Dan Brown

When should an e-book be published? Before the physical copy gets published, or months later, or at the same time? Publishers must increasingly weigh tradition against the tide of consumers who want to read their e-books when they want them, and on any device they choose.

What if you showed up as a major character in a best-selling novel? Imagine what went through Marilyn Schlitz's mind when she realized that she was a character in Dan Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol, a followup to The Da Vinci Code. After catching the rumor via Twitter that a character closely...

Writing for the mainstream American public is not an easy task. A well-educated readership, America's book buyers simultaneously yearn for the highbrow and the heady, the playful and the thoughtful. They want books that respect their intelligence, even as they tap into their most escapist...

"DAN BROWN," reads the cover of a novel on the bookstore shelf. It's in huge, block letter font, "BROWN" taking up about a quarter of the cover. Underneath, smaller, much smaller, it says "SIMON KERNICK." Then, bigger again, "DEADLINE." After a more careful look, there is little room to doubt that...

If book publishers could build a time machine and prevent the e-book from being invented, they probably would. But they can't, so instead they're stuck with finding ways to defuse the new technology's potentially fearsome impact on their business model -- even it it means antagonizing some...