A new US start-up offers enviable royalties - for those who can afford to sign up.
Links of the week January 1 2022 (52)
How new advertising models can release value in publishing
In the third in a series on the implications of AI for publishing, Nadim Sadek argues that effective advertising is now feasible for everyone, and for all kinds of titles
Fake Books Are a Real Problem, but a Solution May Be Near
A publishing friend of mine recently told me about a sales report they'd received from a major retailer in which some of their books had zero sales. It turned out that there had been plenty of sales, however-they just all went to counterfeiters. In case you think this is an outlier, it's not. Counterfeiting is a serious, nontrivial problem facing the industry.
Amazon’s Big Secret - The Atlantic
If you read the recently unsealed materials from the federal antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, you'll see why the company wanted to keep them under wraps. According to the unredacted notes from one meeting, Jeff Bezos directed his team to stuff more ads into search results, even if it meant accepting more ads internally categorized as irrelevant to what users were looking for. Other quoted documents reveal the company working to conceal a mysterious price-hiking algorithm, in part because "of increased media focus." Similarly unflattering nuggets abound.
Writing with a Mask: Language and Authenticity In Literature ‹ CrimeReads
On writing American characters realistically when English is your second language