The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Along with Laurie R. King, Klinger edited A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon. He was working on a new collection called In the Company of Sherlock Holmes with stories by Sara Paretsky, Michael Connelly, Lev Grossman and more. He made his case, in the release:

The Conan Doyle Estate contacted our publisher … and implied that if the Estate wasn’t paid a license fee, they’d convince the major distributors not to sell the book. Our publisher was, understandably, concerned, and told us that the book couldn’t come out unless this was resolved … It is true that some of Conan Doyle’s stories about Holmes are still protected by the U.S. copyright laws. However, the vast majority of the stories that Conan Doyle wrote are not. The characters of Holmes, Watson, and others are fully established in those fifty ‘public-domain’ stories. Under U.S. law, this should mean that anyone is free to create new stories about Holmes and Watson.

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At a Sony Readers Book Club event in Los Angeles, Connelly explained that he was inspired by musicians “who had a difficult time making music.” As an example, he mentioned how his long-time character Harry Bosch listened to Art Pepper, a great jazz saxophonist who struggled with drug addiction and a troubled family history.

If you want to sample his writing music playlist, we’ve included a free Spotify playlist below of Connelly’s literary soundtrack. Connelly concluded: “Music is one of the things that helps me. If there is music playing in my book, that music was playing when I wrote it.”

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Interested parties should visit this webpage about the store and the potential sale. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the shop has hosted events headlined by bestselling mystery authors including Jo Nesbo, Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane.

Here’s more from the Gormans’ email announcement: “There are wonderful opportunities for our store that include eBooks, revitalizing the cafe business, expansion of genres, consideration of new sidelines and dozens of others. However, taking advantage of these opportunities requires a new set of younger eyes, hands and backs.”

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GalleyCat readers around the globe have joined our annual Pet Parade, sending photos of their literary pets.

More photos follow below–we will collect all the entries at this link.

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Kindle Content VP Russ Grandinetti pointed to the author’s most appealing eBook feature: “Martin’s series is simply epic … And an elaborate series like this is great on Kindle because you can turn the last page of book three at 10:30 at night, then buy book four and be on its first page at 10:31.”

Is selling a million Kindle books still a dramatic feat? On Twitter, journalist Sarah Weinman wondered: “at some point it will no longer be news that an author has made it to the Kindle Million Club. That time might even be now.”

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The authors join the likes of Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins, Michael Connelly and John Locke, who have also passed the million mark in sales of their eBooks in the Kindle Store. According to the release, Stockett is the first debut novelist to reach this milestone.

Evanovich’s latest novel Smokin’ Seventeen has spent more than 100 days on the Kindle Best Seller list. Stockett’s novel, The Help, has been No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list and was just adapted into a film.

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Locke has sold 1,010,370 Kindle books using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). The club also counts Suzanne Collins, Michael Connelly, and James Patterson as members.

Locke had this statement in the release: “Kindle Direct Publishing has provided an opportunity for independent authors to compete on a level playing field with the giants of the book selling industry. Not only did KDP give me a chance, they helped at every turn. Quite simply, KDP is the greatest friend an author can have.”

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Connelly (pictured, via) recently published the twenty third book in the Mickey Haller series, The Fifth Witness. He had this statement in the press release: “As a storyteller it brings me particular fulfillment to know so many readers are receiving my work through the Kindle. Added to that, my name is now on a list of an amazing group of writers. I am very proud of this moment.”

Last week, Hunger Games novelist Suzanne Collins became the first children’s author and the sixth member of the “Kindle Million Club.” The first inductee was Millennium trilogy author Stieg Larsson followed by James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, and Lee Child.

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Over at The Awl, six authors shared vastly different opinions about blurbs. They also offered some practical advice about getting blurbs for your own work–add your thoughts and advice in the comments.

Mystery novelist Stefanie Pintoff (pictured, via) defended blurbs: “I believe they can be very helpful to debut novels, for which of course there are no reviews in place. The best blurbs come from an author writing within the same genre, since they will take advantage of a shared audience. For example, for a thriller debut, a blurb from Michael Connelly or Lee Child is an instant attention-getter and lends an air of credibility to the book. Authors can be very busy, so connections matter (sharing an agent or editor for example).”

