#1: I know naming characters is tough, but this is the first time I’ve heard of someone doing market research with Google adwords to name their character. It’s interesting to see that names do make a difference. Now I’m curious if there are class or culture biases at work with the names–too bad the author doesn’t reveal the names.

#2: Not sure what to make of this: Random House Canada and McClelland & Stewart are closing their rights departments and outsourcing subsidiary rights sales/management to an independent agency. From the article:

The Cooke Agency International will handle the selling and licensing of foreign rights, permissions, and dometic book club sales. The selling of first and second serial rights will be handled by the Publicity departments of each company.

#3: Got an iPhone or an iPod Touch? Love handmade, geeky stuff? Yummypocket over at Etsy makes some really neat holders for the iPhone including an Etch-a-Sketch holder and a cassette holder.