Category Archives: Publishing

Discussions about the business of publishing.

Well, That’s Done

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Our Founder

Actually, Marta came first in a short story called “Treedle.” But the Long Look was the first in the Laws of Power series. I just didn’t know it was at the time. But, unless I have some sort of divine revelation, I’ve just wrapped up both their stories. The Final Chapter and Epilogue of The Seventh Law of Power are done. In rough first draft. I still have to do the rewrite. But I usually rewrite as I go, so I don’t expect it to take that long.

I’ll post when I have a publication date. I have no excuse for taking so long to get the darn thing done.

To AI or Not to AI? No One Asked

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Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

There’s been a lot of sturm und drang on Facebo*k and elsewhere about an article in the Atlantic about the data used to train M*ta and other Large Language Models (LLMs). First in the artists’ pages and now the writers’ as well. AI art and AI stories already clogging up submissions at the magazines and such. Curiosity and ego got the better of me and I did the DB search thing and came up with this:

Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter, Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate, Yamada Monogatari: The War God’s Son, and Yamada Monogatari: The Emperor in Shadow.

All present. The only one they missed was Yamada Monogatari: Troubled Spirits, the final collection.

The online outrage has been pretty intense, and on one level I understand completely. I do have a dog in this fight. No one asked our permission, and the fact that the text (albeit tokenized beyond human recognition) is there at all can be interpreted as an unauthorized publication. Stephen King and other prominent writers have already filed suit and the courts will have to deal with it. Of course I’m curious to see how that all shakes out, since we’re in mostly uncharted territory here with AI in general and this instance in particular. Can the ones assembling the material argue “fair use” or will the courts decide the writers’ IP rights were violated? Some legal clarity here would be nice, however it shakes out.

At this stage I confess to being too ambivalent to share the outrage. Concern, yes. On the one hand, we should have been asked. On the other, is it really publication? As the data is fed into the LLM it’s barely recognizable as words. On the other other hand, will plagiarism result? Here I’ve seen with my own experiments with ChatGPT to know it can happen, and sometimes the AI puts out work purporting to be original which is an almost word for word copy of something it was trained on. That needs to be addressed. Can that be prevented? Too many questions unanswered.

What I mostly want at this point is some answers to all the above. I’m willing to wait, assuming I have the option. This may take a while.

It’s Nice to Be Included

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KU Unlimited
This sort of thing doesn’t happen all that often, at least in my part of the writerverse. My fae fantasy, Little Fire and Fog, is part of a push to encourage Kindle Unlimited (KU) signups. The list includes a selection of fae themed books, like LF&F, that are available in KU. If you’re inclined, check out the web page. There’s a button up there somewhere. There’s no obligation, so it doesn’t hurt to look. If you’re already in KU, you might get some ideas for your next read.

Let’s Take This Show on the Road

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“Where Strange Drinks and Even Stranger Clients Meet.”

Which might somewhat describe the newsletter, except for the drinks part. You’re on your own there.

Ahem.

Crossed fingers and held breath, I think I have everything together. If not, I’ll be the second to know. Regardless, the image to the left is the cover for the prize I’ve arranged for those signing up for my newsletter, Tales From the Black Dog.

What is The Black Dog, you might ask? I’ll summarize it thusly:

“The Black Dog is an odd little pub, with strange drinks and an even stranger clientele. Sometimes it’s there. Sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes you’ll find it, and sometimes you won’t. Just don’t hit on the bartender or the bouncer, whatever you do. She’s a Banshee and he’s a Redcap. It won’t end well for you.”

The book itself is a collection of eleven flash pieces I wrote mostly for fun about the pub and the mix of humans and non-humans who inhabit the place. Those who have read Little Fire and Fog may recognize some of them. Those who have read much of mine may notice some of my themes and interests come up. Those who haven’t, I think it’s a fair if brief introduction to what I’m about. It also includes the only real Tuckerization I have ever done, though who? Ain’t telling. They know what they did. The individual pieces have appeared only in a very small (maybe 20 people) private FB group. This collection appears nowhere, period (except on your computer if you so choose), and won’t for the foreseeable future. It is my gift to you, and I hope you like it.

There will be a link on the main page, but I put one here also where you can sign up for the Newsletter.

The list asks for your email address (duh), name, and country you’re in. The name is just how you like to be addressed (Grand Moff of the Galaxy? You do you), and the country in case I need to do anything special to comply with EU rules. After that you’ll be given a link to the download page where you can choose the ebook format you prefer and have at it. Couldn’t be simpler. Well, it could, but it’s still pretty simple.

For those who do sign up, let me know how it went. I’m new at this.

Ringing the Changes

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Not inaccurate but incomplete. I’m thinking more of an addition rather than a change (although I’m likewise considering some tweaks to the website. Lord knows it could use a refresh).

Ahem. Excuse the tangent. The point I’m getting to is I’m seriously considering starting an email newsletter. And by “seriously considering” I mean yeah, it’s very likely going to happen. Not today, but not the distant future either. Such things require planning to do right which requires time which you’d think I’d have tons of, being largely confined to the house except for necessary errands, and you’d think wrong. There’s always something else I need to be doing aside from what I want to be doing. So it goes…

Sorry. Tangenting again. So here’s the thing: Why a newsletter? What’s wrong with the blog?

Well, lots of things, but that’s not the point, even if the blog isn’t going away. There are advantages to a private email list that a blog doesn’t have, and not just for me. For a start, what if I want to give actual readers a heads-up on a special promotion or giveaway or preliminary book cover, but am not ready to or don’t want to broadcast it to the world? That’s a newsletter’s job.

I’ll give you another example. When I sold “The Fox’s Daughter” to Beneath Ceaseless Skies, I announced it here and over on FB. One of the biggest fans of the Yamada series didn’t see the post, even though we’re FB friends (FB is like that). It took a share from another reader to bring it to their attention. Whereupon they were somewhat put out that they weren’t immediately informed, and can’t say I blame them. When I mentioned a newsletter? They demanded to be signed up first, and when the time comes, so I shall. People are less likely to miss stuff that might interest them that way.

Frequency? Probably once a month or so, at most. And when I say “private” email list, I mean exactly that. I will not sell it and I damn well won’t share it. This is just for you and me, for however many iterations of “you and me” there are. That’s for you all to decide.

There will likely be some bonus for signing up. Haven’t decided what yet. Likely an original work before it’s available anywhere else, that kind of thing. Something else to think about.

So what do you think? Hate newsletters? Love them? What’s a newsletter? Speak now or I’ll likely just do what I want. Very dangerous, that.