Freelancers: Imagine you're working for the day in a cafe. How often are you ordering stuff? My friend seems bewildered by my 1 drink/hour rule, but I thought it was standard.

From Saddam Hussein’s draining of southern Iraq’s marshes to Russia’s attacks on a Ukrainian dam and nuclear power plant, calls are increasing to recognize mass environmental harms as international crimes. @leilasadat1.bsky.social outlines a role for the proposed #CrimesAgainstHumanity treaty:

My library got me a Halloween present. KJ Charles's writing is really living up to the cover. It feels like the KNIVES OUT cast meets THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO. #booksky

#Copyediting tip: If you've already framed a list as being nonexhaustive, you don't need to end that list with a repetitive "etc." YES: Examples of great vegetable include zucchini, squash, and pumpkin. NOPE: Examples of great vegetables include zucchini, squash, pumpkin, and others.

New job: Open Rank Faculty Positions in Japanese Studies at the Center for Integrated Japanese Studies, Tohoku University Tohoku University jobs.h-net.org/jobs/69218

My subway take: AI will actually be good because it’ll make the internet so useless that we will have to reset our relationship to it

“She was some kind of spectacular lady.” — director Blake Edwards on Audrey Hepburn BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961) is streaming on Kanopy and Hoopla (free with a library card) if you'd like to celebrate the 64th anniversary of its premiere. #FilmSky #Streaming

I’m giving a free workshop *today* on how to connect with editors at scholarly publishers. Let’s take some anxiety out of this first step so you don’t let fear or confusion about norms keep you from moving forward with publishing your book courses.manuscriptworks.com/courses/conn...

I'm writing a breakneck action sequence that I intend the reader to consume more or less in a single breath, flying urgently through the pages. It's taken me all morning to do 500 words.

This is the most complete information I've seen about the Anthropic copyright settlement — dates of when things are likely to happen, what to do now, and what it all means for different types of writers. nwu.org/anthropic/

A replacement for NaNoWriMo's been announced — Novel November, created by ProWritingAid. What do we think? Anyone going to participate this year? prowritingaid.com/novel-november #NovelNovember #Writing

Tomorrow (September 25th) at 5:30 pm CDT, hear @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social discuss his book, Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century, at the Sixteenth Annual Naseeb Shaheen Memorial Lecture at the University of Memphis. Learn more about this in-person event here: www.memphis.edu/english/news....

I strongly recommend new authors join a well-run book club, when possible. Not only does it encourage analysis of storytelling from different perspectives, the range of “loved it—>hated it—>meh 🤷” in the room is a great reminder to write the book that speaks to you and let it find your audience.

As you cancel streaming services, here is a casual reminder that only 16% of Americans read for pleasure anymore, and your local library has hundreds or thousands of books you haven't read. They would love to see you stop by and renew your library card.

Day 3 #ACESVCON25 surprise announcement! Get ready to trade your red pens for ocean views — we’re heading to Puerto Rico in 2027 for the biggest, boldest ACES in‑person conference yet, in honor of our 30th anniversary! April 26-29, 2027. It's a Mon-Wed.

We have it as a contract point that translations of my work have to be performed by actual humans, I think actual human readers deserve to have actual humans translating and making the works as excellent as they can be regardless of language

If a publisher won't commit to human editing, art and translation, the deal is not worth having. They're signalling how little they care about the final product, which comes with your name attached. This is the right place to push back. Having an agent here helps.

@petersokolowski.bsky.social has a book coming out in a year! It's called By Definition from @stmartinspress.bsky.social. He wrote a chapter called "The Invention of the Modern Dictionary: Webster's Unabridged of 1864" in The Whole World in a Book: global.oup.com/academic/pro... #VCON25 #ACESVCon25

By ~30,000 years ago people had fully colonised Japan's Ryukyu islands, but how did they get there? Archaeologists tried to recreate the trip with a bamboo raft but failed, indicating Palaeolithic boats were more advanced than expected #WorldBambooDay 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

How did so many publishers fail to register copyright for their titles? Here's what you need to know about copyright to help protect your work. Click to read: authorsguild.org/news/copyrig...

TOMORROW I’m speaking at the #ACESVCon25 panel “Making the Invisible Visible: Communicating the Value of Editing to Non-Editors” w/ Shannon Roman @version4.bsky.social, @h-e-saunders.bsky.social & Lauren Keleher at 10:30 a.m. ET / 9:30 CT! #VCon25 attendees, join us! aceseditors.org/conference/v...

Why does Whova send entire emails with only the mobile app URLs to ACES VCON25. No one is watching these presentations on their phones. Editors take better care of their eyes than that.

