Book Marks: Public Pages, More LibGen Shenanigans

Public figures tend to be fair game for writers and journalists, and if a book or an article turns out to be libellious, a lawsuit brews. But what if an author is charged for merely writing a book about someone, however well-researched? That's what happened to Webster Ochora Elijah in Kenya, who wrote a book about the Kenyan president's daughter.

This seems to have been prompted by a case where another daughter of the president was impersonated on Facebook, and by all means, this should be stomped out. But if there are no skeletons, why go after a little-known writer of a book with little publicity? Now the Streisand effect is likely to kick in, prompting a scramble for the book.

Perhaps a more straightforward instance of "misuse" was in the ruling by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, which fined Penguin Random House for putting a photo of a socialite in a book about women with ties to Mexico's drug cartels. "...[Violeta] Vizcarra's photograph, sourced from her social media without consent, was featured on the book's cover and within its pages," the Latin Times reported.

Drug cartels are deeply enmeshed in Mexican society, so no surprise if anyone were involved with them. However, Vizcarra denies any ties to the cartels and says the use of her photo in the book could be defamatory. But what if the book's claims about her could be proven?

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Canadian cookbook author Greta Podleski should be glad her latest, Every Salad Ever has launched and is doing well. Then she received news about an impersonator "releasing" another cookbook with the same title, apparently cashing in on the original's popularity. Chumps like this have been trying to make a killing on Amazon, hoping they won't be found out too quickly before getting enough coin. Sucks that what's arguably the largest online marketplace is infested with such parasites. Speaking of which...

Author Harriet Evans is fuming that her books, including one that is not published yet, were found in the notorious LibGen data set and have been mined by Facebook's parent company Meta to train its AI models. "This is the Treasures, out 12th June from Viking," Evans wrote on Substack. "So they've stolen the text from - where? I don't know. Netgalley? My own Word document? The cloud? This sounds vague, but that's how big tech works." Vague, and hella scary.


Elsewhere:

• A Bulgarian translation of Tan Twan Eng's novel, The House of Doors, discovered by the Bulgarian ambassador to Finland, led to the inaugural Malaysia-Bulgaria Literary Diplomacy Dialogue in Helsinki. "The event, hosted by the Embassy of Malaysia in Helsinki and moderated by Chargé d'Affaires Ariff Ali, brought together Malaysian, Bulgarian, and Finnish readers from fields such as literature, creative writing, art, and international relations," The Star reported. A happy chain of events, but not everyone will feel the same.
• A woodcut artist's masterpiece inspired by the Sabahan harvest festival has been turned into a children's book. According to The Star, "The book was released to coincide with this year’s Kaamatan, the annual Kadazandusun harvest festival, and is available at the Arcane Literature and Kinderstories Hub booth at the 2025 Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair, held at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur."
• The Guardian and the BBC highlighted the toxic books of yore, covers of which were made green using arsenic, mercury, copper and others. The striking green colour on the covers of many old books pose a health hazard, so a tool to determine whether a tome is a health risk was developed. Reader, beware!
• "Women in Nepal face entrenched systemic and cultural barriers, and publishing is no exception. Their works are undervalued, dismissed as less 'serious', and their leadership questioned. Also, gendered expectations limit time, mobility, and access to networks — making it harder to write, publish, or participate in literary life." A Q&A in Global Voices with Archana Thapa, an author, editor, and publisher based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• "I wrote [Hunchback] thinking that it is a problem that there were few authors with disabilities. Why did the first [disabled] winner [of Japan's Akutagawa Prize] not appear until 2023?" Saou Ichikawa struggled to be read in a country where the disabled are virtually invisible, but her winning one of Japan's oldest and most prestigious literary awards seems to have alerted some to the existence of ableism there. The English translation of Hunchback, longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize, can be found in many local bookstores.
• Still no love in China for boys love, it seems. Writers of stories in that genre were targeted in a recent crackdown and, if found guilty, are subjected to heavy penalties. Since Beijing cracked the whip on this, many such authors have been detained or are laying low, including the creator of the wildly popular Heaven's Official Blessing and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.
• "...going forward, I think because my allegiance is to the source material, my goal is always to find the best team for the adaptation, not to say that what makes the best book and what makes the best show and what makes the best movie are the same, but they're in conversation." Variety speaks to V.E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the Vicious series, and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, about her writing, film adaptation of Addie LaRue, and more.
• Writing a book? You're not alone, and chances are what you're writing has already been written by dozens, if not hundreds of others. Kate McKean over at Electric Literature shares the 10 types of novels swamping the inboxes of literary agents of late and what you can do to make yours stand out. All the best.
• "I know that summer reading has always been popular, so June is an excellent time to publish books. And I also know that the first week of each month is usually the most jam packed with new releases. I know too that on the first Tuesday in June of 2024 there were 15 new books that I was excited about ... so June has not always been this overflowing." Seems there are too many books for Maris Kreizman and this June appears to be a bumper month. Why is that?

Finally, it seems Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim thinks Malaysians don't read enough and spend too much time on social media. Anwar was speaking during the closing ceremony of this year's Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair.

I can't verify the prime minister's claims but from the crowds at KLIBF surely Malaysians do read? Perhaps, just not the books the PM had in mind? And what sort of reading culture is being fostered in the country when, as author and indie musician Brian Gomez helpfully pointed out, the authorities actively ban books they don't like?

Oh, apologies for ranting. Guess I'll go read a book.

Book Marks: AI Hallucinations, War On Rainbows

Think AI can help with your reading lists? Think again. A list titled "Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer", published in the Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, contained titles hallucinated by AI such as "Tidewater Dreams" by Isabel Allende, "The Last Algorithm" by Andy Weir, and "Nightshade Market by Min Jin Lee. The author of the list admitted to using AI and has expressed embarrassment.

This may have been a simple goof, but Claire Mulroy feels different, in light of a growing trust deficit in the media and the marginalisation of authors from certain demographics. "...in both the book world and the journalism industry, this kind of AI-generated content threatens and undermines the creativity that makes us readers in the first place." In response, Literary Hub recommended some real books based on the AI picks.

And it's not just book recommendations. At least one author was caught using AI to rewrite passages in their book. In a stunning example of how use of AI dulls the mind, these authors left the AI prompts they issued to chatbots in their published works. Two of the authors have copped to – and defended – their use of AI.

If one notices just how prolific some authors are, maybe this is one reason. Current AI models aren't advanced enough to be creative in human ways and its use here is arguably akin to theft. But if you're going to steal or cheat, at least be smart enough to cover your tracks.

Getting bots to help you steal an author's style cuts writing time considerably, enabling you to publish more. A writer at Screen Rant believes the resulting avalanche of AI-assisted work will swamp the shelves, real or virtual, drowning out authors who deserve more air. "Should AI flood the market," writes Rose Graceling-Moore, "this becomes an issue that disproportionately affects marginalized authors, many of whom have found a home in self-publishing in an industry where accusations of discrimination are a major issue."

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Russia seems to be targeting publishers, booksellers and companies for promoting "the 'extremist' LGBT movement" with renewed gusto. The International Publishers Association (IPA) has decried the crackdowns and stands with those who are being subjected to raids and arrests. Since I last read about this, the scope of the ban seems to have widened, impacting books that carry anti-war messages and criticism of Russian leadership.

