Author Notes #17 (March 2025)
Meta's thievery; French rebels taking on Hachette; shaking up our older characters; Jojo Moyes talks to Lisa Jewell; and White Lotus Easter Eggs.
Hello and welcome to March 2025’s Author Notes!
1.
The big news this month is, of course, Meta doing an outrageous, depressing worldwide steal of everyone’s work.
The Atlantic article revealing the scale of this theft is here. The search tool to see if your books are part of the theft is here. And an important article from the Australian Society of Authors is here, and includes an online form for authors to provide details if their work has been stolen. Please, please don’t neglect to fill this in.
I am so grateful for this article published on Tuesday by WA journalist and author Emma Young: ‘Holding us hostage’: WA authors’ horror as Meta uses their pirated work.
My results are below (along with the work of my namesakes who write cookbooks and clever science articles). And yep, they stole the lot:
I am, of course, furious and upset, and all the things, but I’m keeping a lid on that so I can enjoy publishing my new work (which is probably being stolen right now!), and keeping my ear to the ground about collective action.
Rachael Johns has written a really great post about the break-up letter she’d like to write to Meta, but can’t yet - and this echoes my current sentiments entirely:
What do we do? Spend our precious time fighting this steal, which has already happened, at immeasurable cost? Or do we focus on our work in progress, knowing that might be stolen too? It’s an untenable situation for authors and we need to keep shouting about this as a community, and demanding reparation and government action.
2.
Thanks to
for alerting me to this fascinating article in the Guardian about French bookshops trying to take on publishing conglomerate Hachette Livre:Dozens of independent booksellers are trying to counter the growing influence of Vincent Bolloré, whose vast cultural empire includes television, radio, the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche, and also, since 2023, the biggest book publishing and distribution conglomerate in France, Hachette Livre.
In response, protest groups have started a bookmark rebellion, where they leave bookmarks in paperbacks that are on sale in bookstores, detailing why readers should join in the boycott of Hachette.
I have to say I’d love to read a novel that included a bookmark rebellion! It’s an ingenious way of spreading the word about a cause.
3.
If you’re a writer looking for a gap in the market, how about this, from the Geena Davis institute:
Older Adults Want Real Representation From Hollywood
Older actors are asking for stories that let them feature in more diverse and dynamic roles. Among those surveyed, only 17 percent said they often saw older actors being physically active, and fewer still (11 percent) often saw them learning something new. Three out of four people in the AARP survey (73 percent) said they were more likely to watch movies or shows that included characters who are like them.
4.
Two of my favourite writers featured in a Substack conversation this month, with
featuring Lisa Jewell on - and I can’t believe that Lisa doesn’t plot!
I love reading about other writers’ methods and techniques, especially when they have so much trust in their own process, and it’s obviously working beautifully for both of them!
5.
Considering the heavy topics this month, I enjoyed this article in The Guardian about all the books the characters in White Lotus are reading, and the symbolism behind them. It’s a great example of using ‘Easter Eggs’ to add extra levels of intrigue and symbolism to stories.
SHORT NOTES AND SHOUT OUTS
Congratulations to two of my buddies who also released books on the same day as me:
with Red Dust Running, and with The Distance Between Dreams. They both look glorious! Also watch out for James Bradley’s Landfall later this month, which I read and loved earlier this year - Bradley is a master when it comes to visionary stories of the near future, and this one is his first crime novel. And finally, ’s new book The Mademoiselle Alliance is taking the charts by storm with good reason - it’s about the female leader of the biggest resistance network in France in World War Two, and it’s another fabulous story from Natasha.I’m going to be doing two joint events with
next week - the first in Busselton with Dymocks and Poppy & Pip cafe, and the second at Capel Library. And in May I can’t wait to do an event at AH Bracks library with when she visits Perth! I’ve got a couple of solo events coming up in WA too - with Books in the Brewery (Maylands) on Monday 7th April, and Open Book (Mosman Park) on 11th April and with Boundless Books on 1 May. Tickets are available for all of these, so if you’re in WA I hope to see you there!ICYMI THIS MONTH ON THE RESILIENT AUTHOR
AND THERE’S MORE ON STORY MATTERS…
WHEN SHE WAS GONE IS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED!
It’s been a busy week for events launching When She Was Gone, and it’s brilliant to see it officially out in bookstores and on shelves across the country. There won’t be a post next week as I’ll be travelling for events, although paid subscribers will be getting a couple of extra posts from me about marketing strategy ideas, and my new resources page for paid subscribers.
Happy writing!
I loved that Lisa Jewell interview. How amazing were her stories! I loved the story about the clown mask in the drawer! Very inspiring.
Thanks for your thoughts and sharing of the Meta story. I’m thinking we could include a “bookmark rebellion” to inform readers of this kind of thing!
At the very least get our publishers to put our Substack on new business cards and bookmarks etc, as part of a slow transition away?
And happy release day to you my dear friend. You are kicking goals everywhere!!!