While publishers and social media experts focused on Twitter, the Facebook-based game Farmville collected an astounding 83,750,002 monthly active users.

In an essay comparing Farmville and Twitter, one web metrics blogger wrote: "The biggest take-away from this is not just that Facebook is bigger than Twitter, but that the interactivity made possible by the robust platform that is Facebook enables things like an [massively multiplayer online (MMO) game] such as FarmVille to be bigger than Twitter. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Twitter! We just need to keep it in perspective, so we don't act like media sheep giving Twitter more attention than it deserves."

After the jump, you can watch our video interview with Orca president Richard Caccappolo about how publishers can use virtual currencies and virtual goods to spice up their online bookstores.

Here's an excerpt: "They convert [virtual currencies] at prices that are not easily divided--one dollar gives you 33 credits [for example] ... People don't necessarily think, 'it cost me 42-cents to send my friend a virtual beer.' I think when the publishing industry starts thinking about how they chunk up content--whether it be articles or chapters--it shouldn't be a debate of whether an article is worth one dollar or three dollars. An article should cost 43 credits."

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The music blogosphere has been buzzing all day with the news that Radiohead guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood is writing the score for a film adaptation of Haruki Murakami's bestselling novel Norwegian Wood.

Music writer Adam Bowie attended a performance of "Doghouse," the piece that will "inform" the soundtrack for the Japanese film. Here's more from the post: "we heard the 20 minute or so piece which I felt was somewhat different to the other pieces we'd heard ... This is more challenging fare. Indeed it seems that this piece will inform the soundtrack to a forthcoming Japanese film, Norwegian Wood, based on the novel by Murakami."

If you are like this GalleyCat editor, you blurted out, "Wait a minute! What Norwegian Wood adaptation?" Spinner has more details on that: "Directed and scripted by Anh Hung Tran, Norwegian Wood is due for release in Japan in December 2010."

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Reviewed by Michael Paul Mason
Read more about GalleyCat Reviews

I learned my lesson after reading The Lost City of Z: use caution when approaching anything written by David Grann. It will take everything you've got to set down the work and walk away. Grann, a staff writer at the New Yorker, isn't so much a verbal acrobat as he is a mesmerizing storyteller, and his newest work, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession solidifies his place among the best non-fiction writers of our time.

It isn't a perfect work--I'll offer a few gripes later in the review--but it's going to be one of the best story collections of the year. The opening story, "Mysterious Circumstances," for example, is inescapable. Grann introduces us to Richard Green, the world's foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes. Green isn't just an expert. He's a fanatic--and Grann somehow instills that zeal into the story, so that we're just as curious about the life of Arthur Conan Doyle as any other member of the peculiar Sherlock Holmes Society.

Before long, we find ourselves entranced in the curious characters that comprise the society, and then learn that Green himself has died, the apparent victim of a homicide. As we accompany Grann along on the investigation into Green's death, we're treated to a dive into the mind of Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Doyle.

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Actress and musician Hilary Duff inked a multiple-book deal with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers today. The first novel is Elixir, scheduled to be published in hardcover October 2010. The deal also includes a nonfiction book about children of divorce--scheduled for a spring 2012 launch.

The series will focus on a photojournalist named Clea Raymond, the celebrity offspring of a politician and a doctor. In Da Vinci Code fashion, she chases a dashing boy "in a race against time to unravel a centuries-old mystery that could unlock the key to her soulmate's true identity." Duff (pictured, via) began her career on the Disney Channel show, Lizzie McGuire, and recently had a guest spot on Gossip Girl.

Duff had this statement: "I've always loved the escape of a great book, especially one that features a strong, inspiring female character you feel you really understand, someone who could be you, but living a more fascinating life. I'm hoping Elixir will be that kind of book--a novel that will transport readers and open new worlds for them."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Last week debut YA novelist Lisa Desrochers landed a "significant preempt deal" (see this glossary for deal terms) with Rowohlt for German language rights to her upcoming novel, Personal Demons.

The book includes two sequels, and the German language deal was negotiated by Jacqueline Murphy at FinePrint Literary Management, in association with Bastian Schlueck of the Thomas Schlueck Literary Agency, on behalf of Suzie Townsend at FinePrint Literary Management.

Tor Books bought Desrochers' book earlier this year at an auction, and the U.S. release date is September 10, 2010. The book tells the story of "a good Catholic girl with a wicked streak who finds herself caught between an angel and a demon." On her blog, Dornhoefer included that picture of herself signing her first book contract.