The bit about a woman who "was sentenced to five days in detention for wearing frog-shaped earrings in rainbow colors" hits close to home. Swatch outlets in Malaysia were raided in 2023 and rainbow-coloured watches were confiscated for having "LGBT elements". This is in line with the government's anti-LGBT stance, which has also seen books and other materials with LGBT themes and elements taken off the shelves.

Speaking of shelves: several more titles have been added to the list of prohibited publications by the Malaysian Home Ministry. Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood; bestselling Tuan Ziyad: Forbidden Love by Bellesa; Darlingku Mr Cold Mafia by Nur Firsha Nadia Mohd Noor Kusairi; Mischievous Killer by Aira Syuhairah Noradzan; Suhuf Abraham and Kougar 2 by Shaz Johar; and The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas have all been banned.

Some might be baffled as to why, because the catch-all reason given is vague. Hazelwood's was apparently banned for the cover. Cold Mafia drew attention for... eww. In Tuan Ziyad, a young man brings his intended fiancée home, only for the latter to discover that her future father-in-law was her sugar daddy, who still can't let her go. Ewww~.

I don't see how effective banning is. Stories like Tuan Ziyad are all over platforms like Wattpad, which are brought to bookstores by publishers trying to cash in on the authors' ardent audiences online. Would it surprise anyone if even darker, spicier stuff can be unearthed there? At best, all banning does is send people back to cyberspace for the originals – and down certain rabbit holes.

As far as I know, the Home Ministry doesn't have a unit combing through reams of published material. Investigations tend to be launched based on reports, either by individuals or NGOs, or if it makes the news. And the obsession with anything LGBT is influenced by how fetishised the community is, to sell lurid narratives about it – the perfect distraction from the latest political hijinks or whatnot. However, we probably don't have to speculate what Russia is trying to distract its citizens from.


In other news:

• "Like it or not, we are all aging and one day it might be us, no matter how fit, smart, fine-looking, successful, and talented we once were or still are. This moment fired up a spark in me, so I decided to write about the idiosyncrasies of old age." A scene in a hotel lobby bar prompted Ivy Ngeow's exploration of family relationships in her latest novel, In Safe Hands.
• "I decided that no matter what it looked like, I was going to open a bookstore so that I could contribute in some small way and stand up for intellectual freedom in the US." Book bans, growing censorship and erasure of records in the States are fuelling the rise of independent bookselling by proprietors compelled to do something in a fraught literary landscape.
• At the PEN World Voices Festival, novelists Joyce Carol Oates and Carmen Boullosa spoke of their reissued works, Broke Heart Blues and Texas: The Great Theft respectively, and how and why these titles, written many years ago, still resonate today.
• "All of Gaza's universities have been leveled by airstrikes. More than 85 percent of schools in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed, according to U.N. experts. According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, three university presidents and over 95 university deans and professors, including 68 holding professor titles, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes." Yet, some in Gaza persist in teaching and learning. The Intercept presents four stories of teachers and students pursuing learning under Israeli bombardment.
• People shouldn't be killed while researching for their books, but that seems to be a risk if you're a journalist writing about the exploitation of the Amazon. While friends of British journalist Dom Phillips finished the work he began, that he had to risk death to write is tragic and galling. But it's an awful reality. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 122 journalists and media workers were killed last year.
• "What happened to the bestselling young white man?" asks Vox, prompting reminiscences of discussions over the male-only publisher Conduit. The piece isn't about how white male authors are going extinct but that fewer books by younger male authors don't seem to be coming out as much these days. It's tied to a podcast, so it doesn't go too in-depth. But if stories by young men are being passed over without good reason, that would be a shame. Still, when it comes down to it, if you're male and white, you'd still have a better chance to get published, so perhaps one should ask, are they writing and is it worth publishing?
• "Though it may seem counterintuitive, one of the most effective tools for generating new work or pushing stories to the next level is to impose creative constraints on them. Poetry is often taught by introducing students to rigidly structured forms like sonnets, villanelles, and haiku. Prose writers would be well-served by learning from this approach." Writing WITH constraints? Not as novel as it sounds, according to these authors.
• "The idea that art will save us is the kind of magical thinking that flourishes when people feel helpless. ...When dragging your way up the social ladder looks increasingly impossible, then vibes become as good as personal initiative—or actual political action." RS Benedict in Current Affairs on why resistance through art is no substitute for real resistance.
• Art may not save us, but it can do other things. While not really artistic in nature and mission scope, street paper and social enterprise Big Issue did help an author get her book out. "A moving account of one couple's time living homeless on the South West Coast, [The Salt Path by Raynor Winn is] about to become a major motion picture". The book – and the movie, which should be released by now – may help boost tourism in the area but Thomas Horn, writing in The Independent, doubts it will address the other issue that the book chronicles. "The South West is a place of extreme beauty, but also extreme poverty. If you look beyond the glorious coastline and posh fish restaurants ... you'll realise there are lots of issues making life unaffordable."
• Penguin Random House's acquisition of comic book and graphic novel publisher Boom! Studios last year means no more unlimited, simultaneous access to Boom!'s titles for subscribers of the digital platform Comics Plus. By the time you see this, all Boom! titles on Comics Plus would have been deactivated.
• On comics, graphic novel publishing pioneer Rich Johnson notes that "The graphic novel section is the only section in bookstores organized by title. Every other section in the store is organized by author." He thinks it's a problem when people want to search works by author and offers some suggestions on how to shelve titles in the graphic novel section.
• Kristen Arnett at Literary Hub gives advice on supporting a friend's self-publishing endeavours (or not), what to do when you can't enjoy reading because your writer's hat is still on, and whether you're an ass if you think websites paywalling articles suck (it DOES, but...).

Book Marks: Do We Need A Male-Centric Publisher?

A new publisher caused a little stir with its business model of exclusively platforming male authors and claiming that they're rebalancing the publishing landscape that's leaning a little too female. Perhaps this publisher should look at what's being written instead of who's doing the writing, if it thinks that guys aren't reading what it thinks they should read, if at all.

Discussions over whether publishing is dominated by males was a thing about a decade ago, and if the pendulum is swinging the other way, I feel this trend has yet to reach its zenith – too early to hit the panic button. "Male authors going from 80% to 50% of the market is far from a crisis in need of another intervening corrective," James Folta writes in Literary Hub.

By all means, publish. There's room for new voices and if this publisher believes in its mission, its releases should strike a chord among the reading public. Just don't hype it up like the advent of some superhero team. I don't see the need for a male-only publisher right now because women still face hurdles in getting published. So I'm more welcoming of efforts like those of heritage publishing house Quite Literally Books, which is digging up books written by American women from a hundred years back.


