For your weekend reading pleasure, here some publishing news briefs...

Oprah Winfrey announced today that she will end her popular show in 2011, closing the televised side of the most influential book club in America. Author Edwidge Danticat told the Wall Street Journal why she will miss the club: "When she calls to tell you that your book has been selected for the book club, she sounds so excited that you feel as though she's both your ideal reader and your biggest cheerleader."

To write its embargo-breaking scoop about Sarah Palin's memoir (which has reportedly sold 300,000 copies already), the AP ripped, scanned, and mined the text for juicy tidbits.

Kat Meyer interviewed Angela James, the executive editor for Carina Press on Twitter for her weekly Follow Reader Twitter chat. Read the whole exchange at #followreader.

Why author and literary blogger Maud Newton is writing a novel instead of a memoir.

Today the NY Times reported a digital reading milestone for one bookseller's upcoming device: "Barnes & Noble says customers ordering a Nook will receive their devices the week of Jan. 4. So that stockings are not left completely empty, the bookseller will furnish buyers with a special holiday certificate."

GalleyCat has been tracking the stock performance of the major companies that influence the bookselling business. We created this chart with eight publicly-traded publishing stocks hand-picked by our readers--including company name, symbol, current stock price, and price increase or decrease at week's close.

-Name- -Symbol- -Last price- -Change-
The McGraw-Hill Co.. MHP 30.99 -0.74
Books-A-Million, Inc. BAMM 7.41 -0.14
Borders Group, Inc. BGP 1.94 0.02
Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN 129.66 0.67
Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS 22.3 -0.01
Wiley John & Sons Inc. JW.A 37.26 -0.06
Scholastic Corporation SCHL 26.4 -0.17
News Corporation NWS 14.13 -0.59
Google Inc. GOOG 569.94 -3.05
Apple Inc. AAPL 199.92 -0.59
Sony Corporation SNE 26.8 -0.18

In his National Book Awards acceptance speech this week, biographer T. J. Stiles thanked everyone in a book's traditional production chain, from the agent to the bookstore clerk. Stiles concluded with an note of apprehension: "The advent of the eBook is fooling some into thinking that these people are not necessary anymore."

As the digital publishing industry grows over the next few years, publishers, authors, and readers need to reconcile these fears about the future. Earlier this week, GalleyCat writers and readers mingled at the eBook Summit preview party, trying to start a more productive conversation about the future of eBooks.

In this special video feature, eBook Summit speakers like Movable Type Literary Group agent Jason Allen Ashlock and Electric Literature co-founder Andy Hunter shared advice for reaching new digital audiences. Visit the Summit Facebook page to continue the conversation. (Special thanks to AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven for that excellent headline.)

Comic author and radio personality April Winchell is the latest author to turn a blog into a book deal. She just sold "Regretsy," a title based on the her blog that highlights the oddest creations on Internet craft sites.

The Regretsy blog has featured everything from miniature paintings to those knitted spats. The title puns off the name of the popular craft site, Etsy. Jill Schwartzman at Random House's Villard imprint bought the title for trade paperback publication. Meg Thompson at LJK Literary Management negotiated the deal.

The site also features a fascinating page counting successful sales of strange crafts. Here's more about the forthcoming book: "The book will feature a collection of the oddest, most hilarious, and most disturbing crafts the world has ever seen, along with hilarious commentary provided by the author."

Little, Brown has just released an eBook-only update of the print title, "The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child"--an instantaneous publishing response to public concerns about H1N1 flu (or Swine Flu) vaccines.

To find out more about how eBooks can help medical publishing, GalleyCat interviewed the book's author, Robert Sears, M.D., about the digital addition. He hoped that more medical publishers could adapt a similar digital book strategy: "Since I wrote "The Vaccine Book," several important changes have occurred that I wish I could have immediately updated. This is true for virtually any medical book, and it takes many months before such changes can appear in a subsequent book printing. eBooks can be immediately updated as new information comes out, and breaking health news topics can easily be added to compliment any health book," he explained.

He also outlined the timely information included in the eBook extra: "The H1N1 flu, or 'swine flu,' vaccine [requires] two extra doses that parents have to give their infants and children this year. Educated parents will naturally wonder about this new vaccine--How is it made? What are the ingredients and side effects? How risky is the disease? Should I add this vaccine to my child's already busy vaccine schedule? And pregnant moms are also concerned; the disease poses risk for them, but there is uncertainty over using an untested vaccine during pregnancy."

Are people born writers? Or are writers created by years of practice and strong teachers?

Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large for Fortune magazine. The veteran reporter and author explored his recent book, "Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else." He talked about how we overvalue talent in our culture, arguing that writers are shaped by teachers and practice--not innate talent.

