'The Color Purple' finally released as an e-book

(AP) — Alice Walker's "The Color Purple," a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1983 and still a widely taught and talked about novel, is finally coming out as an e-book.

But not through a traditional publisher.

Open Road Integrated Media, the digital company co-founded two years ago by former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, has reached an agreement with Walker to release the electronic version of "The Color Purple" and most of her other work.

New editions of "The Color Purple" and the novels "The Temple of My Familiar" and "Possessing the Secret of Joy" were released Tuesday. On Nov. 22, eight more books will be published. The e-books will include author interviews, photographs and personal documents.

Walker is best known for "The Color Purple," set in rural Georgia in the 1930s. It was adapted into a 1985 Steven Spielberg film of the same name and more recently into a Broadway musical.

"I love reading a good book while flying through the air," Walker said in a statement. "I've traveled all my life and have visited many of the faraway places I dreamed of as a child: India, Australia, Bali, South Africa, Iceland, etc. On each journey I've carried books. Books that taught me a lot, while engaging my sense of wonder, but that got heavier and heavier! Open Road promises to be a way for my books to accompany travelers on their own journeys of exploration and learning."

Open Road has previously acquired e-rights to such best-sellers as Pat Conroy's "The Prince of Tides" and William Styron's "Darkness Visible" by offering royalty rates of 50 percent, double what traditional publishers usually offer, and by promising aggressive promotion.

"Open Road has the best technical know-how and best forward-moving energy. I love the way all the people I've worked with express and carry themselves: with confidence and enthusiasm but also with a sense of experience. They have a track record," Walker said.

"If this were not enough, there is a sense, lacking often in publishing, of connectedness with the author, of all of us being in this adventure together, wanting it to be the best."

Walker's agent, Wendy Weil, wrote in an email that "with e-book publishing bursting into popularity during the last two years, this seemed to be the perfect time and e-publisher to market her backlist successfully."

As the digital market rapidly grows, agents and publishers have disagreed over older books, with agents saying that the contracts did not cover e-books because the format didn't yet exist and publishers saying such rights were implicit.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which originally published "The Color Purple" and the other works being issued electronically by Open Road, did not immediately return phone and email requests for comment Monday.



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Sarah Palin threatens to sue author of "Rogue" book

(Reuters) - Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin threatened on Monday to sue the author and publisher of an unflattering biography she said was filled with "lies and rumors presented as fact."

The book by veteran political writer Joe McGinniss, "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin," was published last week as speculation mounted about whether the Republican conservative firebrand would launch a late bid for her party's presidential nomination in 2012.

A letter from Palin's lawyer said McGinniss and Crown Publishing faced possible legal action for defaming the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee.

The letter advises the author and Crown to refrain from destroying any e-mail correspondence that might serve as evidence in such a lawsuit. Crown is owned by German-based media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG.

"This book contains a series of lies and rumors presented as fact and combined with 'anonymous' sources," said the letter, sent by Palin attorney John Tiemessen.

As evidence of the malice a successful defamation suit would likely have to show, the letter cited an e-mail from McGinniss to an Alaska political blogger in which he expressed skepticism about unsubstantiated reports pertaining to Palin's personal life that Tiemessen said were included in the book.

"The final work that was published contains most of the stories that Mr. McGinniss complains were nothing more than 'tawdry gossip' that amounted to the wishful fantasies of disturbed individuals," Tiemessen's letter said.

Tiemessen, reached at his Fairbanks, Alaska, office, declined to discuss the subject further. McGinniss could not immediately be reached for comment.

Palin's husband, Todd, issued a statement about McGinniss and his book before it was released, saying the author had a "creepy obsession with my wife."

Among the more sensational allegations contained in the book is an account of a one-night stand Palin is purported to have had as a 23-year-old unmarried sports reporter with a future professional basketball player.

But most of the book is devoted to Palin's actions as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska, up to her abrupt resignation from that post in July 2009.

The book portrays Palin as fascinated with celebrity and self-advancement but disinterested in governing.



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Brad Paisley to release first book Nov. 1

(AP) — Country superstar Brad Paisley is set to release his first book on Nov. 1.

It's called "Diary of a Player" and shows how the guitar gods of country, blues and rock 'n' roll have shaped his life.

Paisley tells The Associated Press he can't imagine his life if he never learned to play the guitar. His grandfather gave him his first six-string at age 8.

Paisley is the reigning Country Music Association entertainer of the year. He has sold over 11 million albums and charted 20 No. 1 singles, including his most recent duet with Carrie Underwood, "Remind
Me."

The book is co-written with Rolling Stone contributing editor David Wild and published by Howard Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.