Late yesterday, numerous sources reported that Dennis Lehane will lead a new imprint at HarperCollins. The bestselling mystery writer said that he hoped to help “worthy writers” get more attention to their work. Very few other details (such as the first book’s release date, the number of books published each year) have been released at this time.

And while we’re on the subject of Lehane, here’s an interesting post about his allegiances to two different geographic locations.

Recently, we noted the news that Anonymous was shopping a book. The loop on that particular thread has now been closed with a completed sale.

According to Publishers Marketplace, the book was sold to Julia Cheiffetz at Amazon Publishing. The deal entry explains that the book is “the story of the ordinary people who became hacker-activists and successfully brought down government agencies and multinational corporations around the world.”

Nick Davies, the publishing director for interesting article issued an interesting explanation of why the house is publishing WikiLeaks’ chief Julian Assange’s book against his will.

Davies’s account is an intriguing look at what goes on behind the scenes with some of these celebrity books. The subject isn’t happy, can’t be made happy, the publishing house and ghostwriter are caught in the middle, and turmoil ensues.

The fact of the matter is that often the celebrity isn’t happy with the book. This discontent is frequently the result of cold feet as publication date approaches. The rocker or political bigwig or business hotshot starts the process more than happy to share all the details, to name names, and to get decades worth of frustration off his chest. But then, as the book becomes more real, more concrete, and the celebrity faces the fact that it will be on newsstands all over the country, he or she starts to say, “The book isn’t right, it’s not good.”

One particular rock musician threatened to kill himself if the book he had spent a year working on was published. Ultimately the title was released, everyone liked it, and the rock star is now very proud of those same words he previously cringed at.

So this situation with Julian Assange and Canongate is odd in that it’s so high profile. But this kind of conflict often happens behind the scenes with celebrity titles.

According to The New York Observer, a controversial and secretive group known for attacks on credit card servers, Wall Street protests, and other forays into civil disobedience is shopping a book.

The group in question is Anonymous which reportedly (according to Wikipedia, and we know everything there is fact) originated in 2003. More recent targets of the group included Facebook, Sony, Bank of America, the Westboro Baptist Church and others.

In The Observer, Foster Kamer writes that book’s working title is Tales from Inside the Accidental Cyberwar and will be authored by Gregg Housh and Barrett Brown. The agent involved is Dan Conaway at Writer’s House. Conaway points out that Housh is “not a spokesman for Anonymous” but he’s one of the few identified people who are familiar with the process. So this would insinuate that Housh and Brown are working on their own as writers of their own tales, as opposed to some sort of authorized book by the larger collective.

Housh himself states that he intends to write a “page-turner.”

But Adrian Chen at Gawker wonders who will read the thing. “Anonymous is fascinating on a broad level,” Chen writes, “But most of the day-to-day details are as sexy as the intricacies of how an office drone manipulates an Excel spreadsheet.” Maybe the group really does wear trench coats and fedoras and use dead drops and safe houses and all that. Or, maybe Housh and Brown will employ some Ben Mezrich strategies for writing about technology and highly intelligent people in order to craft a thrilling account of the group’s activities.

Please pardon our dust as we undergo some construction here at Slushpile.net. As you’ve undoubtedly noticed, we’ve installed a new theme and will be working out the kinks in the coming days. But we have some cool interviews coming up so be sure to check back regularly.

Thanks for reading!

The key point here is that researchers “looked at the effects bad publicity had in well-known and obscure books over time. Some subjects looked at glowing and negative reviews for a well-known book by John Grisham and reviews for an obscure, made-up title… Subjects who read negative reviews of well-known books were less likely to buy the book. Negative reviews of unknown books, however, did not affect whether or not the subject was likely to purchase it.”

What’s particularly interesting to me is that I’ve never really seen the point of a bad book review for a little known book. If, as a critic, you feel the need to strike a blow against the Harry Potter or Twilight juggernaut, then sure, write a bad review. But if you’re examining some small title that is going to be lucky to sell 2,000 copies, then why waste the space? With precious few inches in magazines and newspapers devoted to literary coverage, I would rather give attention to a book I liked> and want people to know about, rather then waste breath on something bad.

But this article may cause me to re-examine that philosophy…

Some writers have fan forums dedicated to discussing their work. And some groups of aspiring authors have forums to chat about their emerging careers. But there aren’t many examples of forums that combine these two topics.

Which is why I’m such a fan of The Velvet, a community that grew up because of a shared admiration for the work of authors Will Christopher Baer, Craig Clevenger, and Stephen Graham Jones. From that group of fans, a number of really talented and dedicated writers made themselves known. The Velvet is an interesting place where people are encouraged, constructive criticism shared, street teams formed, and just cool discussions are held.

Now, the determined members of the Velvet are looking to overhaul the site. As such, they are seeking donations from like-minded folks. The donation period closes February 14 if you’re interested. But even if a helping hand isn’t possible for you right now, definitely swing by the forum. It’s a great place for lovers of dark fiction and neo noir.

Check back tomorrow for more thoughts on the Nobel announcement.

For those of you who might enjoy hard rock history and strange bits of trivia, check out my article in the new issue of Premier Guitar.

Legendary axe slinger Slash is famous for his top hats and his arsenal of Gibson Les Pauls. But on the seminal Guns ‘N Roses debut record, Appetite for Destruction, Slash actually played replica instruments. The full story may never be known, but there is an interesting culture of myth and controversy surrounding those guitars. So be sure to check out the full article if you’re into such matters.

One of my favorite things about working with the cool folks at Premier Guitar is that I can actually write a piece and use quotes from mythologist Joseph Campbell and get away with it. They definitely take a more academic and interesting approach to articles, as opposed to the rote formulas used by some of the competition.

“Publishing these 10 books in the Kindle Store is a great opportunity to explore how electronic publishing enables me to give my readers additional, unique content,” said Morrell in the press release. “Available at $9.99 or less, I hope that my fans will be able to rediscover their favorite titles, and that new readers will have the chance to enjoy my books on their Kindles.”

I was thinking about Morrell recently after catching a rerun of Sylvester Stallone’s 1982 film First Blood which is based on Morrell’s novel. I actually haven’t read the book and added it to my list to check out in the near future.

Today, NPR posted a brief mention of a writing contest where you have to write a 600 word story, using a predefined haunting first line and final line. The contest will be judged by author Michael Cunningham.

Seems a like a neat and tidy little exercise? Anyone out there going to enter?

According to published reports, a car crashed into the fence surrounding bestselling author Stephen King’s Bangor, Maine home.

Nobody was injured in the accident and King himself was not at home.

As the reports point out, King has had several unfortunate incidents over the years.

It can become quite tiresome to hear these Hollywood celebrities complain about their fame and lack of privacy. But when you see what bestselling authors like King or John Grisham or J.K. Rowling experience, it’s quite an eye opener. As book lovers, we may wish that authors were given a higher place in our pop culture spectrum. But the reality is that even the most famous writer is way down the scale compared to musicians, actors and actresses, and sex tape peddling debutantes. It definitely puts a different perspective on the fame — and the price of it — discussion.