We at Greenleaf Book Group would like to take a moment to congratulate our authors who have books coming out this December.

The Labyrinth Campaign by J. Michael Sweeney

The Shift from One to Many: A Practical Guide to Leadership by Chrismon Nofsinger

Live Like a Window, Work Like a Mirror by Mark Brown

The Frog Whisperer by Jane Atkinson

The New Broadcasting Realities by Ken Lindner

Explosive Growth by Michael Rogol

Well done! All your hard work and dedication has paid off, and we’re honored to be partners in your latest and greatest work.

In true book nerd fashion, we’ve rounded up our favorite publishing-related links of the week for you! Read on to uncover the best in books this week. If you want to know about these links sooner than Friday afternoon, follow us on Twitter—@GreenleafBookGr.

• Comic Con, the mother of all fantastical conventions, is being held this weekend on our home turf. This event hosts the latest in anime, comics, graphic novels, manga, toys, and more. Austin Comic Con guest appearances include the actors who played Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, and Darth Maul. The Force is strong with this one.

• Times New Roman and Verdana, be gone! We are happy to welcome new typefaces into the digital world, replacing the web-safe fonts that many Internet users have installed on their computers. The importance of typography has evolved with force in the digital world over the past year, and the method of serving font files online has become increasingly more accessible through the rise of web font services like Google Font API and Typekit. To learn more about Web Typography 101, check out Mashable’s Fontography Series. Cheers to the web font revolution!

• From one cultural icon to another: Bestselling author Salman Rushdie weighs in via Twitter on socialite Kim Kardashian’s wedding fiasco with a humorous limerick: "The marriage of poor kim kardashian / Was krushed like a kar in a krashian. / Her kris cried, not fair! / Why kan't I keep my share? / But kardashian fell klean out of fashian."  

• Swamps of tear gas flooding Oakland streets, protestors in Zuccotti Park, “V for Vendetta” masks—what better material for a coloring book? Publisher Wayne Bell created Occupy: A Grown-up Coloring Book Novel, filled with cartoon interpretations of the chronological happenings in the Occupy protests. Within forty-eight hours of Occupy’s publication, the book has sold more than a thousand copies.

• There were acquisitions galore at HarperCollins this week. Within a mere seven days, they bought Newmarket Press, the publishing industry’s leader in film-related books, and Thomas Nelson, a major player in religious-themed titles. Newmarket will now find its titles under It Books imprint, run by executive editor Esther Margolis, “a highly respected veteran of both publishing and the film industries, with unparalleled relationships with countless studios and filmmakers,” according to It Books publisher Cal Morgan. Whether Thomas Nelson will combine with Zondervan, Harper Collins’ leading religious division, is still up for negotiation until the end of the year.

• National Novel Writing Month is here, and YOU can participate. The annual novel-writing project runs November 1 through November 30, and was created to challenge contestants to write 50,000 words of a new novel. Bear in mind, you can turn in an unfinished novel and be golden as long as you meet the word-count criteria. The University Book Store Press in Seattle will publish the best novel written during NaNoWriMo by a Washington author.

• The age of social media can seem like a daunting time to give an engaging presentation. Your audience is most likely armed with the latest iPhone, ready to stream criticism via Twitter to real-time listeners. But don’t let the tweets give you cold feet. To give a kick-ass presentation in light of the massive amounts of user-generated content, take into account these new rules published by Fast Company.

• A new development in e-reading this week: Welcome Kindle Lending Library, Amazon’s program that allows Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, and Kindle Fire owners to “borrow” one ebook per month for free. Make sure to read the fine print—you must sign up for an Amazon Prime account and cough up the $79 annual membership fee.

• Google just never quits. Not only did the search engine give us the fabulous barrel roll trick this week, they also found some time to update their search algorithm. The update seeks to improve the timeliness of search results, ranking newer articles higher in the pool than outdated posts for search terms that encompass recent events or news. TechCrunch reports that Google’s algorithm update impacts 35 percent of searches.

• Are you “passionate” about “empowering” others? Believe you can play a “unique” “role” at your company? Consider your company increasing its “transparency” an “iconic” moment? Think again. No, please—think again. The words in quotes are all business buzzwords that need to die, according to Fast Company.

• Who’s afraid of ebooks? (Or Virginia Woolf for that matter?) Author’s Guild president, Scott Turow embraces digital innovation and instead sees book piracy as publishing’s biggest modern threat. And Wiley seems to agree. The publisher filed a copyright infringement suit last week, going after Bit Torrent pirates that caused Wiley and its authors “enormous” losses.

In true book nerd fashion, we’ve rounded up our favorite publishing-related links of the week for you! Read on to uncover the best in books this week. If you want to know about these links sooner than Friday afternoon, follow us on Twitter—@GreenleafBookGr.

• A CNN study says Generation X is balanced and happy. As much as generational “stereotypes” can drive us all a little bonkers, this is a nice read considering the wrath Generation X has received over the past decade. 

• These days it seems there is a way to make anything social. Mashable highlights the ways in which ebooks are being socialized by Findings, a site where readers can collect, share, and discuss notable passages and texts from ebooks.

