Sarah weinman

That battle may be over, but more is on the way. Publishers Hachette and HarperCollins are now also on board with the pricing model championed by rival Macmillan, which sets e-book prices higher. Amazon has restored Macmillan's titles to its site after a one-week protest -- but a much bigger, costlier fight looms.

With no end in sight to the war between Amazon and Macmillan, the publisher fighting the retailer's pricing on digital books, rival publisher Hachette is taking Macmillan's side, adopting the agency model and releasing e-books simultaneously with the first print edition.

In a deal certain to impact the next generation of Kindles, Amazon has acquired TouchCo, a start-up that has created some remarkable new (and remarkably inexpensive) touchscreen technology.

Billionaire investor Ron Burkle has set his sights on Barnes & Noble. He wants a 37% share in the book retailer, but poison pill rules limit his maneuvering room. So he's fired off a letter to the board seeking a rule change.

Macmillan, one of publishing's Big Six, has become the first company to fight Amazon's pricing of e-books. Amazon lost this battle, but it's going to be a long and costly war, with other publishers and with Apple, which unveiled its iPad last week.

Casey Johnson, found dead Jan. 4 at age 30, and Ruth Lilly, who died Dec. 31 at age 94, were both heirs to huge family fortunes -- and both died right around the moment when a U.S. tax loophole took effect, with the potential to cost billions in revenue and to drive estate-planning lawyers crazy.

J.D Salinger died Wednesday at 91. As tributes flow in, publishers still wonder why he stopped publishing more than 45 years ago -- and whether publishable manuscripts might be waiting in the wings.

Publishers have lots to like about the iPad, including Apple's dedicated e-bookstore with titles priced pretty reasonably. But of the six big publishers, only five have signed up with Apple. The biggest, Random House, is still gun-shy. Here's why.

Borders Group CEO Ron Marshall is leaving the company to become CEO of the supermarket chain A&P. Marshall is leaving Borders after less than a year at the bookseller, which just posted poor holiday earnings and is facing substantial layoffs.

McGraw-Hill reported its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday morning, and the results handily beat Wall Street expectations. Earnings included a pre-tax gain of $10.5 million, or 2 cents per share, from the company's sale of BusinessWeek in December.