Getting Down to Business
By Densie Webb | December 5, 2023 |
In November, AI insiders continued to battle it out with the legal system and with each other. Where it stops nobody knows. Speaking of, Kindle Direct is beta-testing virtual voice narration for audiobooks. If you’re a Spotify fan, you can now listen to audiobooks via your Spotify subscription. Texas isn’t the only state dealing with book bans. Alaskan parents and students have teamed up with the ACLU to fight the book-ban tide in their state. Writers and authors may be leaving X (formerly known as Twitter) in droves, but publishers are sticking around (so far). SheWrites Press and Spark Press have struck a distribution deal with Simon & Schuster. Good news for their authors. Has big publishing changed fiction; literary translators working conditions; the good, the bad, and the necessity of genres; Hot Sheet starts its own bestseller list; and romance is still red hot—witness the opening of a new Black- and woman-owned online shop dedicated to romance.
AI
AI copyright infringement lawsuit
Law firms struggle to take down generative AI
FTC calls out consumer protection and competition in copyright office AI proceeding
AI exec leaves over fair-use disagreement
Does ChatGPT need to be tamed?
Audiobooks
Virtual voice narrated audiobooks are here
Spotify rolls out audiobook in the US
Spotify also offers an audiobook perk for premium subscribers
Book Bans
Alaskan parents and students take on Alaska school district over book bans
Bestselling author opens store for banned books
Oral arguments held in appeal of Texas book ban
Social Media
X remains the primary social media platform for publishers
Mergers and Distribution Deals
SheWrites Press and Spark Press to be distributed by Simon & Schuster
The State of Publishing
How big publishing changed fiction
Survey examines the state of working conditions for literary translators
The future of books according to Esquire
Traditional Publishing vs Self-Publishing
Love ’em or Hate ’em Genres Are Here to Stay
Simon & Schuster’s Third Quarter Drops, But CEO Optimistic
What Will it Take to Have a More Diverse , Less Exclusionary Publishing Industry?
Hot Sheet Announces Its Own Bestseller List
Racism in the Book Business
Can Racism in the Book Business Be Fixed?
Readers
Stats on the Behavior of Readers
Uh Oh
Mistakes Happen Even in the Pages of Bestsellers
Romance
Romance Is the Juggernaut of Contemporary Literature
Grand Gesture Books, a New Black- and Woman-Owned Online Shop Dedicated to Romance, Opens
Do you think book publishing is stuck in a rut, or is it changing (for better or worse)?
Densie Webb has spent a long career as a freelance nonfiction writer and editor, specializing in health and nutrition and has published several books and tons of articles on the topic over the years. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Red Adept Publishing released her debut women’s fiction novel titled, “When Robins Appear” in 2020. It is available in ebook, audiobook, and paperback formats. Her second novel, best categorized as romantic/domestic suspense, “Breathing in Reverse” was published in 2023, also with Red Adept Publishing. She is currently working (but not fast enough) on novel #3. She grew up in Louisiana, spent 13 years in New York, and settled in Austin, TX, where it’s summer nine months of the year. She’s an avid walker (not of the dead variety, though she loves anything to do with zombies, vampires, or post-apocalyptic worlds), drinks way too much coffee, and has a small “devil dog” that keep her on her toes. And she is thrilled to be a part of the Writer Unboxed family!
Thanks for another informative roundup, Densie!
Superb. Lot’s of provocative history and questions in Scott Stern’s provocative essay in The New Republic– ‘Big Publishing Killed the Author – How Corporations Wrestled Creative Control from Writers and Editors to create less interesting book.” Publish? Perish? Too our own selves be true… Loved the Toni Morrison insight in the opening.