Prolific writer Mitch Albom has landed a three-book deal with HarperCollins’ Harper imprint, leaving his old publisher.

Albom’s next book will be a novel entitled The First Phone Call From Heaven. The storyline will focus on characters who receive phone calls from those who have passed away. Editor Karen Rinaldi negotiated the deal with literary agent David Black.

According to Albom’s Facebook page, the publisher plans to release the book on November 12, 2013.

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The Rock Bottom Remainders–a rock band composed of a rotating cast of famous authors–will appear on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight, playing what band member Mitch Albom called “1 last song.”

The band performed its final show in June, but taped the episode during that tour. The band’s Facebook page has more information about the final televised performance.

The show will also include an interview with band members Dave Barry and Stephen King. (Via Hyperion Voice)

Dan Mallory will serve as the new executive editor at HarperCollins’ William Morrow imprint, leaving his post as editorial director at Little, Brown UK/Hachette’s Sphere. He will start the new position on October 8th.

Here’s more from the release: Dan has worked with many bestselling and renowned authors including Patricia Cornwell, Val McDermid, Louise Penny, Nicholas Sparks, and Mitch Albom, and launched The Crime Vault, a digital first crime/thriller imprint, and Trapdoor, a dedicated crime-in-translation imprint with Grand Central.

Mallory will acquire and edit books at William Morrow, but he will also launch a crime and thriller digital first line for the publisher.

Author Kathi Kamen Goldmark has passed away. She was 63-years-old.

Goldmark (pictured, via) founded the Rock Bottom Remainders, a literary rock band that toured the country with a rotating line-up of bestselling authors (including The Shining novelist Stephen King, Tuesdays with Morrie writer Mitch Albom and The Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan). Goldmark published both fiction and nonfiction books, contributing to several anthologies as well.

Here’s more from The New York Times: ”[Goldmark], herself, a country rock musician, she made a day job of running a business taking authors around San Francisco when they came to do book tours. Ms. [Amy] Tan said that of all the jobs Ms. Goldmark held — author, columnist, publishing consultant, radio and music producer, songwriter — the word that best summed her up was ‘connector.’”

To honor our veterans today, we’ve collected links to share books with our troops.

The nonprofit E-Books for Troops will help you share your used Kindle with our troops overseas.

Through Operation Warrior Library, writers share hundreds of books with military personnel overseas.

A Story Before Bed offered 100,000 free story recordings for our troops–military parents can produce videos of themselves reading a story to their children.

Finally, the Kindle community has setup a discussion thread entitled “Happy Veteran’s Day!!”

Watch CBS News Videos Online

This week CBS Evening News with Katie Couric turned the cameras on book clubs during a feature about Kathryn Stockett‘s bestselling novel, The Help. Via the magic of Skype video, some avid readers received some nightly news coverage.

In the video above, Couric interviewed members of Jackson, Mississippi book club to find out what they thought about the novel’s “description of the racial boundaries in the segregated South of the 1960s.” In another web feature, anchor Katie Couric helped book club members to directly pose questions to the author.

Couric has hosted a number of literary guests. Among others, she spoke with Mitch Albom about his nonfiction book, Have a Little Faith, interviewed Sapphire about her recently adapted novel, Push.

Today HarperStudio announced that associate marketing director Sarah Burningham is leaving. In addition, the imprint will hire publishing veteran Jessica Wiener as their new marketing director.

According to the post, Burningham has left to support her second book, “Boyology.” She is also launching a boutique public relations and marketing firm called Little Bird Publicity. Wiener worked at Hyperion Books, promoting books with Mitch Albom, Randy Pausch, and Candace Bushnell. She will start in September.

HarperStudio associate publisher had these thoughts Debbie Stier, from the post: “I have to say, as someone who’s been in publishing for quite a long time, Sarah’s got the magic: the books are great (and as I always say, it goes back to the book); she’s got a great hook (self-help books for teenage girls by a young woman who’s old enough for the Mom’s to feel comfortable with and young enough for the girls to identify with and look up to); and she lights up like a lantern when the camera turns on. From the moment I saw Sarah do her first television interview, I knew the days of her working in house were numbered.”

The news that Starbucks plans to sell books in its 450 UK stores should be no surprise, considering the success the coffee retailer has had in the US with its two book selections to date, Mitch Albom‘s FOR ONE MORE DAY and Ishmael Beah‘s A LONG WAY GONE. The Bookseller reports that the UK stores will start selling Beah’s book – published by Fourth Estate – beginning on May 21. The chain is believed to be in discussions with Nielsen BookScan to see if the sales can be picked up for inclusion in UK bestseller charts.

“We’re thrilled that Starbucks have chosen to sell Ishmael’s book this spring,” said John Bond, m.d. of HarperCollins‘ literary division, Press Books. “We’re really excited about working closely with them to help spread the word; this will mean getting more copies of this important book into the hands of more people.” And it means that UK publishers can start pitching Starbucks in droves for its next book selection…