Just after I published last week’s roundup I read the article from Publishers Weekly about the US Presidents comments on copyright. (Substack subscriber readers got the news early.)
Last month the UK voted down a transparency law that would have required tech companies to compensate owners of copyrights that they had scraped in order to teach their AI’s. This was a blow to authors everywhere who see their work effectively stolen with impunity.
The President of the United States commented this week at an AI summit that copyright was an obstacle to rapid development of AI. The comments seemed to completely undermine the new directives from the White House on AI and caused many choking fits across publishing. Publishers Weekly looks at the new playing field impacting authors and publishers.
Publishing Perspectives reports on the White House’s Action plan entitled Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan that slid out just ahead of the president’s comments.
Across the pond, European Publishers and writers are having their own crisis of faith in their elected representatives over AI. Groups representing 17 million creative copyright holders are accusing the EU ignoring their rights in favour of Big Tech in the matter of the new EU AI Act. Coming at the same time as the US statements it feels like copyright holders are getting a bashing from all sides.
With Writers and Publishers feeling the creative ground shifting under their feet, it didn’t help to see reports that broadcast television was also under fire from the White House. Kathleen Schmidt sounds a warning to publishers that appeasement never works.
Publishers Weekly has the American sales stats from May and it makes sobering reading. Every genre has taken a hit in sales. Is it a sign of the end times or just a blip going into the northern hemisphere summer?
Dr Herman Kleiger has a guest post on Rachel Thompson’s excellent blog about why authors and artists get targeted in phishing scams. The Creative Artists Survival Guide to avoiding scammers.
Mark Williams has an interesting opinion on the passivity of publishers exploiting works in the public domain. With the entertainment world jumping on the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen- why aren’t publishers being proactive about bringing other Public Domain works into the sun?
It is always worth dropping into Writer Beware to keep an eye on dubious dealings in publishing. Writer Beware is provided by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Their members have been wrestling with new contract terms being rolled out for submitters to famous Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines. Victoria explores the contract language and the fall out. If you are or hope to be signing a contract soon this is a must read of new terms and rights grabs to watch out for. If you have never seen a writer’s contract, this is essential reading.
In a great guest article on Jane Friedman’s blog, Orlando Ortega-Medina looks at the differences between Author Promotion and Book Promotion and why you need both. He explains that authors often confuse the two. He offers practical tips and advice to implement immediately.
Catherine Misener has a great article on dictation. The productivity hack hiding in plain sight. I have tried dictation a couple of times and it is great for getting words down but the cleanup is so time consuming that it doesn’t necessarily speed up anything. However, I was recently listing to a podcast where a writer said she dropped her transcript into ChatGPT and told it to punctuate the sentences. It was a game changer for her. I must get out the voice recorder again…
Katie Weiland has an interesting article on intentional reading for writers. If you are what you eat as the old adage goes. Do you write what you creatively consume? Is this a strength or a weakness.
An AI does not have emotional intelligence. Lynette Burrows has a fantastic post on Emotional Awareness. It is your most powerful writing tool. This is a must read.
In The Craft Section,
A category romance primer- Juliette Hyland
Fictionalising your family-Linda Ulleseit Bookmark
Villainous words of wisdom- Dale Ivan Smith-Bookmark
The gravity of a single word- Evan Swenson
Mining for theme- Susan Fletcher- Bookmark
In the Marketing Section
Finding your audiobook audience- Bookfunnel podcast
What is a soft book launch- Sandra Beckwith – Bookmark
Troubleshooting Bookbub campaigns- Bookbub
The pay to play dilemma- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark
Where to find royalty free photo’s- Rachel Thompsom- Bookmark
To Finish
If you are feeling besieged with the negative news in publishing this week, take heart there is good news out there. Recently the SelfPublishing Show had their annual conference in London. This is the largest Indie author event in Europe and over 1000 people were there. Business services for writers or publishers see these big conferences as a must attend. Written Word Media has a recap article on SPS and what the big takeaways were. They followed this up with launching a brand-new podcast on YouTube and an episode dedicated to the SPS conference.
Maureen
@craicer
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