Novelist Kate Christensen shared her blurb memories: “Two close friends blurbed my first novel. I am forever in their debt, and I found the whole process a bit humiliating. No strangers were willing to blurb me on the strength of the book itself, and my editor asked many people, far and wide … My later books were beautifully blurbed by a several generous fellow writers I barely knew—people I now adore and feel indebted to, although I still barely know them.”

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Even better, they plan to offer “standalone app” version of David Foster Wallace‘s sprawling novel, Infinite Jest. Out of all the writers slated for an enhanced edition, Wallace’s work could be perfect–with plenty of footnotes, inter-textual references, and endless cultural allusions.

What would you like to see in this app? Here’s more from Maja Thomas, senior VP of Hachette digital–quoted in the article: “We thought, wouldn’t it be great if, when a footnote appears, there’s a symbol in the e-version of the text, and if you tap on it, you can go right to the footnote, and then tap back into the text at any time.”

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Our Australian reader Alister McMillan contributed these thoughts: “Michael Connelly advocates restricting any writing soundtrack to instrumental music. I can see the point that singing and lyrics might distract a writer. But what about the moments when blockage, doubt and fury paralyse the word count? At those times we need to know that someone else feels as bereft and hateful. Anything by Elvis Costello will do — it’s literate yet offers the right line of spite and self-pity. I’m also a fan of You Are All My People by I’m Not Jim (pictured, via) otherwise known as novelist Jonathan Lethem and songwriter Walter Salas-Humara.”

Reader Sue Keck sent in her favorite writing songs: “‘Blues When You Need Them’ and ‘A Thousand Small Things’ by Rodney Jones can take me deeper into a character every time. ‘Surrounded’ by Laurence Elder As a friend of mine said the first time he heard the song, ‘This guy sings like wings fly.’ Lifts me above writers block everytime. ‘So Easy’ by Laurence Elder provides a steady groove for writing.”

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After polling hundreds of independent booksellers around the country, IndieBound released the Indie Bestseller List for the sales week ended Sunday, June 21, 2009. “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell topped the nonfiction hardcover list. Here are the top five fiction hardcover books on the list. Nonfiction hardcover list follows after the jump…

1. ‘The Angel’s Game’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Doubleday
2. ‘Shanghai Girls’ by Lisa See, Random House
3. ‘The Scarecrow’ by Michael Connelly, Little Brown
4. ‘The Help’ Kathryn Stockett, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
5. ‘Gone Tomorrow’ by Lee Child, Delacorte

UPDATE: A previous version of this post mistakenly identified ‘The Angel’s Game’ as a debut novel.

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Earlier this year Carri Bugbee won an Shorty Award for a fictional Twitter feed–writing tweets about the life of “Mad Men” character Peggy Olson and gaining over 13,700 Twitter followers.

GalleyCat caught up with Bugbee at O’Reilly Media’s Twitter Boot Camp, where experts pondered this new social networking tool. In this exclusive interview, Bugbee tells publishers how they can build Twitter campaigns for imaginary characters–including a speculative riff on a Twitter feed for a Michael Connelly character.

Besides writing about the adventures of a young secretary in New York City, Bugbee works for Big Deal PR, building social media campaigns for different companies.

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Editors visited signing booths around BEA, getting some reading intelligence from writers: Gaiman recommended one of the more controversial BEA authors and Karr plugged an Australian historical novel.

Here’s an excerpt: “We tracked down some of our favorite writers to ask them what we should take to the beach this summer. Despite Neil Gaiman’s weariness after signing 170 books in a row, he couldn’t resist a chance to share several of his favorites. Jonathan Lethem opted for a classic. ‘Outlanders’ series writer Diana Gabaldon plugged her favorite crime fiction.”

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What’s particularly interesting is that the buzz at Orion for months was that Wood was on the slow boat to retirement. Guess that’s been delayed now…

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