Imagine That

 

 

In Publishing News this week.

 

Publishers Weekly has a report from Booksellers in the Washington DC area about book sales slumping as a result of the National Guard being deployed in the city. In response some booksellers have quietly protested by getting creative with their front windows. 

 

KDP has just opened up Kindle Unlimited books to libraries. I haven’t found a proper link but the rumour is out there. 

 

Following on from the Anthropic AI case, Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has been fielding enquiries over what to do if your publisher hasn’t registered you for copyright in the United States. There is a time limit on copyright registry in the US. Yes, you can claim copyright from the moment the story is written but if you want to sue someone over your copyright it needs to have been formally registered. Many writers are discovering publishers haven’t done this. 

 

The Anthropic court case settlement does have implications for the Meta court case coming up. Mark Williams explores the out of court settlement news and how the publishing world might have missed a big opportunity. Suffice to say it won’t hurt Anthropic one bit.

 

Bookwire is hosting a conference specifically for the publishing community called All about AI. Just looking at the topics on offer –  this is a get familiar with this subject or get left behind, conference.

 

Eleven Labs, who are leaders in the AI cloned voices for audio space, have now opened up a direct sales store on their site, reports Publishers Weekly. They have a good royalty rate there too. I think Eleven Labs is the only place where you can license your own voice- which takes author narration to another level. No more hours in a recording booth with dodgy sound.

 

Spotify are flirting with enhanced content on their audio books- You can add video and visual extras to your books which will play on the screen. Publishing Perspectives writes about whether this is a good thing or not.

 

Maris Kreizman has an interesting article on Lit Hub about the Harper Collins staff strike and why publishers have been poorly paying their staff. A Series of Unfortunate Salaries or Fighting the Publishing Industries Elitism.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Clay Vermulm who writes short stories and collaborates with other authors in anthologies and podcasts. Check out the transcript for a different way of working.

 

Building a sustainable author future beyond GEO is a great article overview on how to remain visible in this AI search world. This is an article every author and publisher should read to understand how search is changing- then go for a deep dive into the subject with practical tips from Rachel Thompson on How to make AI work for you. 

(Remember AI is a tool- don’t use it for creativity. Many editors are refusing to touch AI generated books because they are so bad at writing.)

 

It must be the change of the season- I’ve seen my first ducklings down under. (Shakes head at the folly of ducks) And it’s back to school up in the Northern Hemisphere.

So, it’s time for the writing craft bundles. There are two different bundles of resources out there for writers for a limited time. They have different prices (both under $100) but are chock full of different courses, books, workshops, printables…etcetc. Infostack Writing Craft 7.0 and Masterstack-Writing Craft. (There are writing for children guides in this one too.) If you are looking for your next year’s learning resources they’ve got you covered.

 

Donald Maass has written one of those articles that have you thinking about the topic for days. What is Truth in Fiction. It may just change the way you write forever.

 

In the Craft Section,

The power of giving up- Greer Macallister- Bookmark

Plot as Utility- John Gilstrap- Bookmark

Story Structure as architecture- P J Parrish- Bookmark

Dissecting the creative guides- Lisa Miller- Bookmark!

Write where you know- Kirsten Oliphant- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section

2 great articles from Penny Sansevieri-Basic elements matter more than you think and The genre mismatch problem with Ads- Bookmark Both

Transform your book into speaking opportunities- Stephanie Chandler- Bookmark

ACX review- Reedsy

Maybe I want authors to be celebrities- Interesting- Cassie Manns Murray

 

To Finish,

As I compile my list of articles, I’m always wondering what is the thread that runs through them. This week I was thinking about how publishing and writing is changing very quickly, and we may be running so fast to keep up that we forget why we started to write in the first place. Then I read this parody on publishing by Steven James  based on The Lorax by Dr Suess. 

 

Congratulations Julia Donaldson – The children’s author who has broken the record for all time book sales at 50 million according to NielsenIQ

Trust in your imagination!

