Booksology The second, more classic “I can help you” scam, targets up-and-coming authors. Someone pretending to be mega-bestselling author Kristin Hanna is emailing authors asking for help with publication. Hannah’s representatives have confirmed that this is indeed a scammer, and anyone who responds to this email will likely be asked for cash, rights, personal information, or perhaps all three. Just… be careful.
Writers use AI. Not everything is the same.
Are you shocked that writers who describe themselves as “thought leaders” are the most likely to use AI (84%)? Or is it that PR/communications writers are more enthusiastic about it (73%)? i haven’t. (The best test to determine if someone is a true thought leader is to ask them if they are a thought leader. If they say yes, I highly recommend cutting short whatever they’re tripping over there). We were surprised to learn that 11% of fiction writers report using AI to “create” publishable writing. The full results of this study are worth reading. The bottom line here is that the vast majority of writers are using AI for some purpose (including writers like himself, but currently only for research and data analysis).
today’s book
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Deciding which books to put on your bookshelf is harder than you think.
Browsing through a publisher’s catalog for research purposes can be exhausting, but deciding which books to choose and how many out of the thousands available each season can be a truly puzzling task. This interview with a small-store book buyer reveals the reality of decisions that blur together data (circulation numbers, past sales) and curation (taste, vibe, trends, etc.). What’s even more frustrating is that it varies from store to store and you can’t A/B test it, so you might never know if you made the right call.
Brain-On science fiction and fantasy books
I don’t like using algorithmic terminology, but people quickly figure out what “brained” reading is (and quickly assume the opposite). Older people like me only call this kind of book literary science fiction or fantasy, but I don’t care what you call it anymore. Please pick it up.
