Comic book fans downloading comics through iOS apps cannot download issue No. 12 of Saga, Brian K. Vaughan‘s critically acclaimed series with Image Comics.

UPDATE: comiXology CEO David Steinberger has responded to the controversy (read his complete statement below): “After hearing from Apple this morning, we can say that our interpretation of its policies was mistaken. You’ll be glad to know that Saga #12 will be available on our App Store app soon.”

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The National Book Award finalists will be revealed on MSNBC this year, a new twist for the prestigious award.

Will you watch the awards announcement on the news program hosted by Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist (pictured)? The winners will be revealed at a gala ceremony on November 14 in New York City at Cipriani Wall Street.

Here’s more from the National Book Awards site: “The twenty Finalists for the National Book Awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature will be announced on MSNBC’s Morning Joe … on Wednesday, October 10. Chairman of the National Book Foundation’s Board of Directors, David Steinberger, will be a guest on the show, which airs from 6:00 to 9:00 am ET.”

Four comic book apps powered by comiXology dominated our Top Grossing iPad Book Apps list this week. If you want to learn more about this emerging market, you can meet comiXology  CEO David Steinberger at Mediabistro’s Publishing App Expo next week.

According to research from AppData, Inside Network’s data service that tracks app and developer leaderboards, Comics is the No. 1 top grossing iPad book app, followed by DC Comics at No. 2., the Marvel Comics at No. 3 and at No. 10,  The Walking Dead comic app.

At the Publishing App Expo on December 7-8, Steinberger will join our “Real Life Business Models for Apps” panel. If you only want to focus on this topic, you can save by only registering for our one-track pass and attend the App Strategy sessions.

Author and MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski has inked a deal for Knowing Your Value with Weinstein Books (in partnership with Perseus Books Group)–an “in-depth look at how successful women today have achieved their deserved recognition and financial worth.”

The book will come out in April 2011. Weinstein Books publisher Judy Hottensen and Perseus Book Group CEO David Steinberger acquired the book. Brzezinski (pictured, via) published her first book, All Things At Once,  through the same publishing partnership.

The book will feature interviews with  President Barack Obama‘s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, writer and director Nora Ephron,  broadcaster Joy Behar, and others. Brzezinski had this statement: “Knowing my own value has been a personal career obstacle and after talking with some of the most successful women out there, I know I’m not alone with this struggle.”

9:29 David Steinberger, chairman of the National Book Foundation is on stage talking about how the judges decide on the winners. It happened today at lunch.

9:32 Steinberger is thanking all of the former winners and the sponsors.

9:34 Steinberger is naming the winners of the Innovations in Reading Prize from earlier in the week. Find out more here.

9:39 Andy Borowitz is back on stage to introduce Tor Seidler who is presenting the award for The Young People’s Literature. There were more than 200 novels in the category.

9:42 The winner is Kathryn Erskine for Mockingbird.

9:44 Cornelius Eady is taking the stage to present the award for Poetry.

9:50 The winner is Terrance Hayes for Lighthead.

9:52 Marjorie Garber has taken the stage to present the award for Nonfiction.

9:54 The winner is Patti Smith for Just Kids. Smith says she always wanted to have a book of her own since she worked in a book store as a kid. “There is nothing more beautiful in our material world than the book.” She says never to abandon the book.

9:58 Joanna Scott is taking the stage to introduce the award for Fiction.

10:04 The winner is Jaimy Gordon for Lord of Misrule. Gordon: “I am totally unprepared and I am totally surprised.”

10:06 The awards are over, thanks for following our live blog.

Publishers Weekly confirmed reports that Perseus Books Group cut around 20 employees last week. In addition, the publisher will release about 100 fewer titles in 2010.

The cuts affected three percent of the company’s total workforce, and the company plans “a furlough program and executive pay cuts” this summer.

While Perseus did not respond to GallyCat’s request for comment, the PW article notes that Perseus president David Steinberger wrote a letter to employees explaining “it has become clear that we need to take additional steps now in order to be financially prudent and pursue opportunities to grow.”

Daily Beast founder Tina Brown and her husband Sir Harold Evans held a stuffy, packed BEA amphitheater in rapt attention yesterday–quizzing four CEOs about these difficult days for publishing. When Brown lost her voice halfway through the presentation, her husband stepped up to finish the panel. Before leaving, Brown railed against Amazon.com, Inc.’s pricing for the average Kindle book: “$9.99 is a paltry pitiful sum,” she said.

