Penguin will pay $75 million in damages and “costs and fees to resolve all antitrust claims relating to eBook pricing”–settling with 33 state attorneys general and consumers in a suit led by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.

The suit revolved around allegations of price fixing with the agency model for eBook pricing. The publisher issued a brief statement:

Penguin has also committed to the State Attorneys General to abide by the same injunctive relief as previously agreed in a separate settlement with the Department of Justice. In anticipation of reaching this agreement, Pearson had made a $40m provision for settlement in its 2012 accounts. An incremental charge will be expensed in Pearson’s 2013 statutory accounts as part of the accounting for the Penguin Random House joint-venture.

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Amazon Publishing has reached out to fan fiction writers with Kindle Worlds, a platform allowing authors to write fan fiction based on someone else’s work and share royalties with the rights holders.

Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division will work with Amazon on the program, letting fans write about Cecily von Ziegesar‘s Gossip Girl, Sara Shepard‘s Pretty Little Liars and L.J. Smith‘s Vampire Diaries. Fan fiction writers can publish their own work about these stories in the Kindle Store. The program launches in June. Here’ more about the payment structure:

Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to both the rights holders of the Worlds and the author. The standard author’s royalty rate (for works of at least 10,000 words) will be 35% of net revenue. As with all titles from Amazon Publishing, Kindle Worlds will base net revenue off of sales price—rather than the lower, industry standard of wholesale price—and royalties will be paid monthly.

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Horror author H. P. Lovecraft meets picture book creator Eric Carle in Ben Mund‘s book, The Very Hungry Cthulhupillar. With 11 days left in the campaign, this Kickstarter project has drawn more than $9,500 from its supporters. We’ve embedded a video about the project above–what do you think?

Here’s more about the project: “Cthulhu has eaten your childhood! We are publishing The Very Hungry Cthulhupillar, a full color, fully-illustrated book in the style of a classic piece of children’s literature—not actually intended for a young audience. A cthulhupillar eats more and more to sate his ravenous appetite … and what shall he become?”

Welcome to our Kickstarter Publishing Project of the Week, a feature exploring how authors and publishers are using the fundraising site to raise money for book projects. If you want to start your own project, check out How To Use Kickstarter to Fund Your Publishing Project.

Thousands of library patrons around New York City have mailed letters trying to avoid $47 million in budget cuts at New York Public Library.

Follow this link to send a letter supporting the library system. You can also see how many other library patrons in your neighborhood have sent letters. You can also donate to the library during this tough time. Check it out:

The Library has always relied on the support of individuals like you. Your donations have become increasingly vital over the last five years, and will only become more important as city funding continues to decline. Today more New Yorkers than ever depend on the Library, and the numbers keep growing. A $47 million cut in funding threatens the services they need and the materials they access. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Your generosity will help serve the next person in need…one gift at a time.

The new Story app from Disney will let you create a simple digital book to share with friends and family.

It is a great way to create something new with the kid in your life. AppNewser has more:

The app accesses a user’s camera roll and the user can add photos and videos to the app to create a story. Users can write captions and create spreads of their various pictures and content. They can add pages of text, themes and layouts. These photo stories are designed to be shared. So a user can simply tap to share with friends on Facebook or via email. The photos are not public, and a friend or family member will need an invitation to view a story. Stories can also be embedded onto a website or blog. The app is also synced with iCloud, so that users can back up all of their stories.

This week, Random House is hiring an executive editor for Crown Publishing, and Bedford/St. Martin’s is seeking a marketing manager. Meanwhile, Hachette needs an associate art director, and St. Martin’s Press is on the hunt for a senior publicist. Get the scoop on these openings and more below, and find additional just-posted gigs on Mediabistro.

• Executive Editor Random House (New York, NY)
• Marketing Manager Bedford/St. Martin’s (New York, NY)
• Associate Art Director Hachette Book Group (New York, NY)
• Senior Publicist St. Martin’s Press (New York, NY)
• Publicist Brown Books Publishing Group (New York, NY)

Find more great publishing jobs on the GalleyCat job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented GalleyCat pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

We’ve had a number of job changes in the publishing world this week.

Cal Morgan will leave his post as publisher at HarperCollins’ It Books imprint to serve as senior vice president and executive editor at the Harper division. Morgan will continue on as editorial director for Harper Perennial and Harper paperbacks.

Throughout his career, he has worked on projects with several celebrity authors such as Amy Poehler, Alan Cumming, and Tom Piazza.

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The Gracie Awards were held last night in Los Angeles, celebrating “outstanding programming for, by and about women.”

I battled my way through the crowded red carpet, getting some writing advice from two authors at the show. Shaun Robinson took the “Outstanding Host” award last night for her work on Access Hollywood, but she shared some simple advice for writers:

I wrote a book on girls and self-esteem called Exactly as I Am. It’s about giving girls advice about believing in yourself and dreaming big. It’s all about this: Every no brings you closer to a yes. Every no puts you closer to a yes. If one person tells you no, that’s one door. There’s another door that’s going to open.

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In the latest installment of So What Do You Do?, Mediabistro talked to Sara Shepard, author of the bestselling YA series Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game. The prolific writer, who has published 20 books in eight years, talks about getting her series optioned as TV shows, how she got into YA and how any writer can get more words onto the page:

“I am a big outliner. For my adult book, The Visibles, I did not outline, and it took me two years to write because I just didn’t outline and I had no path,” she said. “The other thing is, because I have really crazy deadlines, I have to write everyday. So, I can’t just sit there and stare at the page. So what I usually do is, I write something. Even if it’s bad, even if I go back later, and I’m like, ‘This is such a bad chapter, and I’m going to have to revise it,’ having words down is better than having nothing.

For the full interview, read So What Do You Do, Sara Shepard, Author of Pretty Little Liars?

Novelist Iain M. Banks shared an update on his condition with fans this week. The novelist recently revealed that he is battling advanced cancer with doctors predicting he has ”several months” to live.

He has worked to write admiring letters to his favorite writers, including M. John Harrison and Alasdair Gray. He added:

I want to say thank you to all of you for your messages, your memories, your wit, your sympathy and your kind, supportive thoughts. It means a lot, almost more than I can say, and – whatever type or size of screen I read the comments on – I come away from the computer, laptop, iPad or phone with a happy smile on my face.

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