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.

 

Pic  Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

 

This Crazy Thing We Do

 

 

In Publishing News this week

 

A tentative agreement has been reached with authors and Anthropic reports Publishers Weekly. This means an out of court settlement is on the cards. If you have a claim against Anthropic scraping your work to teach its AI you need to register before September 1^st. Tech Dirt has an interesting commentary on why Anthropic may have settled- the threat of extreme statutory damages. However, they say this might not be an ongoing trend given what the judge declared about training AI’s.(Fair use- if they bought a copy of the book.)

 

Mark Williams has an interesting article looking at the middle ground of the two extreme positions of AI use in publishing. Four perspectives of AI collaboration in publishing. He lays out the pro’s and cons of a thoughtful use of AI. 

 

Publishing Perspectives has a breakdown on the Book Sales numbers from The Association of American Publishers from 2024.In a $32 Billion industry, print is still up there. However, online sales accounted for over 30%. Audio sales drove much of the revenue.

 

While print last year was booming, lack luster sales this year has Bloomsbury axing some of their children’s division team. The Bloomsbury Boom and Bust rollercoaster of children’s publishing. (They get saved every twenty five years by some big name author.)

 

Mary Kole, specialist children’s editor and agent has written an interesting article on research she has done on the latest sales trends in Midgrade writing. Midgrade is quietly having a moment.

 

Some children’s writers have got together to launch an MFA in writing for young readers. After teaching at other programmes they decided what the world needed was a dedicated MFA just for children’s books. They have a great faculty and only five in person residencies over two years with two intakes a year. They are fundraising to keep the costs low. 

 

Jennifer Probst has a great article on the 7 steps to thriving as an author in a changing publishing world. Every now and then an article comes along and socks you between the eyes. This is a must read.

 

Jane Friedman has made her newsletter free for its 10th anniversary. In this article she looks at how publishing has changed since 2015. Does anybody remember the world before Kickstarter, Audio books, and Direct Sales platforms?

 

James Scott Bell has a great article on the origin of Kill Your Darlings, No it’s not a horror story. It’s being aware when you have overwritten.

 

Katie Weiland has concluded that story is almost dead in this year’s films. What happened to modern storytelling and 6 ways to find its soul. In the film story cycle we may be in for a return to those great film stories from the 80’s. 

 

Erin Halden has an interesting article on Antagonists. – Do you know about antagonist hierarchy. That is the layers of antagonism in your story. Not every antagonist is a mastermind criminal sometimes they can be the burnt toast in a scene.

 

In The Craft Section,

How much research is too much- Ellen Buikema (You can never have too much-MC)

5 ways to engage the senses- Lynette Burrows-Bookmark

Deep POV- Lisa Hall Wilson- Bookmark

Writing with subtext- Tammy Burke- Bookmark

What bad movies can teach you- Alex Cavanaugh- Excellent! 

 

In The Marketing Section,

Leverage someone else’s network- Sandra Beckwith

Why every author needs a platform- Written Word Media- Bookmark

Holiday marketing – why prep matters- Penny Sansevieri

10 Amazon KDP secrets- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

How to write a Book Proposal- Reedsy- Bookmark

 

To Finish

To shamelessly rip off Steven Colbert’s monologue, I trawl through the web to harvest those snippets of interest, tossing them into a pot with spices and creating the hot stew of information that is my weekly roundup. This is a niche blog that writers and publishers tell me is required reading. Even if I take you down some rabbit holes. (Hat tip of thanks to those of you who have chucked a dollar or two into the coffee fund.) 

If you have ever had to explain publishing to someone not in the industry you will appreciate the Diana Urban article about the Publishing Sitcom.

 

Yes, we’re mad to do this crazy thing called writing.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links 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, It is much appreciated. 

Thank you.

