Apple’s iPad 2

Look out Apple, Amazon plans to introduce a tablet computer this fall.

The device could challenge the iPad. It is expected to have a nine-inch screen and will run on Google’s Android operating system. 

Amazon customers will be able to watch videos, read ebooks and listen to music purchased or rented from Amazon. It is not expected to have a camera.

The new tablet will intensify the competition between Amazon and Apple, both of which are fighting for customers for their own digital books, music and movies.

Amazon is also releasing two new versions of the Kindle. One will have a touch-screen, the other will not. It will be an updated, cheaper version of the current Kindle model.

You can read more about it in this article from The Wall Street Journal.
 

Despite the closing of Borders, it looks like things are not quite so gloomy for the book industry after all.

Ebooks, along with juvenile and adult fiction, are driving a resurgence of the book industry. 

Instead of shrinking, the publishing industry has expanded in the last three years, according to BookStats, which is published by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group.

BookStats looks at net sales revenue and unit data reported by almost 2,000 U.S. publishers. It tracks sales and units by format and category.

Publishers sold 5.6 percent more books in 2010 than they did in 2008, according to the report. More than  2.5 billion books were sold in all formats in 2010. That’s a 4 percent hike over 2008.

Americans of all ages are actively reading in all print and digital formats. Juvenile and adult fiction have made some big annual gains.

Fiction aimed at children, teens and young adults rose 7 percent over the three years in net sales revenue and 12 percent in net unit sales.

“The BookStats study indicates that the publishing industry is healthy and growing during a time of unprecedented change,” says Dominique Raccah, founder and CEO of Sourcebooks, who chairs the BookStats committee.

And the numbers are likely to grow. The BookStats report does not include sales from 2011, which has seen a surge in ebook sales.

Check out more details of the report here.

I received a pretty great call just after dinner last night.

It was Dianna Shuford, from the Georgia Romance Writers, calling to tell me that my latest work in progress, “Tempting Bella,” is a finalist in the 2011 Maggie Contest for unpublished writers.

This is Bella’s first contest final. About 30 pages of the manuscript – plus a synopsis – were judged by two published authors.

It’s always encouraging to receive validation for my work – a little something that tells me I’m on the right track. Especially from two professionals in the field. 

“Tempting Bella” is my third completed manuscript.

It is the story of Mirabella, who is married off as a child to settle her father’s gaming debt. After the hasty marriage, she does not see her husband again for almost a decade. She grows to resent the stranger she assumes married her for her fortune and promptly forgot she existed. When they do meet again, neither knows who the other is, but the attraction (of course!) is immediate. You can read more about the story by clicking here.

There are four other finalists in the Maggie contest’s historical category.

Avon’s Tessa Woodward is the final judge.

The winner will be announced at the Georgia Romance Writers 2011 Moonlight and Magnolias conference in which runs Sept. 29 through Oct. 2.

This is my second time as a Maggie finalist. My first manuscript, “Compromising Willa,” placed second in the 2009 contest.

By the way, it’s fun to note that the winner that year was Patricia Patton for “Love and the Heir.” Later published as “The Heir” – under Patton’s pen name Grace Burrowes – the book was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Top Five Romances for 2010 and went on to become a New York Times bestseller.

So at least I can say I got beat out by a New York Times bestselling author. Not too shabby!