PublishersLunch

Author of the Little Bear books (justly named among the best children's books of the previous half-century by the NYT) Else Holmelund Minarik, 91, died last Thursday at her home in Sunset Beach, NC. The first of five books in the series appeared in 1957, published by Harper & Row, who would remain Minarik's publisher (as HarperCollins) for her entire career. The original Little Bear was also the first in Harper's renowned I Can Read Series. Those Little Bear books--favorites in this household as well--were illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

NYT Obit

Winners of the International Thriller Awards, presented on Saturday:
Best Hardcover Novel: 11/22/63 by Stephen King (Scribner)
Best Paperback Original: The Last Minute by Jeff Abbott (Sphere/Little, Brown UK)
Best First Novel: Spiral by Paul McEuen (Dial Press)
Best Short Story: "Half-Lives" by Tim L. Williams (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
Thrillermaster Award: Jack Higgins
Silver Bullet Award: Richard North Patterson
True Thriller Award: Ann Rule

Larry McMurtry's "The Last Book Sale" is scheduled to begin on August 10 in a two-day auction of over 300,000 books from his used bookstore Booked Up in Archer City, TX. The store, which will remain open, will retain about 100,000 volumes. McMurtry tells the WSJ,  "I have heirs. They're literate, but they're not book men. I think it would be wrong to burden them with 400,000 books. Whereas if we have this auction, it can be fun for everybody."

Amazon recently notified authors that they have expanded the access to Nielsen BookScan data they provide via Author Central. Previously they offered an eight-week window on sales; now they will display sales data going back to September 2010.

Publisher of Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy and science fiction series Wizards of the Coast has agreed to a multi-year extension of its sales and distribution relationship with Random House Publisher Services. They have been working together since 2005.