How does J.K. Rowling do this to people? The beloved author convinced an American court to hear her complaints of factual errors about an imaginary world, in a proposed encyclopedia of her Harry Potter series. Then, testifying in New York yesterday, she somehow got her attorney to apologize for uttering the words "Lord Voldemort" in court, since the Potter character is "he who must not be named," you see. "Forgive me for speaking the name," said the attorney, Dale Cendali.

Whoa. Super-book-publicist and nice girl Sloane Crosley has a new book of essays called I Was Told There'd Be Cake. There are fourteen essays and, in a level of obsession we both admire and relate to, she has created detailed dioramas as well as videos for each of them. (We discovered this on publishing blog Galleycat, via a certain Emily Gould!) The following diorama-video involves what happens when you have people over for dessert... and one of them poops on your bathroom floor.

How's this for a reversal: A Lonely Planet writer claims he plagiarized and fabricated big chunks of travel guides, but his editors responded by saying he didn't lie as bad as he claims. Also, instead of being driven into literary infamy like, say, James Frey or Margaret Seltzer, the lying writer was instead rewarded with a contract to write a book about his deception, which has just been published. Writer Thomas Kohnstamm was the victim, you see: Lonely Planet didn't pay him enough, so he had to deal drugs and make things up just to make ends meet:

Highbrow pink newspaper the New York Observer—home to Gawker employees past, and probably future—launched their fancy new book review section, "O.R.B." (guess what it stands for) with a review of Keith Gessen's book, a profile by Leon Neyfakh, and a Joshua David Stein review. Which means that nearly all the names on the front page of the section belong to people who have, at one time or another, dated former Gawker editor Emily Gould. There are only like ten people who write things in New York, you see. This is like a nightmare we used to have! Click to enlarge the section, with names helpfully circled by a stalky anonymous tipster.

Fabricating author Ben Mezrich isn't another Margaret Seltzer or James Frey, instead he's part of a far more serious deception. It has emerged that Mezrich invented most of the card-sharking characters in his supposed "real-life" biography, Bringing Down The House, the basis for the hit movie 21. He also appears to have manufactured the bloody beating of a gambler, the smuggling of cash at the airport using hollow crutches, the theft of a safe and the very existence of an MIT instructor. The thing is, his editors knew all about it. But they decided to market his book as a true story, and label it that way on the cover.

In this competitive publishing environment, you need book promotions that are really HOT. So to hype up Charles Bock's heralded new novel about the underbelly of Las Vegas, "Beautiful Children," his PR team is using fake, barely legal porn! They set up a site with a video (SFW) of a teenage girl auditioning for her first porn shoot—then, just before she gets naked, it redirects to a site for the book! This is truly forward-thinking strategic marketing. Either that, or Charles Bock is just a big perv. [SlinkyFoxVideo.com via AgencySpy]

In what we like to call a "listicle," the Telegraph picks the 110 best classic books. Lists are such funny, arbitrary things: people mainly read through for the satisfaction of either nodding in agreement or enjoying a good burst of outrage. They also have a slightly degrading womens-mag function: "Everybody should have a little black dress... and a copy of Wuthering Heights!" In other words, lists keep our society going. [Telegraph]

Oh noes! Galleycat teaches us today about what "abandoned authors"—those left behind in the publishing-conglomeration downsizing crunch—should do. Their suggestions? Well, "a bouquet of flowers or a bottle of scotch" never hurt an editor. So... no more advances or book parties, and authors bribing their way to some face-time with booze... What should authors do next, dive right into vanity publishing? Well, just keep blogging, everyone. [GalleyCat]

Stephanie Posavec's infographic literary maps have been catching a lot of attention, but let's take a closer look. As NotCot explains, the map represents Jack Kerouac's classic beat novel On the Road, "exhibit[ing] scientific rigor and precision in their formulation: meticulous scouring the surface of the text, highlighing and noting sentence length, prosody, and themes..." But... why?! They look pretty, yet are completely useless, and only notable as an exercise in obsession. Without the explanation, the abstract images might be artistic ad graphics. We're reminded of a word coined by infographics master Edward Tufte: "chartjunk: useless, non-informative, or information-obscuring elements of quantitative information displays." The artist's explanation of how the map was compiled follows.

