Getting Down to Business
By Densie Webb | March 2, 2024 |
AI, AI, and more AI, from AI detectors and AI as co-author to AI writing tools. Amazon piles up record revenues after a loss. There’s fallout from the Sci-Fi Hugo Awards and a look at the books behind the 2024 award-winning films. Book bans are affecting literary classics, screening out black authors, and Alabama libraries are blocking the purchase of books by lgtbq authors. A judge rejects most chatGPT copyright claims from authors. A recent survey found that the publishing industry is still overwhelmingly white and, in an overzealous effort to promote diversity, one now-paused AI image generator blocked images of white people. Findaway initiated a rights grab for audiobooks via Spotify. And an inside look at the decade ahead for ebooks vs print books. Never a dull moment!
AI
Does AI Get Free Access to Work Denied to Us Humans?
Use of Grammerly Puts Student on Probation
Will AI Signal the End of the Web as We Know it?
Open AI Video Generator Breathtaking Yet Terrifying
Philosophical and Ethical Issues Using AI for Writing
Google Paying Publisher to Use its AI to Write Stories
Amazon
Amazon Turns $2.7 billion loss in 2022 to a $30 billion profit in 2023
Book Awards
Hugo Awards for Sci-Fi Marred by Political Concerns
Resignations and Censures in the Wake of the Hugo Awards Controversy
Books to Film
The Books Behind the 2024 Academy Award Nominations
Book Bans
Florida’s Book Ban Policies Kick Classics to the Curb
Florida School Requires Parental Consent for Students to Listen to Black Authors’ Books
Cancel Culture Dominates Children’s Literature
Alabama Library Bans Purchases of lgbtq Books
Book Stores
Copyright
Claims of Copyright Infringement from KDP: What to Do
Findaway’s Corporate Rights Grab
Judge Rejects Authors’ ChatGPT Copyright Claims
Diversity
New Diversity Survey Finds Minor Changes in Publishing Workforce
Publishing Industry Overwhelmingly White
Google Pauses AI Image Generation After Program Doesn’t Show Images of White People
Atria Launches New Bilingual Imprint
Publishing News, Trends, and Predictions
Predictions for the Next Decade for ebooks vs Traditional Books
Hachette and Other Divisions of Vivendi to Go on the Stock Market
Interactive Elements for ebooks
Will There Be Unintended Consequences for Publishing from the Latest Spotify Deal?
What’s with the Adultification of YA?
As I look back over the news here, aside from a couple of items, it feels overwhelmingly negative. It’s not intentional. I promise. Do you know of any good news in the publishing industry? If yes, please share!
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!
I’m assuming everyone knows about the censorship at the Hugo’s, but likely got it second hand. Here’s the original journalism from Chris and Jason on it:
https://file770.com/the-2023-hugo-awards-a-report-on-censorship-and-exclusion/
That just takes me to an article on flash mobs. Hugo award and censorship are not mentioned. I had to do a search on the site to find the article. Weird.
Um that’s wild
I have no idea what happened but this is the real one:
https://file770.com/the-2023-hugo-awards-a-report-on-censorship-and-exclusion/
Maybe just copy paste or search for that title?
AAaaaagh! I made it as far as the first link, “AI Writing Tools,” in which MAIL CHIMP offered me six or eight different products that would help me make sure my business correspondence was free of hideous grammar blunders and perfectly designed to maximize SEARCH-ENGINE placement! AAAaaagh! Then I dropped down to see that Amazon, that brave little company, had fought its way back to profitability last year partly by laying off 27,000 people. Aaaug. And they closed their comix operation and rolled it into Kindle. Ack.
There was one bit of good news. One of the AI products available to schools has a built-in plagiarism detector. Whew!
I’m sure everyone has noticed that A. I. looks like the name “Al” (you know: Albert, Alphonse…) in a sans-serif face. So why don’t we all just call it “Al”? It’s actually faster than “ei-ai” and certainly faster than “artificial intelligence”–which it is so not, anyway.
Don’t know whether anyone else has this issue, but I can’t read today’s article; formatting is totally messed up.
Fixed now!