Sci-fi news portal Gizmodo stated that Esther MacCallum-Stewart, the chair of the upcoming Worldcon in Glasgow, has apologised "for the damage caused to nominees, finalists, the community, and the Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards" and outlined "steps to ensure transparency and to attempt to redress the grievous loss of trust in the administration of the Awards."
Just another day of catering to Beijing's neurotic aversion to dissent. In the case of the 2023 Hugo admin team, not well handled either, apparently. Paul Weimer, another affected writer, was flagged for previously travelling to Tibet. "But Weimer said he had only been to Nepal," the Guardian stated.
Cait Corrain, the author of Crown of Starlight, spoke to The Daily Beast about the apparent psychological breakdown, fuelled by substance abuse, that led her to review-bomb a bunch of novels by authors of colour on Goodreads. Corrain denies she's racist and that it was "an unfortunate coincidence" that her targets were writers of colour.
The authors Corrain targeted aren't convinced, however. The contents of the interview and the timing of the release (during Black History Month in the US) were criticised, and they don't seem to believe the reasons she gave for her behaviour or her denials of racism. On top of that, Goodreads review-bombs of certain BIPOC books commenced, probably by those who support Corrain rather than Corrain herself.
"Several of these authors previously got the chance to speak out in a separate interview with The Daily Beast," The Mary Sue noted. "Unfortunately, many have now been blindsided by that same outlet giving Corrain a platform. The interviews were even conducted by the same journalist."
AI-written books keep flooding the market. The New York Times takes a peek at AI-generated biographies of people who recently passed on, noting the inaccuracies and errors in several and that some of these books were available just days after they died. And AI-assisted grifters don't limit their subjects to the dearly departed. A terse report stated that books "full of fake news" regarding King Charles III's illness, presumably days after his cancer diagnosis.
And like Jane Friedman, horror writer Brian Evenson learnt that he had published a new novel when he didn't. An impersonator is using his name to sell a shoddy AI-generated work, and pleas to have the book removed from Amazon fell on deaf ears. Instead, the retailer added a note to the product description calling it a "fake book" and a fraud. I feel that it's about as effective as Twitter's community notes because the book would have made its rounds and fleeced enough people before being flagged. Also, if it brings people to the site, why not?
Alright then, next up...
- In The Star, author, poet, and publisher Ninot Aziz speaks of her outfit Hikayat Fandom, the Dragonlore: From East and West anthology, and the magic of myths and storytelling. According to The Star, "The diverse offerings of Hikayat Fandom, ranging from themed anthologies to children's series, novels, and graphic novels reflect the duo's commitment to preserving and sharing cultural wealth of the region."
- "How well do you remember the 1990s?" Free Malaysia Today asks Malaysians, to introduce economist Hafiz Noor Shams's book, The End of the Nineteen Nineties, published by Matahari Books. FMT reports that "this book offers a view of the events at the end of that decade that shaped the present-day political, societal and economic landscape; a time of much hope and visions of unity, fraught with political upheaval and uncertainty."
- The market for same-sex romance books is growing, according to AlterNet. "From May 2022 to May 2023, sales of LGBTQ+ romance grew by 40%, with the next biggest jump in this period occurring for general adult fiction, which grew just 17%," the report stated. While it notes that LGBTQ+ romance books are still a small slice of the print-book romance pie, "the structural changes they've made in romance imprints have fostered an outpouring of more diverse love stories."
- Gerakbudaya has published an updated version of The Life in the Writing, a biography on the notable Malaysian scholar Syed Hussein Alatas by his daughter Masturah Alatas. This edition is almost twice as long as the original version by Marshall Cavendish and will be featured at this year's KL Alternative Bookfest at Central Market in Kuala Lumpur from 22 to 25 February.
- Penang-born author Daryl Yeap, author of The King's Chinese: From Barber to Banker, has released a second book titled As Equals: The Oei Women of Java. Malay Mail Online reports that the book "is about the lives of three Chinese women, Hui-lan, Ida and Lucy who are from the powerful Oei Tiong Ham family of Dutch-occupied Java."
