Daily book biz round-up: Crown restructured; Nancy Drew turns 80; and more

A spot of book news to close out the week:

• Maya Mavjee announces Crown restructuring
• Penguin comes out on top in iBookstore stats
• A look at Robert J. Sawyer’s Mississauga office
• Nancy Drew: 80 years young
• Malcolm Gladwell “most highlighted” on Kindle
• World will soon get to share in Philip K. Dick’s sodium pentothal-induced fever dreams
• Sales of “freshly ground black people” cookbook quadruple

Robert “Jackpot” Sawyer on tonight’s FlashForward premiere

It’s been a decade in the making, but tonight will see the premiere of the new ABC television series FlashForward, based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer. The show, which is being billed as the next Lost, is already receiving advance raves from some critics. Besides basking in all the positive attention, Sawyer tells the National Post that he’s now filthy rich.

“It really has changed my life,” he says. “To the point where my bank manager called me and said, ‘What are you going to do with all this money that’s sitting in your account?’ I said I still have no idea. I haven’t even wrapped my head around that. I haven’t had time to catch my breath and think about how I’m going to spend the money … It’s not a bad problem.”

Robert J. Sawyer launches Wake, signs a leg

Last week, Robert J. Sawyer – a.k.a. the Canadian author most likely to have his brain kept alive in a jar for centuries to come (Christian Bök being a close second) – launched his newest novel, Wake (Viking Canada), at Dominion on Toronto’s Queen Street East. The event was hosted by BakkaPhoenix Books. (Photos courtesy of Carolyn Clink)

Bakka’s Chris Szego and Aurora Simmons bag the books.

Space television’s Mark Askwith (fresh from having interviewed Sawyer onstage), Lesley Livingston, author of Wondrous Strange (HarperCollins Canada), and Sawyer.

Sawyer fan Troy Perault displays the tattoo he had made of Sawyer’s signature from a previous event. See, now here’s the difference between sci-fi writers and rock stars – sci-fi writers sign their fans’ legs.

Anne Michaels and more in the April Q&Q

Thirteen years after the blockbuster success of Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels is about to publish her second novel, and she’s Q&Q‘s cover subject in the April 2009 issue, which is available now. Also in April, we look at the some of the ideas for industry networking and sales-generating that have sprung up in the wake of BookExpo Canada’s collapse, and at the Literary Press Group‘s future plans now that new executive director Jack Illingworth is on board. Plus reviews of new books by David Suzuki, Kim Echlin, Trevor Herriot, Robert J. Sawyer, Vlasta van Kampen, Tim Wynne-Jones, and more. The full table of contents is after the jump.
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Robert J. Sawyer in L.A.

Sci-fi author Robert J. Sawyer recently visited the Los Angeles set of Flash Forward, a new ABC series based on his novel of the same name. Here are two pics he took:

Sawyer with director David S. Goyer.

Sawyer with series star Joseph Fiennes.

Robert J. Sawyer hosts new TV series

Robert J. Sawyer, dubbed “Canada’s dean of science fiction,” has been very busy lately. He has a new novel coming out this season, he will be writer-in-residence at Canadian Light Source, “Canada’s largest particle accellerator” – this Quillblogger isn’t sure exactly what that means, so don’t bother asking – and beginning Jan. 27, he will be hosting a new documentary series on Vision TV.

The series, entitled Supernatural Investigator, makes its debut tomorrow. From Channel Canada:

Supernatural Investigator takes a critical look at otherworldly happenings in an attempt to separate fact from fiction. Each half-hour documentary follows an expert investigator as he or she brings rigorous, real-life scrutiny to a search for the truth behind so-called paranormal phenomena.

If this sounds like a Canadian version of Mythbusters, the description of the first episode indicates that the new series will have a more … um … otherworldly bent. The inaugural episode apparently attempts to prove or disprove the existence of the Antichrist:

In this episode, paranormal filmmaker Michael MacDonald searches high and low for the world’s most notorious villain.

No word what happens after MacDonald succeeds in locating Dick Cheney. You’ll have to tune in to find out.

Sawyer’s synchrotron engagement

Robert J. Sawyer is coming to a synchrotron near you — if you live in Saskatchewan, that is. In June and July 2009, Sawyer will be writer-in-residence at the Canadian Light Source, Canada’s largest particle accelerator, in Saskatoon. The physics research facility has never had a writer-in-residence before (shocking!); in fact, the position was created specifically for Sawyer, who will mentor writers on the CLS staff and in the community. The residency came about as an opportunity to “explore the creative processes at the root of science and art, and increase public discussion of science in Canada.”

Community reading campaign goes on 100-Mile Diet

An Ontario community reading campaign has gone with a non-fiction title for the first time in its history. The “One Book, One Community” program, based in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, has gone with Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon’s The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, first published last year by Random House Canada. The campaign will last throughout the summer, concluding with author appearances and other events in September.

This is the seventh year for “One Book, One Community”: previous choices have been mostly CanLit fiction, with a venture into science fiction (Robert J. Sawyer’s Hominids) in 2005.

Friday Photo: Robert J. Sawyer e-reading

This week’s Friday photo comes courtesy of Gene Wilburn, who took this shot of Robert J. Sawyer reading a chapter from his new novel, Rollback, on his handheld computer at the book’s launch at Bakka Phoenix bookstore in Toronto on April 14.

Go to Q&Q‘s Flickr pool for more from the Sawyer launch.

The May issue of Q&Q, in stores now, contains a cover profile of Sawyer. Read a review of Rollback here.

Have you recently attended a book reading, library event, or author appearance? Have some interesting book-related pictures you want to share? If you’ve got photos of the Canadian book scene, we’d love to see them. Send them to us or sign up through Flickr and submit your images.