Notice What You Notice About the World Around Us
"Noticing what you notice" helps you identify your authentic material and produce work no one can ever copy.
On the List: This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page
The novelist studied bestsellers to learn what could help her reach a wider audience, and identified two crucial elements to incorporate.
Audible’s ACX discontinuing legacy royalty model
The service is shifting to a pooling model where audiobook royalties are affected by how much an Audible member consumes in a month.
Links of Interest: April 29, 2026
The latest in traditional publishing, the New York Times, culture & politics, and AI.
New publisher: Lost Kite Editions
The Minneapolis-based nonprofit publishes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction from underrepresented writers.
Canadians now have an alternative to shopping at Amazon
Booksellers.ca is the first online bookselling platform to serve both the English- and French-language readers across Canada.
New children’s imprint at Little Brown Children’s
Alvina Ling Books will release 15–20 titles per year starting this fall, with an emphasis on fiction, from board books to YA.
Why Book Sales Figures Are So Hard to Interpret (and Complete Sales Figures Nearly Impossible to Find)
We attempt to clarify the claim that half of all books sell fewer than a dozen copies—a statistic for which this newsletter is partially responsible.
Gotham Ghostwriters publishes AI guidelines for writers, editors, and authors
The guidelines address usage, disclosure, and tips on understanding and managing AI risks.
Creating Microtension in Your Story Through Repetition
A repeated word, phrase, motif, symbol, or image can create tension for your readers in small, barely noticeable increments.
Links of Interest: April 22, 2026
The latest in traditional publishing, bookselling, culture & politics, and AI.
New agent at Mansion Street Literary Management
Katie Ferriello has joined as literary agent, focusing on romance, fantasy, and children’s literature.
New cookbook imprint at Skyhorse
Skyhorse Publishing has launched new cookbook imprint Golden Grove Publishing with Culinary Book Creations CEO James O. Fraioli.
Small Press Insights: bestseller tracking site
Author Jim Hanas has launched a website called Small Press Insights that reveals which small-press books are selling on Amazon.
How Faire Fills a Distribution Gap for Publishers
Faire is a tech wholesale B2B marketplace built for the gift, jewelry, and home goods market, but increasingly used by publishers and bookstores.
Authors Guild adds a new AI clause to their model contract regarding publishers’ use of AI on manuscripts
Their statement is in response to a report that some publishing professionals are feeding manuscripts into AI without explicit permission from authors.
Comprehensive Q&A about Draft2Digital fees
Author Kevin McLaughlin has addressed the change in a long FAQ based on his conversation with D2D CEO Kris Austin.
High claim rate in Anthropic lawsuit: 91 percent
That breaks down to 119,876 claims that account for 440,490 of the 482,460 works on the official list.
The Question Every Memoirist Needs to Ask (But Almost No One Does)
Before trying to structure a memoir, you must understand how you’ve changed and what that process looked like—which can be hard to pinpoint.
Giving Your Characters Serious Challenges May Give Them Delightful Strengths
Most characters have a challenge to overcome, but what about more serious physical or psychological issues that can’t be “cured” or ignored?
AI and Libraries: Why Librarians May Become Arbiters of Reality
Librarians are managing AI’s real-world effects, making them publishing’s early warning system on reliability, trust, and the limits of AI literacy.
Ghosting Your Own Book: How to Cross the Finish Line When You Want to Run Away
Faced with pursuing publication that might reopen old wounds, one memoirist overcame the challenge with help from therapy, community, and AI.
On the List: The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson
The Poison Daughter is her fourth novel and her first USA Today bestseller.
Defendants in the Crave copyright case demand that their collective $3.4 million in legal fees be covered
US copyright law allows for the prevailing party to recover legal fees, although it’s discretionary and not automatic.
Barnes & Noble Press sets minimum paperback price of $14.99, among other new guidelines
Cost pressures on print have been increasing, but this requirement will prove challenging for novellas, poetry, or works with low page counts.