The Academic AI Takeover

 

In Publishing News this week

 

The Textbook authors have written a letter to the court over the Anthropic settlement as they discover that their publishers are not going to hand over any compensation to them. Publishing Perspectives reports on their concerns.

 

Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly reports that Cambridge University among other notable academic institutions have created their own AI service Meridian, which exists to license content from universities and make it available for students and researchers at the touch of an AI button- peer reviewed of course.

Oxford University Press has gone straight to Chat GPT and is running a three month pilot letting universities use and search for licensed content in a new Chat GPT EDU version of the Open AI’s chat bot. 

 

Jane Friedman recently wrote an article on AI detection scandals. She feels that they will run their course this year. Like it or not Pangram is here to stay, and authors realise they can’t use it to write huge amounts of their book. Drop into the article comments for the discussion. 

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on a study from the International Federation of Reproductive Rights Holders on the impact of generative AI on authors and publishers. No surprises its grim however they say the way forward is to actively control their rights around AI consents and transparency.

 

The Alliance of Independent Authors has an article in the Indie Author Magazine on why every author needs to have an AI statement. If you are like most authors, you stay silent as you are still working out what this means. The article explores the various standpoints and suggests that if authors aren’t proactive, others will assume the worst.

(FYI. I will always try to show pros and cons on using AI in an author business. I never use it to write these articles or my own creative writing.)

 

Mark Williams recently wrote an acerbic article on the flip flopping over AI that the Society of Authors is doing over their new charter on ethical use of AI. They promoted it then they walked it back. Why?

 

The scams targeting authors are getting worse, according to Jane Friedman.

She recounts a scam report that incorporated an agents spoofed identity and an email exchange that looked so legit it nearly fooled her. It didn’t help that the latest changes to the Literary Agents code of ethics have made this type of scam easier to fool the writer.

 

For all you children’s writers out there… Check out Afoma Umesi’s blog on middle grade reading. I recently came across her trends of 2026 article and it confirmed some of my thinking about the changes in middle grade children’s publishing.

The Children’s Book Mastery Summit is in a few days. That’s a free five day online conference with great speakers for children’s writers. 

 

Chelle Honniker was recently interviewed by Draft To Digital on author education. Indie Author Magazine has an article on the main points of her talk and how she began Indie Author Training after programming Author Nation conferences. If you have loads of author courses stacked up and can’t find the time, this article is for you.

 

Are you suffering from marketing burnout? Diana Stout writes about how the Shoulds of author marketing nearly finished her career completely. She figured out another way Her Shouldshank Redemption. 

 

Lisa Norman writes regularly for Writers In The Storm and I have referenced her articles frequently in the craft section. Recently she wrote a meaty article on craft with a different slant. Craft in The Age of AI: Sending a Scout Into Your Draft. This is using AI as the tool in your writing and how to use it. If you are stuck, or scared, or curious, check out the post and the comments.

 

In The Craft Section,

Writing emotions Vs Evoking Emotions- Donald Maass- Thoughtful

Literary Striptease Suspense- Boo Walker-Bookmark

Adding theme into story- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Character Internal Conflict- Janice Hardy

Crafting Seamless Transitions- Elizabeth S Craig- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

21 Substack newsletter tips- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Igniting book marketing- Sandra Beckwith

Buzzword Bingo- Craig Martelle- Bookmark

Self Publishing Tools- Jo Lallo

Increasing visibility with stories in a story- Jenny Hansen- Bookmark!

 

To Finish

It’s been a wall to wall media week with elections in America and our own national election about to take place. News overwhelm has us turning off media and hiding in books. If only we celebrated the good things that happen on our national news media. We could start with having a Carnegie Medal nominee. A rare feat for a Kiwi author. Huge congratulations to all the children’s book authors shortlisted…and especially to our own Rachael King for The Song Of The Saltings, a folk horror masterpiece!

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

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If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the free Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

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From The Book To The Merch Empire

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The Australian government is about to introduce legislation that would change the copyright law to allow AI companies to use any authors work without a license to train AI models anywhere in the world. The Authors Guild is promoting a global effort to stop this legislation.

 

Audiobooks are still continuing to do well in sales. Storytel, the Swedish competitor to Spotify has posted a strong third quarter of sales according to Publishing Perspectives. It seems that their Europe base is not succumbing to Spotify. Meanwhile, Spotify is allowing authors up to 1000 free codes per audio book to use as giveaway promotions. 

 

Victoria Strauss has an up to date article on the Anthropic court cases and how other AI companies are using what they have learned to limit their own court cases exposure.

 

Publishers Weekly has an article on Apateon Press who are helping authors who have regained their rights to out of print books and don’t know how to navigate the self publishing system to keep their books in print.

 

There are literary prizes and then there is the new literary prize for an AI co written book. The Prix Pascal de Littérature IA is open for submission is French. The Guardian reports on how this prize came to be.

 

If you follow the Romantasy genre you will be aware that Sarah J Maass has released another hotly anticipated book. Publishers Weekly takes a look at Sarah J Maass Inc. How has one author gone from being an indie creator merch darling into a behemoth  merch franchise entity.

 

Creating a global empire from your writing could be a writers dream but how to make it a reality. What does Hollywood actually want? Publishing Perspectives has the latest report from Rightscenter; Book to Screen Marketplace Insights highlighting all the trends that are hot right now.

 

Meanwhile Kristine Rusch has an interesting essay on navigating the complex issues of rights deals and options with Hollywood agents. This area is ripe with scammers so she has a detailed breakdown of what to look for and beware of.

 

Dale Roberts writes about the recent scare that Amazon put some authors through when they refused to price match books. Apparently, this is all fixed now. Dale talks about the uses of the perma-free model in marketing. 

 

Indie Author Mag has an interview with Evan Gow of Story Origin. The company started as a way of managing all the marketing outreach to readers. He has worked on his newsletter strategy and gives some great tips for connecting with newsletter readers.

 

Darcy Pattison is writing a series of articles on business plans for publishing children’s books. This week she tackles the marketing problem. She know her books aren’t written for general sale so she has a focus on schools and libraries where the marketing is very different.

 

As Novel November is about to start don’t forget to drop into Storybundle for a great package of craft books. Good luck to all who are giving thios a go. Remember even if you don’t hit the target you can still get words down and challenge yourself. Also short stories and other writing counts to the 50,000 word total. You might just surprise yourself.

 

In The Craft Section,

Keeping track of your characters- Craig Martelle- Bookmark

Checking your point of view- Janice Hardy

7 main types of character conflicts- Ellen Buikema- Bookmark

How to write subplots- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Crafting nuanced emotional states- Kim Bullock

 

In The Marketing Section,

The Book Launch planner- Ines Johnson

Amazon A+ Content- Sandra Beckwith

One chapter six mirrors of marketing- R J Redden- Bookmark

Crafting great Book ads- Bookbub- Bookmark

How writers can embrace video- Dan Blank

 

To Finish

 

When you tell people that you have a book out, one of the first things they will do when they get home is do a search on you and your book. Do you have anything for them to find? Rachel Thompson has a great article on what every author should understand, that Book PR and Social Media are different beasts and they should be treated in different ways. If you can get all the component parts working together your book marketing will be easier and opportunities to expand your franchise empire may just fall into your lap.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the free Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash