During last night’s Movie Awards show, MTV revealed the first teaser trailer for Catching Fire, the second installment of The Hunger Games film franchise.

We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think? The trailer has already drawn more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

The trailer offers the fans glimpses of several major events in the story and a first look at Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman as Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. This adaptation of Suzanne Collins‘ young-adult novel won’t be released until November 22, 2013.

Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games dominated Facebook this year, her trilogy taking the first, second and third spots on Facebook’s Most Read Books of 2012 list.

Above, you can see Facebook’s infographic about the top books of 2012. Below, we’ve listed the top five books on that list…

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
3. Mockingjay by  Suzanne Collins
4. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Scholastic will publish an autobiographical picture book by Suzanne Collins called Year of the Jungle. The book will hit stores in September.

The book is about how her family coped with her father’s year serving in Vietnam. Like her previous two series, The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games, the book focuses on themes of war. Artist James Proimos, who also worked with Collins in children’s television, will illustrate. We’ve embedded the cover image below.

Collins (pictured, via) had this statement in the release: “For several years I had this little wicker basket next to my writing chair with the postcards my dad had sent me from Viet Nam and photos of that year. But I could never quite find a way into the story. It has elements that can be scary for the audience and it would be easy for the art to reinforce those.  It could be really beautiful art but still be off-putting to a kid, which would defeat the point of doing the book. Then one day I was having lunch with Jim and telling him about the idea and he said, ‘That sounds fantastic.’  I looked at him and I had this flash of the story through his eyes, with his art.  It was like being handed a key to a locked door. So, I just blurted out, ‘Do you want to do it?’  Fortunately he said yes. That afternoon, on the train ride home, the book started unfolding in my head.”

Read more

The Hollywood Reporter has picked the top 25 Most Powerful Authors in Hollywood.

The top five writers on the list are all literary band names. Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Nicholas Sparks, EL James and Suzanne Collins hold the top five spots, respectively. However, the magazine also listed a number of “Authors To Look Out For,” a list filled with up-and-coming authors. We’ve rounded up those top six writers below…

Here’s more about the list: “THR selected those living authors who have been most successful in shepherding their books from page to screen, balancing success in publishing (total output, sales, best-sellers) and in Hollywood (completed adaptations, projects in development, screenwriting and producing credits) while accounting for cultural influence. More power to them.”

Read more

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.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling set a Goodreads record for the all-time biggest “started reading” day. Currently, more than 40,000 people have marked the book “to-read.”

The book unseated Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins as the book with the strongest “started reading” day. Insurgent by Veronica Roth holds third place. As of this writing, The Casual Vacancy has 38 percent five-star ratings on Goodreads.

Author Suzanne Collins has grabbed the #11 spot on the USA Today’s bestseller list with a book she published eight years ago.

The Hunger Games novelist hit the chart with her 2004 release, Gregor the Overlander: Underland Chronicles Book One, following a special sale. Have you read this older series?

Here’s more from Book Buzz: “Why the high spot for a book that made the list only once before, back in 2007, at No. 140? Perhaps because Amazon.com on Saturday offered the e-book for a one-day-only price of $1.99, 62% off list price.”

Read more

Snow White & the Huntsman actor Sam Claflin has landed the role of Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire.

In the first hour after Lionsgate made the official announcement on Facebook, more than 22,000 fans hit the “like” button. What do you think of this choice?

Claflin’s character hails from District 4 and won his Hunger Games competition at the age of 14. Of the new characters introduced in the Catching Fire novel, he arguably enjoys the most popularity with readers. Suzanne Collins describes Finnick as a man who possess incredible beauty and sea green-colored eyes.

Read more

Without revealing sales figures, Amazon announced today that The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is the bestselling book series of all time on Amazon.com. The seven-book Harry Potter series was previously held this record, calculated by combining print and Kindle eBook sales.

Sara Nelson, editorial director of books and Kindle at Amazon.com, stated.: “Interestingly, this series is only three books versus Harry Potter’s seven, and to achieve this result in just four years is a great testament to both the popularity of the work and, we think, the growth in reading digitally during that time. Customers love these books and all three titles are consistently on our Top 10 lists in both print and Kindle formats, and ‘The Hunger Games’ is also the most-borrowed book in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.”

Sales for the Scholastic series have been so high that competing publisher Penguin blamed The Hunger Games for its revenue drop this year. For readers who enjoyed the series, the Lawrence Public Library in Kansas has compiled a flowchart to help find new books to read.

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.)

Read more