The social publishing website Scribd "denied that the company encourages copyright infringement" in response to a lawsuit filed by author Elaine Scott, which "alleged that Scribd violated Scott's copyright and those belonging to many others," CNET News reported.

"Ms. Scott's lawsuit is without merit," the company said in a statement. "Scribd is an online service provider that complies with--and goes above and beyond--the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Scribd therefore is entitled to the full protection of the DMCA's safe harbor provisions."

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The National Book Foundation has invited readers to vote for one of six finalists for the all-time Best of the National Book Awards Fiction. The shortlist of titles that have previously won the National and American Book Awards for fiction was selected by 140 writers from across the U.S. The NBF is also offering online voters the chance to have their e-mail address entered for a drawing to win two tickets to the 60th National Book Awards, November 18, and two nights at a hotel.

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The Free Library of Philadelphia, which was in danger of closing October 2 if the state didn't pass necessary funding, offered good news on its website: "We are thrilled to announce that the Pennsylvania State Senate passed bill 1828 by a vote of 32 to 17. For all of you who have been following the saga over the city's budget crisis, this is the legislation that was needed for the City of Philadelphia to avoid the 'Doomsday' Plan C budget scenario, which would have resulted in the layoff of 3,000 city employees and forced the closing of all libraries."

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The Book Nest, Burkburnett, Tex., opened because owner JoAnn Howell "was driving through downtown Burkburnett one day when she noticed a 'For Rent' sign in a small storefront," according to the Times Record News.

"I just saw this little place and just loved it," she said. "I couldn't help but open a bookstore. I was thinking it was a good thing to have in Burkburnett. . . . The city of Burkburnett is working to try to draw more clientele downtown so people will see what we have here. The whole downtown, the businesses are really working together to make this a nice place for people to come and shop."

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Among the 24 winners of this year's MacArthur "genius awards," which give recipients $100,000 a year for five years, are writer Edwidge Danticat, short story writer Deborah Eisenberg and poet Heather McHugh.

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Book Trailer of the Day: Bent Objects: The Secret Life of Everyday Things by Terry Border (Running Press).

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Barnes & Noble is counting. The company said that downloads for the B&N Bookstore app and the B&N eReader app for iPhones and iPod Touches have hit the million mark. In addition, the B&N eReader app has been No. 1 in the ITunes books category through the summer, and B&N store customers have had almost two million AT&T wi-fi sessions since the service was made complimentary in all B&N stores six weeks ago.

Earlier this month Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly gave a slideshow presentation and signed copies of their new book, The TOON Treasury of Children's Comics (Abrams ComicArts), at the Strand Book Store in New York City. As part of the New Yorker Festival, they'll appear at Books of Wonder on October 17 and McNally Jackson on October 18.

Photo: Christina Foxley.

Humor author Pamela Redmond Satran offers many lessons. For one, she advises those of us who are not-so-hip that the young and vibrant read vampire romances and graphic novels while assiduously avoiding eternal dieting, perpetual negativity, excessive housework or anything in leopard print spandex.

How Not to Act Old (Harper, $14.99, 9780061771309/780061771309), Satran's self-help humor book inspired by the eponymous blog site known by its acronym HNTAO, was released August 7 and immediately hit the New York. Times Paperback Advice Bestseller List at the No. 7 slot, thanks to pre-pub orders fueled by the author's tireless electronic networking outreach. This included early cross-posting on the Huffington Post, marketing through More.com magazine in conjunction with Barnes & Noble.com and scoring a Best New Humor Website plug in the Los Angeles Times last year.

The lesson in this: as she has before for various literary projects, Satran was able to harness the evanescent attention and lightning-fast Internet connections needed to cross from blog to book to YouTube to Facebook, Twitter, print media, TV and beyond. And she did so on the cheap. Her start-up costs were "zero," plus "my own sweat-equity," she said.

After posting 70 entries on her new HNTAO blog site in July 2008, Satran went from web launch to book contract in six weeks, and from contract to book in a year. The book's been favorably reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and has taken her to the Early Show, Good Day New York and dozens of radio spots. In July, Slate's doublex.com Hanna Rosin praised "the great genius of How Not to Act Old," and the New York Times Book Review featured Satran at the top of "Inside the List."

Ironically Satran started the HNTAO blog after trying unsuccessfully to place a piece on the same topic in a national magazine.

"This is a hard market for people to understand," Satran said of her largely over-40, predominantly female market. "Ageism is deep-seated and pervasive and really at its heart is very vicious. I sometimes think that young people secretly wish we'd all go off somewhere and just die."