Next up:

• Book lovers will inevitably have copies to give away, and here's another place for them: Buku Beyond Bars, a community book drive for prison libraries. "This initiative seeks to foster rehabilitation, personal growth, and mental well-being for the prison community through increased availability and accessibility of informative and meaningful reading materials," Mazni Ibrahim, CEO of the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR), tells The Star. MCCHR launched the project.
• "...it's not just theft. It's bullying. Exploitation. Looting on a grand scale. The stuff of Upton Sinclair. Only we don't have robber barons anymore. We have pirate captains. Bluebeards of the human heart. And what are we supposed to fight them with? Carefully worded emails? That's like bringing a spork to a nuclear war." Catherine Baab found that her book was among the many being used to train Meta's AI bot LLaMA 3. Still don't understand what the fuss is about? Hear her out and maybe you will.
• Speaking of theft: Nagi Maehashi (and maybe several others) versus Brooke Bellamy. The latter was accused of lifting recipes for her bestseller Bake with Brooki. Recipe ownership can be hard to prove, unless there are signs of stuff being copied verbatim. At the Australian book industry awards night however, Maehashi can walk away with a bit of satisfaction after her book beat Bellamy's, among others, for the title of illustrated book of the year.
• "If small and independent presses offered fresher, more challenging books, how could [readers] find and read them?" writers Melanie Jennings and Elizabeth Kaye Cook ask. They then lay out the reasons small-press titles don't get enough sun and what can be done about it. BookTok is one option, but readers should also step up and be a bit more adventurous. Small presses may need to find ways to get noticed as well, even if the task is herculean.
• "Authors have limited choice over what happens to their unpublished work after their deaths—but while they still live, the decision over how to treat their trunk works is as individual as the authors themselves. Given enough time every writer develops some trunk oeuvre." Randee Dawn dishes on "trunk" novels, the early stuff most authors don't feel is good enough for public consumption.
• In USA Today, Clare Mulroy speaks with Fredrik Backman, author of Anxious People and the latest release My Friends, which may be his last published work. Not because he wants to stop writing, but because the exertions required of published authors get to him. He seems to feel that younger writers have it worse. "It's fine when you put that pressure on someone like me, who is 44 years old and I have kids, and I have a life and I have a good support system around me and I've been doing this for 15 years. But when that pressure starts mounting up on someone in their 20s, I think that's a lot to ask of someone...."
• A recent snapshot of the Australian book industry looks bleak, with rising costs eating into margins and making writing, publishing, and bookselling less and less viable as careers. The article also offers some solutions, but is the will to execute them there, and how helpful will these be?

Book Marks: Bleak World Book Day, No Free Speech For Holiday

World Book Day was on 23 April, and for that, local English daily The Star puts the spotlight on several independent bookstores in the Klang Valley that have become the places to be for a bookishly good time. "Whether it's a husband-and-wife team chasing their dream of becoming booksellers, a group of nature lovers pooling resources to open a nature-focused bookshop, or a veteran bookseller helming a socialist-leaning hub for progressive literature in Petaling Jaya, each example reflects how a deep and personal passion for books can give rise to strong, enduring communities."

One is less sanguine about the indie book scene in Hong Kong, a place that has been under Beijing's thumb for years. The imposition of an ambiguously worded colonial-era sedition law has forced certain books off shelves and put people behind bars for publishing allegedly seditious material. Nevertheless, some Hong Kong bookstores persist, so if you're in the neighbourhood, drop by.

TikTok meanwhile has a round-up of news for World Book Day that further cements BookTok as a powerful hype machine that brings authors and titles to the fore. One can only hope it will be a force for good.

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Author Ryan Holiday was scheduled to give a lecture at the US Naval Academy but that even was cancelled when Holiday "refused to remove slides from his planned presentation that criticized the academy's decision to remove nearly 400 books from its main library," CNN reports.

Among the sharp words in that report, most were from Holiday, but this stuck out:

"If you can't be trusted around Stacey Abrams' memoir or Maya Angelou, you probably have no business being a Navy SEAL or holding an assault rifle or flying a fighter jet," Holiday said. "You're either an adult or you're not."

Exactly. Still, the culture wars continue.

In a US Supreme Court case where the state of Maryland's Montgomery County is being challenged by parents who don't want their kids taking lessons that use LGBTQ-themed material, Penguin Random House, the Authors Guild, and the nonprofit Educational Book and Media Association have filed a written submission. The parties have argued for the inclusion of such books and expressed concerns that ruling in the parent's favour would limit students' reading choices and restrict their access to diverse perspectives and experiences.

Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, strikes a bright, strident chord with this statement...

Reading about different people doesn't indoctrinate children any more than reading about space exploration makes a child an astronaut, or reading biographies makes them adopt the exact life choices of historical figures.

These stories don't override a child's own beliefs—they prepare them for the reality that they'll share in classrooms, communities, and workplaces with people from all walks of life.

LGBTQ-themed reads is a major issue at home, where the authorities and NGOs use law and religion to get any 'objectionable' material off our shelves. Even the most progressive toe the line to avoid the hassle of dealing with protesting groups. How prepared are our future generations for life and the world when so much of what they learn is excessively shepherded?

I may be reaching here but the current US kakistocracy owes its rise a great deal to the conservative, States-centric propaganda in US schools and media, and shades of that have begun to appear here.


All right, moving on...

• Former Washington Post staff writer Gillian Brockell is horrified and livid to learn that ChatGPT can now "write" articles after being fed reporting made by her colleagues whose styles the AI attempts to emulate. "When I left the Washington Post in 2023, my colleagues and I were worried AI would hoover up our work and enable 'zombies' to churn out stories based on our reporting and writing styles," she posted on BlueSky. This, of course, opens doors to places many would not wish to go. The day AI can impersonate writers, living or dead, may already be here. How prepared are we to meet this challenge?
• "I never imagined that so many people would read [Convenience Store Woman] in Japan, let alone in other countries ... It explores some quite unique aspects of Japanese culture." Japanese author Sayaka Murata sits down with The Guardian for a revealing interview about her books, her writing life, and Japanese culture ahead of the release of her latest novel, Vanishing World.
• Self-publishing can feel like a fool's errand, but for Penrith native Colin Hindle, it's worth the effort. The pandemic forced him to close his business, so he went-a-rambling in his area, making sketches and notes. Most of these went into his two self-published books and– holy $#!+ what sketches they are! The detail! The covers don't do the books justice though. Someone should pick them up and help him repackage them.
• Pope Francis passed early this week, and some of the obits mentioned his work as a bouncer(!), so other out-of-expectations revelations about the late pontiff should no longer surprise. Like the fact that he also taught literature at a secondary school, according to Literary Hub columnist Nick Ripatrazone. Francis's approach to teaching reminds one of how he engaged others as pope, a quality that will perhaps continue to inform his papacy long after his passing.
• A UK-based independent press is pushing Vietnamese literature worldwide, and it has released three books, "by and about Vietnamese women, spanning three centuries." Might this be the start of a new wave? On a slightly related note is this list of fiction and non-fiction about the Vietnam War, which includes Graham Greene's The Quiet American.
• "I have been writing poetry for the last fifty years, having published twelve books of poems, along with two collections of literary essays and one novel to my credit. And in the bargain, I have received some awards too. But in spite of such seemingly impressive biodata, not a single cultured and literature-loving Bengali bhadralok, outside the small literary circle of Bengali poetry, has heard of me." Bengali poet Ranajit Das's musings on whether he's a success or failure can be found in On Failing, a collection of essays edited by Amit Chaudhuri.
• The latest Ai-assisted writing and self-publishing platform epubs.ai is promising a lot to independent writers but is it just hype? And will there be assurances that writers using the platform won't have their work scraped to train AI models that will be "helping" others with their writer's block?
• "Simplified spelling looks silly. There’s no getting around that. For most readers today, the mere sight of words like 'nolej' or 'edukayshun' ... instantly sets the funny bone a-tingling, and no matter how logical the argument for spelling reform, they’ll never see it as anything but a source of amyuzmint. In that sense, not much has changed since the 1800s." Gabe Henry looks at the use of bad spelling in early American comedy.
• Received a bad review - or a dozen - for your work? All part of being a creator, and you're in good company. "...even the most popular authors will cop a mealy-mouthed assessment. It's bad enough when it's from an anonymous or faked name amateur reviewer on inclusive, user-friendly platforms like Goodreads, but it stings even more when it's from a professional critic in a well-regarded publication.
• "From the tragedies of American history and the terrors of dictatorship, to reality television's roots in home video to connections with spirits, ancestors, and families, these works embody the human condition. People are weird, people are mean, people are complicated, and people are beautiful." Wendy J. Fox compiles a list of 11 titles from small presses to read for Electric Literature. Meanwhile, C.T. Jones puts together another reading list for a little escapism to distract from the dumpster fire that is the tRump administration, part two.

