Can anyone actually comprehend the words - much less the emotional connection - when they’re listening at 3 times the speed at which the audio was recorded? (And also, how do audiobook actors feel about this?) - NPR
“This really should be the time that publishers are digging deep on representation, research and making sure whatever lands across their desk isn’t just rubber stamped because the last person said it was OK." - ArtsHub
I’m always fascinated by the trends that the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthologies reveal. Short stories are (usually) quicker to write than novels, which means that they tend to be more responsive to current events than books published during the same period. - LA Review of Books
In addition to using ChatGPT Enterprise to increase the efficiency in its daily work processes, “experts and creatives from content businesses will work with OpenAI to develop new ways of creating and distributing video, audio, and text content,” the announcement said. - Publishers Weekly
"Penguin Random House parent company Bertelsmann has agreed to a 'strategic collaboration' with OpenAI to use ChatGPT technology across many of its operating units. ... The agreement not only includes employees' use of ChatGPT, but the 'development of new products and services' as well." - Publishers Weekly
Upgrading the look of B&N stores, and improving the quality of its workforce, are among the reasons James Daunt cited as contributing to the bookseller’s resurgence: “We want to have good teams inside nice-looking stores.” - Publishers Weekly
Aphasia brings up existential questions that get at the heart of human connection: Who are we without language? If I were struck by aphasia today, what would be left unsaid, to my family, my friends, my readers? - Public Books
"New Yorker writer Rachel Syme was in the stir-crazy early months of the pandemic, scribbling notes to friends and family, when she put out an open call on social media: Was anyone interested in a pen pal? Yes, some 15,000 people." - Vanity Fair
"While acknowledgment of the platform’s marketing and publicity power is overwhelming, many also assert that any concern over a drop in sales is overblown … (and) that another social media platform would come along to fill any BookTok-sized hole." - Publishers Weekly
Even if you're unmoved by the idea that we're losing touch with a physical human practice thousands of years old, there are measurable cognitive skills which are strengthened by writing by hand and weakened in those who never learn to do it. - The Guardian
While threats to funding for arts and humanities organizations are one big worry, the primary ethical concern for most in the book business is free expression. - Publishers Weekly
About 63 percent of us read at least one book last year, an improvement from the 54 percent we saw in 2023.Other sources don’t point to a seismic shift in reading habits, so this may be a refined estimate rather than a trend. - Washington Post
The continent doesn’t need the West to “discover” writers. Instead, “a radical shift is underway, transforming the region’s literary landscape from within and opening up possibilities unimaginable to previous generations of writers.” - The New York Times
“A game’s popularity often depends not on quality, Ingold said, but on the whims of the biggest Twitch streamers or the algorithm that drives Steam, the main distribution platform for computer games. Independent studios struggle to break through. Many close.” - The New York Times
