Defending Literature Around The Globe.

In Publishing News this week,

 

Copyright received another blow in the United Kingdom this week, when the amended law supported by the Upper house was defeated again in the Lower house. That meant that the new bill will not have any transparency compliance from tech companies. Publishing Perspectives covers the implications and what publishing companies can hope for in the near future.

 

Canadian authors alerted the writing community to an AI scam that is happening on Amazon. Take a hot new title… change the cover a little bit with AI. Change the author name a little bit. Scrape the insides… and take advantage of the original books marketing push to make bucks. This kind of dupe gives authors a bad name and it’s not their fault! 

 

International tax and legal services firm, PWC has released a report on the impact of AI in the workforce. It’s surprisingly positive with employees who can use AI being valued more. Mark Williams looks at the report findings for the publishing community.

 

Meanwhile, Jane Friedman has written an article about What AI can’t steal from you which is your unique voice and perspective. 

 

Ingram Content Group has integrated AI tools into its marketing platform, Ingram iD. The tools will write blurbs and run campaigns across social media according to Publishers Weekly.

 

The Toronto Comics festival just wrapped up and the big talking points were how much the cross border attendance had taken a hit because of fear of gender challenges at the border. The festival has been a safe space for people from marginalized communities. Although comics are in good heart the people reading them may not be so confident.

 

The International Publishers Association’s World Expressions Forum (WEXFO) has just finished meeting in Lillehammer. The clarion call from the forum was the threat to Democracy from disinformation and censorship. They have released a report exhorting members to resist this. “World Expression Forum calls for resistance against authoritarian forces that undermine democracy and freedom of expression. Democracy is continuously under threat, and we (the undersigned) promise to strengthen our battle against disinformation, censorship and polarization–and improve literacy in our societies.”

Over in the middle east the Shajah Publishing Sustainability Fund has just helped 12 publishers to scale up their business and use new tools to make their publishing sustainable. They get so many business development goodies they must be the envy of publishers worldwide. Mark Williams dives into what is on offer for the lucky selected publishers. This is possible because of the countries commitment to literacy and education. 

 

Seth Harwood writes on Jane Friedman’s blog about the perils of Diminishing Returns in Revision. Do you know when it is time to let go. This is one of my biggest problems…if only I had another five minutes to put in that comma and take it out again four times before I’m finished… .

 

The fantastic Jami Gold is back with an excellent post on writing stand alones in a series. Yes, you can do it. It takes some creativity but we’re writer’s aren’t we? Jami has some great tips for thinking outside the series box.

  

In The Craft Section,

3 act analysis of Star Wars- Gabriele Pereira

Chekhov’s Gun- Anne R Allen- Bookmark

When the 2^nd draft feels like a step back- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Different character arcs for the same character-K M Weiland- Bookmark

Dual Protagonists- Terry Odell- Bookmark

 

In the Marketing Section,

Conquering limiting beliefs- Kimberly Grabas- Bookmark

10 Free Book Promo ideas- Sandra Beckwith

Monitoring your author brand- Dave Chesson – Bookmark

21 marketing tips- Writing Oasis

How to define a strong marketing brand- Jenny Hansen- Bookmark

 

To Finish

It’s halfway through the year and my thoughts turn to the current novel and if I will ever wrangle it into submission. It didn’t help that I wrote out of sequence. Jenny Hansen has an excellent article on the non linear writing process. Some writers work best when the manuscript looks like a mess. 

How often do you start a writing project knowing who the audience for it is? Liz Alterman has an article on The Dynamic duo’s website about pitching the concept to yourself before you write the book. I can’t help thinking that if we did more of this we wouldn’t have half-finished novels in the bottom drawer.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter of the best of my bookmarked links. You can subscribe here if you want to join our happy band.

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

 

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Fishhooks and Bouquets

 

In Publishing News this week.