• The hottest debate in the publishing world: which are better, ebooks or printed books? Let’s get down to the bottom of this. Regardless of sales, is there really a difference? Apple to oranges, or all the same?

• Steve Jobs, are you watching us? Kat Bailey seems to think so. Bailey created a Watched by Steve blog tribute. Playful memorial, or fanatic fan?

• What the ****? Did that get your attention? Some publishers seem to think so. The trend of using profanity in titles has become increasingly popular over the last year. An interesting example can be seen in the “fluke hit,” by Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortes’ bestselling kids' book parody, Go the F**k to Sleep. This book has spent six months on the bestseller lists! Whaaat.

• Time to get geeky! The greatest geek books of all time are listed by Wired. Robert Heinlin and George Orwell, we would hang out with you guys any day of the week.

• Ebooks are still on the rise, claiming a whopping 116% increase in August. “For the first eight months of 2011, ebook sales increased 144.4%, to $649.2 million, from 18 reporting publishers to the AAP monthly statistics program," wrote Publishers Weekly. "Sales were off by double digits in all trade print segments in the January-August period, although sales in the religion category were up 9% in the year to date at the 22 reporting houses.”

• Is the Nook Color 2 Launching on November 7? TechCrunch seems to think so. Last year this tablet set the standard for enhanced e-readers with its color LCD screen and Android release, but we’ll see if it can compete with Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

• Theories debunked! We highly enjoyed the Used Furniture Review article “10 Myths About Bookselling.” Myths include “Bookselling Isn’t a Career,” “Bookselling Is a Low-Stress Job,” and “Bookselling is Dead.”

• Kobo announces an arm in publishing as it signs e-reader sales deal with UK bookstore chain W H Smith. We give kudos to Kobo for their attempt to compete with Amazon in offering complete publishing services for authors.

 Angela DeFinis is an industry expert in professional public speaking. As an author, executive speech coach, and founder of DeFinis Communications, she has spent over twenty years helping business professionals communicate with greater poise, power, and passion. Using her signature Line by Line Coaching™ process, Angela and her talented staff have trained business leaders and other professionals to speak with increased skill and confidence in engaging any audience.

Nervousness and public speaking go hand-in-hand. And in all my years as a presentations skills coach, I’ve found that people’s anxiety tends to fall into one of four categories. These four levels reflect a speaker’s comfort level and confidence. Which one best describes you?

• Level 1: Pressured and Petrified: People in this category tend to display the greatest signs of nervousness—visible blushing, perspiration, quivering voice, or shaking hands. They are extremely uncomfortable and deeply afraid, often to the point of paralysis. These individuals generally have little experience speaking to groups, but because of a recent promotion or increased job responsibilities, they are now expected to speak (i.e., the technician who has been moved into the team lead position or the customer service representative who now has to manage others and represent the department). These people have little desire to speak in public, but now are required to do so. With limited confidence they have a great opportunity for personal and professional growth.

• Level 2: Hurried and Harried: These people deal with their fear and discomfort by racing through their material for one specific purpose—to get through it! They are usually familiar with their subject matter but rarely prepare or practice. They like to wing it. Many even believe that their “practice” happens while they are giving their presentation. As a result of their lack of preparation, they “hurry” through their presentation, talking too fast, shifting their weight, avoiding eye contact, and showing other physical signs of nervousness. The good news for this group is that with a few simple changes they can quickly increase their capacity and become more comfortable and effective.

• Level 3: Surprised and Startled: These people have situational nervousness. They are fine in their regular day-to-day presentations, but if asked to perform out of their routine, they experience anxiety and discomfort. However, they typically don’t show their nervousness. In fact, their audience barely picks up on it, but the speaker still feels anxious. These speakers take the time to practice and are generally more prepared than most, but unusual situations cause them to revisit earlier bouts of nerves and agitation. They are often the managers who comfortably lead staff or division meetings, but when asked to speak at an all-hands meeting or at a conference, they become anxious. The good news for these speakers is that they already know how to be comfortable in front of one type of audience, so it’s just a matter of increasing their capacity so that they can be as comfortable in every new situation they encounter.

• Level 4: Eager and Enthusiastic: These are the people who love to speak and do so with ease, taking advantage of every opportunity and stepping up at a moment’s notice. They enjoy the adrenalin rush that speaking provides and ride it to peak performance. These people may be great product evangelists, expert salespeople, senior leaders, marketing and public relations professionals, motivational speakers, and corporate trainers. They have already built a substantial capacity for comfort—and there is still room to grow.

What sets these four groups apart? It usually boils down to just two things: knowledge and experience. Level 4 speakers know what they’re talking about and give presentations frequently. These confident speakers know from experience that preparation and practice are the keys to high performance. They develop powerful content. They prepare, rehearse, and get out there over and over. They have taken the time to build confidence.

Whether you need to give a presentation at a low-key staff meeting for just a few or at a high profile conference for thousands, you can increase your capacity to adapt to the demands of the speaking situation and use your skills and experience to succeed. Every speaker—even you—has the potential to get there!