Townsend had this comment: "After working with Lisa on Personal Demons, I'm not surprised at all it's receiving so much attention ... I've been in love with the writing and story since page one. We're very excited to be working with Tor and now with Rowohlt. Lisa has an amazing career ahead of her."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Soon The New York Times will offer a "disaggregated" digital version of the paper's Book Review, a special edition of the publication intended for eReading devices.

Times marketing director James Dunn spoke with Bill Mitchell from Poynter about the initiative. A full Kindle subscription to the Times currently costs, $13.99 a month, a steep price for readers who only want to read book reviews.

We like the idea. Using the magic of Scribd last week, we created a monthly print(out) version of GalleyCat Reviews that you can download for printing, eReaders, or mobile devices.

Here's more from the article: "Mitchell reports the Times will introduce a separate version of its Book Review for three e-reader platforms, beginning with the Sony e-reader in the next couple of weeks. Versions for Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook will follow. Dunn declined to say what the price will be for the Book Review on these platforms ... Dunn told Mitchell that examples such as The New York Times Crossword and Book Review were 'low hanging fruit' for disaggregation." (Via Mike Cane)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For months, a debate has raged about free eBooks. To find out more about the strategy, we interviewed a writer who counted 100,000 downloads of his free eBook.

Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Ron Hogan, director of e-marketing strategy at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's trade & reference division (and former senior editor of GalleyCat).

Today he discussed his new translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching--writing the spiritual text in the plainspoken, dynamic style of author David Mamet. Hogan also explained the strategies he used to grow his project--earning 100,000 free downloads of his text. The book has been available as a free download--and now, a new print edition.

Press play on the embedded player to listen to the whole interview.

Hogan revealed his audience-building strategy: "When I was first putting it up, I went around to all the websites that I could find that had information about Taoism and I basically offered them the link as something they might want to add to their blogroll. I was lucky in that a number of sites that collated translations added me to their sites. One of the biggest developments was when I edited the link into the Wikipedia page for the Tao Te Ching as part of the resources available there--so people were discovering it through Wikipedia."

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Yesterday the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center acquired the archive of writer David Foster Wallace. The collection includes annotated books from the author's bookshelf, like that scribble-filled copy (pictured, via) of Suttree by Cormac McCarthy.

The collection contains a vast sample of the late author's writing life: poems, stories and letters he wrote as a young man; college writings and teaching materials; and "heavily annotated books by Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike and more than 40 other authors." In addition, Wallace's agent, Bonnie Nadell (of the Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell agency), wrote a touching introduction to the collection.

Here's more from Nadell: "[W]hat scholars and readers will find fascinating I think is that as messy as David was with how he kept his work, the actual writing is painstakingly careful. For each draft of a story or essay there are levels of edits marked in different colored ink, repeated word changes until he found the perfect word for each sentence, and notes to himself about how to sharpen a phrase until it met his exacting eye. Having represented David from the beginning of his writing career, I know there were people who felt David was too much of a 'look ma no hands' kind of writer, fast and clever and undisciplined. Yet anyone reading through his notes to himself will see how scrupulous they are."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When asked for suggestions last week, GalleyCat readers delivered a stream of advice for how to keep writing with children. If you are planning, expecting, or dealing with children in your writing life, read on...

One reader advised literary parents to check out Pen Parentis: "an organization whose mission it is to help writers with kids ... We are running a Fellowship for New Parents right now as well as hosting an Author Salon where writers with kids can meet others like themselves."

Clive Young wrote: "I wrote both my books on my commuter train in and out of New York City. It was just long enough for me to get started, excited, and then frustrated that I was at my destination because I was forced to stop even though I wasn't done yet. That, in turn, was great for keeping things moving forward, because I always knew when I sat down what I wanted/needed to write next. The other upside was that I was the only person on the train who LIKED the LIRR's delays."

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You can read all the publishing blogs in the world, but nothing beats a conversation with a published author--real-world interaction and publishing experience will always trump the glowing computer monitor.

In an ongoing effort to build community among readers, writers, and publishing types in real life, we are hosting the inaugural mediabistro.com Book Club tomorrow night. The night will feature two nonfiction books and two novels, handpicked to include a wide range of subjects, genres, and publishing experience--giving book club participants a night of practical and entertaining conversation.

At the Copper Door Tavern at 6:30 pm EST tomorrow night, four writers will mingle with mediabistro.com readers and read a two minute selection from their work. The evening will feature Karen Stabiner's novel, Getting In; Amy Whitaker's art book, Museum Legs: Fatigue and Hope in the Face of Art; David Farley's travel book, An Irreverent Curiosity; and Gar Anthony Haywood's thriller, Cemetery Road.

