:: AP: ‘Potter’ Publisher Won’t Sue Teen Translator

The French publishers of the Harry Potter books said Monday they are not seeking damages from a 16-year-old who allegedly posted an unauthorized translation of the final book in the series online. The boy spent a night in jail last week in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence and was questioned by prosecutors before being released.

:: The Publishing Contrarian: The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Book Reviewers

No, I don’t mean every reviewer ought to be cashiered. I know a handful of book reviewers who are objective, insightful and truthful, and who can get you to run, breathlessly, to the book store and leap eagerly into bed with a book on Saturday night […] For the most part, however, I find reviewers just steal copy from the book jacket and promotional materials, glance at the first few pages of the book (maybe), turn in their column, collect a few measly shekels and move on to the next book, whoops, few bucks.

:: GalleyCat: Hollywood Turns to Literati for Franchises

New York’s Vulture blog might have nailed the scoop on Justin Cronin’s vampire trilogy last month, but Robert Ito played a passable game of catch-up in Saturday’s NYT arts section when it comes to the subsequent bidding war in Hollywood. For Ito, the $1.75 million sale to Fox 2000 and Ridley Scott represents “the lengths that studios will go to in search of their next franchise, at a time when it seems that all the biggest projects have already been done or spoken for.”

:: LA Times: Blair Underwood Goes Under Covers

His most inventive endeavor to date is a true passion project, in more ways than one. He’s joined forces with two established African American writer –Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes–to create Tennyson Hardwick, […] the central character in “Casanegra,” the first in a planned series of L.A.-flavored noir novels generously sprinkled with steamy erotica.