Author Notes Extra: a round-up of July 2025

Publishing gets scandalous, random tax rules on prizes, latest AI pushback, declining numbers of male readers and a new 'laureate's week' for young regional readers

Welcome to Author Notes Extra! As you may have seen on the Author Notes that went out last week, I’m trialling this new format for you, my fab paid crew, and splitting the notes in two rather than sending one long paywalled email. It’ll usually come on a Tuesday but a few things have got in the way this week, so Wednesday it is!

I’m currently on the downhill slope of getting my next first draft in good shape, and as soon as I’m done I’m thinking of ways to extend the paid offerings. Therefore, I’ve added some polls at the end of these notes, and I’d love your feedback. And if there’s something else that you love about The Resilient Author and would like to see more of, please let me know!

Now, onto Notes Extra:

1.

There have been two big scandals impacting publishing this month, and it’s fascinating to study not only the scandals themselves but the media response to them. First up, the mushroom murder trial concluded, with Erin Patterson found guilty and THREE books immediately announced and in a race for publication while the public demand is pretty much insatiable. In The Conversation, Alice Grundy asks what the big rewards and risks are with these kinds of publications so soon after an event. While bestselling crime writer Candice Fox wrote an article in the Guardian asking what it means when we all become so involved in a case like this: We all became detectives in Erin Patterson’s trial. But as a crime writer I can’t help wonder, at what cost? | Candice Fox | The Guardian