Follow this link to RSVP. At these parties, authors can show off their books and mediabistro.com readers can learn from publishing veterans.

More information about the individual books follows after the jump.

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How do you review a Kindle eBook? Do you measure the book only by its literary merits, or do you analyze formatting and interactivity as well? As enhanced eBooks hit the market for tablet computers, future Kindle models, and the iPad, these questions will be more important.

Over the weekend, this GalleyCat editor enjoyed the Kindle edition of The Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank. Writing-wise, the book is fabulous: laugh-out-loud John Kennedy Toole-style slacker satire mixed with Vladimir Nabokov's knack for postmodern black humor. It is a fictional encyclopedia written by two obsessive fans of a science fiction writer with some striking similarities to the great Philip K. Dick. The book has quite deservedly earned a spot on the Believer Book Award shortlist.

Still, the encyclopedia format begs for some simple HTML coding in the eBook edition. When reading the book's individual encyclopedia entries, the reader should be able to jump between entries with the same ease as a print book--but the clunky Kindle interface just isn't built for this kind of browsing. With an iPad or tablet computer version, the author could actually embed a few sly Wikipedia entries or websites to help the reader find out more about the real life science fiction author lurking behind the pages of this funny book.

Enhanced eBooks don't have to be loaded with fancy video and interactive graphics. But this GalleyCat editor wishes they had a standard level of interactivity beyond the regular eBook. What do you think?

Read more about GalleyCat Reviews

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to Tweepsearch, 25,080 people identify themselves as an "editor" on Twitter. Nevertheless, book editors have had a rough time in recent years--layoffs, uncertain roles, and crazy workloads. Today we've decided to celebrate and recognize the editors in our lives.

After the jump, we are building a new directory linking to the best book editors on Twitter. Add your favorite editor (or yourself) to the growing list. We will constantly update the directory, just like our Best Book Reviewers on Twitter directory. All the editors will be listed below and included in our Best Editors Twitter list.

If you want to hone your own editing skills, check out Book Oven's excellent new web game, Bite-Size Edits. On this site, readers can get edits on their own work and practice editing on real work by writers like Lydia Millet and Clay Shirky.

Here's more about the project: "Earn points in Bite-Size Edits by editing sentences and leaving comments for writers. High point earners can get free books, and players can trade in earned points for discounts on books and other goodies."

This list is not comprehensive, yet. Add your favorite editors after the jump--because the digital future needs editors and we need to stay connected with our editors.

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So you think you can design a book cover? Just push play above to watch the six-hour process unfold at superspeed.

Orbit Books creative director Lauren Panepinto gave aspiring artists, science fiction fans, and publishing aficionados a peek into her long process of designing a book cover. This two-minute video captures every Photoshop tweek and edit on the cover design of an upcoming novel by Gail Carriger.

Here's more about the video: "Over 6 hours of my onscreen compositing, retouching, color correction, type obsessing, all condensed down to a slim sexy one minute 55 seconds of cover design. Trust me, no one wants to watch it in real-time ... and even then I left out the not-as-riveting-onscreen stages of my cover design process, such as reading the manuscript, sifting through Alexia photoshoot outtakes, background photo research, etc."

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post misidentified the author of the book.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Novelist Seth Grahame-Smith watched his entire life change last year when he wrote the bestselling monster mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Today on the Morning Media Menu, he talked about his new book and the mashup trend he helped create.

During the interview, he discussed his new book (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), the new MTV show he helped create, and the process of writing the screenplay for a Tim Burton-produced adaptation of the Lincoln mashup.

Press play on the embedded player below to listen or follow this link.

Here's an excerpt: "Now the marketplace is flooded with mashups. I won't name names, but if you go on Amazon and look at all the new mashups that are coming out, you can see that a lot of them are scraping the barrel. It's seems like people are almost arbitrarily picking books out of hats. The other thing I would say is that if they are done well, almost respectfully--if you're trying very hard to adhere to the themes and the style that you're mashing-up--they do bring people into the tent."

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A coalition of eBook publishers, authors, and readers have declared this "Read an eBook Week."

Of course, our digitally obsessed sibling eBookNewser has the scoop: "Read-An-eBook Week officially began yesterday and goes through Friday ... The coolest part of the Website is the eBookstore, which features links to a whole bunch of online stores--from Smashwords to Kobo--that are offering free or discounted eBooks this week, though don't expect to see too many trade books discounted. If you only read eBooks one week this year, make it this one."

