The Mystery Writers of America announced the 2011 Edgar nominations this morning. The annual prize is named after Edgar Allan Poe, awarded to the best authors in the mystery genre since 1945.

UPDATE: We’ve created a literary mixtape linking to free samples of all the nominated books. Follow this link to see all the nominees, but we’ve included a few of the top categories below.

BEST NOVEL
Caught by Harlan Coben (Penguin Group USA – Dutton)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Faithful Place by Tana French (Penguin Group USA – Viking)
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books)
I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

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Novelist Laura Lippman sold 4,739 eBook copies and 4,000 hardcover copies of I’d Know You Anywhere since her new thriller went on sale August 17th.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with HarperCollins senior VP Frank Albanese about the new development. He explained: “This is the first book of ours of any consequence that has sold more e-books than hardcovers in the first week … What we’re seeing now is that if a book gets a good review, it gets a faster lift on the digital side than it does on the physical side because people who have e-readers can buy and read it immediately.”

Lippman (pictured, via Jan Cobb) has some strong critical support. The Washington Post ended a recent review with high praise: “Some people would segregate Lippman as a crime or thriller writer. That’s a shame. She’s one of the best novelists around, period.”

Changing things up this year, the Quills have announced their awards a solid month and a half before the actual ceremony, which will take place on October 22 at Jazz @ Lincoln Center and hosted by Ann Curry and Al Roker. For the first time in its three-year history, The Quills will make a limited number of tickets to the awards ceremony and gala reception available for purchase to the public. “We’re delighted with the outstanding works represented in the group of Quills 2007 winners. Now the reading public has an opportunity to vote and we look forward to announcing their selection for 2007 Quills Book of the year on October 22nd,” remarked Gerry Byrne, Chairman of The Quill Awards. Consumers can cast their votes via www.quillsvote.com for “The Book of the Year,” selecting from among the 19 Quill Award winners.

The Quill Debut Author of the Year Award will be presented to Diane Setterfield for THE THIRTEENTH TALE, published by Atria. In the General Fiction category, the Quill Award will be given to Cormac McCarthy for THE ROAD, published by Knopf. For the second year in a row, Al Gore will receive the History/Current Events/Politics Quill, this time for THE ASSAULT ON REASON, published by The Penguin Press. Quill Awards will also be given to Amy Sedaris, Nora Roberts, Laura Lippman, Robert I. Sutton, Jerome Groopman, Brian Selznick, and Walter Isaacson, among others.

When you’re a #1 bestselling author after a double-digit number of books, no wonder media outlets – not to mention an entire publishing industry – sit up and takes notice. For Jodi Picoult, who not all that long ago was deemed hard to classify and impossible to market, success in America and overseas is a long time coming, and the Observer’s Louise France seems, if not surprised, a bit taken aback at how book clubs and readers have embraced Picoult so readily, even if the literati and critical press continue to ignore her.

Not that Picoult cares much anymore. “I set out wanting to be a commercial fiction author, which means you don’t get any literary clout. I will never be thought of in the same way as someone like Joyce Carol Oates, though I’m more prolific* and probably read by more people,’ she says. ‘I tell my publicist not to send me the New York Times, which if they do write about me only do so in order to be snide. But the best revenge is when I end up top of their bestseller list. Which happens all the time.”

More to the point is why this happened and how Picoult’s success has now really opened the door for other thoughtfully commercial women’s fiction (think of the recent NYT bestselling success of Laura Lippman‘s WHAT THE DEAD KNOW) to be successful. Ultimately it comes down to stories that provoke discussion and empathy. “Book clubs need books they can talk about,” Picoult says simply. “Not just books that are fluffy, with happy endings.” Joel Rickett, deputy editor of The Bookseller, agrees. “Women in book clubs relate to her characters. They can ask themselves: what would I do in the same situation?” An irresistible question answered every year by Picoult’s books, by and large.

*Okay, someone wasn’t counting up properly, considering just how prolific Oates is over the last 45-odd years.

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