For instance, Beth Revis recently concluded the Across the Universe trilogy and celebrated by inviting her fans to download a free novella called “As They Slip Away.” Ally Carter incorporated characters from two teen series, Heist Society and the Gallagher Girls, for “Double-Crossed: A Spies and Thieves Novella.”

As we previously reported, HarperCollins established HarperTeen Impulse as a digital imprint dedicated to solely publishing short fiction. But, even before this venture came along, Divergent series author Veronica Roth penned a short story called “Free Four” and Delirium trilogy author Lauren Oliver wrote a piece called “Hana.” What do you think?

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Will text messaging and social networking harm our writing skills? Social Times has more in a detailed infographic:

A recent study suggests that the more kids text, the less they learn about proper grammar. Widespread use of social media sites and text messaging tools has given rise to a hybrid language called “techspeak” that’s riddled with acronyms and abbreviations instead of words and numbers instead of letters. This, we knew. But because students between the ages of 13 and 17 send twice as many messages as people in any other age group, “techspeak” is more likely to creep into their school assignments and give others the wrong impression about their communication skills.

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1. Bullying is THE Timely Topic in Kids’ Books

2. ’13 Will be a Lucky Number for Science Fiction Fans

3. Intriguing Nonfiction

4. Novels-in-Cartoons

5. Kid Lit on the Screen

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Venture capitalist and analyst Mary Meeker has released her annual Internet Trends report, earning 125,000 slideshow views in a single day.

Among her 80 slides about the evolution of online behavior, Meeker mapped Encyclopedia Britannica hard copy sales figures against Wikipedia’s online user growth. We’ve embedded that particular slide above–what do you think this means for print publishing?

After 244 years in print, Encyclopaedia Britannica decided to stop publishing its 32-volume print edition back in May.

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This literary art project has been curated by a mystery writer called “Narrative Urge.” Now, Narrative Urge has come forward and unmasked himself.

SPOILER ALERT: If you prefer to remain blissfully ignorant of the writer behind these messages, stop reading this post now…

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Here’s more about the program, used in one corner of Forbes‘ website: “Narrative Science has developed a technology solution that creates rich narrative content from data. Narratives are seamlessly created from structured data sources and can be fully customized to fit a customer’s voice, style and tone. Stories are created in multiple formats, including long form stories, headlines, Tweets and industry reports with graphical visualizations.”

The New York Times revealed last year that trade publisher Hanley Wood and sports journalism site The Big Ten Network also use the tool. In all, 30 clients use the software–but Narrative Science did not disclose the complete client list.

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At the same time 1.5 million users listed “writing” as a skill while 824,000 added “editing” and 408,000 included “publishing.” What do you think about these new figures?

LinkedIn emailed users this morning, encouraging them to add skills to their profile on the work-related social network–giving a picture of the sheer number of writers on the network. If you want to meet some of those writers, check out our LinkedIn Groups for Publishing Professionals.

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As the holiday season nears, one Reddit user posted this inspiring picture of a Book Christmas Tree. UPDATE: Explore our growing Book Christmas Tree Farm for inspiring photographs of other holiday book trees.

The Book Christmas Tree has already earned thousands of views. It is a simple but powerful way to show your support for print books and bookstores in this digital age. If you build your own, be sure to email GalleyCat a photograph.

We only have one question: What book will you put on top of your Book Christmas Tree?

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Share all your ideas at the #literarycostumes hastag created by Random House. 

Adventurous Writer pointed us toward a brilliant Curious George Man in the Yellow Hat costume (pictured, via).

The Book Bench set up a Flickr page collecting the best photos of literary Halloween costumes.