In headlines around the world, Taylor Swift bought back her original master recordings of her first six albums. Why have I put this news in my weekly blog? It all has to do with copyright and the value of that copyright. If you read the saga which starts when 14 year old Taylor signed her first 6 albums away to the record company in perpetuity, there is a moment where the writer winces with recognition of a contract that takes all rights. A trail blazing young icon like Taylor is letting the music industry know that copyright matters. In return I hear that music contracts are now being tweaked to include percentages of ticket sales and merchandise which was the only way artists could make a living if they were owned by a record company.

 

Contracts are very much on the mind of the writers caught up in the Unbound Bankruptcy scandal. Many writers discovered that even though they were owed royalties,(thousands of $$) they were unsecured creditors in the case of a bankruptcy, while their books were seen as assets to be sold on under bankruptcy legislation. This is exactly what happened to the assets of Unbound. What stings is that some of the original principals of Unbound rebranded themselves as Boundless and bought the assets. You can imagine how this has been seen. Most of their staff has walked out the door in protest. Bankruptcy law trumps contracts unless you have a clause saying that if the publisher goes bankrupt you get your rights back immediately. This clause needs to be inserted in the contract by the writer. A publisher will never put that clause in by themselves.

 

Booktok has been questioning inequality in publishing. This week an Australian rugby star and new social media user suddenly got a book publishing deal on basically nothing but looks and potential. Whether they can write is another question altogether.

 

Recently Publishers Weekly hosted a day long US Book Show. Big topics for attending publishers were how to navigate the political landscape to keep publishing books.

Also in the news was the rise of dark romance sales in the US and another survey about how the world seems to be embracing audiobooks. The sales are now almost neck and neck with print. 

 

Kathleen Schmidt has a post about how toxic Threads has become for the book community. It seems that pile on behaviour and bad mouthing each other is still with us, even though the book community left Twitter because of it. Rule: Don’t engage the trolls.

 

If you read the above paragraph and thought ‘it was probably AI bots’ you might need a lie down after reading Dan Holloways post on how AI was taught to interact with Reddit users, and also to recreate Agatha Christie into a writing teacher. Dan also looks at the Bookbub survey on how many writers are using AI in their work. The answers may surprise you.

 

Sean Kernan has an excellent article on how you can tell when ChatGPT is used to write something. This may be of use to writing competitions to weed out the bad apples.

Or as one kindle reviewer put it in a 1 star review, ‘I thought it was bad and then I found the pasted in prompt from Chat GPT in the middle of the paragraph asking for the novel to be written in the style of another writer.’

 

Mark Williams offers his own acerbic take on how publishers should be using AI licensing deals. The genie is out of the bottle- figure out a way to use it for the benefit of the writers.

Anne R Allen writes that Book Scammers are out there still with a quick roundup of some new twists on old scams. Yes of course, it’s easy to buy a slot on the New York Times Billboard in Times square. Just put your money into a Nigerian prince’s bank account.

The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults shortlist is out. This year the list embraces our place in the Pacific with a record number of pacific themed books in the shortlist. Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors and illustrators. It is super hard to judge these awards, I know because I have judged them. There will have been many books that will have nearly made it. If they published a long list like the adult book awards we wouldn’t be asking every year why some brilliant book hasn’t made the list. The number of entries must be nearly the same by now.

 

If you are wondering how to get started with your latest novel idea why don’t you try a Dear Reader letter to yourself. Tara Alemany writes the questions you should be asking the reader about what they want to read. Doing this exercise has a two fold benefit, it focuses your mind on the story you want to tell and it gives you some ideas for marketing it after you’ve written it. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Plan like a pro Write like a rebel- Tammy Burke

The 3 act structure- Gabriela Pereira- Bookmark

Creating escalating complications- Lisa Poisso- Bookmark

Overexplaining in dialogue- K M Weiland- Bookmark

When the good guys must die-P J Parrish- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Author Automations Start small layer with purpose - Chelle Honniker- Bookmark

10 ways to boost sales with Google Play-Indie author magazine- Bookmark

How to market your audiobook- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

How to get more media- Penny Sansevieri

Launching your book successfully with preorders- Draft2Digital- Bookmark

Book Marketing with 10 AI prompts- Fazia Burke

 

To Finish

If you haven’t checked out Storybundle yet, you should. It is a collection of writing craft books by great authors. You get a great collection, the writers get the money, and you get to support a great charity. It’s a total win win win! It is only available for another week and then it’s gone. 