But not her. Blogging, Satran said, has "revolutionized the way I think about my writing, and energized me as a writer." That energy has helped her to create a hilarious series of YouTube promotional videos to support the HNTAO brand and helped her to explore new ways of making money for nameberry.com, the baby naming website she launched in October 2008 with her partner Linda Rosenkrantz  (Shelf Awareness, November 23, 2008). Nameberry.com tracks 1.6 million page views and 130 unique visitors each month revenues, and Satran writes a regular blog feed for the site.

Also an accomplished novelist, Satran has embarked on a major project that will bend, blend and expand on book and TV series formats to take advantage of what she sees as the ongoing revolution in entertainment media.

"I think the marketplace is bored with novels," she said. "I am really bored with the idea of writing another stupid 'good girl' book."

While the rest of us might plant a garden (old!) or take up golf (really old!) in response to boredom, Satran is preparing for an October launch of a "web-based serialized novel with multi-media elements" that she's calling HoSprings--as in Hot Springs, with a burnt-out light bulb in place of the missing "t." The plot revolves around a traveling musician, Arkansas street bands, a fortune teller and a host of colorful characters. She's currently auditioning musicians to compose and perform music videos for the show/site.

"If I have any secret, it's one that I'm just discovering myself: that is, to trust your impulses and do exactly what you feel like and try to tune out anybody who tells you it's not good," she said. "There's a direct relationship between my best work and the number of people who told me it sucked and I shouldn't do it."

Like HNTAO, Satran's newest project is based on an idea she was unable to launch in the traditional marketplace. In this case, TV.--Laurie Lico Albanese

Tomorrow morning on the Early Show: Craig Ferguson, author of American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot (Harper, $25.99 9780061719547/0061719544).

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Tomorrow on Oprah: Mackenzie Phillips, author of High on Arrival (Simon Spotlight, $25.99, 9781439153857/143915385X).

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Tomorrow night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Tom Ridge, author of The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege . . . And How We Can Be Safe Again (Thomas Dunne, $25.99, 9780312534875/0312534876).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: A.J. Jacobs, author of The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781416599067/1416599061).

Thursday evening 8-9 p.m. ET is the premiere on ABC of the show FlashForward, based on the book by Robert J. Sawyer that was originally published in 1999. Tor has two TV series tie-in editions: trade paper ($13.99, 9780765324139/076532413X) and mass market ($7.99, 9780765363831/0765363836).

Sawyer has won the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial awards.

Author Nick Hornby is writing "a feature-length animation about how babies are made," the Guardian reported. The Babymakers will be a family adventure about "the little creatures inside the body that put the components of a baby together," said producer Finola Dwyer.

The script for is due in early 2010, "once Hornby has finished writing the lyrics for U.S singer-songwriter Ben Folds's new album and completed promotional duties for his latest novel, Juliet, Naked," according to the Guardian,

Producers Dwyer and Amanda Posey, are also developing a film version of Hornby's A Long Way Down, and his How to Be Good is being developed by Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin.

This year's Giller Prize longlist consists of 12 books, 10 by women, and includes Margaret Atwood. The C$50,000 (US$46,400) prize honors "the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English." The shortlisted finalists will be announced October 6.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, September 29:

The Time of My Life by Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi (Atria, $26, 9781439158586/1439158584) chronicles the late Swayze's accomplished career and struggle with pancreatic cancer.

Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel by Audrey Niffenegger (Scribner, $26.99, 9781439165393/1439165394) is a tale about twin sisters who discover their aunt's ghost still residing in an inherited home.

The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King--A Nonfiction Thriller by James Patterson and Martin Dugard (Little, Brown, $26.99, 9780316034043/0316034045) presents a scenario explaining the death of King Tut, the Egyptian pharaoh who rose to power at age nine and ruled only nine years.

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Riverhead, $25.95, 9781594488870/1594488878) follows a washed up musician struggling with love while creating acoustic versions of his once popular songs.

Rough Country by John Sandford (Putnam, $26.95, 9780399155987/0399155988) is the newest mystery with Minnesota investigator Virgil Flowers.

Syren by Angie Sage, illustrated by Mark Zug (Katherine Tegen Books, $17.99, 9780060882105/0060882107) is the fifth entry in the fantasy Magykal series.


Now in paperback:

Sookie Stackhouse 8-copy Boxed Set (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood) by Charlaine Harris (Ace, $63.92, 9780441018239/0441018238).

Covet: A Novel of the Fallen Angels by J.R. Ward (Signet, $7.99, 9780451228215/0451228219).