To Tweet or not to Tweet – it’s a question many authors and publishers ask. The truth is, tweeting in and of itself does not generate book sales. But in terms of exposure, Twitter is a great tool for authors and publishers, and this week one big topic du jour in the publishing world concerned Twitter, and in particular, the use of hashtags to highlight a subject (such as #dearauthor). Read all about it below, and enjoy the rest of the week’s news – plenty of digital book news, new memoirs, summer reading for kids, a self publishing success story and much more!

* Could hashtags – used on Twitter in order to follow topics – save publishing? http://bit.ly/cZoYGx; Twitter’s #dearpublisher hashtag taking off, http://bit.ly/doD7nv.

* New Mark Twain biography offers a new look at the author and his life, http://nyti.ms/9i6cVd.

* Summer reading for the kids (to stop them from saying I’m bored!) http://bit.ly/9QhlK8.

* Book cover design gives a boost to old books, and is important for e-books, too, http://bit.ly/bY6Fjl.

* A happy ending for the buyer of a damaged thrift shop book (see how the publisher responded), http://bit.ly/b2Q10Z.

* Barnes & Noble introduces NOOKstudy, a free e-studying tool, http://bit.ly/9POjUj.

* 50% of college students plan to buy e-readers, http://tinyurl.com/2c8fqw3.

* Selling 14,000 (self-published) books on a subway? You bet, and learn how one author did it, http://nyti.ms/a07FId.

* “I Write Like” program compares your writing to famous authors – take the challenge! http://bit.ly/cMEzI4.

* “Is it sweet to tweet or is Twitter twaddle?” Both sides, pro and con for Twitter, weigh in on its value (or not) for books and publishing, http://bit.ly/9m2xMu.

* Bookstore Bingo FTW – or why it’s great to be a bookstore customer instead of the staff, who face a barrage of absolutely ridiculous questions, http://bit.ly/9xmpip.

Image via Wikipedia

* Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor gets a deal with Knopf to write her memoir, http://bit.ly/a8hDoe.

* Book excerpt: “How to Land (and Keep) a Literary Agent,” by agent Noah Lukeman, http://bit.ly/bJox5X.

* ‘Nanny Lit’ (a la The Nanny Diaries) still in vogue, http://bit.ly/9syoIK.

* Millions of books are digitized for the disabled, http://bit.ly/alhZGC.

* Book excerpt: “How to Write a Great Query Letter” by agent Noah Lukeman, http://bit.ly/dlja8V.

* Author Dean Wesley Smith on “Writers Must Be Taken Care Of,” a myth he tackles in “Killing Sacred Cows,” http://bit.ly/pC8mH.

* Are smaller iPads in the works? http://bit.ly/cCiEly.

* “Will Self Publishing Make You Die?” (A very tongue in cheek piece that is worth reading) http://bit.ly/cSpTOm.

* “Four Ways E-books Will Change Your World” (from Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest) http://bit.ly/cG9Lya.

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