 

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Who Owns Your Rights?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

The EU accessibility act came into force this week. This is aimed at publishers who are selling into the European Union. All books need to be accessible. This doesn’t mean that they have to be widely available although that might help. They have to be accessible to the disabled community. Dan Holloway has a quick rundown on what that means for authors and publishers.

 

Publishing Perspectives reports on the recent court decision over book banning in favour of the parents and how this might impact the freedom to read going forward in the United States of America.

 

Publishers Weekly reports on the American Library Association conference and what the main topics of conversation were. AI and its biases. There was a lot of chat about the impact of new tech trends on libraries and on hand were child sized robots that helped children with finding and checking out books. (It is almost the age of the Jetsons- where is my flying car?)

 

This week Mark Williams looked at two news items that expose the current publishing models shortcomings. First was the news that the Bond franchise had been bought by Amazon who are bringing out modern James Bond books to tie in with their new game. So where does that leave the original publisher? Following right on the heels of this is the Romantasy juggernaut Sarah J Maass who has licensed her brand into a global marketplace and left her traditional publishers out of the mix. 

When I am asked what is the most important subject to learn in publishing, I always answer intellectual property and contracts. These two articles highlight the importance of intellectual property and who owns it. For decades publishers have been asking for sweeping contract rights and then not doing anything with them. Savvy agents and authors keeping these rights back have discovered other entertainment companies value these licenses. Will Publishers double down on rights demands? Remember authors, you can put time limits on rights in the contract and always put a rights reversal time clause in. 

 

Victoria Strauss has a great article for Writer Unboxed on bankruptcies and why the bankruptcy clause in your contract might not protect you. This is a timely article after recent publisher bankruptcies.

 

Richard Charkin muses on globalization and the publishing trade. Printers are now global, as are Newspapers. I wonder when rights by country will fall by the wayside. 

 

John Green has a nifty little video which breaks down What the #1 New York Times Bestseller List Actually Means. Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a book to make the list.

 

Gabriela Pereira has a great article on How to deal with Failure and Rejection. You need a writer angst jar. This is a great tool to get you over the hump.

 

Joanna Penn has an interesting interview with Betsy Lerner this week. Betsy has decades of experience in the publishing world doing pretty much every job in it. She talks about finding your voice across the medium and loving book marketing.

 

Writer Unboxed has a new contributor (Gen Z ) Kit Aldridge who has an article on AI – The Big Bad Wolf or Quiet Assistant for Writers. All the comments are interesting, especially from the big names in the community. The article is generally not in favour.

If you are on the fence about this technology. You are not alone. However, the changes are so rapid that you may find that some knowledge is better than none at all. Joanna Penn’s recent Interview with Thomas Umstattd on Book Discoverability in the age of AI shows another side of this technology.  

 

It’s July and you may be looking at your goals for the year and wondering what happened. Robin Blakely has a great article on redirecting yourself and your goals.

If it is all too much check out the Frustrated Writers Colouring In Book

 

In the Craft Section,

Building believable alternate histories- Daniel Ottalini

When your draft is a mess- Stuart Wakefield- Bookmark

The playbook for antagonists- Becca Puglisi

The secret to writing witty characters- K M Weiland- Bookmark

Ending apostrophe abuse- Debbie Burke- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

TikTok marketing demographics for authors- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark

Writing an author bio (with AI)- Kindlepreneur

How to publish a children’s book- Reedsy and Karen Inglis- Bookmark

Creative hooks drive more ad clicks- Bookbub- Bookmark

Joanna Penn interviewed Simon Patrick about Eleven labs and Producing AI narrated audiobooks. This is an interesting insight into how Eleven labs works, and how authors can use them. 

 

To Finish,

Do you remember the Readers Digest books? Condensed versions of four novels bound in hardback and available mail order on a monthly subscription. Loads of homes had them. Folio Editions borrowed a similar concept but went the opposite way into high end productions. Publishers Weekly looks at how they have reinvented themselves starting with Public Domain books and are now into licensing Folio editions of in print books. It is all about Intellectual Property and what you do with it.

