Agatha Christie

News Corp.'s (NASDAQ:NWS) (NASDAQ:NWSA) HarperCollins, one of the world's largest publishing companies, recently requested that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) remove search engine links to some of its own books on Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes in what appears to be a poorly executed attempt to fight online piracy, reports TorrentFreak. HarperCollins made the takedown requests through Digimarc (NASDAQ:DMRC), a company that provides anti-piracy protection for publishers and authors.

As seen in the screenshot above, Digimarc's takedown requests included eight links to HarperCollins e-books offered through Apple's iTunes Store. The eight targeted books are all mystery novels written by Agatha Christie

HarperCollins’ William Morrow division will launch Witness, a digital-first imprint for mysteries and thrillers, this October, the company announced Tuesday. Witness is part of HarperCollins’ “Impulse” line of books, which also includes digital-first romance, sci-fi/fantasy and young adult books.

The idea behind digital-first lines is that they let publishers take a chance on unknown or new authors…

And so, this was it, the publishing event of the century: J K Rowling and the Publisher's Hype. The story had everything. The one million pre-orders. The profile in The New Yorker. The adulation! The vilification! You'd never guess that all Rowling did was write a book.

Reviews of The Casual Vacancy were strictly embargoed until its publication on Thursday, and, in the absence of a book, much of the criticism focused on Rowling's politics, her refusal to give interviews, her giving too many interviews, and the embargo itself.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (September 4, 2012) HarperCollins Publishers announces today the launch of BOURBON STREET BOOKS, a new line of paperback mystery novels.

BOURBON STREET BOOKS will publish all types of mysteries and will feature paperback originals, reprints, backlist titles, and reissued classics. We will launch the line in the fall 2012 season with two paperback originals: The Hollow Man, an exciting debut by British author Oliver Harris, and Blood Line, the 7th book in the Anna Travis series by international bestselling author Lynda La Plante, both publishing on October 23rd.

MOSCOW, May 10 (RIA Novosti) - Legal sales of e-books in Russia increased almost 2.3 times in 2011, marking a third year of explosive growth, though remaining modest in absolute terms, the Federal Press and Mass Media Agency said on Thursday. Sales of digital books stood at 135 million rubles ($4.4 million) in 2011, compared to 60 million rubles in 2010 and 11 million rubles in 2008, the first year for which statistics are available, the agency said in an annual report on the book industry in Russia. By comparison, the U.S. e-book market stood at $1.3 billion and

The Indian market for English books is booming. Third only to the USA and Britain, it's set to become the biggest in the world as India's middle class continues to expand rapidly over the next 10 years. Keen to get a piece of the action, international publishers are flocking to set up offices in India, while many canny Indian publishers have already been reaping big rewards from backing emerging homegrown talent. India has a demographic profile very different to the US or Britain, with more than a third of its population under 30. With literacy on the rise and