Beginning in April, Round Table Companies will offer comic book adaptations of best-selling nonfiction books.

Here’s more from the press release: “In partnership with Smarter Comics, Round Table Companies will release six comic books on April 16, 2011 in bookstores throughout the U.S. and Indigo bookstores in Canada, as well as in Hudson News stores on May 1, 2011. Additionally, readers can download a digital version of the books for free, online or on the SmarterComics Android applications from April 1 to July 1, 2011.”

The titles up for adaptation include The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, Overachievement by Dr. John Eliot, How to Master the Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins, Mi Barrio by Robert Renteria, Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life by Larry Winget, and The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

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Susanna White (the director of Nanny McPhee Returns) will adapt Stephenie Meyer‘s adult novel, The Host.

Here’s more from Variety: “Nick Wechsler will produce the indie through his eponymous banner, along with Chockstone Pictures’ Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz. Given the B.O. muscle of the Twilight franchise, the marketability of Meyer’s name is expected to draw interest from distributors.”

In 2009, Meyer’s website named Andrew Niccol as both director and screenwriter for the production, but Row Three recently reported that Niccol will only serve as a writer. Meyer published The Host in 2008. She has discussed the idea of following up The Host with two sequels, The Soul and The Seeker.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has received nominations in seven out of nine categories for the Golden Raspberry Awards (a.k.a. the Razzies). Here is a complete list of its nominations:

Worst Picture – producers Wyck Godfrey & Karen Rosenfelt for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Worst Prequel, Ripoff, or Sequel – the Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Worst Director – director David Slade for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Worst Screenplay – screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg & novel by Stephenie Meyer for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Worst Screen Couple – The Entire Cast of the Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Worst Actor – actor Taylor Lautner for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse/Valentine’s Day & actor Robert Pattinson for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse/Remember Me
Worst Actress – actress Kristen Stewart for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Last year the Twilight Saga: New Moon received three nominations, but no wins. Yesterday, it was revealed that four out of ten Best Picture Oscar nominees are book-based-movies.

USA Today released its “Top 100 Books for 2010″ list this week, a bestseller list composed of 77 percent fiction. Stieg Larsson‘s Millennium series dominated the top three spots and George W. Bush‘s Decision Points occupied fourth place.

The newspaper also noted: “Stephenie Meyer‘s popularity began to cool off. She accounted for 4% of best sellers the list tracked, down from 11% in 2009. The vampire and paranormal craze among readers isn’t dead, but it’s fading, accounting for just 9% of best sellers, down from 17% in 2009.”

The article also noted that books with movie adaptations do particularly well. It’ll be interesting to see if adaptations (like Kathryn Stockett‘s The Help) will boost sales next year.

Wordle is a fun web tool that allows people to make artistic text collages or  “word clouds” from any text.

Here’s more from the site: “Wordle is a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.”

This GalleyCat contributor took eBookNewser’s “Free eBook of the Day” (Rudyard Kipling‘s The Jungle Book) and created a word cloud–the image is embedded above. Other literary projects on Wordle include the U.S. Constitution, John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn.

In a fascinating casting choice, Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson will star in an upcoming adaptation–leaping from Stephenie Meyer to Don DeLillo in a single bound.

Critically-acclaimed director David Cronenberg will be adapting DeLillo’s Cosmopolis, and the cast is still being sorted out. The 2003 novel studying one eventful day in the life of a young New York City millionaire.

Here’s more from Deadline New York: “Marion Cotillard and Paul Giamatti are also reportedly doing the film, but those same reports had Colin Farrell poised to take the lead role … Pattinson is following a path based on strong filmmakers and tasteful source material. He took the role because he is a big fan of Cronenberg’s work and an admirer of DeLillo’s books.”

Stephenie Meyer has raised $1.5 million for the American Red Cross with her novella, The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner. In the video embedded above, actress Jodelle Ferland introduced Bree Tanner, the character she plays in the adaptation of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Meyer had this comment in the release: “I’m so grateful that Little, Brown, the American Red Cross, and my fans made this generous gift possible … It’s amazing to have the opportunity to help those so greatly in need.”

For every book sold, on dollar was set aside for the charity donation. The novella was Meyer’s first new book in two years. When the book was first released, fans could read a free copy online. (Via Hollywood Crush)

In June 2010, Stephenie Meyer grew weary of vampires and we created a directory of the Best Library People on Twitter.

Instead of doing our traditional year-in-review post, we’ve decided to collect the ten most popular stories on GalleyCat each month–sharing the stories that mattered most to our readers. Looking back at these headlines, we can see the hopes, fears, and distractions that obsessed the publishing industry in 2010. Follow this link to see the rest of the year unfold.

1. Stephenie Meyer: ‘I’m Really Burned Out on Vampires’
2. Grumpy Literary Agent Publishes Bad Query Excerpts
3. Best Library People on Twitter
4. Fox Chicago News Attacks Libraries
5. New Yorker Releases “20 Under 40″ List of Writers
6. Amazon.com Crash Drives Publishing World Batty
7. Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Winners Announced
8. Publishing Community Unites to Help Editor After House Fire
9. HarperCollins Buys Debut Novel and its Follow-up for a Reported Seven Figures
10. Jose Saramago Has Died

Stephenie Meyer confirmed on Facebook that 9-year-old actress Mackenzie Foy (pictured) will play Renesmee Cullen in the forthcoming adaptation, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

The Hollywood Reporter has more: “Director Bill Condon is expected to use similar special effects as David Fincher in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to show Foy aging 17 years over the span of seven years.”

Condon recently posted this racy photo from the movie set. Below, a spoiler-filled description of Renesmee from the novel.

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Director Bill Condon released a photo from the movie set of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn on Twitter last week. The suggestive post generated nearly 580 comments.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was the first official photo from the shoot. Part one of the movie adaptation will be released on November 18, 2011.

The novel Breaking Dawn was released in 2008. Author Stephenie Meyer cited two Shakespeare plays, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as influences for the story. Below, some spoiler-filled speculation about what the image represents.

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