News & Notes – 3/25/2023

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

Bookish News

• In a Swift Decision, Judge Eviscerates Internet Archive’s Scanning and Lending Program (Publishers Weekly)
• Manuscript Thief of 1,000 Books Will Not Receive Prison Time (Book Riot)
• War Has Taken Its Toll on Ukrainian Publishing (Publishers Weekly)

Worth Reading/Viewing

• Better Than Nothing Is Not Enough: Exploring the Limitations of AI-Narrated Audiobooks from a Disabled Person’s Perspective (Kendra Winchester, Book Riot)
• Two sides to a story: why feminist retellings are filling our bookshelves (The Guardian)
• Roald Dahl: What’s at Stake? (Kenny Brechner, Publishers Weekly) An opinion piece on the implications of altering Dahl’s books, and a plea to maintain the integrity of literary texts. Contrast this piece with the following one:
• Why I Decided to Update the Language in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Children’s Books (Theo Downes-Le Guin, Literary Hub). The author’s son and literary executor explains why he agreed to change seven words whose meaning and understanding have changed since her books were written.
• Margaret Atwood on being banned in Virginia, communicating with dead writers and her new short story collection (The Guardian)
• BookTok is Good, Actually: On the Undersung Joys of a Vast and Multifarious Platform (Leigh Stein, Literary Hub)
• Things (Some) Readers Find Annoying About Books and the Book World (Book Riot)

For Writers & Bloggers

• Protecting Your Work, especially if you publish through Kindle Direct Publishing. (Publishers Weekly) TL:DR version: Pay the $65 to copyright your work through copyright.gov. Note: there have been several recent reports of authors having their books and KDP accounts suspended for copyright infringement, even though they are, in fact, the copyright owner.

Lists of Links

• A roundup of book censorship news (and a survey for literary agents) (Book Riot) The list of links is depressingly long.

Cool, Fun, and Awesome

• Did you know you can make your own swag on Zazzle or Cafe Press? I just ordered myself a custom Bookwyrm’s Hoard tote bag from Zazzle. I can’t wait ’til it gets here!

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