The IA gets smacked down by the law…again (This week in books)

This week! Books!

Greetings from sizzling southern California, where I’m back at it after some late summer voyaging. Here are some of the links I spotted over the past few weeks.

First up, the Internet Archive appealed a ruling that blocked its Free Digital Library, where it worked with libraries to make their collections available digitally by circumventing existing legal structures for lending digital copies to library patrons, which have (controversially) already been painstakingly negotiated over the years. For the second time, the Internet Archive was smacked down by the courts on copyright grounds.

I may be returning to this issue in greater depth because I think the IA overstepped in a colossally naive way, particularly with their so-called “National Emergency Library” during the pandemic that was straight-up thievery from authors at time when library e-book collections were very much open, I’m partially sympathetic to the need to make more orphaned works available digitally, where there’s great public interest and extremely thorny logistical and legal obstacles. I don’t think the Internet Archive’s unilateral solution was the right one–morally or legally–but this remains a real problem that may literally take an act of Congress to resolve.

And for everyone saying “why is what the Internet Archive did illegal when A.I. companies are doing something worse,” I’d just say the law is (hopefully) coming for A.I. too. (As well as book banning laws)

Speaking of A.I., the organization NaNoWriMo, which promotes National Novel Writing Month, got itself in hot water when it rather ludicrously suggested it was “classist and ableist” to condemn writers using A.I. to write. You may be less than surprised to discover that NaNoWriMo has received funding from A.I. writing assistance companies. I appreciated former executive director Grant Faulkner’s leadership at NaNoWriMo while he was there, but at the end of the day, NaNoWriMo is just something you do, it’s not something that necessarily needs an organization behind it (and particularly not like this current iteration).

The Black List has been enormously influential in Hollywood, where it maintains a list of the top unproduced scripts, but count me as a bit skeptical of its new venture into the book business. Book literary agents don’t need to go hunting for gems, they just need to open their email, and the barrier to getting a book published is also far, far lower than what it takes to get a movie or TV show made. But anything that helps undiscovered gems rise to the top is ultimately fine by me.

The book world lost a giant last month as Leonard Riggio, who acquired a single Barnes & Noble in Manhattan in 1971 and built it into a bookselling behemoth, passed away from Alzheimer’s at 83.

Meanwhile, the current James Daunt-led iteration of Barnes & Noble is planning to limit erotica, public domain, and book summary sales on their online catalog in what they’re calling a quality-control move. Needless to say, there’s concern among authors around how B&N is defining erotica and how this will be implemented.

Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth Harris at the New York Times caught up with former Pantheon publisher Lisa Lucas and the book industry’s faltering efforts at diversifying its leadership.

In writing and publishing advice news, some classic advice from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone on causality/complications in storytelling, publicist Kathleen Schmidt on why pre-order campaigns rarely work, and Dan Blank on how to deal with overwhelm and burnout when you’re writing.

And I learned something new from publisher Ken Whyte. Did you know that the first vending machines sold books?

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. Daydream by Hannah Grace
2. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
3. It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover
4. The Women by Kristin Hannah
5. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
2. At War With Ourselves by H.R. McMaster
3. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
4. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
5. What’s Next by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack

Young adult hardcover:

1. The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
2. Sunderworld, Vol 1: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry by Ransom Riggs
3. The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
4. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
5. Nightbane by Alex Aster

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Refugee by Alan Gratz
3. Heroes by Alan Gratz
4. The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues by Beth Lincoln. Illustrated by Claire Powell
5. The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum by Lisa Yee. Illustrated by Dan Santat

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• (On a break)

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And finally, this new trend of book bars? More, please!

Have a great weekend!

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