The messy copyright implications of A.I. slop (This week in books)

This week! Books!

First up, I’m going to be taking a blog break for the rest of May to recharge and do some traveling. I’m still very much open for business for manuscript edits, query/synopsis critiques, and consultations, so please feel free to reach out to me about that in the meantime.

On to the links!

The 30th LA Times Book Festival has come and gone, and congratulations to the winners of the LA Times Book Prizes. The LA Times also released a list of the 30 best fiction books of the last 30 years as well as the best 30 nonfiction books of the past 30 years. How do you think they did?

We’re now into the “Italian philosopher pranks establishment with a fake Chinese author who’s actually A.I.” stage of the artificial intelligence revolution.

Speaking of Italians, they are currently pioneering collaborative A.I. slop that has gone viral on Instagram Reels and TikTok, including Ballerina Cappuccina and Bombardiro Crocodillo, part of a growing trend of community storytelling with shared characters, most of which are A.I.-generated. Having watched some of these, I can assure you that if you are over the age of 30 you will likely want to walk to the deepest hole you can find to bury yourself in it. So why am I telling you this? As Taylor Lorenz astutely points out, this not only an emergent form of storytelling, it’s also a copyright minefield that could affect the next generation of law.

Holly Gramazio writes about the growing number of novelists working at video game companies (and vice versa).

A very cool effort is underway to translate premodern Chinese literature into English.

And in legal news (which is sadly becoming a crucial subset of publishing industry news), a judge could be close to some influential pre-trial rulings in the copyright case against Meta’s A.I., and a judge issued a temporary reprieve against the Trump administration’s efforts to gut the Institute for Museum and Library Services, an organization that provides crucial support to the country’s museums and libraries.

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. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
2. Lights Out by Navessa Allen
3. The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose
4. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
5. Strangers in Time by David Baldacci

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Matriarch by Tina Knowles with Kevin Carr O’Lear
2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
3. Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
4. Notes to John by Joan Didion
5. Hope by Pope Francis with Carlo Musso

Young adult hardcover:

1. Watch Me by Tahereh Mafi
2. Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
3. Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli
4. Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven
5. Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
3. River of Spirits by Shana Targosz
4. The Cursed Campground by FGTeeV with Joe Caramagna
5. Away by Megan E. Freeman

This week on the blog

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

• How to rein in wandering characters

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Bluesky
• Check out the Bransforums

And finally, tech Master of the Universe Marc Andreesen says one job will be immune to being replaced by A.I. because it requires such intangible skills. You will be shocked, shocked to find out that the job in question is being a tech venture capitalist.

Have a great weekend!

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!

Photo: The Huntington, San Marino, CA