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Amazon.com to Sell Short Stories
From: www.writerswrite.com

" Amazon.com is hoping to reinvigorate the short story market with its new program called Amazon Shorts. For 49 cents each, customer can read short-form literature in a digital format.

"Amazon Shorts will help authors find new readers and help readers find and discover authors they'll love," said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com's vice president of Digital Media. "We hope that by making short-form literature widely and easily available, Amazon.com can help to fuel a revival of this kind of work."

"Publishers have always had a hard time selling and marketing the single, short-form work -- the novella, for instance, or the novelette, or its even more diminutive cousin, the novelini -- and these days it's even harder. Amazon.com has created a new way for authors to get that kind of work out there, which is incredibly exciting," said author Daniel Wallace. "It's my hope that their Shorts program brings a renewed interest to the genre, as well as the opportunity for us to keep in touch with our readers in a really direct, fun way between books."

When the film got permission to move forward, August asked Burton if he should watch the 1971 adaptation starring Gene Wilder. Absolutely not, Burton told him. In hindsight, it was a good move, August says now. Otherwise the first movie would have influenced the screenplay for this summer's version, he said.

After the first draft of the screenplay was turned in - after just four weeks - August did watch the 1971 movie. "It was bizarre to see the same source material done so differently," he says. August says his challenges involved keeping the songs from the book but shortening them. He also saw Wonka as somewhat like Howard Hughes - a genius with poor social skills. "With Wonka what was important is the question of how did this guy get to be so successful," August says. "What happens when a genius locks himself in a factory for 20 years?"

The White House reports that Bush brought to the ranch Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky , Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry. Oh, those sound like relaxing reads.

Kurlansky, a self-proclaimed "virulent Bush opponent," told Newsday he was a little shocked to hear the prez was reading his book: "My first reaction was, 'Oh, he reads books?'"

Barry also admits he's "not a great fan of the Bush administration," but Radzinsky was tight-lipped on his personal feelings toward the Texan. Hey -- one out of three ain't bad!

The percentage of women opinion columnists at the eight biggest syndicates rose from 24.4% to 24.5% during the past five months. But before anyone begins celebrating that modest gain, the actual increase was only from 24.44% (33 of 135 Op-Ed writers) to 24.46% (34 of 139).

E&P Online previously counted the number of female opinion writers for a March 15 story. That was soon after Creators Syndicate columnist Susan Estrich stirred discussion about the issue by criticizing the Los Angeles Times for not publishing more women on its Op-Ed pages. E&P Online reported back then that the percentage of female opinion columnists at the eight biggest syndicates rose from 23.7% in 1999 to 24.4% in 2005 -- a slower rate of growth than the increase from 14.8% in 1989 to 23.7% in 1999.

Why aren't there more syndicated women opinion columnists? E&P Online talked to some of these writers at the start of this spring (see March 21 story) -- and the reasons they cited included sexism, resistance to change on the part of some newspaper editors, and the reluctance of some women to do Op-Ed commentary.

But as Tom Hanks arrived at Lincoln Cathedral yesterday, he found himself somewhat upstaged. A handful of protesters were making their feelings known about the decision to film scenes from The Da Vinci Code in the historic building. Led by a Catholic nun, Sister Mary Michael, they claimed the movie, based on the bestselling novel by Dan Brown, should be filmed elsewhere. She led a 12-hour prayer vigil to push the message home. The controversial thriller is the story of a Vatican conspiracy to suppress the supposed marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

And despite the dean of Lincoln Cathedral branding the book 'a load of old tosh' he has agreed to let the movie be filmed there. He and the church authorities said yes after the producers donated ?100,000 to the coffers.

Parts of its interior will serve as a double for Westminster Abbey, where church authorities refused to take part. Other locations include the Louvre in Paris, Winchester Cathedral and Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh.