Hundreds of agents, editors and publishers have shared their manuscript wish lists on Twitter, using the popular MSWL hashtag.

Below, we’ve created a Storify post linking to many of the posts from the hashtag–they are arranged in a massive list, in no particular order. The list is perfect if you are looking for a literary agent or some literary inspiration.

If you want more, young adult writer KK Hendin created an Agent and Editor Wish List Tumblr page linking to many of the posts in a simple format. (Image via waferboard)

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Looking for independently published children’s books? Every month, we sample books from this growing corner of the publishing industry.

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–we’ve highlighted three top children’s books from three different marketplaces.

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

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In this vintage edition of the Morning Media Menu, we interviewed Where’d You Go, Bernadette author Maria Semple. Press play below to listen on SoundCloud.

She talked about her transition from television scriptwriter to novelist. Semple wrote for shows that included Beverly Hills 90210, Saturday Night Live, Mad About You, and Arrested Development.

During the interview, Semple (pictured, via) delivered some tough and timeless advice for writers considering moving into scriptwriting.

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Focus Features has set a release date of Friday, August 1st, 2014 for the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey. The film’s Facebook page featured a picture of Christian Grey’s helicopter.

Sam Taylor-Johnson will direct the movie and Kelly Marcel wrote the screenplay.  Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti and E. L. James will produce.

Last year, we wrote about the lost history of Fifty Shades of Grey, exploring the book’s origins as Twilight fan fiction.

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Scholastic showed off the new cover for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at LeakyCon in Portland, Oregon.

Below, you can see two more new covers. The annual convention celebrates Harry Potter fandom. Fans can buy the complete set of new paperbacks starting on August 27, 2013. Here’s more from the press release:

In each of the new cover illustrations, Kibuishi perfectly captures a pivotal moment from that particular book. For Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, he brings in more of the mystery and darkness of the series than he did the first two titles and depicts Harry conjuring his Patronus to ward off the life-sucking dementors. Fifteen years after the first U.S. publication of J.K. Rowling’s first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in September 1998, there are more than 150 million Harry Potter books in print in the United States alone and the series still hits bestseller lists regularly.

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Here are some handpicked titles from our Coming Attractions page. Want to include your book? Just read our Share Your New Book with GalleyCat Readers post for all the details.

Are You My Mommy? by Janet Louise Stephenson: “Two sisters passed around from family to family as toddlers, handled their situation in dramatically different ways. The older sister internalized the abandonment and rejection, while the younger sister eagerly embraced each new mother figure asking, ‘Are you my mommy?’” (January 2013)

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Ever wonder what it would be like to get a private email from your favorite writer?

Author, artist and filmmaker Miranda July will send you an email from an author or celebrity. You can sign up for free, to get a peek at the way different authors write to their friends. AppNewser has more:

If getting inside the heads of celebrities sounds appealing to you, then you are going to love Miranda July‘s latest project “We Think Alone.” The author/filmmaker has asked ten famous people to share previously sent private emails so that she can use them to craft digital portraits. Participants include: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lena Dunham, Kirsten Dunst, Sheila Heti, Etgar Keret, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Catherine Opie, Lee Smolin and Danh Vo. Readers can opt in to receive a weekly email newsletter with communications from all ten of the personalities.

Unless you are one of the very lucky few who win the book deal lottery, a book advance won’t change your life.

In a recent Media Beat interview (embedded above), The Nation‘s national security correspondent and a New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Scahill broke down how quickly a book advance can disappear–even before taxes.

Most recently, Scahill wrote Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield for Nation Books.

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Over at Dear Author, Jane Litte exposed a romance writer plagiarizing Tammara Webber and Jamie McGuire, generating a flurry of Twitter exchanges. You can read all those deleted responses in our Storify post below…

UPDATE: Author Teresa Mummert uncovered a series of suspicious Facebook profiles, Amazon accounts and Goodreads pages all linked to the plagiarized novel.

The author “Jordin Williams” admitted the copying, removed the book and blamed a ghostwriter for the plagiarism. The author’s site has been removed, but you can see an archived copy at this link.

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Hachette Book Group has reached an agreement to acquire Disney’s Hyperion adult trade publishing imprint. The deal includes more than 1,000 books published by Disney’s imprint since 1991 and about 25 as-yet-unpublished books. Hyperion’s backlist includes over 250 bestsellers,

Hyperion’s list ranges from from Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven to Michael J. Fox‘s Always Looking Up to  Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy. Here’s more from the release:

Disney Publishing Worldwide (DPW), the world’s largest publisher and licensor of children’s books, will retain all of its Disney and Disney-Hyperion branded children’s and young adult book titles, and will publish franchise-based titles from Disney/ABC Television Group upon completion of the transaction … HBG will take on Hyperion’s extensive backlist, rich in the areas of inspiration, pop culture, cooking, humor, business, sports, history, self-help, fiction, and more, books that continue to sell year after year in a variety of formats and editions.

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