Book Marks: Little Fires, Malaysian Book News

In the States, the house is on fire as we'd say it, what with white supremacists openly advertising book burnings, "woke" books being pulled off library shelves, and that tangerine tyrant pursuing whistleblowers. How long will it be before widespread censorship takes place across all US-based online publishing platforms like this?

That Meta, a tech megafirm, is training its AI model on stolen books is infuriating enough. But as reported by Vanity Fair, Meta's lawyers argued it's no big deal, using that cache of pirated books because "the countless books that the company used to train its multibillion-dollar language models ... are actually worthless. (emphasis mine)" That evaluation was based on how little improvement the books' data made to the LLM, "a meaningless change no different from noise." Also, it seems that "Meta employees stripped the copyright pages from the downloaded books." That's more than enough to make one seethe and pray for magma to erupt in the middle of Zuckerberg's Hawai'i compound.

Nevertheless, little fires of resistance burn here and there, while people flock to oases of literature, holding out for better days, which can't come soon enough. Book clubs are becoming surprisingly hip as a younger generation is "driven by a renewed love of reading and a growing desire for off-screen connection."

Professor and novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen invites us to look at the role of literature in promoting American soft power, and poet Tiana Clarke exhorts us to stay free within our imaginations. Clarke takes us back to the time of the first African American poet Phillis Wheatley Peters and offers comfort in the words of James Baldwin: "For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become."

Amen. But for now I'll focus more on positive news about publishing stateside – no need to give book burnings and book burners any oxygen. Books are being published and authors are doing their thing, in spite of the turbulent state of affairs.


In other news:

• Cartoonist Ernest Ng serialised his takes on Malaysian life during the COVID pandemic lockdown, resulting in the nine(!)-volume If Malaysia Was Anime: Covidball Z comic collection. However, Ng feels it's time to move on. "I was just trying to find the happiness and the lighter side of things and entertain people," he told The Star. "Moving forward, I will still draw about Malaysia, but I will cover only the really massive news right now."
• The Ipoh Alternative Book Fest is happening on 3 and 4 May at "Level 1 of Moody Cafe, Jalan Raja Musa Aziz. The event, taking its lead from the KL Alternative Book Fest, is jointly organised by Projek Rabak, Moody Cafe dan Projek Rebel," The Star reports. "Matahari Books (a Buku Fixi imprint) is the main sponsor, alongside support from Buku Fixi and Ipoh's P.O.R.T. (People of Remarkable Talents)."
• The Streisand effect is working its magic on two books by US-based scholar Ahmed T. Kuru, which are getting more attention after "the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) had recommended that the two books be banned," Free Malaysia Today reported. Publisher Lestari Hikmah told FMT that the ban helped generate buzz for the two books, Islam, Autoritarianisme dan Kemunduran Bangsa and Perikatan Ulama-Negara: Punca Autoritarianisme dan Kemunduran Dunia Muslim. These two titles are still legal for now, as the Home Ministry hasn't banned them yet (go to the last page of the list).
• Crowdfunding publisher Unbound, founded in 2011, has gone into administration after difficulties in paying its writers and releasing some titles. The publisher has since been acquired by the newly formed Boundless Publishing Group, which will be taking over many of Unbound's projects, reports the Guardian. Unbound's unveiling caught my attention way back when. Though (more than a little) sceptical, I thought it had promise. While it seemed to work in the beginning, reality caught up. Plus, potentially bad news for those who backed the projects dropped by Unbound because, according to The BookSeller, they're not getting refunds.
• Books aren't targeted by tariffs, but the global trade war seems to be having an effect on the book trade. In Canada, bookstores and printers are catching the chill as a book export market shrinks and parts and raw materials such as paper become harder to source. How long before these headwinds reach our neck of the woods?
• Julia Orlova, CEO of Vivat Publishing based in Kharkiv, Ukraine, shares the latest trends in the besieged country's publishing sector. "Despite the war, Ukrainians continue to read, and publishers continue to publish books," Orlova tells Publishing Perspectives. "Although the total number of new titles decreased by 18 percent, the total circulation increased by 6 percent and reached 26 million copies. This indicates that the market is changing: publishers are betting on mass genres and bestsellers."
• How do journalists find time to write book in lieu of their other work, which is arguably more taxing? Several journalists will be sharing tips at a Poynter workshop, but for those who can't go, they offer a few titbits that can be boiled down to discipline, hard work, and don't be a perfectionist. Nothing to it, right?
• Is extended reality (XR) what the publishing industry needs? This World Economic Forum article states, "Through XR technology, books would not necessarily have to be static text on a page. AR, VR and mixed reality technology could provide layering and interactive narratives. Readers could navigate through a virtual space in which things happen in front of them, interact with characters, or uncover divergent storylines that deepen their knowledge of the story." In other words... massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)?
• What Bill Bryson said about self-publishing has ticked off this self-published author, who responded with far too many words, I feel, to comments from a dated mindset. Which is why instead of writing my own rebuttal, let me present Richard Godwin's more eloquent and thorough take on the matter. There will always be too many books for one to read, and an "anonymous" writer's life, however mundane to some, may be of interest to others.
• Making a living as an author is hard in many places, and Poland is no exception. A bestselling Polish author is taking a publishing house to court over royalties and the news has touched off an avalanche of comments over how little authors there make. No matter the justifications, giving an author "less than 1.5% of profits from sales" is grossly criminal.
• "As a diehard cat lover, I will pretty much buy anything and everything emblazoned with a cute cat design—household items ... So, I cannot stress how disappointing it is to purchase a new book with an adorable cat on the cover, only to find out there are no actual cats in the story." Like Before We Say Goodbye, probably? Hence, Tanya Guerrero has put together a list of titles that have cats, often playing a key role.

Book Marks: Livid Over LibGen, TikTok To The Rescue

Much has happened since the last time I last posted here. Too much, some would say. I think few want to write about what's been happening since that guy returned to power. So I'm limiting the things to track or highlight and I'll post whenever I can.

Starting off is another whirlpool of AI-related outrage as Meta, the company behind Facebook, was found to have used LibGen, a database of pirated books, to train its AI model Llama. Authors are rightly pissed, including ours as works by Hanna Alkaf (all of them, apparently), Syed Hussein Alatas, Tun Dr Mahathir, Farish A. Noor and Tash Aw were also found in LibGen. Anyone in the business of words ought to be pissed.