Give it to yourself for making it half way through the year. 

 

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 Substack version.

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

 

Photo by Kasia Derenda on Unsplash

Photo by Slava on Unsplash

Uniquely You

 

Apologies for no blog last week. It was family medical drama week.

In Publishing News this week,

 

In my blog two weeks ago, I wrote about the US government firing the Director of the Copyright office. As with all these government moves there are court cases pending to slow down the speed of these changes. The Copyright Director is suing to get her job back.

 

Across the pond in the UK, Elton John and other big names lambasted the news that the AI transparency act favours tech companies, calling the government decision criminal and irresponsible. Publishing Perspectives has a detailed look at what went wrong with the proposed law.

Giving tech companies an almost free rein to use copyrighted material seriously undermines what copyright stands for. At the moment the EU seems to be the only jurisdiction where artists copyright matters. Keep an eye on what your own government is doing around these laws for creative artists.

 

In an I-can’t-believe-it move, a Texas court has reversed a book banning law, stating that libraries must be the voice of the government. The librarians are warning that this smacks of propaganda for the state. 

 

The invisible first lady of America is bringing out a memoir. Eyebrows are raised as the narration of the memoir is a cloned AI voice, which will also be used in translations. Mark Williams looks at the rise of synthetic voices and the possibilities for publishers.

 

The UK Children’s Laureate has launched a campaign to get families to read in response to the dismal reading statistics that were announced recently. It is well known that if you read to children from birth they start school with a big advantage that only keeps continuing. Congratulations to our own newly appointed Reading Ambassador for New Zealand, Kate De Goldi.

 

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting essay from an Indian publisher on the rise of Print on Demand use by publishing companies and how it is changing the nature of the publishing business. These insights could be applied to other publishing territories as well.

 

Literacy is being challenged. What can publishers do about it? Richard Charkin writes in his monthly column about the clouded nature of publishing stats and how the underlying news means we must worker harder to engage readers. Key to this is amplifying the uniqueness of their authors.

 

Two great podcasts caught my eye this week… The SPA Girls celebrated 500 episodes with a great chat about the past and where they think the future of publishing will go.

Joanna Penn interviewed Comic and Game maker Dave Morris about creative control, world building and AI tools. Dave has some interesting insights on training AI on your own content. 

 

If you are looking for some great craft books check out Storybundle. Kris Rusch has curated an excellent collection of books  –  You pay not much – the authors get the money and so does a great charity. Win Win Win.

 

Writers and discipline. We chase it, revere it, get the apps, try the productivity short cuts. Harper Ross writes on Writer Unboxed about the discipline myth and what sustains us.

 

Lisa Norman has an excellent post on staying true to our unique voice. Over the years all the tools we have used to showcase our writing have changed but our unique voice hasn’t. 

 

September Fawkes has a great post on misaligned characters wants and plot goals. When the character is acting against what they profess they want sets the scene for a weak plot or theme. How can you fix it?

 

In the Craft Section,

Secondary Characters- all the fun and less work- Laurie Schenebly Campbell

Choose a powerful foundation for POV -Lynette Burrows- Bookmark

Plot twists- crafting the unexpected- Tammy Burke-Bookmark

The power of connotation in picture books-Chelsea Tornetto- Bookmark

Enneagram for character development- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Reading like a writer- Michelle Barker

 

In the Marketing Section,

10 little known Substack features- Rachel Thompson

10 things I wish writers knew about marketing- Dan Blank- Bookmark

How to maximise being a podcast guest-Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

What is book bundling and how does it work- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Video marketing tips for authors- PR by the book

Audiobook marketing- Reedsy- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

It is mid way through the year. Where has the time gone? How are the writing goals? 

