Barnes & Noble Brand Refresh

Bookseller Barnes & Noble has hired Mullen, Boston, as its creative agency to work on refreshing its brand. Barnes & Noble is expected to make a $40 million investment in marketing, including a new look for stores. The effort is coming none to soon, as they're fighting tooth and nail (to enhance the Nook to compete with Amazon's Kindle) to stay relevant. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of creative ideas Mullen is able to cook up! What would you recommend? Full story on AdAge.

And the Huck Finn controversy continues

While Publisher NewSouth Books is attempting to get "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" back on library shelves and in classrooms by publishing a new version that removes the controversial "n-word" and replaces it with the word "slave," Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine believe it should be replaced with the word "robot"-- so they've set out to make their own. Why robots? They're "in" right now and statistically, people prefer robots to the word "n-word." But don't take my word for it, read more about their Kickstarter project that's already raised over $13,000 of their $6,000 goal.

Anyone else catch Seth Godin's latest move?

Seth Godin tries a clever variation on Groupon to gather signups for his newsletter. The more people that sign up, the lower his product's price. He'll lower the ebook price by $1 for every 5,000 people who sign up for his free online newsletter. So far it's down from $9.99 to $7.99. Are you signing up? Details here.

Have a spine

While there's a huge fuss over book covers, often book spines get neglected. That's where Fixabook comes in. They claim to offer a few pointers on how to get your spine in shape, amidst critique dedicated to creating eye-catching jackets. Check out their scoop on spines, copycat covers, or covers. Nice guest post featured there today by Seth Godin, of the Domino Project.

The Ice Book

Davy and Kristin McGuire created a magical pop-up book by projecting video recorded with a Canon 5D Mark II onto its pages, creating a 3D effect and placing miniature people into the scenes. Their website is down for the moment, but more about the project can be found there.

The Ice Book (HD) from Davy and Kristin McGuire on Vimeo.

Simon & Schuster is on Foursquare

Foursquare users can now check in at locations mentioned in some Simon & Schuster books and get information from those books. On Tuesday, the publisher celebrated the program by giving a free copy of Howard Gordon's Gideon’s War to anyone checking in on Foursquare at the publisher’s offices.

eBookNewser has more about the program: “The presence includes tips and trivia on places in the real world from authors. For example, Suzanne Corso, author of Brooklyn Story, tells fans where they can find the best cannoli in her neighborhood."<-- super fun

All this following the news a few months ago that Simon & Schuster, among other publishers, jumped aboard the GetGlue train offering stickers like these for check-ins.

Students Prefer Printed Books

According to a DISG Press Release, despite their fondness for social networking and cell phones, most college students say they prefer textbooks in printed rather than e-text form. Nearly 75% of students said they opt for printed texts, citing a fondness for print's look and feel, as well as its permanence and ability to be resold.