Author Notes #12 (Sept 2024)
My monthly round-up - AI reassurance, PEN's work on book bans, writing for kids, whether debut authors need a platform, and NYT bad book reviews - and introducing The Resilient Author!
Before I begin, you’ll notice that everything is a little bit different around here! ‘Novel Thoughts & Wild Ideas’ has officially retired, so let me warmly welcome you all to my new-look Substack: The Resilient Author.
The Resilient Author
Courage, inspiration, tough love and practical support for writers.
Why the change? Well, I’ve written 65 posts on Substack so far, and over the last twelve months it’s become clear how much of my focus is on writing and creativity. Therefore, while this will always be a welcoming space for interested readers and creatives, I’m going to dig into my niche areas more overtly, with a mix of posts around writing craft, creativity and inspiration, publishing insights and tips, sustaining a healthy author mindset, and my monthly newsy round-up in these Author Notes. I’ll also be adding to my own writing journal and delivering additional posts on books and culture, creative women and occasional personal essays.
If you visit my Substack on your desktop you’ll see that everything is now clearly laid out under these categories (or accessible from headers on your mobile). In addition, my Welcome post, pinned to the top of my page, contains a complete list of my work so far.
For paid subscribers there’s now a new section called ‘Just One More Thing’, which will sometimes come at the end of posts. These will be backed up with a monthly post containing a writing resource or a deeper dive into a topic around writing. You’ll also see that each of my novels now has its own post in the ‘My books’ section, so you can browse through all my fiction, and get a little bit of insider info about how each book originated and the publishing story behind them.
I hope you love the new name and new look! If you’d also/instead like more focus on my books, news, events and giveaways, then I send out a quarterly newsletter containing all my latest writing news, and the latest one just went out. You can sign up for this one here.
Now, without further ado, here’s this month’s Author Notes.
1.
If you’re worried about AI you’re going to love this piece in The New Yorker by Ted Chiang, which tells us all why we shouldn’t be worried! I think it may be one of the best things I’ve read on AI so far. It doesn’t alleviate all my concerns - particularly when publishers are putting AI clauses in contracts - but it does remind us how unique and valuable our creative practices are, and that ChatGPT is very unlikely to be able steal them from us! I love the whole article for the way Chiang analyses language, and bonus points for the additional defence and elevation of the thriller genre too:
People often underestimate the effort required to entertain; a thriller novel may not live up to Kafka’s ideal of a book—an “axe for the frozen sea within us”—but it can still be as finely crafted as a Swiss watch. And an effective thriller is more than its premise or its plot. I doubt you could replace every sentence in a thriller with one that is semantically equivalent and have the resulting novel be as entertaining.
Thanks for the reassurance, Ted!
2.
I was intrigued by publishing guru Jane Friedman’s recent commentary around whether you need a platform to get a traditional publishing deal. Friedman’s data suggests that this isn’t the case for all authors - which should be a comfort to those who are writing without a major online presence. Check out this Instagram post to see Friedman’s analysis in more detail (and she also does a follow-up post clarifying her original findings a bit further). I love this kind of analysis, but I also say don’t pay too much heed to the odds, just look to defy them when you need to!
3.
In a recent Kill Your Darlings article, well-known Australian children’s authors reflect on what they wish they could have told themselves at the start of their publishing careers. Amelia Mellor focuses on the publishing experience, saying, ‘I wish I’d known how to sell books for children when I started my career. Kids’ publishing isn’t an endless festival of whimsy—it’s a business too.’ (I’d second this statement, as far as adult fiction is concerned!) Elsewhere in the article, Brooke Scobie considers the importance of ‘Own Stories’ for kids, while Tami Sussman talks about the intergenerational experience of reading children’s books. Recommended reading if you’re writing for young people.
4.
I recently discovered PEN America’s page on Book Bans, which is a comprehensive resource for anyone looking for lots of information on this topic. It includes an index of banned books, a map of America showing where book bans are occurring, insights and resources, and ways to report a book ban or take action. There’s such a lot of great work here, which is invaluable in helping us all stay informed, wherever we are in the world.
5.
For a bit of fun, I highly recommend you take the New York Times quiz on their bad book reviews, and see if you can recognise the classic books that were slammed by their critics. I got 5/6 - not too shabby! And if you want to know which other authors were given short shrift by the Times, check out this longer article: When the Times Panned the Classics!
SHORT NOTES AND SHOUT-OUTS
Much-loved Australian author
was shortlisted for The Booker Prize for Stone Yard Devotional - the first Australian to be shortlisted in ten years! Huge congratulations to Charlotte! The winner will be announced on 12 November.This month is Dyslexia Awareness month: a cause close to my heart as I have two girls with dyslexia. And although they ostensibly have the same neurodiversity, my girls have been affected quite differently, which has all been a big learning curve for me, (and it’s one of the reasons why I’ve been a homeschool mum for the past nine years). So I’m delighted to have joined forces with authors Shannon Meyerkort, Jackie French, David Whish-Wilson, Kylie Howard, Adrian Beck and children’s laureate Sally Rippin to promote awareness of dyslexia and its challenges. Over the next few weeks we’ll be talking about dyslexia in a few different videos, so keep an eye on our social pages (Facebook and Instagram) and/or the hashtags #authorsfordyslexia and #authorsfordyslexiaawareness.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
In the next couple of months I’ll be coming out of my writing cave for a few brilliant events around Perth, WA:
19th October: Festival of Fiction, Edith Cowan, Joondalup WA: Dangerous Women panel (sold out)
9 November (2-4 pm), Clarkson Library, WA: Writers of the North event with
, , Josephine Taylor and David Allan-Petale. Free, but bookings essential. Tickets here.21st November (6-8 pm), Riverton Library, WA. Author talk: ‘A Life in Writing’. Tickets here (on sale 7 Nov).
28th November (10am-1pm), State Library of WA: Fiction Masterclass on Character Psychology in Crime and Suspense Fiction (with Writing WA). Cost: $50. Tickets here.
Thanks for reading this month’s Author Notes! This is a public post, so if you have a friend who would enjoy these newsletters, please feel free to share it with them.
In the first ‘Just One More Thing’ for paid subscribers, publishing this weekend, I’m talking a bit more about Australian book sales so far this year and what the Australian market considers to be successful sales figures, because it’s harder than you might think for authors to find out much about how their books are selling!