Ruth Pomerance, the publishing professional who uncovered John Grisham’s The Firm back in 1990, will join Hyperion as senior editor.

In her new post, she will “focus on the acquisition and development of new stories and author talent that will translate across the Disney/ABC Television Group businesses.” Pomerance spent 30 years working in between the publishing, film and television industry. She developed books for a variety of producers, ranging from Scott Rudin, Arnold Kopelson, Fred Zollo, and John Davis. 

Here’s more from the release: “Pomerance has held posts at The Rockwell Group, USA Films, Artists Management Group, and the William Morris Agency where she began her career as a story editor. Most recently, Pomerance served as Executive Producer for the feature film adaptation of Judy Blume’s novel Tiger Eyes and Consultant to various entertainment firms including Image Entertainment.”

Formerly self-published romance novelist Sylvia Day has sold 100,000 trade paperback copies of Reflected in You in a single week. The eBook was released in October and has already sold 450,000 copies.

According to Amazon’s new Author Rank feature, Day (pictured, via) is currently the fifth most popular writer on Amazon–alongside publishing giants like James Patterson, John Grisham, Nora Roberts, and Suzanne Collins.

Interestingly enough, romance novelist Jessica Sorensen is currently the sixth most popular author at Amazon.  She is the only self-published author to make the top ten most popular authors list, and her new book rocketed to the top of our Self-Published Bestsellers List this week.

What’s your favorite bookstore? My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop comes out on November 13th, sharing recommendations from 84 writers.

Published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, it features bookstores around the country, including The Strand (New York, NY), Powell`s (Portland, OR) and Porter Square Books (Cambridge, MA). Publishing industry consultant Ronald Rice and “Booksellers Across America” edited the book.

Contributors ranged from John Grisham to Chuck Palahniuk to bookstore owner Ann Patchett. The book also contains illustrations by Leif Parsons, an introduction by Richard Russo and an afterword by Emily St. John Mandel.

You can find all these bookshops and more in our Best Indie Bookstores on Twitter list.

Random House posted a 64 percent increase in operating profit for the first half of 2012. According to Variety, the publisher also boasted a 20 percent increase in revenue–rising to $1.2 billion.

Here’s more from the article: “The titillating [50 Shades of Grey] trilogy sold more than 30 million copies between March and June, with sales evenly divided between the trade paperback and e-book editions. The Social Network producers Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti are producing the big-screen adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey the first book in the trilogy, for Universal Pictures and Focus Features.”

Random House also credited the growth in eBook sales and the popularity of some of their biggest bestselling authors including George R.R. Martin  (A Song of Ice and Fire series), John Grisham (Calico Joe), Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) and Dr. Seuss (The Lorax).

Forbes has just released its annual list of the World’s Top-Earning Authors. We’ve listed the top five writers below, along with their income–follow this link to see the whole list.

In his feature about the list, journalist Jeff Bercovici singled out Suzanne Collins, E.L. James and J.K. Rowling as rising stars on the list.  Here’s an excerpt from the article:

At the height of “Fifty Shades” mania, the erotic novels were estimated to be generating as much as $1.3 million per week for their author, E.L. James. And that’s not counting the $5 million she received from Universal Pictures and Focus Films for the theatrical rights. Add it all up and James is assured of a place near the top of next year’s top authors list. (Perhaps “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer deserves a cut of that? James’s books originated as works of “Twilight” fan fiction.)

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For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including John Grisham‘s $6 million mistake, freelance writer tips from a New York Times magazine editor and a 50-year-old Ernest Hemingway book trailer (embedded above).

Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey
2. Amanda Hocking: ‘A lot of authors tend to over market’
3. Controversial Vogue Essay Sparks Book Deal
4. John Grisham & His $6 Million Mistake
5. Ernest Hemingway Book Trailer
6. When Should Writers Work for Free?
7. Musicians Inspired by Harry Crews
8. NYT Magazine Editor Shares Tips for Freelance Writers
9. Rachel Maddow, Carl Hiaasen & Jacqueline Winspear Debut on the Indie Bestseller List
10. CONTEST: Write the Worst Sentence in 25 Words

Did you know that legal thriller writer John Grisham lost millions of dollars when he first became a published author? Even though he earned $18 million in 2011, he once held a fortune in first-edition books.

In a guest post on The Daily Beast, Grisham (pictured, via) recounts the events surrounding his first novel, A Time to Kill. His publisher printed 5,000 first edition copies of that book and Grisham bought 1,000 copies to use for giveaways, $5 sales to friends and even as a doorstop. Considering that a first edition of A Time to Kill is now worth $4,000, Grisham once owned $6 million of his own books.

Here’s more from the post: “My idea was, I’d buy a thousand books, have a big book party at the local library, and all my friends would come. I’d sell all these books and it’d be easy. I could buy the books at wholesale, sell them at retail, and make a few bucks … Then I took all the books down to the local library and we had a big book party. When the party was over, I still owned 882 copies of A Time to Kill. I had this invoice that was due to pay for them wholesale, so I started giving books away.”

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This week Forbes published their annual list of the highest paid writers. Novelist James Patterson leads the pack with $84 million–a $14 million increase from last year.

Here’s more from the article: “The jump comes courtesy of a 17-book, $150 million deal Patterson signed with his publisher, Hachette Book Group, in 2009. The peerlessly prolific Patterson, who works with a team of co-authors to boost his output, published 10 of those books during this period. All told, including his backlist, he had an astonishing 20 titles on PW’s year-end lists of bestsellers, comprising more than 10 million copies.”

Like Patterson, Stephenie Meyer and John Grisham write both children’s and adult books; they both made the cut raking in $21 million and $18 million respectively. The authors on the list who write exclusively for children include Rick Riordan, Jeff Kinney, Suzanne Collins and J.K. Rowling. The list included three members of the Kindle Million Club. Below, you can check out the top five authors.

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No other author has had as many New York Times bestsellers at one time as James Patterson. People magazine called him the “king of the bestsellers list.” He has outsold writers like Stephen King, John Grisham and Dan Brown.

Yet Patterson has not gone without criticisms. His stable of co-writers, his non-literary style of writing and his dominance of every genre have all been fair game. In this GalleyCat contributor’s interview with Patterson, he responded to those critics. He also discussed the secret to his success and his advice for aspiring authors.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “My success revolves around the fact that I am fairly analytical, logical, have a pretty good IQ but I’ve got street smarts too. You know, a lot of people who have nice IQ’s are just dumb as a brick when it comes to thinking about how other people think and what they might like and how to act in public and things like that. I think I have, you know, gifts involved of those areas. I mean, if I am writing a story that kids are supposed to not want to put down, if I don’t feel it, then I don’t think kids will feel it. If I don’t think that the pages are moving in the story and the characters aren’t involving, then I’m going to assume that the people reading it won’t.”

An Italian journalist appears to have fabricated an interview with famed novelist Philip Roth, creating imaginary quotes bashing President Barack Obama‘s presidential performance.

This week’s Talk of the Town has the scoop, outlining how another Italian journalist asked Roth (pictured, via Nancy Crampton) about his comments during an interview–discovering that journalist Tommaso Debenedetti had fabricated an entire interview with the novelist. Roth’s fiction is loaded with fictional versions of himself, and he embarked on a literary investigation–discovering that the journalist had also fabricated an interview with John Grisham.

Here’s more from the crazy story: “Although Roth and Grisham have never met, they joined forces through their agents and contacted an Italian lawyer, who felt that they had a good case. ‘I am exploring my possible remedies,’ Grisham said, ‘with plans to file an action.’ But Roth has decided not to sue. ‘It would take two years, and multiple trips to Italy,’ he said. ‘It would distract me from my writing, and, worst of all, I would have to obsess about it.’”