Here are a few selected highlights from the special eBookstore.

Books on Board is "offering a free download during Read an E-Book Week."

The digital self-publishing site Smashwords has pages and pages of free content.

The online community of readers and writers interested in African-American literature, RAWSISTAZ Literary Group, is offering "seven+ free e-book downloads during the week."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Novelist Elmore Leonard confessed he hopes Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow will check out his new pirate novel, Djibouti.

The author (pictured, via Linda Solomon) told the Wall Street Journal that he sent the director of The Hurt Locker a copy of his new novel last year. While it isn't listed on the HarperCollins website yet, the Borders entry says the book will be 304 pages and arrive in stores on October 12.

Here's an excerpt from the article: "Leonard said that he knows Bigelow 'very slightly,' explaining that he randomly met her roughly 23 years ago, when she was promoting her 1987 vampire film Near Dark. He recalled her pulling up to his house in a maroon limousine and running into the front room that he was using as an office. She told him she liked his work and the two chatted for about 20 minutes and 'then she ran out,' he said."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As foreign reporting budgets shrink at news outlets around the country, the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has nominated a literary journal's foreign coverage for a news reporting award at the 2010 National Magazine Awards for Digital Media.

The Virginia Quarterly Review was nominated for its coverage of the horrific terrorist attacks in Mumbai, serializing a 19,000-word essay by freelance multimedia journalist Jason Motlagh. The category "honors the timeliness, accuracy and skill with which news and information are gathered and presented by magazine websites and online-only magazines."

We interviewed Motlagh last year about his award-nominated work. Click here to listen to the whole interview, but here's an excerpt: "I would encourage young journalists to look for the offbeat destinations, but also look at the places that are saturated--where the coverage has not been as diversified as it could be. Look for the counter-intuitive stories. To set yourself up--it's important that you develop a body of work on a given area or issue, I think specialization is important now. In this hyper-inundated media climate, it's important to single yourself out. It can pay to really stick to a topic. if you have a vision, find people who are like-minded who will support it. Think of online media as an opportunity, and not a compromise."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Apple iPad fans around the country were watching television last night to see in the company would run an advertisement during the Academy Awards. The company ran the ad embedded above, featuring two iBooks titles--Tami Hoag's novel, Deeper than the Dead and Ted Kennedy's memoir, True Compass.

The Kennedy memoir is published by Hachette Book Group's Twelve imprint and Hoag's novel is published by Penguin's Dutton imprint. The advertisement's hypothetical user had eclectic tastes: shuttling between books, the NY Times articles about Florida, photos of kids, snowboarding articles, Google Maps pictures of Paris, and Star Trek.

What do you think? Will this new device save publishing? Or will this manic multimedia experience lure readers away from books? Read more at eBookNewser.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In that video, Penguin CEO John Makinson gave us a glimpse of what digital books from the iBooks store will be like when the Apple iPad arrives.

President Barack Obama sent fan mail to Life of Pi author Yann Martel.

Media Source Inc. had acquired Library Journal and School Library Journal, causing some editorial shakeups at Publishers Weekly--a new publisher and editorial director.

We rounded up The Best Book Editors on Twitter--add your favorite in the comments.

The great author Barry Hannah passed away at 67-years-old.

BookExpo America announced that Daily Show host Jon Stewart will introduce memoirist Condoleezza Rice at a BEA breakfast.

Speaking of memoirs, Lindsay Lohan is writing a memoir.

Missed these stories? Email GalleyCat to get all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in a simple email newsletter.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This week novelist Shiloh Walker sealed the deal on three new paranormal novels with Berkley. Irene Goodman from the Irene Goodman Literary Agency sealed the deal, and Cindy Hwang at Berkley bought the books.

The first title is Thrill of the Hunt, a paranormal contemporary romance about a werewolf pitted against a vampire who works as a killer-for-hire. Intrigued by her Twitter posts, GalleyCat caught up with Walker to find out how she landed her most recent deal.

The veteran author outlined her pitching process: "While I spazzed out (spazzing out is my normal MO), the actual pitch itself was easier than the first one, easier than the second ... gradually, I think it just gets easier and easier as you get used to working with one particular editor."

She continued: "Now, last year was a different story altogether. I write paranormal for Berkley, but I'm a fast writer and I wanted to branch out and explore romantic suspense with another publisher. So I put together a proposal for a new publisher. Pitching that one? I think that was even harder than when I'd originally first pitched an idea to Cindy."

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