Her husband kept pace, urging the CEOs to “sue the hell” out of Google over the search engine’s controversial book-scanning initiative. Perseus Books CEO David Steinberger plugged his initiative to crash-publish “Book: The Sequel” in 48-hours during BEA. “This is the way you have to behave in the future,” he declared. Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy disagreed with this timetable for print books. “But you have to convince retailers to buy the [print] book–that takes six months.”

Macmillan CEO John Sargent worried about new media campaigns: “The majority of viral marketing doesn’t sell a ton of books,” he complained, referencing a hit viral video his company produced that only resulted in, by his estimate, sales of 210 books. He still thought the best bookselling strategy was a combination of word-of-mouth and front of store placement at bookstores around the country.

PW Daily serves up the news (plus Perseus CEO David Steinberger‘s memo to colleagues) which includes the following:

• Perseus Books Group has formed six publishing divisions built around Avalon Travel, Basic Books, Da Capo, Public Affairs, Running Press and Vanguard imprints.
• 24 positions eliminated, with as many as 21 other employees could lose their jobs if they are not willing to relocate or take on new roles
• Carroll & Graf and Thunder’s Mouth will cease to exist as imprints after this fall, with William Strachan, editor-in-chief of Thunder’s Mouth and Carroll & Graf, and C&G senior editor Don Weise among the editors being let go.
• Avalon’s New York office will be closed sometime this summer and employees will be moved to Perseus’s headquarters on Park Avenue.

Will there be more news? There has to be, because the fate of former PGW employees and publishers hasn’t even been addressed yet, and one must believe they will be at some point.

More tellingly, the impending shutdown of C&G and Thunder’s Mouth should call into question whether Perseus has any longterm plans to publish fiction. Will Balliett, former executive editor of both imprints, now moves to Da Capo in a similar position. But that imprint is not known for publishing fiction. Basic Books is absorbing Nation Books (which sometimes does fiction) and Vanguard, already established as a place for formerly bestselling novelists to go for a career refresher, will likely continue what it’s doing, but what of C&G’s extensive mystery fiction publishing program, or the backlist reissues that Thunder’s Mouth does? Steinberger might say that “[e]ach of our imprints needs to have a distinct identity, and we didn’t feel that was the case with Carroll & Graf and Thunder’s Mouth,” but without any concrete evidence in place, one really has to wonder.

PW Daily reported yesterday that Perseus completed its acquisition of the distribution contracts of 124 former Publishers Group West clients yesterday and began writing checks to those publishers. Publishers will receive payment either by wire transfer or mail, whichever they prefer, CEO David Steinberger said. With the closing, Perseus began shipping books from the AMS/PGW Indianapolis warehouse yesterday, shipping 70,000 units to accounts to fill orders under the transition services agreement that will last through July 31. “My goal is to be able to lay out a more concrete plan for our entire organization within 60 days,” Steinberger said.

But here’s where the fun part starts: although Perseus will have a PGW booth at BEA and a PGW catalogue, the company does not now own the PGW name, which is still being used by AMS. But since “Transition Vendor” probably won’t go over well with the BEA-niks, and there are still summer titles to be hawked, PGW it is – unless AMS raises a stink about the name, which seems unlikely.

Meanwhile, Radio Free PGW reports on why the revised offer for non-consenting publishers is still not necessarily in their best interests and how they could file for damages. “This little problem with damages is the main reason why the Judge awarded the deal to [Perseus], because the PGW estate would have had greater exposure to damage claims if NBN had won. AMS knows this all too well, since their investment brokers were the ones whose testimony may have sunk the NBN offer.”

Late today, Judge Christopher Sontchi approved Perseus‘s offer to take over the distribution contracts of all PGW publishing clients that have signed distribution agreements with the company, reports PW Daily. It ends a highly competitive contest between Perseus and the National Book Network for the fate and fortunes PGW clients. “We are excited to move forward as quickly as possible to write checks to PGW clients and to provide some certainty for PGW employees,” said Perseus CEO David Steinberger in a statement. More than 100 publishers, who collectively constitute about 85% of the total amount of monies owed to PGW clients in the AMS bankruptcy, have signed agreements with Perseus. NBN president Jed Lyons said he was “very disappointed” to not have the opportunity to work with the PGW publishers, but congratulated Perseus on its victory.