Can't get enough of Wine Library TV's hyper host? Preorder Gary Vaynerchuk's 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight and Bring Thunder to Your World today. (Photo by freshtopia.net) [TV Week]

Remember when cover art was fun and freaky and had nothing to do with the Hamptons or Manolo Blahniks? Well, me neither, since I wasn't alive then. But apparently, there was such a time. More examples after the jump.

Books don't command the respect they once did in the former Soviet Union. [Livejournal via Coudal Partners]

HarperCollins Publishers decided that the book biz is too hard these days so it's going to try and get everyone else to do its job for it. Its books don't sell? That's the bookstores' problem; HarperCollins' new division will take no returns, or at least that's the goal. Writers need to eat while writing? That's what crippling credit card debt is for, losers; the new unit will pay "low or no advances," according to the Times, preferring to only fork out cash when it has made whatever it defines as a profit on a book. Here, the executive in charge of the new division explains how all this benefits you, the struggling writer. Just kidding, here's how he says it makes sense for his company:

The Simpsons send up the Harry Potter frenzy, standing in line outside the megabookstore for the release of the final book in the series! The following clip is a great example of How America Reads.

"Book trailers" have been all the rage as a promotional tool lately; the vignettes for Charles Bock's characters in Beautiful Children are particularly cinematic. Now Newsweek reports that Penguin Books UK and Six to Start have a new project to tell the stories of books online — using new media, get it? While the digital retelling of these stories still uses words, those words are on Twitter and Google Maps.

Getting a little taste of their own doubloon-looting medicine, the Society of Authors in the U.K. has determined that piracy will do to book publishing what it did to the music business. If that means fewer parking permits for glistening pec caresser Danielle Steel here in San Francisco, excuse me if I don't shake my fists at the thunderheads and wail unto the storm. Seriously, what's the real issue here?

The Barnes & Noble bookstore on 21st and Sixth closed on Monday after fourteen years in the neighborhood. "We can't pay those kinds of rents," a bigwig told City Room. When you're finished mourning and moaning, please be sure to visit one of the eleven other Barnes & Nobles in Manhattan and Brooklyn. (What kind of New York do we live in when otherwise sensible people get upset over the demise of a big-box corporate bookstore?)

Kevin Trudeau is the infomercial star and dressed-up hustler who cons the gullible of America by claiming to sell things that "THEY" don't want you to know. Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About. The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. Debt Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About. The Federal Trade Commission (maybe the real "They?") has fined Trudeau millions over the years and tried to ban him from making misleading claims, but he just keeps it up [WBZ TV]. In the olden days, thousands of people who had wasted money on his worthless books would storm his home with pitchforks and torches, and that would be that. Today, though, it has to go through the system. After the jump, a look at Trudeau's scams.

The New York Observer, the fancypants pink paper read by the city's liberal elite, is about to roll out some changes. The two major ones: its cover price is going up to $2, and it's starting a full-on book review section, called the "Observer Review of Books," or "ORB." Recently laid off book reviewers of America, rejoice! This represents a big bet by the paper that its rarefied audience will be willing to pay more money for more literary coverage—and that the publishing industry, skittish as it is, will be willing to pour enough ad dollars into the Observer to make the new section viable. The NYO is no exception to every other print media outlet these days, in that it's trying to find a way to make its (vital) print product financially viable in the long term. Given all the papers across the country that have slashed their book review sections in the past year or two, it's not a bad niche to try to fill. This info courtesy of Observer President Bob Sommer. Contacted for reaction, former Gawker chief and current NYO gadfly Choire Sicha said—direct quote— "!!!."

Radar gives classic works of literature cheeky chick-lit makeovers. Theirs are made-up, but the trend is real: "Last January, fans of literary lioness Alice Munro were shocked to discover that The View From Castle Rock had undergone a girly redesign. Classics like Lolita and Madame Bovary have endured similar face-lifts, and if the experts are to be believed, more are on the way." For an example of the nightmare become real, here's A View from Castle Rock, before and after. Click to enlarge!