News & Notes – 10/26/2024

October 26, 2024 Lark_Bookwyrm News & Notes 0

News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff

Bookish News

Penguin Random House books now explicitly say ‘no’ to AI training (The Verge)
The Carnegie Medal longlist was announced. The ALA will announce the shortlist titles (three fiction, three nonfiction) on November 12. (American Library Association)
Rare typescript of The Little Prince to go up for sale (The Guardian)
New John Green Imprint, Crash Course Books, Coming in March (Publishers Weekly)
Tribal Alliance Against Frauds Says [debut romance author] Colby Wilkens is Not Indigenous (Smart Bitches, Trashy Books) Wilkens’ debut novel revolves around two indigenous authors. The white ancestor she claims (or believed to be) indigenous has the same name as a Native man of the same general era, but the two are not the same person. It’s not clear if Wilkens knew of the mistake, but she was invited several years earlier to explore and verify her geneaology. Adding to the confusion, the TAAF is not endorsed by any indigenous tribes. However, the Cherokee nations have very clear rules about who may and may not claim Cherokee ancestry, and Wilkens does not appear to qualify. The whole thing is, according to SBTB, “bewildering.”
With Romantasy Still Soaring, Bloomsbury Hits Another Record (Publishers Weekly)

Worth Reading/Viewing

I’m an Undecided Hobbit, Torn between a Dark Lord Who Promises an Age of Chaos and an Elf Queen Whom I Just Wish I Knew More About (McSweeny’s) Yes, this is political and pointed. It’s also funny.
Have you purchased a weirdly low-quality paperback book lately? This may be why. (Literary Hub) Recently, Amazon and the book wholesaler Ingram have both delivered print-on-demand copies to customers or, in Ingram’s case, bookstores that ordered the paperback edition of a book.
‘I love the whole atmosphere and can spend hours browsing’: how did bookshops suddenly become cool? (The Guardian)
WATCH: Judy-Lynn del Rey: The Galaxy Gal (American Masters; PBS) A 12-minute documentary on Judy-Lynn del Rey, who championed science fiction and fantasy at Ballantine Books and founded the Del Rey imprint, bringing SFF to the mainstream and the bestseller lists. As a person with dwarfism, she also encouraged SFF writers and fans to include and embrace a wide diversity of characters, leading to the (mostly) accepting and diverse community of fans today.
‘It’s quite galling’: children’s authors frustrated by rise in celebrity-penned titles (The Guardian)
A review of The Haunted Wood: a History of Childhood Reading by Sam Leith (The Guardian)

More on AI

AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy (Smart Bitches, Trashy Books) If you have noticed an increasing number of AI voices “narrating” audiobooks in Overdrive and elsewhere, this is worth reading. It’s also an eye-opener for how many indie books might be AI-generated rather than written by a real live human being. (One “author” has at least seven or eight personas and over 700 books.)
My Kindle thinks I’m stupid now (Leah Beckman, on Read Max) Beckman’s Kindle ads are offering up a slew of AI-generated stories. (Scroll down for Beckman’s piece.)
There’s something off about this year’s “fall vibes”: Autumn is being eaten by a deluge of AI slop. (Vox)

Useful Information

There is now an index to Project 2025, the right-wing plan put forth by the Heritage Foundation and closely associated with the Trump campaign. This downloadable index was prepared by a nonpartisan, volunteer group of professional indexers. Warning: don’t just google “Project 2025 Index” because the first result is an AI-generated index with significant problems. The index linked here was created by trained and experienced human beings.