Science fiction novelist Hugh Howey topped our Self Published Bestsellers List this week with two collections from his Wool series rising on Amazon.

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.

If you are an independent author looking for support, check out our free directory of people looking for writers groups.

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Amazon Publishing has revealed the five finalists in each category of its sixth Breakthrough Novel Award competition.

We’ve linked to all the winners and descriptions of their books below–what’s your favorite? Here’s more from the bookseller:

From now through May 29,Amazon customers are encouraged to read excerpts from the winning books and vote for their favorite novel at www.amazon.com/abna to choose the Grand Prize winner. The Grand Prize winner will be revealed at a special awards ceremony in Seattle on June 15, 2013 and will receive a contract from Amazon Publishing, as well as a $50,000 advance. The remaining winners will each be awarded a publishing contract with a $15,000 advance.

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Seattle-area’s Once Sold Tales will close, and the owner is struggling to find homes for 500,000 books before her warehouse closes at the end of the month.

If you live near Seattle, you can visit the warehouses yourself. (Google maps link). A former employee posted those pictures of the store’s enormous warehouses and is trying to arrange a book sale on Reddit to avoiding pulping the books. Check it out:

Times have not been good to bookstores and Carrie is closing her store. She currently has about half a million books that she wants to find homes for. Because housing all these books is now costing more than she or her business can afford, Carrie is left with few options. If nothing is done, she will have to pulp all books left unsold. While there are many pounds of books, nobody wants that … Carrie will be operating her website and selling books at the warehouse (1$ for paperbacks, 2$ for hardback, or 1.50$/lb) until the end of May … Details are still getting worked out but it looks like 10 dollars for 8 books or 18 for 16. Details forthcoming as well as how to actually make the order.

Erotica romance author Maya Banks has inked a “multi-million dollar deal” with Berkley Books for a new trilogy.

Trident Media Group executive vice president Kimberly Whalen negotiated the deal with Berkley executive editor Cindy Hwang. Here’s more from the release:

Berkley will publish simultaneous digital and trade paperback editions of each book. Brilliance Audio has acquired audio rights in a six-figure deal … The new trilogy will be set in Houston, Texas amidst a world Banks originally created for the Sweet Series. Focusing on the lives and friendships of a closely intertwined group of people, the series will explore the friends’ tragedies and triumphs as well as their darkest fears and secrets.

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Bernard Waber, the author of The House on East 88th Street, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and other classic kid’s books, has passed away.

After World War II, the young artist changed his plans to study finance and took on art instead. he The House on East 88th Street captured his memories of moving to New York City as a young artist and newlywed. He shared his memories in a moving essay:

My involvement with children’s books originated with some illustrations of children I carried in my art portfolio. Several art directors suggested that my drawings seemed suited for children’s books. At the same time, I was also having read-aloud sessions with my own three children. I am afraid enthusiasm for “their” books began, in fact, to cause them occasional discomfort. “Daddy, why don’t you look at the grownups’ books?” they once chided as I trailed after them into the children’s room of our local library. Before long I was mailing out stories and ideas to publishers. Rejections followed, but after a time a cheery encouragement arrived from Houghton Mifflin Company, and to my delight, a contract was offered for Lorenzo. In one way or another, I seem to find myself thinking of children’s books most of the time.

Novelist Stephen King has made headlines for the second time over his decision not publish an eBook edition of Joyland.

In May 2012, King revealed that his Hard Case Crime book would not have a digital edition: “We’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one,” he said. As the Junte 2013 publication date neared this week, King told The Wall Street Journal:

I have no plans for a digital version … Maybe at some point, but in the meantime, let people stir their sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one.

Instead of a treehouse, one father with an avid young reader built his daughter a reading nook in a tree.

We’ve embedded his photograph above–would you love a treehouse reading nook this summer? The proud parent posted about his creation on Reddit:

It’s about 7 ft off the ground. All the weight is supported by the bolts in the main trunk and the thick branch opposite the platform. I boxed around that support branch so as to minimize strain as the tree inevitably grows. The steel cables are most definitely overkill backup support, but they don’t seem to be needed even at 3x her weight … She was away at a friends for most of it. I had the joists and half the decking done when she got home. It was fun to have her sit up on the finished part if the deck and space / position the boards before I secured each one. The whole process went surprisingly quickly.

I love this word so much, I had it illustrated for us. Abibliophobia: the fear of running out of reading material. twitter.com/SmartBitches/s…

— Sarah Wendell (@SmartBitches) May 20, 2013

Do you suffer from abibliophobia? I know I do.

Over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, author Sarah Wendell posted an illustrated definition for the word that means “the fear of running out of reading material.”

Last week, we introduced you to the Japanese word “Tsundoku,” which is the “act of leaving a book unread after buying it.” Perhaps this is the dark side of abibliophobia, but I don’t want to be cured…

The Doors co-founder and author Ray Manzarek has passed away. He was 74 years old.

We’ve created a Spotify playlist below, linking to his music, interviews and work with poets. The rock keyboardist wrote a few books, including The Poet in Exile: A Novel and his Light My Fire memoir. You can read Entertainment Weekly had this obituary for the rock star:

As a member of the legendary rock band that formed in 1965 in Los Angeles and effectively ended with the death of frontman Jim Morrison in 1971 … [he] wrote a best-selling memoir about his experiences, Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors, in 1998. The Doors sold more than 100 million albums worldwide on the strength of hits like ”Hello, I Love You,” “Riders on the Storm,” “Light My Fire,” and “Break On Through to the Other Side.”

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Bowker launched the Self Published Author site today, sharing advice for indie authors about topics ranging from an overview of self-publishing platforms for your book to writing back cover copy.

Bowker is the US agency that writers and publishers must use to register for an International Standard Book Number (or ISBN) for their book. The new site shares some useful advice about why an ISBN matters and how to get your ISBN. Here’s an excerpt:

If you are publishing a book, you are a publisher. You don’t need a corporate entity to purchase ISBNs. You can purchase them under your own name, or create a name for yourself as a publisher – e.g. “Laura Dawson Publishing”. This name does not need to be registered in any way … There is no such thing as an e-ISBN. ISBNs are ISBNs – some identify physical products in the book supply chain, others identify digital products in the book supply chain. Vendors who ask for information about your e-ISBNs are using incorrect terminology – they simply want the ISBNs of your digital products.

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