February 2009: Top Publishing Stories of the Year

February 2009 brought a fake Twitter feed and a major horror author’s endorsement of a digital reader.

Early that month, a Citi Investment Research analyst made headlines by estimating that Amazon.com (AMZN) had sold 500,000 Kindles. Within days, we interviewed novelist Stephen King at the launch of Kindle 2.

The comic book world celebrated at a sold-out NYC Comic-Con, and GalleyCat scored interviews with publishing innovators about their work in comics, videogames, and graphic novels. In addition, an early Twitter book deal was signed and a fake Maya Angelou Twitter feed was exposed.

February also marked one of publishing’s darkest moments, as HarperCollins shuttered the Collins division. Dubbed the “YouTube for print,” Scribd counted 50 million readers. That same month, Publishers Weekly also launched a page collecting contact information from laid-off publishing employees.

Welcome to GalleyCat’s annual year-end roundup of publishing headlines. It’s a chance to celebrate our good news and reflect on our bad news after a long, challenging year for the industry. Visit our Year in Review link to read all about what happened to publishing in 2009. Include your favorite headlines in the comments section…

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