If you are feeling down in the dumps, try a creativity date. Monica Cox has an interesting post on Angela and Becca’s website about the benefits of the artist date. You don’t need to date an artist you just need to make time for creativity, with no strings attached. Create for the sheer joy of creating. 

Isn’t that why we started writing in the first place?

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. You can subscribe here to get the best of my bookmarked links and other extras.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the 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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Standing Up

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Striking a blow for librarians, a Rhode Island judge has ordered a halt to the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Publishers Weekly has updates on the legal challenges and efforts to save these and other important services.

 

This week the U S government fired the Librarian of Congress and the Director of the Copyright office. This comes at the moment when the U S government must make a stand on how the law will treat AI. There are many lawsuits over the illegal use of copyrighted material used by tech companies to train their AI’s. Publishers Weekly looks at the potential outcome of this move, open season on copyright material by AI.

Mark Williams also takes a look at the potential disaster for copyright holders if the US government allows tech companies free rein.

Publishing Perspectives talks with the head of the American Publishers Association about their recent annual meeting. They had a panel discussion over the threat of AI to the fundamental protection of copyright. What do they think of this latest news?

In Europe people are heading in the opposite direction with petitions in support of creative workers being circulated and handed in to various parliaments. Every government has to make a decision on the ethical and legal use of AI. Does copyright count anymore?

 

Ingram has appointed an AI chief according to Publishers Weekly. They will be in charge of implementing Ai across the whole group. This is quite wide ranging and so PW asked him a few questions.

 

Audible has finally moved on using AI voices, joining Spotify in making AI narration available to authors. The Guardian reports this as a worrying trend. (A bit late) Audible are almost the last audiobook company to openly admit they are using AI voices for narration.

 

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware writes on two new scams doing the rounds internationally. The Book Order scam and the fake review scam. Remember keep yourself up to date on what new lows the scammers are going to, if not for you, for writer friends or newbies. They crush dreams. 

 

BookVault are expanding to Australia and they are moving to be truly global in their Print on Demand technology. BookVault specialise in integrating their services with direct shipping and shopping off your own website. Check out the podcast transcript from a recent interview with The Alliance of Independent Authors.

 

Ruth Harris writes about the clip file being the writer’s secret weapon.

 

Rachel Toalson has an interesting article on Writer Unboxed on what she has learned writing for children. For those of us out there who write for our inner child this will be familiar. If you want to do one of the hardest writing jobs, check out the article.

 

Sally Hamer has a great article on what to do if you have a great short story that you want to expand into a full length novel. First … don’t pad it with fluff.

 

In The Craft Section,

2 great posts from Gabriela Pereira using the Hunger Games- three act analysis and Organising your manuscript.- Bookmark

Is your book a romance?- Selene Grace Silver

How to write a 5 star sequel- Suzy Vadori- Bookmark

Working with relationship driven scenes- September Fawkes- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

How to write a powerful About page- Sonya Matejko

Insider tips to make Goodreads work for you- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

The Bookstore of You- Jonny B Truant- Interesting

The authors edge- not knowing any better- Mathew Holmes- Bookmark

Book Marketing Plan- Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Recently a librarian thanked me for writing about the ongoing saga of the US Institute of Library and Museum Services that I highlighted in every week of April’s blog posts. It was not a pleasure to have to write about the death of an institution dedicated to funding libraries. It was pain and a feeling of helplessness. 

So why did I highlight this news story? I don’t live in America. Why should I care? 

Libraries provide information. It costs nothing to walk into a library and open a book. They even let you read right there in the building. 

Information educates people. This a fundamental right. An informed educated population can make up their own minds about whether governments are uplifting their people or not. 

When fundamental rights to information are taken away the world notices. They speak up, highlight the problem, witness the injustice on behalf of the people affected. Because if we don’t who will speak when it happens to us. 