 

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.

 

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Reinventing Ourselves

 

In Publishing News this week,

 

Publisher’s Weekly writes about the reinstatement of BookCon for American publishers.  Back in pre covid days America had Book Expo which died. While other countries managed to keep their big Book Fairs alive, The United States of America struggled. Enter Book Con 2026 rising from the ashes and focusing on the young trend setters and readers of today. 

 

Publisher’s Weekly also reports on the mixed results to lawsuits trying to halt or reestablish the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This is of huge importance to libraries who rely on funding from this organization in the USA. 

 

Mark Williams looks at the partnership between Mattel (the toy brand) and Open AI. As a teacher and publishing commentator he is drawing some big links with childrens toys and the familiarity the next generation have with AI already. If you are a children’s publisher or writer keeping an eye on this is a must.

 

There is another audiobook award out there. Based in the United Kingdom it’s The Speakies. Dan Holloway looks at how to enter.

 

Staying in the UK, Publishing Perspectives writes about the upcoming UK Publishers Licensing Services conference and what the main topics are. The PLS collects and distributes money from copyright licenses. The 3 day conference is free.

 

Meanwhile, over in Europe there are meetings and summer schools happening for publishers about the new EU rules of accessibility in publishing. Can your books be read by the disabled community. How will you implement changes to your publishing program if you sell in the EU?

 

Recently I listened to Joanna Penn and Thomas Umstattd talking about book discoverability in the age of AI. This was so interesting I listened to it again and sent the link to a few people. Check out the transcript or download the podcast. Food for thought.

 

David Beer of 3 Quarks Daily has an interesting article entitled Will the fear of being confused for an AI mean that we will now write differently? This is an interesting article on deep learning and being human.

 

If you haven’t checked out the Indie author magazine you really should. Chelle Honiker is the programming director of the Author Nation conference and has been the driving force behind the indie author magazine for a few years now. They have great articles on all sorts of topics. Recently Chelle compiled a group of articles on mastering your writing time.

 

If you have been wondering how to get all your virtual events, merchandise sales, book talks, launches etc under one roof check out Benventi they may just have the solution. It’s always interesting to see how new teams approach working with author pain points.

 

Sara Hildeth has an interesting article on Literary Elitism and Literary Egalitarianism.

Why do people push the notion that to read Literary works they must be among the elite thinkers? Each side has entrenched views on the subject. Do we need to review the definitions again?

 

Kathleen Schmidt writes an interesting article on publishing imprints and the marketing budgets. The Vicious Cycle of Book Publishing. This is of interest if you are wondering why your book is not gaining traction. It could be that there just isn’t any money in the budget. For instance, this month is when publishers work out their Christmas promotion budget.

 

In The Craft Section,

How to prepare your manuscript for a developmental edit- Jenn Windrow- Bookmark

Character building – Dave King

Scene segmentation- C S Lakin- Bookmark

How long should a denouement be- September Fawkes- Bookmark

360 conference highlights-Debbie Burke- Super interesting!

 

In the Marketing Section,

7 ways to repurpose your book content- Sandra Beckwith - Bookmark

Disrupting book marketing venue by venue- Lynette Burrows- Bookmark!

How to get free book advertising- Brian Jud

Why I dropped the WordPress website for Payhip- Kris Maze- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

Every now and then I wonder if anyone reads the blog. I have been writing it for over seventeen years. Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged and think blogging or compiling my weekly roundup of publishing news, writing, and book marketing tips is old hat and no one is really interested. Then I remember the little comments and emails and my newsletter subscribers who take the time to flick me comments and encouragement and I put my head down and get back to work. This week Rachel Thompson had a fantastic article on why blogging is still relevant. Of course I haven’t followed all her fabulous tips. I should have been blogging about children’s books seeing as how I write them. Ah well. Maybe that’s something I could be thinking about starting. 

In the meantime, thanks for getting all the way to the bottom of another weekly blog.

 

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 Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

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

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