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/

Slop Evader is a tool from artist and researcher Tega Brain that lets you search the web for results exclusively before November 30, 2022—the day that ChatGPT was released to the public.

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.