Here's an excerpt from the interview: "Most of us, especially in the early days of our development, are not well-qualified to design our own deliberate practice. We don't know enough about the field as beginners to know where we should be pushing ourselves next or what abilities we should be developing. We also need an outside set of eyes, somebody who can observe the performance and give us an honest session of feedback. Anybody who is a writer really needs someone who can help them design their practice, tell them what to do next, judge what they've done, and make them do a lot of work."

Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor Bookstore hosted local authors Sharlene Martin and Anthony Flacco for a dual signing last Sunday afternoon to promote the book they collaborated on—Publish Your Nonfiction Book—and Flacco's The Road Out of Hell (which tells the real-life story behind events touched upon in Clint Eastwood's Changeling). The event was followed by a fundraiser for the Kitsap Regional Library Foundation, where the couple were joined by local bestselling authors Susan Wiggs, Gregg Olsen and Suzanne Selfors.

When Jeff Schettler began writing a memoir about his bloodhound, and the cases they had worked on together as a K9 team, Ronin had already been diagnosed with the cancer that would end his life. Years later, there was such strong faith in the ability of Red Dog Rising to resonate with readers that plans were underway for a national book tour—a major undertaking in any event, but for a book published by a small independent press even moreso. And then Schettler himself was diagnosed with what his publicist, Julie Schoerke, described to us as "very aggressive" cancer—scuttling the entire tour except for one reading in Atlanta at the end of November, as traveling to other cities is simply incompatible with 30 hours of chemotherapy a week.

In the YouTube era, however, Schettler can still talk to readers about his story, and about the Georgia K9 National Training Center, the service dog training center he's founded which will receive all the proceeds from the sales of Red Dog Rising.

How much is a handwritten Bible worth? Nearly $7,000, as of this writing.

After a nine month tour of 90 cities in 40 different states, the Bible Across America project has produced two handwritten copies of the Bible--individual verses copied by more than 30,000 people. One handwritten copy of book-2,200 11 x 17 pages--is being auctioned on eBay to benefit Biblica. The current bid sits at US $6,801.24 with two days left of bidding.

Earlier this week, GalleyCat interviewed Tara Powers from Lambert, Edwards & Associates--who helped coordinate the project. "Some people had the verse, 'Jesus wept,' but other people had longer verses. It didn't take anybody longer than five minutes," she explained, noting that there have been discussions about a Bible Around the World project, but no plans have been made yet.

With the world buzzing about Sarah Palin's new memoir and Stephenie Meyer's new adaptation, its easy to forget the other major literary event this week--the release of Vladimir Nabokov's unfinished novel, "The Original of Laura."

If you want to read an excerpt, you won't find the book on the Oprah Winfrey Show or at the multiplex. You need to go to Playboy, the magazine that everybody reads for the literary excerpts. The magazine gave GalleyCat that image from the print magazine excerpt--showing the choice the great writer's son had between burning or publishing the unfinished book.

Here's an excerpt that seems fairly safe for work: "[Nabokov] started writing it in 1975 and persisted while hospitalized the few months before his death in 1977. He relied on his signature creative approach (the note cards included here are testament to that), but the book was never finished. In this event, he asked that the draft be destroyed. That we are able to publish a portion of it today is a privilege and a relief to admirers, biographers and readers of every stripe, but that it would survive was never a certainty."

Friday starts out right, with three new publishing jobs posted. Like a hardboiled gumshoe, GalleyCat has been investigating publishing work on the mediabistro.com job boards. If you have any job leads, email GalleyCat to get them posted.

For your resume-making pleasure, here are the new postings. First up, Harlequin is looking for an Editorial Assistant. Next, an established media company needs a Writer.

Finally, Penguin Group (USA) seeks an http://www.mediabistro.com/joblistings/jobview.asp?joid=93948&c=mbeajob
Executive Assistant to the SVP PR. Here's more about the position: "Working closely with SVP in dealing with high profile authors, agents, media, and corporate executives. Writing and drafting correspondence with authors, agents, media, publishers, and other internal departments. Supporting SVP on national media campaigns for high profile authors and celebrities.

Today's Feature Book of Color, Border Crossing comes from critically acclaimed author, Jessica Lee Anderson. Border Crossing is a tantalizing young adult book centered on troubled Texas teen Manz. Manz leads a tough life as a half white, half Mexican teenager trying to escape his problems. His mother, who had him at sixteen, is an alcoholic and still very much acts like a child. His father is out of the picture, and his mother's boyfriend Tom, a truck driver, is rarely home, which makes Manz the man of the house. Manz not only has to deal with all the everyday struggles of growing up, but he's also beginning to be haunted by voices and they grow louder every day.

Manz becomes more and more paranoid and doesn't know who he can trust. He meets Vanessa at his summer job, but is wary of her help. The voices in his head tell him that Border Patrol is coming after him, and when he sees signs of Operation Wetback, a horrible deportation plot from the 50's, he knows they are going to get him. Will Manz be able to tell what is real and what is imagined before the summer is over, or will it be too late?