Author's Notes #2 (September 2023)

PhD celebrations, championing The Voice, AI lawsuits and debates around book blurbs

AUTHOR NOTES #2 (September 2023)

1.

To begin with, a celebration! This month I was officially awarded my PhD. I’m doubly thrilled that it was topped off with a Chancellor’s Commendation, and I can now go by the catchy little moniker of Doctor Foster. My graduation was the result of seven years spent studying the reasons behind and impacts of missing mothers in dystopian fiction with young adult heroines, and while this might sound like a very specific area of expertise, the work spoke to many different aspects of how we interact with language, gender and cultural representation, particularly around women and mothers. The Hush was the creative component of my thesis, and my challenge now is to keep my findings relevant and bring them into my stories and work so I can share these insights with others. Watch this space!

Happy photo of me in my gown at the end of this newsletter :)

2.

We have two weeks to go until we get to vote on the Voice* in Australia, and despite the doom and gloom I’m desperately hoping we can make this an historic moment for all the right reasons. Continuing with the status quo would be so hard to bear. There are now over 600 authors on Writers for The Voice and I wrote another piece for social media about why I’m voting YES, which I have added to my Notes on Substack too. So many amazing authors are speaking up for YES, and I’ll be promoting their voices on my social media in the lead-up to the vote.

*For those who are overseas, in Australia we are voting on whether to amend the constitution to ensure there is always an advisory body that gives First Nations Australians a say on the matters that directly affect them (one which cannot be affected or disbanded by the politics of the day). Find out more and read the Uluru Statement here.

3.

In the US, high-profile authors including Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, Suzanne Collins and George R.R. Martin have joined forces in a class action filed by the Authors Guild against Open AI (the maker of Chat GPT), accusing them of illegally pirating thousands of books online and using them to train AI without consent or compensation. In addition, The Atlantic has allowed authors to access a searchable database, Books3, to see if their books are among the 183,000 pirated works used to train AI. My book Beneath the Shadows was on the list.  The violation of copyright is astounding, and the role of big tech in this is horrifying – foreshadowing essential questions around the moral integrity and legal culpability of those seeking to control and profit from the AI space. The pushback has already started, and it’s going to be huge.

Yesterday, my good friend Dervla McTiernan did an amazing job of explaining the issues around this in an interview on the ABC. Watch here.

4.

There have been some interesting discussions in the media this month on book blurbs and moral standards. The first, on the questionable practice of manipulating bad reviews into positive promotional quotes, which happened recently on Jordan Peterson’s new book Beyond Order.  The Times columnist James Marriott had a quote featured on the book that appeared to endorse it. His response (in a now deleted tweet): ‘My review of this mad book was probably the most negative thing I have ever written.’ Eek! Ironically, in the era of ‘all publicity is good publicity’, the furore probably only increased the awareness of Peterson’s book, but it has prompted the Society of Authors to speak out, and UK publisher Bonnier Books to produce a ‘best practice’ document for blurbs.

Another Esquire article, ‘Book Publishing’s Broken Blurb System’, effectively conveys the anxiety-provoking practice of authors having to ask their contemporaries to provide blurbs for their new titles, and in return being bombarded with requests to endorse others’ books.  Most of the authors I know have a difficult relationship with this part of the business: either swamped with books to read, feeling bad for saying no to requests, or navigating the guilt of asking other busy writers to spare their precious time, all while knowing this is an essential part of building buzz for an author’s new work. There are also contingent issues around whether these blurbs are honest - it’s very hard for an author to tell another author that they didn’t like their book! I guess that while endorsements like these continue to be the status quo of book promotion, we have to tread lightly, stay kind to ourselves by not taking too much on, be as authentic as possible, not take it personally when authors decline, and appreciate those who are able to support us.  

5.

Now I’ve been writing here for a month, I’m very excited about the possibilities of Substack. I’m thrilled to find a business model that celebrates written content (no need to learn the TikTok dances except for my kids’ amusement – yay!). I’ve been making lists of what I can write about, because there are so many things I’d love to share: my writing journey, thoughts about the publishing business, tips for other writers, my work on the author’s mindset, crafting the thriller/mystery suspense, and representations of women in different genres of fiction as well as in the media and in daily life. I’d like to contribute to discussions around language, culture and revisionism. And I’d also love to feature some of my other interests, which all contribute to my work and perspective, such as what I’ve learned volunteering for environmental causes, or my crazy life homeschooling my two children and our adventures in the world of dyslexia. There’s so much to talk about!  As always, I write this Substack for you, dear readers, so if I mention anything that gets you especially keen to hear more, please reply and let me know!

SHORT NOTES AND SHOUT-OUTS

• The Writers Guild of America ended the writers’ strike on 27 September, after agreements were made for the next three years, including a 5% minimum pay increase with more to come, a new residual for streaming content based on viewership, and a deal that AI cannot write or rewrite literary material (and AI generated material will not be considered source material). So good to see writers beginning to get the assurances and protections that they deserve.

• Did you know, Amazon have limited authors to only being able to upload three books a day after a suspected influx of AI material. Yes, you read that right: three books a day! Over a thousand books a year! I’m obviously not typing fast enough ;)

• Highlighting a couple of great evergreen articles from prominent Indigenous author Anita Heiss: the first on how writers need to engage with Indigenous Australia, and the second on writing Indigenous characters.

• Finally, it had to happen sometime, but the Treehouse books for kids are coming to an end. We’ve loved this series over the years, so a big thank you and round of applause to Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton. Having seen him at various events, Andy G is also one of the most generous authors on the book-signing trail, posing for photos and signing for hours so that everyone goes away happy.  

COMING UP

Only a few days until I host Natasha Lester’s upcoming book launch for The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard with Dymocks Joondalup and Joondalup Libraries on Tuesday 3 October (St Stephen’s School Theatre, Duncraig). Last I heard there were still a few tickets available, so get in quick if you’d like to come along!

There’s a Writers of the North High Tea happening at 2pm on 18^th November 2023 at Clarkson Library, WA. Come and join me and my writing group buddies Josephine Taylor, David Allan-Petale and Holden Sheppard and we’ll answer all your writing questions and entertain you over delicious afternoon tea. This is a free event but bookings are essential. Tickets here.

That’s it for my September Author’s Notes. Thank you for joining me - and if you haven’t subscribed yet, please click the button below for future updates, or to share with a friend. I’ll be keeping my entire Substack paywall free until February 2024, and there will always be options for those who’d like to read my work but can’t afford a paid subscription. I’ll also be working out some great bonuses for those who would like to pledge their support in future.