AI has also not been good for websites such as the World History Encyclopedia. Google's AI Overviews, which you might have noticed while googling the web, has been summarising content from websites with articles to give you and other users the answers you want. Alex Kantrowitz at CMSWire asks a bunch of questions as to where all this might lead, not least being the future of online content and whether it's better to train AI models to write articles rather than have humans do that.

And if your first book on a publishing platform was a success, would you let that platform turn it into a series, with AI-assisted ghostwriting? That's what Berlin-based Inkitt is doing and it seems to be taking off. But isn't this just another writing factory a la James Patterson with more tech? Would the authors involved even want to be in this long-term? Will the end result be, yes, authors and ghostwriters training AI to write in their stead? Who'd be down with that, especially when current AI tech is largely based on stolen intellectual property?

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Much can be said of TikTok, but few would doubt this reach. The video platform has come tothe rescue of many authors, and aong the latest is Jonathan Stanley, who wrote Purposeful Performance: The Secret Mix of Connecting, Leading, and Succeeding. A video of him being neglected as he sat in a Barnes & Noble with a pile of his books went viral and sent Purposeful Performance up the charts.

But BookTok - US BookTok, at least - is also discussing the impacts of the latest changes to US policy over books and immigration, concerned that their next reads will become pricier or difficult to import from outside the States and doubting the safety of writers travelling into the country for events will be assured.

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Excited about Sarah Wynn-Williams new book, Careless People? Not if Meta gets in the way? The company, formerly known as Facebook, is "attempting to halt any 'disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments' about Facebook by Wynn-Williams through legal arbitration," reports the American River Current, American River College's student newspaper.

In the book, Wynn-Williams discusses, among other things, "how Facebook software became a propaganda tool for the military junta in Myanmar, how the company shares information with the Chinese Communist Party upon request and how Facebook sold the advertisement space that allowed misinformation to dominate the pages of American Facebook users going into the 2016 U.S. presidential election." She also testified to Facebook's connivances with China's government before a Senate committee on 9 April – testimony that Meta may have tried to prevent.

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Publishing in the UK is now less accessible to Black authors than it was before 2020. From the Guardian report, the apparent boom in Black authorship looks like a trend on the way to petering out, which it shouldn't be. Boosting the work of minorities in a predominantly White arena is a long-term mission, not a marketing gimmick that you cut back when the ROI isn't ideal.

One factor contributing to the fatigue in pushing diversity in publishing - not just in the UK - could be what Naomi Day at Literary Hub calls diversity syndrome, "a cultural condition where the 'otherness' of an author is elevated over the impact of their work, to the detriment of the author, their work, and their audiences." Authors are more than their ethnicity, and their lived experiences are shared to a certain degree by others outside that. That sort of pigeonholing by marketers limits discussions of the authors and their works and how far the works travel.


Elsewhere:

• At The Verge, Kevin Nguyen outlines how he uses apps in his writing process. "In addition to my work at The Verge, I write novels ... and while I admire Murakami's commitment to an immovable schedule, I've found that I produce my best work when I'm constantly rethinking routines, processes, and, mostly, how I'm writing. In the modern age, that means what software I'm using."
• "Several years ago, I was telling a friend about my career spent working with Mario Batali, Tony Bourdain, and all the male magazine editors. She said, 'My gosh, you've really made a career out of the care and feeding of difficult men.' It resonated with me." Laurie Woolever speaks to Vogue about "cultivating her own voice, the state of food media, grieving a pop culture figure, and getting honest on the page about addiction."
• The week before Hari Raya, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur overturned the ban on Boey Cheeming's When I Was a Kid 3. The book was banned two years ago after an Indonesian NGO protested against how an Indonesian domestic helper was depicted in one chapter. The book is being sold again, at least at the recent Popular Bookfest. The author is relieved but wary, as the government still has time to appeal the decision.
• Have changes to publishing led to a surge in author numbers but dwindling readers? Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta thinks so, adding that "this may be good news for book lovers." Gupta cites the rise of digital tools that have democratised publishing, which may include the alternatives to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) highlighted by SlashGear.
• At Electric Literature Samuel Ashworth highlights several of what he feels are the greatest cooks in fiction and wonders why aren't novels being written about chefs at the rate TV and streaming churns out cooking shows. "While there are a handful of recent novels about the restaurant industry, almost none of them are set in the kitchen. So to make this piece work I wound up expanding the frame to include the greatest cooks in literature—but don't worry. They include, as with any decent restaurant, a bunch of absolute freaks."
• "The publishing industry is willing to embrace the disruptive power of AI, an anti-sentient pretender that uses an inordinate number of natural resources—water and mined minerals—produces large amounts of electric waste, and will induce job loss for writers and designers. Yet, the self-same industry remains infuriatingly unwilling to make the sustainable changes that can and must be made in the production and distribution of books." Lucy Kogler believes the publishing industry has a serious waste problem that has to be remedied.
• China's cross-border obsession with quashing dissent continues with the sentencing of an editor for "inciting separatism". According to The Telegraph (of Alton, Illinois, not the UK), "Li Yanhe is a Chinese citizen who had been living in Taiwan, according to Taiwanese media. He was detained two years ago during a trip to China, and Taiwanese media reported last week that he had been tried and sentenced by a court in Shanghai but gave no details."
• Mallary Tenore Tarpley recounts the editing process for her book, SLIP: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery, after securing a publisher for it. Even for a journalism and writing professor at the University of Texas, this stage of the publishing life cycle can be a slog. "It's both exhausting and energizing; it requires the humility to accept most edits and the confidence to speak up when you disagree with others; it demands time, undivided attention and an openness to change — all in service of making your book as good as it can be before it goes out into the world."
• "My book The Serpent Called Mercy, with its monster-fighting arena premise, must’ve been crafted with the desire to replicate the same electric thrill of encountering a beast in the PlayStation-rendered wild and analysing how to defeat it." Give it up for Roanne Lau, who went on sci-fi bigwig John Scalzi's blog to talk about her Big Idea for this new novel. The book looks interesting but I heard that the big distributors have no plans to (BOO!) bring it in to Malaysia. That may change as her profile keeps rising, however.
• "This line from Anna Karenina is mentioned often, because it might be the best one: 'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Leo Tolstoy dropped the mic in 1878." Min Jin Lee takes Elle's literary survey and recommends some books. Ah, if only more of us are well-read enough to contribute to segments like this...
• Anu Khosla sits down with Vauhini Vara, author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, "to discuss AI and its impact on our culture." Vara wrote an essay with the help of an early version of ChatGPT, and she's putting it to work (a little) on this book.
• Publishers Weekly is apparently charging money for review submissions. Anyone who wants to submit their book for review consideration will have to fork out US$25, but reviews are not guaranteed. Jeff O'Neal, writing at Book Riot, thinks it's a good idea, as another source of income and a way to slash the number of submissions. Nor is he concerned if others get into the act. "...maybe a few of those Meta dollars or Amazon ad dollars will need to come out of those marketing budgets and flow into media outlets that actively participate in and are interested in furthering the book making and reading business."

Book Marks: Emerging From The Cave (Again) With More Updates

Whew! I didn't expect my new job scope to keep me away from this space for this long but slowly, I'm figuring out how to balance a full plate. While a lot has come to pass, I'll just highlight some of the more recent happenings...

TODAY reported Singaporean writers stating that their literary scene is "healthy" and "energetic", citing the emergence of new writers and the abundance of content being published".