Randy Susan Meyers has an interesting post on Writer Unboxed this week on writing to save democracy. Writers can imagine futures without democracy. They can inform and educate through their work. Throughout history writers have witnessed what happens to a population denied freedom to think for themselves.

I am a witness.

 

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 Substack version.

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

 

Pic from Vox article on the 10^th anniversary of The Hunger Games.

The Courage To Be Creative

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

A new press has launched reports The Guardian. Conduit books seek to only publish books by men as they are being “overlooked with the perception that the male voice is problematic.” The founder hopes the press will help to change the narrative that boys and men don’t read. Anything to get people reading, I say.

 

The fan run Science Fiction and Fantasy conference called WorldCon is under a massive cloud at the moment. At issue is the use of ChatGPT to vet authors and panelists. Cora Buhlert, who will be on a WorldCon panel virtually, explores the problems of using AI for programming in her article, Robot Hallucinations. She uses her own name and prompt as an example of the problem the organisers overlooked. It is a minefield. If you are planning a conference- do your own homework, don’t rely on AI.

 

The attack on the arts in the United States continues. Next on the block are the National Endowments for Arts and Humanities. These two organisations have stopped or rescinded funding for Literary grants and awards amongst other important funding for the literary sector. Publisher’s Weekly reports that they fought back in the first Trump presidency, but they may not be able to fight back this time.

 

The UK Publishers Association have been reminding people of the soft power they wield in the UK economy. Their study puts the figure in the billions of pounds reports Publishing Perspectives. It all hinges on literary tourism. 

 

Spotify is retiring its Findaway Voices by Spotify, arm in August. They have sold this part of the business to INaudio. Spotify will continue with Spotify for Authors its dedicated audiobook distribution business. Dan Holloway reports on the changes for authors.

 

Recently UNESCO released a document from a trio of European organisations entitled A Call For Transparency Regarding AI-Generated Books. Publishing Perspectives reports on the document and the 3 key points UNESCO is asking for. Developing critical thinking is top of the list.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard looks at the old model of publishing regions and why it has taken so long for the publishing industry to realise that eBooks are global and you don’t need regional publishing distinctions.

 

Publisher’s Weekly reports that Young Adult trends in books being published this year are bouncing between light and dark. A recent survey shows that its either frothy romance or dark academia that are the stories of the moment. What is there for the teen in the middle?

 

Lit Hub has an article on The Rise of The Submission Industrial Complex, or how journals are increasingly asking for fees to submit work. Some journals are using this to weed out AI written stories. But others are seeing it as a cash cow.

 

David Woghan writes an interesting article on Jane Friedman’s blog about whether you really need Ingram Spark. Print On Demand has come a long way from its beginnings. At issue is print quality and availability. In my experience IngramSpark have been excellent down under. 

 

I love researching…it’s the writing I find hard. The urge to go down the rabbit hole is something I battle every day. Kate Woodworth has a great article on how going down the rabbit hole opened her up to a whole different narrative.

 

Kathleen Schmidt has a great article on book publicity. It’s not a contest. There are many factors that help your book make a splash, having money to spend on publicity is not the only way to get a book noticed.

 

In The Craft Section,

Voice revisited- Terry Odell- Bookmark

Thriller words of wisdom- Dale Ivan Smith- Bookmark

10 things I learned teaching children to write- Tari Jewett

How readers react to reactions- Donald Maass- Bookmark

Writer Better Action Scenes- K M Weiland - Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

8 strategies to boost reader engagement-David Lewis- Bookmark

Stock Photos for Book Covers-Jonathan Green- Bookmark

How to revive a dead email list- Emily Enger- Bookmark

How much does publicity cost- Kathleen Schmidt- Bookmark

Book promotion ideas- Bookbaby

 

To Finish

Joanna Penn interviewed Pia Leichter, a publicist and writer about her new book Welcome to the creative club: Make life your biggest art project. This is a wide ranging interview on being a creative director and taking those skills to apply them to writing and your own life. Changing your own narrative can happen with making small changes in your life. 