I’m in back-to-back editing conferences for the next week – I’ll be spending a lot of time on Zoom with the cats, and little time in my mailbox. So please forgive me if I’m slower than usual replying to email. Kicking off tomorrow with @acesediting.bsky.social #VCon25

1 week until WHY I LOVE HORROR is released into the world (unless you are at Parnassus Books on 9/18, you all get it a few days early). My release event (& fundraiser) with @cynthiapelayo.bsky.social @librarylagrange.bsky.social only has 36 spots left! lagrange.librarycalendar.com/event/becky-...

A friend recently asked me how many times I go through an MS while copyediting. I realized the answer varies depending on deadline/budget, with the kicker being that publishers who pay a living wage *also* give more generous deadlines, so my answer ranges from 2 to 6 reads, a huge difference.

"Also it was written by a caffeine fuelled lunatic who doesn't know how to punctuate dialogue, and there are 2000 lines of dialogue and they're all manual fixes."

"yeah, it's 100,000 words and you need to make sure the story works, all the characters are consistent, the grammar is perfect at sentence level, there's no obtrusive repetition, the word choices are all correct, the spelling is correct and the punctuuation is correct. You can read it twice."

just seen a post calling out a 100,000 word novel for having one single misused word in it (a near homonym) with the words "I thought editors were supposed to be careful about this stuff" and I'm just over here like

My 2013 essay "HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH" is featured in WE WILL RISE AGAIN: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance and Hope, out from @sagapressbooks on December 2nd. You can preorder the collection now at www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Wil...!

Anxious or confused about the concept of investing? Join us for a low-stress chat about the basics of investing, geared for writers and freelancers. You don’t need to be wealthy to start investing for your future! Register FREE: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

the second copyediting pass is like running downhill

Today's edits include having to delete the word "former" to describe "President Donald Trump" for a piece that was written in 2024. 🫠 #AmCopyediting

A new report from @mediajustice.bsky.social focuses on data center expansion in the US South, looking at environmental racism and practices of resistance. Can’t wait to dig in!

I looked down and realized I was living in an old-school bookstagram photo.

Good morning. Hope something good happens to you today. Hope you have time create. Turn up the music and do the thing.

I’m presenting at #ACESVCon25 on the panel “Making the Invisible Visible: Communicating the Value of Editing to Non-Editors” with Shannon Roman of @version4.bsky.social, @h-e-saunders.bsky.social, and Lauren Keleher. Register for @acesediting.bsky.social's #VCon25: aceseditors.org/conference/v...

that NEA "we cancelled the creative writing fellowships program because we prioritize fostering AI competency" letter is a really good example of a genre of what we might call found horror

Cool in-person NYC courses on #indexing for #indexers with some previous experience or training: www.froebegroup.com/courses-1

Bookforum is hands down my favorite place to write: the editors I’ve had there have made me much smarter with their careful attention & uncommon personal dedication to the craft of criticism. This kind of magazine is an endangered species. Donate to keep it alive: subscriptions.bookforum.com/donate

Do you want to go to grad school in #paleontology 🦖, #geology ⚒️, or #biology🧪? Join the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social Graduate School Application Prep Group! We’ll walk you through the application process in weekly workshops. Sign up with this form! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Indexes for non-indexers! Aimed at proofreaders, but anyone who looks at indexes and has reason to edit them (say, reviewing an index you hired out for) can get a lot out of this. I cover the best ways to edit an index. community.the-efa.org/events/Event... #edibuddies #IndexSky #academicsky #EFA

Anecdotally, I find that students are most receptive to the "it's burning the planet and drinking all our water" argument for why I disallowed so-called generative AI in my classroom. Many don't know the environmental cost of these predictive text machines.

So grateful that I can sit AI usage out while still keeping up with what it can and can't do, and how entire countries are using it, thanks to @grammargirl.bsky.social's newsletter AI Sidequest: ai-sidequest.beehiiv.com/p/corrected-...

I feel like Regina Black isn't nearly as well-known as she should be, considering she might be the best writer in the romance genre. Her latest is about two Black country singers in their 30s; neither of their careers turned out the way they imagined: www.goodreads.com/book/show/22... #booksky

Whenever I see an aspiring editor boldly declare that they can "tell it like it is," I think: Being rude, curt, and judgmental is not valued in this line of work, and I wouldn't get repeat clients if I embraced those qualities. Clear, actionable, compassionate feedback? That's gold. #AmEditing

Love this. I am so grateful to the editors who shared organizational templates with me when I first began. I needed to do so much more recordkeeping than I initially realized.

Almost missed this. Hopkinson is a must-read for me, and I just started Mia Tsai's MEMORY HUNTERS and the prose is utterly gorgeous.

What makes a first line great? In this week's newsletter, we'll learn from Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy, and others about how to activate the curiosity of your readers. Follow the link below for the full post! #writing #screenwriting #narrative

A magnificently illustrated guide to the bryophyte species found across the world. Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts of the World by Joanna Wilbraham is out now. Learn more and order your copy of this fascinating book: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

At halfprice books, once again consulting the spreadsheet I keep in my phone to make sure I don’t accidentally buy a polar exploration book I already have (again).