Speaking to the media, The Singapore Book Publishers Association added that the launch of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015 "was a 'meaningful turning point' that created a substantial increase in the number of novels published" in Singapore. "At the same time, more Singaporean authors (based here and overseas) are being published by UK and US publishers, either directly or after growing their career locally."

From the sound of it, Singapore's lit scene looks lit. Hoping this lead to more eyes on writing from this region.


In other news:

• Under the slogan "Baca Jap" (Read for a While), Silent Book Club JB, an offshoot of the US-founded Silent Book Club, aims to create "a space where book lovers can gather and engage in literary activities at local cafes and recreational parks". Do have a look when you're in the neighbourhood.
• "Our inspiration to set up Sunda Shelves was actually from a bookshop named 'The Borneo Shop' in Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) which also specialises in natural history." If you're in Damansara Kim, Petaling Jaya, find your way to The Sunda Shelves, a nature-themed bookstore specialising in "books relating to the environment, nature, natural history, culture and travelling in South-East Asia."
• "Some people tend to wave off comedic writing, saying 'Oh, it's just light fiction or chick lit', like it doesn’t take much effort, but honestly, it takes a lot of skill to write it well." Lauren Ho on writing comedy in her fiction and exploring new genres.
• "I started self-studying Korean when I was 18. At the time, Korean wasn't a very popular language to learn, so I had to be very resourceful. I used anything I could get my hands on, be it from the library or online." Translator Shanna Tan – who recently shared the spotlight with author Hwang Bo-reum in KL – shares some parts of her job and experience translating Hwang's Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
• James Queally was on a flight to a sibling's wedding when he received news that his publisher, Jersey-based indie crime publisher Polis Books, may be shut down. Not an enviable position to be in, but it's (fingers crossed) not the end of the world. To help others in the same situation, Queally "chatted up a few other writers whose works were previously marooned by industry collapse to put together a survival guide on what to do when your publisher dies."
• The number of titles from authors of colour is increasing. We're getting stories from cultures beyond the nominally white anglosphere, which is great. But is there a tendency to lock these authors into strictly writing about their own cultures? And if they attempt to step out of their pigeonholes, are they being not true to themselves? Sreedhevi Iyer, a lecturer in creative writing at RMIT University, explores the question of authors and authenticity in The Conversation.
• Now that JK Rowling has pretty much fallen from grace, what else can kids look to as an alternative? Perhaps they can have a go at what Katherine Rundell has written? "'Impossible Creatures,' Rundell's sixth novel for middle grade readers, became an instant best seller in her native Britain when it was published last year and has garnered numerous awards, including the Waterstones Book of the Year."
• Speaking about books for kids (or not): I only vaguely recall how unsuspecting parents were misled into buying "explicit" novels for their tweens and kids because of the cartoonish covers, such as the one for Hannah Grace's Icebreaker. But is it intentional? A book designer dishes on how these covers work.
• In the New Yorker, a brief history (as brief as a New Yorker article can manage) of bookstores in the US and where it can go from here. The writer appears to be arguing for bookstores to become "community-building spaces" – warm, welcoming, and not necessarily stocked with or offering every title under the sun.
• Several professionals in Ukraine's publishing industry ponder the future of contemporary Ukranian literature – a heavy topic while the war over there rages on and some of their compatriots are out on the front lines. Every now and then, one hopes for the end to the war so that they can rebuild what they've lost and grow again.
• Occasionally, you will encounter a book you can't bear to finish. What to do then? Like Sophie Vershbow in The Atlantic, Maya Chung says it's okay to DNF a book you don't like, with some caveats. "Of course, if I want to recommend a book widely or rave about it on the internet, I need to complete it, in case the story takes an unexpected turn or something happens in the last few pages that changes my perspective. The same rule applies if I feel like hating."
• "It has been a peculiar and exasperating five years. I'm a writer. I do other things but writing feels like my main reason for being on the planet. Thanks to a triple heart bypass, some underperforming psychiatric medication and long Covid, however, I've been unable to write for most of that period. Much of the time it's been impossible to read as well." As someone who writes but not as often, walking down author Mark Haddon's five-year journey towards recovery is unimaginable.
• "We have this problem in our culture," says Solène Marchand, the female lead in Robinne Lee's The Idea of You "We take art that appeals to women—film, books, music—and we undervalue it. We assume it can't be high art. Especially if it's not dark and tortured and wailing. And it follows that much of that art is created by other women, and so we undervalue them as well. We wrap it up in a pretty pink package and resist calling it art." The same seems to be happening to The Idea of You and Lee has something to say about that and about art for women.
• How many of you have learnt by now of a would-be burglar in Rome who was caught because he was engrossed in a book he found in the place he broke into? "The 38-year-old reportedly gained access to a flat in the Italian capital's Prati district via the balcony but became distracted after picking up a book about Homer's Iliad on a bedside table." The book, by the way, is Giovanni Nucci's The Gods at Six O'Clock – now probably known as the tome that was so good, it stopped a crime. Who needs an ocean of positive reviews on Goodreads?

Book Marks: Books In Wartime, Authors And Self-Promotion

"Books remain powerful. Amid all the offerings of digital media – from bingeable shows to news blogs and funny videos – reading still has a place for many of us," writes Beth Driscoll, Associate Professor in Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne, in The Conversation. "Adaptable and enduring, books have not been replaced by new media, but sit alongside them: they circulate not only in print form, but as audiobooks and online serials; they are adapted for other media."

In times of crisis, one might turn to books for clarity, if not an escape. A much harder activity for those in Ukraine, where Russian bombardments also target the book publishing industry. According to Voice of America:

"According to the Ukrainian Book Institute, Russian strikes and other aggressive actions have destroyed 174 libraries and almost 2 million books. "The Smithsonian Institution, located in Washington, has also documented the massive destruction of Ukraine's book publishing facilities, some of which are designated as cultural heritage sites, as well as libraries and archives."

Which is perhaps why there's a book boom in the besieged country at the moment. Shelled by an aggressor, Ukrainians have been turning to books for an escape, and perhaps some hope of peace.

Anastasia Yehorova, an IT project manager whose husband is in the military, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that she has bought "five times more books than she used to before Russia's full-scale invasion." However, "the real reason I buy more than I can read is because I am afraid that the Russians will force us to flee again ... and that we won't be there anymore – and neither will Ukrainian books."

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With myriad ways authors can promote their books – often because they HAVE TO – they are increasingly turning to marketers so that they can concentrate (more) on writing than the other stuff. But is what they're paying worth it? Shouldn't their publishers do all that work?

This isn't new, as Maris Kreizman notes. "There are lots of independent publicists who've been working with authors to supplement the work of their in-house teams for years." But she provides some points to ponder when considering shelling out extra for promotions and coverage.