Diana Stout writes about persevering through failure. How the writer reacts to failure will show whether they will ultimately be successful. 

Creative Courage to keep writing is what we all strive for.

 

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 Substack version.

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

Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash

Is it Good Literature?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

If you are a comic book publisher by now you must be suffering severe stress at the uncertainty of the Diamond Comics distributor woes. They have a buyer. They haven’t a buyer. Their potential buyer is now suing them. Publishers Weekly tries to keep everyone up to date.

 

Also suffering is the Children’s Publishing community with the news that Albert Whitman and Co is in bankruptcy after 106 years of trading. After a series of disastrous moves and the failure to pay people, usually the first sign of a sinking publishing ship, the company has closed. But will anyone get their money back?

 

The money is being handed out by Spotify - $100 million this year already. Mark Williams looks at the symbiotic nature of podcasting and audio books and speculates what else Spotify might be doing with the spoken word.

 

This week Canada had a national election that highlighted what happens when another countries president tells you how to vote. Amongst the first laws that Canadian authors want fixed is the poorly worded copyright law that is hurting the creative community in Canada.

 

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) had their annual meeting in New York. The theme – Move Fast and Fix Things. Publishing Perspectives reports on the outcomes from the study group that identifies pain points in publishing and how to fix them.

 

Back in court are five well known authors challenging the legality of the book banning in Florida. Several states are waiting on the outcome as it will set a precedent on whether their book bans are lawful. It is slow going but the outcome is important. Luckily these authors have the financial resources to see it through.

 

Dan Holloway reports on moves to make AI generated films eligible for The Oscars. While you are pondering this, check out Wiley (Academic publishers) guidelines for using AI in book and journal writing. My thought is that by the end of the year most publishers will have specific guidelines like these. After all, if they are using it in their offices can they really demand others don’t?However, be very transparent in your AI dealings. Publishers won’t back you up if there is a court case. You are on your own, and they may just sue you to make the point.

Use AI as a tool to help creativity. Your author voice is original, and an AI is not. An algorithm can’t feel like a human can. 

 

Amy Bernstein has a great post on Jane Friedman’s blog about using fiction techniques to make your nonfiction book better. Borrow From Fictions Toolbox to Elevate Your Nonfiction Book.

 

Andrea Grigg has an interesting post on Writers in the Storm about Emerging from Writers Block. When you have tried everything and beaten yourself up for having writers block it might be the permission to quit that frees you. Everyone’s creativity is different. 

 

Two excellent craft articles caught my eye this week. Becca Puglisi’s Build Character Growth Milestones into your story and Katie Weiland’s impressive take on the Corrupt Character Arc. These are two outstanding posts on the craft of writing compelling characters. 

 

In The Craft Section,

Trigger questions for world building- Jaime Buckley- Bookmark

Genres of writing – Storygrid- Comprehensive!

Building scenes with beats- C S Lakin- Bookmark

The 5-4-3-2-1 of scene setting- Diana Giovinazzo

Why you should avoid bored protagonists -September Fawkes- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

3 author mistakes when marketing- Sandra Beckwith

10 strategies to grow your author newsletter -Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Where to find readers- Fussy Librarian

Is Kindle Unlimited right for you – Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

Approaches to marketing – Story Empire- Bookmark

 

To Finish

 

A long time ago before we had children… my husband and I used to hold Port and Poetry nights for our friends. It was our version of a literary salon. Friends would arrive with Port… or something else and their favourite poems and we would read them out loud. Sometimes there would be a theme, or we would just gossip about world events. When the kids came along we didn’t hold so many, but they were allowed to read out their favourite poems when we did. The Guardian recently wrote about the new literary salons being held. Funny, Sexy, and a bit Weird- how the young are doing literary salons now. Take an odd venue, stuff it full of people- bring a DJ, and read anything you like. 

Literature, always in fashion!

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 Substack version.

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

 

Photo by Iñaki del Olmo on Unsplash