I loved this story!

Two years ago I had my agents ask authors seeking blurbs if they had used LLMs in the writing or research for their novels. If yes, then I won’t read their books. I know I could be lied to. If I am lied to, I will LOUDLY retract my endorsement. I hope more writers might adopt a similar policy.

tapping the sign again

At what point does romantasy become just "fantasy written by women"??? A romantic subplot does not a romance novel make. Most books. MOST BOOKS have a romantic sub plot. A romance plot is distinctly NOT a sub plot. It is a plot built specifically around getting two people to kiss.

They spent your tax money on killing children. I think it's worth us spending our tax money prosecuting and punishing them all. No one will argue against it. It is a popular stance. Don't be a pussy. Stand up for those girls who were killed in our name.

If they ask you for money, they’re not a real publisher or agent.

This has me crying in real life 😂😂😂 🦁

Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the Taínos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous

Democratizing the arts looks like universal income, low-barrier grants for both emerging and working artists, well-funded municipal arts & recreation programs, vibrant third spaces, and a well-funded public school system with progressive curriculum. Not a free pass for corporate-owned slop engines.

Natural talent is nothing compared to the ability to keep making shit long after everyone else has given up

As a professional slush pile reader I propose a compromise: AI programs to read and evaluate the AI generated manuscripts making the queue overflow while humans like me read & evaluate the manuscripts written by humans we actually want to see 😊

Getting ready for a vigil for Renee Good in the Western suburbs. Please also remember Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, also killed by ICE just minutes after dropping a child off at school, on Sept 12, outside Chicago.

There are 242 working days in 2026. If you write just one page a day - just 250-300wds, roughly 5 Bsky posts - you will have two full scripts or a novel by New Years Eve. If you write just two pages a day - just 500-600 words - you will have five scripts or one epic novel. Just. Keep. Writing.

As we enter the New Year remember fear of making bad art is holding you back. Fear of people not liking your work is holding you back. Rejection is holding you back You'll make bad art, you'll have people not like your work, and you'll be rejected. Moving past it is half the job of being a creative

Heads up, the annual year-end free trial period for Publishers Marketplace is live. Great way to do research for those of you gearing up to query in the New Year. lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2025/12/a-pm...

I wrote about Pluribus and the dangers of writing exclusively for the fans. www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...

If you see the words 'irrevocable', 'in perpetuity', 'formats not yet invented', 'net after costs', 'all rights', you're selling every damn thing you could make money from as an author for a one time payment, or in this case, a promise. Signing this gives the publisher money meant for you forever.

we can kill them all if we just work together and ✨believe💫

I do not want Gaston backstory, I do not need Gaston backstory, I reject Gaston backstory he is a fully formed oaf, consuming eggs by the dozen in one of the greatest villain songs ever written, and that is all we need of him

We library folk do a good job talking about all the free services we offer, but I don’t see many of us talking about how libraries are one or the only places where you can use services without being advertised to.

One of the worst parts of the modern condition is having to listen to billionaires airing out the stupidest policy ideas, random musings, and other mental detritus. It’s unbearable.

"I'm not in denial, I'm in open rebellion" damn that quote goes hard

This is annoying me so much. I cannot believe the BBC is making me defend James Daunt, but this article title is some absolute clickbait bullshit. "As a bookseller, we sell what publishers publish, but I can say that instinctively that is something that we would recoil [from]," he said.

AI generated content of any kind undermines the credibility of whatever is being communicated

I'm going to do a little thread on how the money from books works for traditionally published authors because people have questions, and this is always useful info to share IMO. First, a big disclaimer that every contract is different, and there are a million factors that can change things. 1/

I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.

Most publishers (there are always exceptions) decide whether or not to buy a second book (or a third etc) based on how the previous book did. So when you pirate a book in most cases it’s less about the money you just stole from both author and publisher it’s about the future book you just killed.

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features." There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

Every time you share a bad take from an overpaid legacy media buffoon you must then share a link from your favorite independent news outlet. As penance

Good morning! AI is being force-fed to you by a handful of billionaires who will lose a bunch of money if they fail to convince you that you need it. You do not need it 🫶

Authors, I think you might enjoy this long interview with a independent bookstore buyer about how bookstores decide what books to stock and display: countercraft.substack.com/p/interview-...

“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion” futurism.com/artificial-i...

The most important thing in writing is to finish. A finished thing can be fixed. A finished thing can be published. A finished thing can be made into a movie. An unfinished thing is just a dream. And dreams fade if you don't hold on tight enough. So finish the thing.

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

Publishing is a broken system, and most individuals can't fix a whole-ass system, but a thread of ways you can support marginalized authors.

The kids are reading again! We are going to be ok!

This is a great guide to navigating social interactions at bookish events. I would add if you're joining a group, please don't then try to dominate the space and time of one person in that group. Be friendly to the whole group, don't force a change in the dynamic.

And they will stay unused

There’s a French quote I think that goes “the artist is nothing without the gift but the gift is nothing without the work.” AI “art” is trying to make something with no artist, gift, or work.