Elsewhere:

• "Even for a writer who has made a specialism of slim, succinct books, this one is short," writes Claire Armitstead at The Guardian about Raja Shehadeh's book, What Does Israel Fear from Palestine? "Why, he asked in 2016, did Israel not take inspiration from South Africa's journey towards the abolition of apartheid? His conclusion, eight years later, is damning. 'The very high human and material cost of the war in Gaza proves that what Israel fears from Palestine is Palestine's very existence.'"
• "What does the world miss when a beloved author's work is left incomplete? Does the possible loss justify the risk that the finished product isn't what it might have been? ... What does it mean for an author's work to be released into the world without that author's blessing?" Posthumous publications may never go out of style, nor be free of controversy. Somewhere out there though, someone may be happy to read such a publication.
• "I just wanted to 'Cuti-cuti Malaysia' at that time, but later I decided I to write about it. I have a very good memory and so when I look through my photos and FB posts, it is easy for me to write about the things I saw and did then, even though a lot of time has passed in between." Lam Ching Fu returns with the second instalment of My Journey By Bus, which features Pahang, Terengganu, and Kelantan.
• Debut Singaporean author Lee Wen-yi's novel, The Dark We Know, has been picked up by Gillian Flynn Books – yes, that Gillian Flynn – and is expected to be released on 13 August. Like some, she started writing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The young adult novel follows a teenage art student as she unites with an estranged childhood friend and battles a supernatural evil in her small town.
• In an interactive session on 15 June at The Red Bari coffee shop in Kolkata, editors Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri and Maitreyee B. Chowdhury fielded questions from the audience about books, writing, and publishing. Both speak from their experience in India, but their advice may also apply regardless of where you're from or who you're submitting to.
• "Both [Edgar Allan] Poe and the novice printer Calvin F.W. Thomas were just eighteen when the poet handed over his manuscript, presumably at Thomas's shop at 70 Washington Street in Boston, and paid him to make it into a book. The result was forty pages of unevenly printed verse bound in drab tan wrappers the shade of a faded tea stain." The startling story of Tamerlane and Other Poems, Poe's debut collection, which is now a much-sought-after item by bibliophiles.
• Here's an incredible story about a public library in the United Kingdom that's become more than a place to read and borrow books. When you learn of how social safety nets are being gutted here and there, it's no surprise some turn to public libraries for certain essentials.
• During a book event, Librairie Gouraya, a bookshop in the Algerian city of Bejaia, was raided by police who detained an author, the publisher, and several others. No explanation was given, but The New Arab suggests it might have to do with the Koukou publishing house, which "has been subject to censorship in recent years."
• Free online library Internet Archive had to take down half a million titles after a clutch of book publishers sued them for copyright infringement. "To restore access, IA is now appealing, hoping to reverse the prior court's decision by convincing the US Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit that IA's controlled digital lending of its physical books should be considered fair use under copyright law," reports Ars Technica.
• Like an ouroboros: "Ban This Book, a children's book written by Alan Gratz, will no longer be available in the Indian River county school district since the school board voted to remove the book last month," reports The Guardian. Of course it happened in the US state of Florida, and it was because a parent challenged the book. The children's book is about a kid who couldn't borrow a book from a library because it was challenged by, yes, a parent, prompting her to start a library of banned books.

Book Marks: Power Readers, Being Happy, Middle-Grade Books

"A few weeks back, The Washington Post ran a piece spotlighting 'super readers,' a self-selecting class of book nerds who pride themselves on reading very, very fast. ... Why, I asked the author, who could not hear me in Washington—Why pedestal the reader who goes to books like a buffet, craving quantity? Why is our culture so intent on praising folks for reading not wider or more deeply, but faster and more?"

A Washington Post article about power readers, which I also bookmarked, prompted some questions and a bit of soul-searching. While some books take a long time to create and consume, titles that could have been designed for mass-consumption, like pulp novels, have been produced for a long time and seem to be popular among a chunk of readers.

But what the LitHub piece rails against is the need to devour books by the ton to establish some kind of identity or fulfil a certain life metric, because that's not what books and reading are about. Why do you read? Answer that question – AFTER some thought, please – and your approach to books may change.


Also:

• "Happiness is not something grand. Aren't you happy when you do what you want to do? But people are creating this mirage by making happiness too grandiose. Happiness is when something small that you want comes true." Eighty-eight-year-old Rhee Kun-hoo, author of "If You Live To 100, You Might As Well Be Happy", has advice on attaining happiness for everyone. The book is shceduled for release this month.
• "...there's one sector of publishing that is in free fall. At least among one audience, books are dying. Alarmingly, it's the exact audience whose departure from reading might actually presage a catastrophe for the publishing industry—and for the entire concept of pleasure reading as a common pursuit." Sales of middle-grade books are declining in the US, along with the number of children aged eight to 12 who are reading for fun. How to get kids back to books?
• "Beyond selling books and dabbling in freelance editing jobs, [Ahmad Luqman Zahari] also runs Pipit Press, which translates and publishes classics in Bahasa Malaysia." An indie publisher and bookseller operating out of an old kampung house in Melaka is bringing classic works in English to local audiences.
• "I think it's important for them to know they can have a book of their own, and it not to be a used book because we're all used to hand-me-downs," Jesse Marez, owner of the Libros Lincoln Heights bookstore in Los Angeles, tells the LA Times. "I think in a neighborhood like this, people need to know that they can get a new book, especially at an early age." Not just a neighbourhood bookstore, Libros is also publishing local stories besides selling books that aren't considered mainstream.
• "I felt a great sense of duty and responsibility to be able to talk about a fictional version of my own lived experience as a Tongan Australian because there are no fiction books written by Tongans in this country." Winnie Dunn, the Tongan Australian author of Dirt Poor Islanders, on her "unapologetically", "fearlessly" autobiographical book, writing, and being an Australian-born Tongan.
• In light of the revelations coming out of South Dakota governor Kristi Noem's book, No Going Back, a reminder that even the big publishers do not fact-check their non-fiction releases. Why not? "From the publisher's perspective, hiring a team of checkers is 'a huge expense,' [journalist Jane] Friedman said—it would 'destroy the profitability' of some books. And there are logistical challenges: Fact-checking memoirs, for example, can be difficult, because you're dealing with people's memories."
• If nine-year-old Lashika Poneswaran, who wrote The Waffle Truffle Adventure, is not Malaysia's youngest book author, then she is one of the youngest. The self-published book "is about a group of friends who enter a waffle competition. The protagonist, Rose, wants to seek out the old woman in the forest, rumoured to make the best waffles," reports Free Malaysia Today.
• "Writing advice is always a little funny because everyone's journey is different and there are really no right or wrong answers. For every piece of advice someone gives, you can find someone who did the opposite and thrived. So below I'm just going to include some subjective tidbits that have worked for me during my four years and three books as a mid-list author." Author Anna Dorn shares some writing advice in Literary Hub.
• Publishing books in Egypt can be like navigating a minefield because you never know what might set the authorities off. This report by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy is a harrowing read. "Book publishing is a very dangerous profession in this country. Publishers can find themselves at the wrong side of the equation at any given moment because nobody knows for a fact what would anger the censoring and security bodies."

Book Marks: BookTok's Future, Graphic Novels, Publishers

As the ban on TikTok looms in the United States, several BookTokers speak to the media about what the ban could mean for them, BookTok, and the publishing industry. At the very least, BookTokers could migrate to another platform, and existing video platforms could make some changes to accommodate the expected exodus.

Rachel Ulatowski weighs in on the issue at The Mary Sue, voicing concerns that some authors would potentially lose a vital lifeline that helps their livelihoods, skipping past hurdles in traditional publishing routes. "Many authors have turned to TikTok because it’s their only option to be able to do the work they love in a flawed industry."

