Before today, clicking the “Follow us on Twitter” button on a website would redirect a reader to your Twitter page, a distracting detour away from your actual website.

Today Twitter changed the interface, revealing a new Follow Button that will let readers follow you without leaving your webpage. Authors, publishers and readers should all update the simple code to take advantage of the new feature. Follow this link to update your site.

Here’s more from the site: “For publishers and brands, adding the Follow Button to your website and using Twitter to stay connected with your audience is a powerful combination. People who follow your account are much more likely to retweet and engage with your Tweets, and to repeatedly visit your website.” (Via Mashable)

Here are a few literary events to brighten up your day. To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page.

Educators are invited to a Summer Reading Kickoff event at the Bronx Library Center. Graphic novelists Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier will appear so check it out on Wednesday, June 1st starting 4 p.m. (Bronx, NY)

Poet Max Blagg and artist Alfred Leslie will headline an event at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. Check it out on Wednesday, June 1st starting 7 p.m. (New York, NY)

Author Ann Patchett will appear at Barnes & Noble Union Square to talk about her book State of Wonder. Check it out on Tuesday, June 7th starting 2 p.m. (New York, NY)

The Huffington Post‘s lawyers have urged a New York City judge to dismiss Jonathan Tasini‘s lawsuit filed on behalf of unpaid bloggers on the site. The filing argued that “no rule of statutory or common law, in New York or elsewhere, recognizes such a remarkable and unwarranted intrusion into the relationship between publishers and contributors.”

In April, Tasini (pictured, via) filed a class action lawsuit against Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post and AOL. The suit includes an estimated 9,000 unpaid bloggers and seeks damages of at least $105 million.

Here’s an excerpt from the motion (PDF link): “many of the 216 blog postings cited in the Complaint demonstrate on their face that Mr. Tasini took full advantage of the platform The Huffington Post gave him. They show, for example, that Mr. Tasini used his Huffington Post blog to sell copies of books he authored, to link to his personal ‘micro-blogging’ account at the Twitter.com website, and to announce one of his Senatorial campaigns and solicit donations for another.” (Via PaidContent)

In an article at Utah’s KSL.com,  psychologist and author Dr. Juli Slattery compared romance novels to pornography. As the article stirred controversy on Twitter, author Jason Pinter started a satirical “romance kills” hashtag (examples follow below).

Here is an excerpt from the article: “Men are very visual, and viewing pornography produces a euphoric drug in the body. This drug is the reason pornography becomes addictive. When the natural high wears off, a man will crash and feel depressed (as happens with any drug) and crave another hit. Women are more stimulated by romance than sex, so when they read romantic stories (and they don’t have to be explicit to work) they can experience the same addicting chemical release as men do.”

What do you think? The article explored Slattery’s book, Finding the Hero in your Husband, ultimately offering tips for avoiding romance novel addiction. Step one was simple: “commit to stop reading any books that are contributing to this problem.” (Image via)

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To say Gaby Rodriguez‘s life has changed in the last few weeks is a gross understatement. After Rodriguez created a live social experiment for her senior class project, posing as a pregnant teen at her high school, she had no idea it would create a national stir.

Friends, students and even relatives were led to believe that she was pregnant for 6 1/2 months in order gauge their reactions and prejudice toward teen moms.
The experiment was successful and the reaction, after Rodriguez’s big reveal, was overwhelming.

First, over 100 news outlets around the world begged her for interviews and then she took her first airplane flight ever to appear with Matt Lauer in a heart-to-heart for the Today Show followed by an appearance on Telemundo.

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Release dates have been announced for the Peter Jackson‘s two Hobbit movies.

According to Variety, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will come out on December 14, 2012 and The Hobbit: There and Back Again will hit theaters on December 13, 2013. The video embedded above features a tour of The Hobbit‘s set.

Here’s more from the article: “Jackson began shooting the two films in New Zealand in 3D in mid-March with a cast including Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett reprising their roles from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Bloom joined the cast Friday to portray the elf Legolas.”

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Nearly all writers launch some sort of blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page and/or Tumblr blog to promote their book online. But most of them have no idea how to get people to actually read these sites.

Over at Splitsider, author and Tumblr blogger Jill Morris (pictured, via) explained How to Become a Published Author in 237 Simple Steps–a useful and funny guide to online promotion.  Below, we’ve highlighted a few tools we never knew existed.

1. Listorious: “the best Twitter people search on the web so you can find anyone by topic, region or profession — powered by data from the tens of thousands of list curators. Once you find the right person, you can interview them by asking questions over Listorious.”

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Golden Globe-winner Donald Sutherland (pictured, via) has been cast as President Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games film adaptation.

Sutherland has acted in literary adaptations including Pride & Prejudice and The Eagle. He has also played roles in the television adaptations of Ken Follet‘s Pillars of the Earth and Robert Louis Stevenson‘s Treasure Island.

Here’s more about the character from the release: “President Snow has been the autocratic ruler of Panem and its contained districts for some 25 years at the outset of the story. He is cruel and ruthless in his intimidation and control tactics.”

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Author Paulo Coelho will judge a fable writing-contest at the young adult writing community, Figment. The winner will receive $1,000 in prize money.

Here are more details about the contest: “Your challenge is to write a fable (a short story with a moral) in less than 1200 words, set in a fictional country on the day before the final battle in a devastating war. Paulo Coelho will read the finalists and decide the winner. Which is kind of like having your poem read by Robert Frost or your play read by Arthur Miller. Which is, well, amazing.”

Internet voters will determine the ten finalists. Writers have until Saturday, June 19th to submit their fables. Voting will end on Friday, July 1st.

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As we previously noted, Liberty Media Corporation, a company chaired by entrepreneur John C. Malone, has submitted a proposal to bid for Barnes & Noble. The offer of $17 per share appraises the company valuation at $1.02 billion. Last week a New York Times article speculated on why Liberty bid for Barnes & Noble.

Here’s more from the article: “So far, most of the reasons given for the interest in Barnes & Noble center on its e-reader, the Nook. Mr. Malone implied that the Nook was a primary reason for Liberty Media’s bid at the company’s shareholder meeting on Monday. Though exact figures are unavailable, Barnes & Noble captured as much as 27 percent of the e-book market with its Nook, according to a Goldman Sachs report.”

The article also offered the theory that Borders’ bankruptcy has also influenced Malone’s offer. Borders’ struggles helped eliminate competition on the brick and mortar side of the business. What do you foresee for the bookseller’s future? (via Publishers Weekly)