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The Books They Gave Me

Here’s one story from the blog: “He, lovelorn literary loser, just like me—but better at even that than I was, for I was a mere apprentice—gave me a hardcover edition of the complete poems of William Blake. I’d brought him to the legendary Hyde Park, Chicago Powell’s, and the Blake edition was on my shopping list. I was back in school at 34, newly divorced, to finish the BA in English Literature I should have taken the first time around. Starry-eyed, in love with the man and the poems, I found the book, but sadly noted its $70 price tag…”

So we just had to ask: What’s the best book you ever received as a gift from your lover? If you want to share the story of that particular gift book, email the blog with your submission. The guidelines are simple: “submit a few paragraphs and a valid URL for a cover image of the exact edition you were given, if possible.”

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The next time somebody asks you “What is steampunk?” just show them the trailer for the upcoming documentary, Vintage Tomorrows. (embedded above).

The documentary already includes authors Cherie Priest and Cory Doctorow, so we look forward to the parts about steampunk books. This GalleyCat editor has found himself stumbling to explain the word “steampunk” in the past, a unique blend of science fiction, historical fiction and crazy creativity.

Here’s more about the movie: “Trailer for the coming future casting documentary ‘Vintage Tomorrows’ about what Steampunk can teach us about the future.”

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Trying to write about hipsters but don’t speak the language? No problem. There is a new website that can help you generate hipster lingo automatically.

Hipster Ipsum helps you create “Artisanal filler text for your site or project.” You can get four paragraphs of hip words in your choice of flavor: “Hipster with a shot of Latin.,” or “Hipster, neat.”

Here is the first in series of meaningless hipster jargon that the hipster writing machine created for us: “Beard lo-fi cred, yr scenester art party vinyl put a bird on it. Farm-to-table 3 wolf moon locavore, wayfarers portland carles high life leggings tumblr. Skateboard portland farm-to-table mustache, banh mi tofu ethical. Salvia synth four loko lo-fi, artisan master cleanse +1. Banh mi raw denim aesthetic whatever retro food truck. Artisan echo park freegan sartorial 8-bit bicycle rights, farm-to-table cosby sweater twee tattooed fanny pack whatever Austin messenger bag williamsburg. Mustache lo-fi next level master cleanse before they sold out put a bird on it scenester, cosby sweater cliche retro lomo mixtape bicycle rights.” (Via BoingBoing)

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Roth released Divergent in May; Morgenstern’s book The Night Circus is due out in September and Lu’s title Legend will hit bookstores in late November. Lu sold her book’s movie rights to CBS Films. Summit Entertainment snatched up the rights to Roth and Morgenstern’s novels.

According to Variety, Harry Potter film producer David Heyman is interested in The Night Circus film. Deadline reported that Twilight film producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are looking at Legend. All three authors made an appearance at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

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In the video embedded above, YA writer John Green revealed the title for his new book (The Fault in Our Stars) and promised to sign every single one of the 150,000 books in the first print run.

Even though the manuscript is currently unfinished and the cover has yet to be finalized, the title hit #1 on the Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com bestseller list recently. Green said the publication date has been moved up from May 2012 to January 2012. The author will be video-recording himself throughout the entire signing process; the video will be available on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel he shares with his brother, Hank Green.

Here’s more from Green’s announcement: “I am doing this because 1. I like my readers, and 2. I want to find a way to thank them for choosing to read my books in this media-saturated world, and 3. I can’t tour everywhere, and it seems weird to preference readers who live near big metropolitan areas of the US over other readers, plus 4. I think it will be kind of fun unless my hand falls off.”

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Every time 10,000 Goodreads members add A Visit From the Goon Squad to their shelves, the organization promises to donate 1,000 books. So far, 25,000 members have added the book. If another 5,000 members follow, then Goodreads will provide 3,000 books.

Here’s more from the site’s blog post: “Our initial goal is to donate 5,000 books—which means we need 50,000 people to add A Visit From The Goon Squad by August 2, when the Book Club concludes with a live video chat with author Jennifer Egan. If more than 50,000 people add the book before the end date, we will honor our pledge and donate up to 10,000 books!”

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