Publishers are in no apparent rush to adapt, noting that the ban is scheduled to go into effect on 2025. As for portability, The Washington Post's director of video, Micah Gelman, noted that "The videos ... are transferable from TikTok to YouTube Shorts." Will the community rebrand as "BookShort" or "BookTube" though?

In the end, it doesn't matter where the community migrates to. BookTok is apparently here to stay and it'll continue doing its thing, as always. Meanwhile, TikTok has filed a suit to block the law that would ban the app in the US. What's next? Staying tuned.

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Graphic novels and comics appear to be getting kids to read in Australia. The growth in the graphic genre hints at its growing popularity, but it's not just because the pictures are pretty.

Comic creator and illustrator Marcelo Baez, considers comics and graphic novels "the gateway to literacy", adding that "I talk to parents ... of the kids that I teach in the workshops ... and it's comics that gets them interested in reading," he told Cairns Post.

The portal also quotes Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) CEO Cathie Warburton: "At a time when the number of people reading for pleasure in Australia is declining, and when the health and wellbeing benefits are proven, getting kids excited by reading is more important than ever."

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"The article ['No One Buys Books' by Elle Griffin] paints a nearly apocalyptic portrait of traditional publishing, in which nothing works, few make money, nobody reads, and the whole industry might go poof at any moment. ... The only problem is, the picture isn't true." Lincoln Michel at Slate unpacks Griffin's viral article and provides some facts to counter some of the claims in it.

I think this article was (also) mentioned by someone writing in Daily Kos. The data Griffin uses comes from a court trial regarding Penguin Random House's merger with Simon & Schuster, where PRH tried to justify the move. "The problem is, [Griffin] is relying on bad data and a mindset from a trial where it was in the publishers' best interests to downplay their market power."

Publishing is tough, but perhaps not as tough for the likes of PRH and the other major international publishers. They're less vulnerable to market forces compared to smaller publishers. Still, wouldn't operating costs for behemoth corporations that arise from mergers be astronomical? Especially when the suits at the helm are more concerned with P&L than the quality of the output and the welfare and well-being of authors and employees? Perhaps putting more emphasis on the latter two would be better for the industry than shareholder-pleasing moves that tend to end up gutting the enterprise.


Also:

• "Ultimately, The Last Man seems to celebrate the notion of life itself as worthy, whatever form it takes. Of course, we should attempt to reverse the damage we've wrought on the planet. But it might also behoove us to practice humility in the face of nature's awesome forces." What lessons can a novel by English author Mary Shelley teach us about our impact on and our relationship with Earth?
• "I often have thoughts like why can't we have a prettier subway logo? Why are our government websites so cheap looking? Why do 'Ah Bengs' like changing LED lights so much?" Graphic designer Jun Kit's Ugly Malaysiana catalogues and champions Malaysian kitsch as a celebration of "the underdogs, the undocumented, the unimpressive, and of course, laughing about the craziness of it all."
• Daryl Yeap, great-granddaughter of businessman and philanthropist Yeap Chor Ee and author of the book about him, returns with the story of three women and their ties to Java's sugar tycoon, Oei Tiong Ham. The book, As Equals: The Oei Women Of Java, "begins in the late 1880s in Semarang, Java, the year that Tiong Ham's daughter Oei Hui Lan was born – an auspicious year for Tiong Ham, who made his first million that same year," reports The Star.
• National libraries across Europe have been pillaged of antique books written by renowned authors, which have found their way to auction houses in Russia, the Guardian reports. This gang had pilfered at least 170 books in what amounted to an international operation. "The books were stolen in 2022 and 2023 from national and historical libraries in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Switzerland."
• The Lion Above the Door, a children's book by Onjali Rauf, was inspired by a Singaporean World War II pilot who flew with the British RAF. The author was recently in Singapore for speaking engagements in several schools and expressed a wish to meet the airman's family "so that they know what he means to not only her, but also to the thousands of children now learning and wanting to find out more about his story," reports the Straits Times. Rauf got her wish.
• "For my own writing, I always choose authenticity over commercial stuff. I tell my agent I don't want to hear any sales numbers or reviews. I don't want to let external factors beyond my control affect my creative mindset. I wouldn't fault anyone for doing so though – I don't consider it selling out. At the end of the day, writing is work." A profile of Singaporean author Kyla Zhao in Her World. She also gives a good piece of writing advice: "... it's never going to be a good time. So you should just start now."
• Who'd guess that Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, and The Valley of Amazement, among others, would write, illustrate(!) and publish her nature journal about birds in her backyard? The illustrations alone are enough to send one into another valley of amazement. As with many, she seems to have picked up the hobby and drawing skills during the pandemic lockdowns.
• "There is no proper form or proper time for grief. There is no need to be hard on ourselves if our grieving process doesn't match what other people expect. Grieving feels different for different people, and there are infinite permutations for what it might look like." Grief and sibling relationships are among the topics explored in Malaysian-born author Yeoh Jo-Ann's novel, Deplorable Conversations with Cats and Other Distractions.
• Some tips on writing and storytelling for journalists and writers of narrative non-fiction, from the book Truth Is The Arrow, Mercy Is The Bow: A DIY Manual for the Construction of Stories by author and essayist Steve Almond and an interview with the author.
• "Over the last few years, Indian publishers have taken a cue from their counterparts in the West as they increasingly consult social media influencers to create a buzz around the latest releases. But what we are now seeing are influencers trying out the role of author themselves and often creating bestsellers." In India, influencers are diving into authorship, with encouraging results. Having a reputation and substantial viewer base helps.
• Say "hi" to the world of private book collections and learn what motivates collectors, what makes for a rare book, and the future of the hobby. This article is too brief for a deep dive into the subject, and it doesn't seem to address or acknowledge how some of these rare books in collections might have been stolen from elsewhere. Many reasons compel one to collect, and for many private collectors proud of their efforts, caretaking is usually the goal, as rare-books collector Tom Lecky states in the article.
• "Once a dream, [author Lauren] Groff's vision of a bookshop with purpose acquired new urgency as she observed what she calls 'authoritarian creep.' Florida led the country in attempted book bans last year, with 2,672 challenges, the American Library Association reported." Groff may not be from the Sunshine State, but she seems determined that her bookstore The Lynx be a stronghold against the wave of authoritarian bans on books and restrictions on what can be taught at schools and institutions of learning.
• "Why is Tan Twan Eng in the running for all the prizes?" some might ask when they get wind of his inclusion in the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Which, admittedly, he qualifies for and has won in 2013 for The Garden of Evening Mists. "Why does Tan Twan Eng win all the prizes?" some might ask when they hear about the latter. Here's my take on that. TL;DR: no, he does not win nor qualify for "all the prizes".

Finally, something that's not about books: a piece about powder supplements by novelist Rachel Khong who subjected herself to some of the remedies she wrote about. She also weaved some history and family stories into it, making it more compelling.

(Interestingly, Khong has Malaysian roots, and the book tour that stressed her out enough for her to try ashwagandha was for her first novel, Goodbye, Vitamin. Funny, how things fall into place.)

Dodgy-looking and -sounding supplements aren't exclusively American – plenty has been said and written about their healthcare system, so one shouldn't be surprised Americans are turning to alternatives. We have these here too in Malaysia and in some instances, consumption has had dire consequences. Man, the lengths we go – from an apple a day to expensive mystery powders – to stay healthy.