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Publishers are faced with strategy decisions like never before. As publishing options continue to grow and business models shift seemingly every few months with the introduction of new digital devices or growth of some external pressure, publishers must plan for the future while reacting to the present—a tough situation even without the need to deal with the effects of a down economy.

INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry, today announced a 30 percent increase in attendance at its 2010 digital book event held each year for the past five years at the Publishing Business Expo in New York City.

Some 6,500 writers, from Thomas Pynchon to Jeffrey Archer, have opted out of Google's controversial plan to digitise millions of books. Former children's laureates Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Jacqueline Wilson, bestselling authors Jeffrey Archer and Louis de Bernières and critical favourites Thomas Pynchon, Zadie Smith and Jeanette Winterson have all opted out of the controversial Google book settlement, court documents have revealed. Authors who did not wish their books to be part of Google's revised settlement needed to opt out before 28 January, in advance of last week's ruling from Judge Denny Chin over whether to allow Google to go ahead with its divisive plans to digitise millions of books.

Two sessions planned for next month's Publishing Business Conference's book publishing track that are attracting a lot of attention are “Rethinking Author Contracts for the Digital World” and “Rethinking Copyright for the Digital World.” But they have more in common than similar titles—both will be led by the Copyright Clearance Center's Christopher Kenneally. Kenneally agreed to give Publishing Business Insider readers a preview of his two sessions, which will be held Tuesday, March 9 at the New York Marriott Marquis.

517 Number of weeks that the four books from Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series collectively have been in the top 150 of USA Today's Best-Selling Books Database. (If the weeks ran consecutively, they would span 9.9 years.) The first book in the series, "Twilight," has appeared in the top 150 for 158 weeks; "New Moon" (book two) for 168 weeks; "Eclipse" (book three) for 121 weeks; and "Breaking Dawn" for 70 weeks.

What does it mean when a city of 230,000 loses its lone bookstore, as is happening to Laredo, Texas, in early 2010? With a world of books available to purchase online, is it merely a symbolic loss, or is there something more deep-rooted at work?

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) will expand its print and digital product initiatives in the next few years, says the group's new executive director, Scott Lubeck, who presided over his first BISG board of directors meeting Jan. 21.

As the world responds to the earthquake that struck Haiti earlier this week, many in the book publishing industry are mobilizing to contribute to the relief efforts. Philadelphia-based Quirk Books announced today that through Jan. 31, 20 percent of the proceeds earned on every single book sold on Irreference.com, ChronicleBooks.com and KnockKnockStuff.com will be donated to the American Red Cross to aid the Haiti relief efforts.

Along with 3D televisions and mobile devices and apps, e-readers were among the hottest products at the Consumer Electronics Show, held January 7-10 in Las Vegas. And technophiles internationally have been talking about the new players on the market, the prototypes of those still to be launched and what the future holds for this exploding market.

The Google book project began in 2002 as an effort to digitize millions of books. In December 2004, Google announced that it had entered into agreements with the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oxford, as well as the New York Public Library to "digitally scan books from their collections so that users worldwide can search them in Google." Google's press release said that it would make available "brief excerpts" of copyrighted material but that its use of these works would comport with copyright law.