Lit Tidbits

• Happy NaNoWriMo! November is National Novel Writing Month. If you are writing romance, submit your novel to HarperCollins Avon Impulse. If you are interested in a critique or editing services, please contact me.
• Twitter will host a Fiction Festival in late November. Submissions are due by November 15. 
• Bowker reports that in 2011, about 235,000 titles were self-published in the U.S., of which 87,000 were eBooks. 
• Guess who finally boarded the Fifty Shades train. "For the first time I can take some guilty pleasure and just read," says Oprah about the famous trilogy.
• Oscar winner Octavia Spencer (Minny in The Help) is starting a YA book series. Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time Capsule Bandit is scheduled to release in Fall 2013.
• The PIN pads in 63 Barnes & Noble stores have been hacked. Visit here for the press release and a list of the stores affected (states CA, CT, FL, IL, MA, NJ, NY, PA and RI). Online purchases and purchases made through NOOK devices were not affected. 
• A new version of iBooks and iBooks Author was released on October 23.
• R.L. Stine published a Halloween story on Twitter. Visit his timeline (@RL_Stine) to read it.
• The 2012 Essence of Motown Literary Jam & Conference is November 9-11. #MotownLit
• Beginning Cyber Monday (November 26) and ending Sunday (December 2), if you shop at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide, present the cashier with a specific voucher. A percentage of the sale will be donated to the Troy Public Library in Michigan.