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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Science fiction novelist Matthew Mather led our Science Fiction Self-Published Bestsellers list with CyberStorm this month (he also spoke at our course for indie authors).

Our weekly self-published bestsellers list is often dominated by the popular genres of romance and erotica. In an effort to help GalleyCat readers find other kinds of independent authors, we will offer regular genre-focused bestseller lists for other kinds of indie writers.

To keep the list fresh, we’ve highlighted three top books from four different marketplaces. If you are an author, check out our new online course–finish your book with the help of bestselling independent authors.

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ABC Studios has picked up a TV show based on poet Jason Mott‘s The Returned, months before Harlequin MIRA releases the novel. The show is scheduled for the “2013-2014 midseason” and the novel comes out in September.

The Killing and Damages writer Aaron Zelman will write the script and Charles McDougall will direct. The cast includes Omar Epps, Frances Fisher, Sam Hazeldine, Nicholas Gonzalez and others. Here’s more from the release:

A disquieting and wholly original narrative that spans the globe and embraces the full range of humanity, The Returned is primarily centered around one family that gets caught up in a worldwide event. Harold and Lucille Hargrave lost their eight-year-old son when he drowned on his birthday nearly fifty years ago, but now Jacob has returned, exactly as he was that fateful day. Jacob is just one of the thousands of Returned who are reappearing on earth and being reunited with their families, a phenomenon that inspires mass hysteria among many. The Hargraves become caught up in the madness that engulfs their community as it navigates this strange new reality—a reality the origins and meaning of which remain unclear.

Term paper writing companies flourish online, but few people ever get to read their handiwork.

South Park, Louie, and The Chris Rock Show writer Vernon Chatman sent surreal homework assignments to writers working in the cheating industry. He republished his homework assignments and the actual essays he received in the new book, Mindsploitation: Asinine Assignments for the Online Homework Cheating Industry. Here’s a sample request:

My midterm thesis essay paper is an exploration of Alternate Endings To Great Works of Literature. All I need from you is to come up with some Alternate endings to some Great works of literature … Provide a new ending to Catcher In The Rye where Holden Caulfield turns into a crawfish and goes into some kind of retail business.

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) has established the Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award for authors over the age of 50 “who have not been traditionally published in the children’s literature field.”

There is no direct application for the award. Interested authors must apply for Work-In-Progress Grant from SCBWI and indicate on the application that they are over 50. One winner will be picked from among these applications. The winner gets $500 in cash, and free tuition to one SCBWI conference. Here’s more about the award:

Newbery Award winner Karen Cushman founded the award with and her husband, Philip Cushman, in conjunction with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Karen published her first children’s book, The Midwife’s Apprentice (winner of the 1996 Newbery Medal), at the age of fifty-three and has gone on to become one of the field’s most acclaimed novelists. “This award was established to encourage and celebrate late bloomers like me, who didn’t start to write until age fifty. But then I bloomed, and I’d love to see others do so as well,” said Karen.

The Progressive magazine has opened a line of digital books, collecting stories from a century’s worth of articles. The books were created with support from Middleton-based August Publications.

The first eBook (Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall) was inspired by President Barack Obama‘s Second Inaugural address, celebrating the American belief “that all of us are created equal” that the President called “the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.” Here’s more from the release:

Newly digitized and fully searchable, The Progressive archives are a treasure trove of progressive history, beginning with the magazine’s founding in 1909 by Fighting Bob La Follette … In its early years, it joined the cause of women’s suffrage under the leadership of Belle Case La Follette, Fighting Bob’s wife. The Progressive documented that struggle, throughout its early, suffragist years under the guidance of Belle Case La Follette, during the great civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s, and with joyful declarations of gay liberation by Allen Ginsberg and Harry Hay, founder of the modern gay rights movement … This collection also features writing from civil rights leaders, including James Baldwin and A. Phillip Randolph, in the 1950s and 1960s.

Hachette Book Group reached an agreement with OverDrive today to offer its complete eBook catalog to libraries. AppNewser has all the details about the deal.

At the same time, New York Public Library president Anthony W. Marx wrote an op-ed about progress with digital books and libraries. Check it out:

Last September, Penguin agreed to make its e-books available to patrons at the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library, but with a six-month lag for new titles. Penguin recently agreed to release e-books to libraries at the same time its hardcovers came out. In April, Simon & Schuster agreed to sell e-books to the city’s libraries. Today’s announcement by Hachette (whose imprints include Little, Brown) is the capstone of that process. Many issues still need to be sorted out. Five of the Big Six are making their entire e-book inventory available to us to choose from, while Macmillan is offering only a limited selection.

Would you like to be featured in the new book trailer for Catching Fire? Send Scholastic a video explaining why you love The Hunger Games trilogy for a chance to be included.

Follow this link to read all the rules and submission terms. Each video must contain your first name, the state where you live, and answer these questions:

• The Hunger Games: We all have our reasons. Mine is…
• I love The Hunger Games because…
• The best thing about Catching Fire is…
• Everyone should read Catching Fire because…

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Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing is reportedly planning to remove Kindle books that have fewer than 2,500 words.

At the KBoards site for Kindle readers and writers, one author shared a letter from Amazon that explained: “Content that is less than 2,500 words is often disappointing to our customers and does not provide an enjoyable reading experience.”

UPDATE: We reached out to Amazon last week for commentary, but still have not received a response. We have reached out again.

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From Amazon’s Kindle Fire to the Samsung Galaxy Note, lots of writers use Android tablets as writing tools.

Over at AppNewser, we took a look at a number of writing apps for Android tablets. We’ve written about many writing resources for Mac and iOS users, but haven’t featured tools for Android writers.

Follow this linke to explore a growing list of resources.