Jennifer Sneed. GUINEVERE MACKENZIE out now!

Things I still want to know re: The "Shy Girl" Scandal 👇🏻 1. How did an AI-written manuscript escape the scrutiny of an agent, editor, and Big 5 publisher? 2. What methods were used to definitively determine the book was written using AI? (And I don't want to hear, "It's obvious!" I've worked with plenty of authors whose work I was suspicious of having been written using AI, but I'd still never go so far as to flat-out accuse them of having done so without actual proof, usually in the form of a baked-in prompt—which, yes, has happened before. So, I'd really like to know how Hachette actually determined this to be AI-generated beyond public outcry. Because if all it takes is a few witch hunters to yell, "AI SLOP!" then I'm sorry, but that's equally problematic.) 3. Did the publisher think the public was too stupid to notice, or is trad pub really *that* overworked/understaffed that they were unable to catch something so obvious, even after multiple rounds of edits?

Literacy starts at home.

Jon Yaged runs Macmillan, one of the five biggest publishers in the world, so I asked him to explain the book publishing industry to me. My main question: why should authors work with a traditional publisher, especially when self-publishing is taking off? What I got was a full tour of how book publishing works. Everything from how authors make money, to how publishers choose which books to back, to the traditional vs. self-publishing debate. Timestamps: 2:01 Consolidation in book publishing 4:01 Celebrity books 7:57 The scale of the publishing industry 9:48 How to get your book published 14:15 New York 16:25 Using data to find great books 29:33 How to work with a publisher 31:11 The economics of a book deal 36:42 How sequels work 42:21 Children's books 48:42 Books in Europe vs. America 50:25 Should writers use AI? 1:00:57 How printing works 1:04:52 Book marketing advice 1:09:48 What a publishing CEO does 1:11:06 Audiobooks 1:15:17 Are people getting stupider? 1:18:20 The publisher business model 1:19:08 Macmillan I've shared the full interview with Jon Yaged below. If you'd rather watch or listen to the interview somewhere else, check out the first reply tweet where I've linked to the interview on YouTube, and also on Apple / Spotify. Enjoy!

This photo is like when they'd freeze the credits in a 1970s cop show for the actor's name.

Right after being granted asylum, Iranian women’s national team threw away their hijabs. A huge middle finger to all the regime propagandists and Islamists who told us Iranian women wear hijab because of “their own choosing”.

Adore you all, but please learn how to throw a dinner party. Your curation of guests must be immaculate. Every seat accounted for. Topics prepared. Venue, immaculate. Stop serving chips and salsa and guacamole from Trader Joe’s. Hire a chef. Hire a bartender.

A devastating day in the British countryside, as Doris continues her campaign of ecological destruction. 5:47am - Doris got up. The fell has been grazed by sheep continuously since the thirteenth century. Doris began the thirteen-hundredth year of destruction. 6:00am - Doris ate some grass. The grass is fine-leaved fescue, a component of a species-rich upland sward that exists specifically because it is grazed at this frequency by this type of animal. Without grazing, the coarse grasses take over, the fine-leaved species disappear, and the fell becomes a rank monoculture of purple moor grass and soft rush that supports approximately nothing. Doris is not aware of any of this. Doris has found some good grass near the wall. 7:30am - Doris grazed around the base of the dry-stone wall. The wall was built in 1771. It is standing because the vegetation at its base is kept short by sheep, preventing the freeze-thaw cycle from working into the joints. The wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The wall is what people come to see. The wall stands because of Doris. Doris is destroying the countryside. 9:00am - Doris grazed the section above the tormentil. Tormentil is a small yellow wildflower that requires an open, grazed sward to survive. The tormentil is surviving. This is Doris's fault. 11:00am - The rewilding expert arrived on the fell. The rewilding expert had written a report recommending the removal of sheep from the British uplands and their replacement with large predators, extensive tree cover, and unmanaged natural succession. The rewilding expert was standing in a species-rich upland grassland containing 45 recorded plant communities and active nesting habitat for curlew, lapwing, golden plover, and skylark, all of which are on the red list of birds of conservation concern, all of which are here because Doris keeps the sward at the height they need. The rewilding expert looked at Doris. Doris looked at the rewilding expert. Doris went back to grazing. 1:00pm - The skylark went up. Vertical hover. Long descending song. The fell went quiet in the way that fells go quiet when the skylarks are up and the wind drops for a moment and everything feels very old and very correct. The rewilding expert had gone back down by then. The report was already written. The skylarks were in it as a species to be reintroduced. The skylarks are here. The skylarks have always been here. The skylarks are here because Doris is here. 3:00pm - Doris was in Brian's field. The destruction continued. Brian logged it. Column eight: three confirmed breeding pairs this afternoon. Doris is still destroying everything. The evidence, so far, does not support this.

I laughed wayyy too hard at this... SO TRUE .