- Has the bookbot invasion begun? BookBot, the latest venture by book retailer BookXcess, is part of a partnership with CoffeeBot, a Penang-based coffee-vending machine supplier. So far, the book-vending machines have been deployed at two locations: Subang SkyPark at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport and KidZania at The Curve, Mutiara Damansara. The report by The Star also noted that MPH Bookstores introduced the concept in 2011 but it never took off. Citing "high retail overheads post-pandemic", BookXcess boss Andrew Yap says now is the right time for this initiative.
- Seems Malaysians can't have nice things because we don't appreciate them. Recently, a thief stole some books from Books n Bobs in Taman Desa. "The bookstore, on its Facebook page, said the incident unfolded around midday when a criminal entered the bookstore premises and proceeded to fill a large bag with books before nonchalantly walking out without making any payment," the New Straits Times stated. Books n Bobs sells and accepts preloved books and has several branches in the Klang Valley. Theirs is a self-checkout system operating mainly on trust, which the thief exploited. The NST adds that the owner is asking the public for assistance in looking for the perpetrator.
- The inaugural Women's Prize for Nonfiction kicks of with its longlist of "16 titles published between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024," reports Publishing Perspectives. Titles include Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista, Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, and Shadows at Noon by Joya Chatterji. The winner will receive £30,000. The shortlist of six titles will be announced on 27 March and the winner will be revealed on 13 June. Nothing unusual about this, but ... published "between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024"? Shortlist out on 27 March? How does this work? Do they review advance reading copies too?
- Michiko Kakutani, "the most feared woman in publishing"? Dan Kois at Slate prefaces a short review of Kakutani's latest book, The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider, with a glowing overview of her career as The New York Times' book critic, then wonders, "Why has a respected and feared book critic turned to writing books, and particularly these kinds of books?" Kois asks. "Why does Michiko Kakutani want to be David Brooks, or Yuval Noah Harari, synthesizing potted history and the Way We Live Now between the pages of hardcovers?"
- Some feel-good news: In Voorheesville, New York, author Mark Cheverton spoke to some schoolchildren about his writing and publishing journey. The author of a series of novels in the Minecraft universe, Cheverton started writing novels for his son after the latter was cyberbullied while playing Minecraft online. Despite receiving more than 250 rejections (for real?) by agents, he persisted and self-published his first novel on Amazon, which became a modest success.
- "I've always been fascinated by the shape-shifting foxes of Chinese literature, so I did a lot of research about the ancient cult of the fox, which has its roots in northern China, and likely spread from there to Korea and Japan." California-based Malaysian author Yangsze Choo talks about her latest novel, The Fox Wife; myths about fox spirits, and whether she would write a novel set in the present.
- AI can't write books (yet), but can it edit? Four editors put ChatGPT to the test, and the results were predictable. While ChatGPT "can give credible-sounding editorial feedback", and may help with grammar and spelling, it cannot provide individual assessments or expert interventions that require human editorial intelligence. For the foreseeable future, human editors still have a job.
- "Though I frequently joke with my husband about how our dog, Stevie Nicks, and our cat, Meg White, are my children, sadly, I did not actually give birth to them. I did, however, recently birth a book of my life's work, and I'm still recovering from that labor." In Literary Hub, debut author Tawny Lara dives into her post-publishing blues and wonders if these feelings are similar to postpartum depression. An author's work isn't done once copies of the book is sent for print and this can impede their post-publication activities.
- Adélia Sabatini, commissioning editor of fashion titles at Thames & Hudson, is quoted in the Financial Times as saying, "Fashion loves a good story, so it's no wonder so many designers and fashion houses are looking to books for inspiration, and as a way of sharing their ideas." The FT report looks at the intersection between fashion and literature, which has been there for a long time.
- Esther Walker bought the "publishing sensation" Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros for her 12-year-old. Walker soon had second thoughts about that after looking at its contents. The Bookseller also ponders whether books targeted for YA readers should be adultified to that extent. More books for the young adult segment are getting racier but parents shouldn't panic. I'm not for censorship, but parents and guardians should think about gatekeeping what their kids are reading when they're of a certain age.
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