Penguin’s mass market paperback division, Berkley/NAL, plans to launch an ebook imprint in January.

According to Publishers Weekly, the new imprint, to be called InterMix, will operate like a mass market paperback publisher.

Focusing on romance, mystery/thriller and science fiction/fantasy, InterMix will release both reprints and titles from new authors.

Eleven Nora Roberts titles will be among InterMix’s first ebook offerings when it kicks off in January.

In February, InterMix will resurrect the dormant mass market line, Signet Regency, releasing six of those titles as ebooks for the first time. After that, InterMix plans to release three Regency romances monthly in 2012.

While Berkley/NAL plans to publish new authors under the InterMix imprint, no new authors were announced. However, Leslie Gelbman, president of Berkley Publishing, says any titles from its original ebook authors could also be available in print format.

Ever wonder how they come up with those passionate covers for romance novels? Wonder no more!

Here’s a fun video of the making of the cover of Elizabeth Hoyt’s latest book,  Scandalous Desires, which came out today.

Amazon is aggressively trying to woo some top authors away from their publishing houses, chipping away at services that publishers and agents currently provide, according to an article in The New York Times.  

Amazon plans to publish 122 books this fall, according to the article by David Streitfeld, putting the online retailer in direct competition with the New York publishers that are also its biggest suppliers.

Amazon is apparently willing to pay big advances to secure certain titles. It recently announced it will publish a memoir by actress and director Penny Marshall. Amazon reportedly paid $800,000 for the deal.

Richard Curtis, a veteran agent who is also an e-book publisher, tells The New York Times:

“Everyone’s afraid of Amazon. If you’re a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you’re a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out.”

Read the full article here.