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On the Books: Hachette to experiment with Twitter

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Less than a month after resolving its feud with one digital titan, Hachette has announced plans to partner with another. The book publisher announced a system Monday where authors will now have the option to sell their books directly through Twitter, without forcing followers to leave the social networking site. Hachette will specifically partner with Gumroad, a company that facilitates the sales by adding a “Buy” option on relevant tweets.

Hachette publishes prominent authors including James Patterson and Malcolm Gladwell. The publisher plans to test its new approach using some of the big names on its roster, coupled with perks to incentivize buying through Twitter. For example, Twitter users who purchase Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking will also receive one of her original manuscript pages, complete with notes from her husband Neil Gaiman. [The New York Times]

A new study from Scholastic reveals some startling statistics about kids and their reading habits. According to “The Kids & Family Reading Report: Fifth Edition,” 73 percent of kids say they’d read more if they could find more books they like. Seventy percent want books that’ll make them laugh, while 54 percent want stories that’ll force them to use their imagination. We get it—with Netflix, YouTube, and iPads, books face some serious competition. Good thing we’ve got just the cure for a stale reading list. [Mediabistro]

Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing died last year, but her legacy continues to live on. The British author was expelled from Zimbabwe early in her career for speaking out against the country’s policies of racial discrimination; now the country will host her collection of books. Over 3,000 of Lessing’s books were donated to the Harare City Library, extending a legacy she started by opening libraries to help people in rural communities access books. [AP]

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