More than 600,000 readers have pondered the screenshot embedded above, illustrating how an informal definition of the word “literally” has spread to Google. “We did it guys, we finally killed English,” wrote the person who shared the photo.

If you Google the phrase “define literally,” the dictionary listing now includes this secondary definition: “Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling.”

You can read other dictionary definitions at this link. For years, passionate grammar defenders have railed against this common and informal use of the word “literally.” Some people use the word to provide exaggerated emphasis for a statement: “I love Raymond Chandler so much I literally read The Long Goodbye one hundred times.”

Novelist Leighann Dobbs took three spots on our Self-Published Bestsellers List this week with her cozy mystery, 3 Bodies and a Biscotti.

To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we compile weekly lists of the top eBooks in four major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, B&N, Apple iBookstore and Smashwords. You can read all the lists below, complete with links to each book.

If you want more resources as an author, try our Free Sites to Promote Your eBook post, How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores post and our How to Pitch Your Book to Online Outlets post.

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Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.

To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.

The August edition of the Franklin Park Reading Series will feature five writers including noted short fiction specialist Amy Hempel. Check it out on Monday, August 12th at Franklin Park Bar & Beer Garden starting 8 p.m. (Brooklyn, NY)

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Bestselling author David Baldacci  has signed a deal with Scholastic for a middle grade fantasy novel.

The children’s publisher will release The Finisher next March, the story of a fourteen-year-old girl named Vega Jane.

Scholastic Trade president Ellie Berger negotiated the deal with Aaron Priest, of the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency. Executive editor Rachel Griffiths will edit the manuscript.

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Fans of Charles Bukowski can listen to audiobook editions of his work for the first time ever. HarperCollins plans to release eight audiobooks for the late writer’s 93rd birthday. The digital audiobooks will be available on August 13th.

The books include: Post Office, South of No North, Factotum, Women, Ham on Rye, Hot Water Music, Hollywood, and Pulp. Actor and audiobook narrator Christian Baskous  will read the books.  Ecco publisher Daniel Halpern had this comment:

It would be Bukowski himself reading here, if the technology had advanced quickly enough.  But his voice rings clear and deep in these renditions – and from them, the genius of Bukowski flows forth.

(Image via)

How do you balance your creative life and your family life? An unexpected video game will help players around the world confront that problem.

We’ve embedded the trailer for The Novelist below–what do you think? Developer Kent Hudson spent over ten years working on major video game releases like Deus Ex: Invisible War and BioShock 2, but felt “creatively restless.” Nearly two years ago, he left work and started an indie video game. Here’s more about the game:

The desire for relatable, universal subject matter led to its focus on a single family. During its development, the concept began to hit closer and closer to home; as months passed and the challenges of independent development made themselves known, Kent faced scenarios eerily similar to those he was creating in the game. Can a person follow their dreams while remaining connected to those they love?

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Seven-time Grammy Award-winning band Coldplay (pictured, via) will release a song called “Atlas” for the Catching Fire soundtrack.

Lead singer Chris Martin tweeted a photo of the handwritten lyrics (embedded below),  lyrics based on the second book in Suzanne Collins‘ Hunger Games series.

“Atlas” will be released as a digital download on August 26th.

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You only have a few more hours to submit the first 500 words of your suspense manuscript to the Friedrich Literary Agency’s Vivid Voices Contest.

The three prizes include: a full manuscript evaluation by agent Lucy Carson, a query evaluation and free book, or a query evaluation. To submit, email your materials to vividvoicescontest (at) gmail (dot) com before 5 p.m. EST today (August 12). Here’s more about the contest:

an entry consists of the first 500 words of your novel (yes, we are asking for fiction only) OR short story (if and only if that story is part of a suspense-themed collection which is complete), along with your full name, working title of the submission, and confirmation that the project is not under consideration at another agency at this time … After your first 500 words, please include 2-3 paragraphs describing the complete project.

Chooseco, the official publisher of Choose Your Own Adventure books, hopes to raise $130,000 on Kickstarter to finance a new cartoon app.

CEO R.A. Montgomery and publisher Shannon Gilligan launched the campaign for “Choose Toons,” a project that would adapt Choose Your Own Adventure books for 5 to 7 year old readers in a new format. Here’s more about the project:

Our first episode is based on the title Your Very Own Robot, where YOU put together a robot named Gus out of discarded parts from your parents’ robot lab. Gus gets you into a lot of trouble. This first episode has 20 story branches with11 possible endings, with more than 30 minutes total of animation … $130,000 will fully fund one 32-minute app in what we plan to eventually develop into a series of cartoons. This amount funds the animation, voice acting, and programming of the choice points within the app. The script is already complete. We developed the demo seen in our video ourselves and our Vermont-based team has experience writing scripts, working on film projects, and developing software.

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AMC released an unusual trailer for the final episodes of Breaking Bad, as star Bryan Cranston read “Ozymandias” by the great poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley.

We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think? If you want to explore more Shelley poetry and essays before the final episodes begin this weekend, we’ve collected a long list of free books by the author. Open Culture has more about the poem:

It seems perfectly in character, then, that the show’s producers would tease the final season with the ominous and dusty clip above, with Cranston reading Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet “Ozymandias,” a poem about the hubris of another desert tyrant—well-known for his megalomaniacal folly—Ramesses II (also known by a transliteration of his throne name, Ozymandias).

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