "Normally we read the script, but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough."

The man who published "The Da Vinci Code" has a new job at Random House, two months after his division was dismantled in a companywide reorganization.

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At Doubleday, Rubin published Dan Brown's megaseller, along with blockbusters by John Grisham and Pat Conroy. Doubleday was shut down and its imprints dispersed after Random House reduced its major divisions from five to three in December.

Rubin's responsibilities include collaborating with Random House publishers worldwide on book acquisitions and continuing to work on projects with Grisham, Conroy and other writers.

The Vatican has banned the makers of Angels & Demons, the latest Dan Brown thriller to be filmed, from shooting scenes not only in the Vatican but in any church in Rome on the ground that it is "an offence against God" and "wounds common religious feelings".

Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, head of the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said that the author had "turned the Gospels upside down to poison the faith. It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into mendacious films in the name of business."

Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the diocese of Rome, said: "Normally we read the script, but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough." The Vatican fiercely condemned both the novel The Da Vinci Code and its film version, which starred Tom Hanks as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon.

Hanks also stars in Angels & Demons which, like The Da Vinci Code, is directed by Ron Howard. Published before The Da Vinci Code — which suggested that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had children — Angels & Demons revolves around a plot by a sinister elite known as The Illuminati to seize control of the papacy during a conclave to elect a new Pope.

The justices let stand a lower court ruling that author Lewis Perdue didn't show that The Da Vinci Code, published in 2003, was substantially similar to his 2000 book, Daughter of God.

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"Brown took substantial elements of Perdue's novel, appropriated them as his own, and profited greatly from doing so," said Perdue's appeal, which was rejected without comment by the high court in Washington. Brown's lawyers countered that the novels' "plots, characters, themes and total concept and feel were radically different." Perdue's suit, seeking $150 million in damages, also named the publisher of Brown's book, Bertelsmann AG's Random House unit, and the producer of the movie, Columbia Pictures, a unit of Tokyo-based Sony Corp.

Perdue claimed that Brown took plot and character details from Daughter of God. He submitted sworn statements from a linguist and a university English professor who cited specific instances of similarity. A federal judge in New York granted judgment to Brown, saying the only similarities between the books involved historical facts and abstract themes. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

Vanity Fair, in its July issue out Wednesday, raises new questions about "striking similarities" between Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and other writings. Brown has been acquitted of copyright infringement in U.S. and British courts.

Most of the article deals with novelist Lewis Perdue's unsuccessful legal claims that Brown stole the plot of Perdue's 2000 novel, Daughter of God. On Tuesday, Vanity Fair's Seth Mnookin called Perdue's accusations part of "a snowball effect. Perhaps each similarity can be explained or excused, but in totality they raise questions that haven't been answered." The article also says that Brown's description of "Leonardo's lost robot" appears to be copied from a 1996 academic paper. "If I did that as a journalist," Mnookin says, "I'd be fired." Brown's publisher, Doubleday, cited the court opinions in his favor, saying they "carry a lot more weight than those of Mr. Mnookin and Mr. Perdue."

Sony Pictures has signed The Da Vinci Code screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to adapt author Dan Brown's first religious thriller, Angels & Demons. "Code" grossed $231.8 million worldwide in its first five days. Though development of Angels & Demons is still in the early stages, Variety says the studio's also planning to reassemble The Da Vinci Code producing team of Brian Grazer and John Calley for the project.

No deals are set yet for director Ron Howard or star Tom Hanks to return, but both would have first crack at the project. "Code" was Brown's second novel centering on Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor who's an expert in religious symbols. "Angels & Demons," published in 2000, introduced the Langdon character. In "Angels," Langdon's character tries to solve a murder and unravel a plot by an ancient group, the Illuminati, to blow up the Vatican during a papal conclave.

Though he's been hit with lawsuits and rebuffed by the Vatican, author Dan Brown said Sunday it's not his responsibility to address controversies stirred up by his book, "The Da Vinci Code." He said he's happy his best-selling novel about hidden religious history, secret societies and code-breaking has captured popular interest, but leaves the deliberations to others.

"Let the biblical scholars and historians battle it out," Brown told about 850 people at a sold-out writers talk. "It's a book about big ideas, you can love them or you can hate them," he said. "But we're all talking about them, and that's really the point." The talk was a rare chance to catch a personal glimpse of the private author. Among his revelations: When struggling with a difficult plot point, he dangles from a pair of gravity boots to think it out - a habit adopted while figuring out anagrams for his book "Angels and Demons."

The audience also learned that the former prep school English teacher wants to return to the classroom, and that he rarely reads his work when it's done. "The Da Vinci Code" was an exception. "When the galleys came back, I sat down and I read the novel start to finish in one sitting, and I was really happy, really proud of it," Brown said.

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"By the way if anybody in the audience would like to sue me, we have forms out back," Brown said. "Just pick one up on your way out."

The mega-selling author’s newest novel is now scheduled to come out sometime in 2007, more than a year later than originally expected, The Book Standard, an online industry publication, reported Friday. "My books are time-consuming to research and complicated to construct," Brown said in an e-mail sent to The Book Standard by publisher Doubleday. "I am taking the time necessary to ensure that this new book is every bit as entertaining as 'The Da Vinci Code."'

The forthcoming book is said to revolve around Robert Langdon, Brown’s hero in The Da Vinci Code, and the Masons, a secretive fraternal organization. Brown has said its tentative title is The Solomon Key. The Da Vinci Code, with 6 million paperback copies in print, has already sold more than 40 million copies worldwide in hardcover and continues to sell well three years after publication.

"After devoting so much time and energy to this case, I'm eager to get back to writing my new novel," the 42-year-old US author said in a statement. Brown, who was not in court to hear the ruling, was heard as a witness in the case, brought by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors of the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, against Random House, publisher of both books.

Brown said in a statement that he was pleased at the outcome of the trial. "Books are an important part of our culture, and this is a good day both for those who write and for those who enjoy reading," he said. The verdict showed that the claims were "utterly without merit," Brown said in his statement. "I'm still astonished that these two authors chose to file their suit at all. I'm pleased with today's outcome, not only from a personal standpoint, but also as a novelist."

Random House said the ruling "ensures that novelists remain free to draw in ideas and historical research."

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There had been fears that the Hollywood blockbuster of the Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, could have been delayed, if the ruling had gone the other way. Film company Sony said the verdict was "very important for the future of creative writing in the UK."