Links of the week January 1 2025 (01)

I had been happily self-publishing for over a year when I landed a traditional deal for The Cellar. The process was smooth at the start with both parties quickly agreeing on the structural changes needed in my manuscript. It had been my dream for such a long time to see my books in stores that I didn't think much about the differences between indie and traditional.

Although I was thoroughly enjoying the process, meeting a wonderful team who were just as enthusiastic to bring my book to life, I did quite quickly realise that my experience was indie specific, and trad was a whole different ball game.

I assumed, rather naively, that it would be a similar process, and I'd sail through it. After all, I'd had plenty of experience, having published three books already. I knew how to take a book from an idea to Amazon, and I'd done it mostly on my own. This time I was going to have an entire team and publishing house behind me. Surely that would be even easier than going it alone?

 

A new report claims that people can't tell the difference between AI- and human-authored poetry. The authors of the report at the University of Pittsburgh also say their report shows that "non-experts" rate AI poetry more highly than the originals. The report, however, ignores something vital: poetry is a human art form and its measurement is not in ratings, but in enjoyment.

A few months back I wrote in The Bookseller about AI being a useful - and exciting - tool in the hands of human poets. It is the human manipulation of algorithms that turns machine-spun verse into something we can call art, making this new report something that should be interrogated. For a study aiming to stride into new territory - to cut through the cake of poetry with the sharp blade of AI - it fails instead by carrying a Best Before tag.

 

This week will be like A-level results week for authors, but with added economic jeopardy. For a good whack of the 100,000 writers and translators in the UK, finding out how many books they have sold in the run-up to Christmas will mean the difference between turning on the heating and sitting shivering through the January frost. Many in the latter camp will be forced to accept that life as a professional novelist, poet or dramatist is no longer sustainable. Time to close the book. The end.

Can it be so bad? Surely novelists aren't really on the breadline? Well, given that the median income for professional writers fell from £12,330 in 2007 to £7,000 in 2022, you can see why most will be desperately hoping for a festive bump in earnings. A bohemian life in a freezing garret only sounds attractive to those who have never lived it.

In a country proud of its literary history, we're at a tipping point when the number of books and plays written could soon collapse with the number of people who can afford to create them.

 

Before I wrote my first book twenty years ago, I had a vague idea that I would eventually write one. I was writing all the time, stolen moments in cafés or on the subway, early in the morning, late in the evening, constantly churning out words. I couldn't quite see that I was in the process of writing something that would eventually become a book. I was occasionally getting essays published, and I had put out a few zines of short stories, one with a small press. I had words bursting out of me. I only needed a place to put them.

A friend of mine said to me, "Why aren't you writing a book yet? It's time." And then she offered me an opportunity: a place to live for the summer, a small cottage in Northern California on her boyfriend's land. He had a dog that needed long walks - a big dog, a Tibetan mastiff. I saved up enough money from all my freelance jobs and headed west.

Every day I walked the big dog and I wrote 1,000 words. I also drank a lot of cheap, cold white wine and ate too much pasta and read dozens of books, and I had several miniature nervous breakdowns because I was by myself so much, and also because I was getting rid of all this emotional stuff by writing this book, stuff I hadn't known was there but now it was out, and it was on the page, 1,000 words at a time.

 

David Shelley, CEO of Hachette Book Group, told The Bookseller: "In 2025, I think we'll see a continuation of trends that have been building for the past few years. One of these is consumer desire for collectible editions (sprayed edges, exclusive covers, extra material). Another is a continued - and, to my mind, welcome - blurring of industry fiction genre categorisations. I think there will be more bestsellers that are neither thriller nor romance, nor fantasy nor literary, but contain elements of all."

As I see it, there are two urgent priorities in 2025, which are fundamental to the future of our industry and we must work together to navigate and tackle them.

First, AI will continue to develop at breakneck speed with the necessary regulation lagging behind. We will continue to work closely with the Publishers Association to ensure that the intellectual property of our authors is vigorously defended. We are disappointed and concerned by the Government's proposal for a copyright exception for data mining for AI use and see this as a significant risk.

Second, while online communities such as BookTok continue to drive demand, we were served a stark reminder of the decline of reading for pleasure among children with the National Literacy TrustUK-based organisation which has campaigned since 1993 to improve literacy standards across all age groups. Excellent research information and details of the many initiatives the charity is currently involved in. www.literacytrust.org.uk. It also has a useful page of news stories on UK literacy, which links to newsletter http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx's (NLT) latest reading survey data. This issue must take a front seat in 2025, and collaboration across the ecosystem to tackle this with an urgent focus is now critical. As a business, we will continue to focus our energy and investment on our flagship social impact programmes Libraries for Primaries and Lit in Colour, working in partnership with our charity, public and private sector and publishing partners.