New York - Publisher Simon & Schuster announced on Friday that it plans this year to make 5,000 additional titles available for the Kindle, Amazon's (NASD: AMZN) eBook reader device. The move will double the publisher's commitment to the service, which was launched in November and currently counts some 125,000 available titles.

New York - Digital music service eMusic said on Thursday that it has added nine new publishers to its MP3 audiobook store, which it says is now selling nearly 13,000 titles per month. Joining the store are Simon & Schuster Audio, BBC Audiobooks UK, Reagent Press, Hay House, L.A. Theatre Works, Tantor Media, Phoenix Books, Listen and Live, Brainsync and Audio Evolution. "We look forward to testing the DRM-free waters with eMusic, as we believe their customers will be strong audiobook consumers," said Chris Lynch EVP and publisher for Simon & Schuster Audio.

New York - Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing said on Friday that it has partnered with Ball State University, to distribute live, interactive Web broadcasts featuring authors and illustrators to more than 30,000 schools nationwide. The Electronic Author Visits program will utilize BSU's Electronic Field Trips program, which will provide the live video, discussion forums and downloadable learning activities. Participating authors so far include Andrew Clements, D.J. MacHale and Margaret Peterson Haddix.

New York - Publisher Simon & Schuster announced on Tuesday that it partnered with Internet video distributor TurnHere to create a book-centric promotional video channel. Emeryville, Calif.-based TurnHere, which claims a network of 2,000 professional filmmakers, will initially produce videos for at least 40 authors, such as Sandra Brown, Mary Higgins Clark and Vince Flynn, featuring in-depth information on featured books and sneak previews of upcoming titles. The videos will be hosted at Bookvideos.tv, as well as on SimonSays.com.

Boston - Gather.com, a provider of social networking and content sharing services, announced on Wednesday that it has received 1,500 manuscript submissions since the Jan. 11 launch of its Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition. All manuscripts, which must be completed works of commercial fiction, are evaluated by the Gather.com community of readers, writers and aspiring authors. The contest is being produced in conjunction with publisher Simon & Schuster.

New York - Touchstone, an imprint of publisher Simon & Schuster, has partnered with online social network Gather.com on a contest that will publish a book by a first-time author, The New York Times reported on Thursday.