I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

Much attention has been on ANU but the governance crisis is broad and deep across the sector. Close scrutiny needs to be applied *everywhere*. This is shameful from UTS management.

Just finished this book and love it so much 😍 My favourite of the year!

A little bright spot: the student editorial team I supervise launched the landmark fortieth edition of our student-run literary journal last night. It's very good, and I'm extremely proud of them. www.bookpod.com.au/store/p7/Ver...

Let’s give it all away to AI scrapers!

The answer to why people think sex scenes in pop culture are unnecessary is that we as a society scorn people who practice the craft of making them good, and also scorn the very concept that it is a craft to begin with. It is, very frankly, a skill issue.

Reminder: the ebook of Not Here To Make Friends is on sale in the US for the month of September! This was named of the NYT's best romances of 2024, and it's never been this cheap before...

"And yet, until comprehensive public value data is routinely enabled and supported, our most treasured arts organisations and institutions will remain vulnerable to decision-making informed entirely by a single value dimension: money."

I wrote a little piece for Books & the City about the genesis of An Academic Affair, and why - in my romance novel about academics - I really didn't want to romanticise the brutal world of early career academia.

This is such a great piece.

deepest of deep breaths feeling nervous about this one, friends! I've written about the mainstreaming of pull-to-publish, its impact on fandom, and what it means for an increasingly corporate and IP-driven creative landscape.

An update on that insane lease term where the landlord owns everything you create during the tenancy:

Reminder: the ebook of Not Here To Make Friends is on sale in the US for the month of September! This was named of the NYT's best romances of 2024, and it's never been this cheap before...

I've just read this and it is ridiculously adorable ♥️ @jodimca.bsky.social

US pals: the ebook of Not Here To Make Friends* is only $1.99 for the month of September! I adore these two Machiavellian masterminds determined not to admit how obsessed they are with each other, and I hope you will too. *the one about a reality TV villain and her producer

Great news that ANDC has been saved; just a pity it took private philanthropy to do it rather than ANU simply cancelling the decision or government stepping in.

Said with cautious optimism - this feels like some good news at last out of ANU...

Round of applause to @srlpublishing.bsky.social for this: a web page listing each of their books stolen by Meta. More active shaming of techbro thieves from publishers, please! srlpublishing.co.uk/product-cate...

All the other (plentiful) issues here aside - this is more work?? Why would I write a summary of a student's essay to generate feedback when I could simply just write the feedback??

This is disgraceful - both the workload and the AI ‘workaround’

A second starred review for An Academic Affair - this time in Booklist! I don't really have my head around what a starred review *means*, tbh, but I've been assured it's a good thing.

Today, Australia!

📚Book Review📚 Today it’s my stop on the blog tour for An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister #AnAcademicAffair #TeamBATC @jodimca.bsky.social @simonschusteruk.bsky.social 💙📚 #bluesky #bookblogger #blogtour #bookreview #books

Great piece about how the turmoil at ANU (my alma mater) is an illustration of how broken the whole sector is. (I named the restructure scheme at the university in An Academic Affair "Renewniversity" before Bell's grand "Renew ANU" plan. I really wish I hadn't been so painfully accurate.)

This is my absolute favourite of a great trilogy (and it works as a standalone)

🎉🎉🎉🎉 Absolutely loved @jodimca.bsky.social's Marry Me, Juliet trilogy: all the feels plus smart, funny, and great ND rep. Like "emailed the publisher to beg for UK editions so I wouldn't have to order from abroad" loved. Excited to read this!

Another Australian cultural institution destroying its own reputation for reasons of censorship

this book is so good (whole trilogy is good!)

My latest book An Academic Affair is now out in the UK! This is the first of my books to get a proper print release there (exciting!). I hope you enjoy reading about my totally-only-getting-married-on-paper rival academics as much as I did writing them. www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/An-Aca...

Big turnout at this morning’s rally against @mupublishing.bsky.social vandalism of Meanjin. @beneltham.bsky.social called for Meanjin’s name and archive to be surrendered so the magazine can be published by someone who deserves to and appreciates the honour

Broadly, the answer is "probably not, at least not anytime soon", but this is a good look at some of the nuance.

If Melbourne University Publishing doesn’t want to keep publishing Meanjin, they should hand over the journal to someone worthy of the responsibility. Me in The Conversation theconversation.com/the-decision...

CfP 🚨 The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is now accepting paper submissions for its Special Issue "Romancing the Posthuman", focusing on romance, critical love studies and posthumanism: 📆 Deadline: 31 October 2025 📄 Send 300-word abstracts ➕ More information: www.jprstudies.org/submissions/...

US pals: the ebook of Not Here To Make Friends* is only $1.99 for the month of September! I adore these two Machiavellian masterminds determined not to admit how obsessed they are with each other, and I hope you will too. *the one about a reality TV villain and her producer

What exactly happened to Meanjin? And why in this manner? Some excellent observations (and questions) from @catrionamp.bsky.social over on @crikey.com.au: www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/08/m...

Emmett Stinson is dead on in his quote in this article: "If the most prestigious university in Australia will not fund our most prestigious literary journal, then it makes you question whether or not universities actually care about Australian culture."

Meanjin Journal is 85 years old; older than the Sydney Opera House. Closing it down is cultural vandalism of the highest order, roughly equivalent to demolishing the above mentioned opera house. I am disgusted @meanjin.bsky.social

US pals! An Academic Affair is part of the Barnes & Noble preorder sale. If you're a member, you can use the code PREORDER25 between September 3-5 to get 25% off my little rom-com about two rival scholars who get married for, ahem, strictly professional reasons.

Romance area chairs @jodimca.bsky.social and @heatherschell.bsky.social have put out the call for papers for PCA 2026! "Scholars, romance writers, romance readers/viewers, romance industry professionals, librarians, and any combination of these are welcome."

The first US trade review for An Academic Affair has come in, and it's starred. 💙🩷

Free online attendance at The Fantasy Summer School 2025, organised by the University of Oxford, and Bloomsbury Publishing, that brings together the expertise of scholars, publishers working with fantasy authors. Link here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/oxford-blo... Please share :)

'The study...found that the main driver of increased red tape was university efficiency reforms. It threw doubt on the idea that increasing automation results in real efficiency, and suggested that Australian universities...had recently shifted towards stronger central executive management.' 1/2

This is an incredibly useful thread for those of us who are authors outside the US and thus did not think we were eligible to be part of the class action against Anthropic.

Please sign and share this petition for ANU Council to: 🛑Stop forced redundancies 🛑Stop proposed school/center closures and amalgamations 🛑Sack the Chancellor and VC It’s open not only to students and staff but also to all members of the broader ANU community. nteu.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT...

"The trouble is thinking about universities through the lens of the balance sheet has left those in charge unable to advocate for the institutions they oversee, the staff who work there, and the students they educate in terms of their contribution to society in all of its aspects."

So many people have asked whether the state of academia in Australia is really as bad as I represent it in An Academic Affair, and it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when I tell them that it's much, much worse.

rewarding my microwave by letting it heat up a fork as a treat

'One of the proposed solutions to the fact that these AI companies are already stealing the work of creatives, writers and artists is not to wonder – not even performatively – about how to protect the output of the creators but to suggest formalising the theft'. rick-morton.ghost.io/crumbs-at-th...