$2.5 million book deal canceled over A.I. suspicions (This week in books)

This week! Books!

Seven-Figure Book Deal Cancelled Over AI Suspicions Raises Questions About AI Guardrails – Erin Somers, Publishers Lunch – So I guess we’re still doing this… According to Publishers Lunch, a $2.5 million two-book deal won at auction by Minotaur has been scuppered by the agents because they are “no longer able to authenticate” that the book was written without A.I. Questions continue to swirl around what happened here at press time. (And by press time I mean when I press the publish button on this post).

Is This What Comes After AI Slop? – Will Oremus, The Atlantic – Meanwhile, in an article I found deeply irresponsible, Will Oremus relied on often-faulty A.I. detection tools, a non-peer-reviewed study, and a few boilerplate sentences to insinuate romance author H.M. Wolfe used A.I. to write her bestseller Daggermouth. Pretty telling who gets the benefit of the doubt here…

How A.I. Books Sneak Their Way Into Stores – Alexandra Alter, New York Times – That said, while I don’t support unsubstantiated witch hunts against individual authors, in aggregate it’s hard to deny the conclusion that A.I.-assisted books are becoming rampant on Amazon and other online booksellers, including in fiction. Human authors are worried about getting crowded out.

Major AALA Ethics Update Allows Agents to Offer Paid Editorial, Publicity Services – Sam Spratford, Publishers Weekly – The Association of American Literary Agents updated its ethics policy to allow agents to offer many more paid services to their clients, including marketing and web design, though they still cannot charge for editorial work in preparing books for submisison.

Agent Business Models May Be Shifting: What I Fear Will Happen – Jane Friedman – Industry expert Jane Friedman has an absolute must-read on the potential for these AALA ethics changes to alter agents’ business models, particularly at a time when there are more agents than ever, of drastically varying quality and professionalism. I will also have more to say on this soon.

An Uncomplicated Man – Emily Wilson, London Review of Books – The translator of a popular edition of The Odyssey was not exactly a fan of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation. I personally enjoyed both the movie and the review. I don’t think the film would have been better if Nolan had followed Wilson’s prescriptions, but her review was a good reminder of what was lost in the translation from poem to film.

Sometimes the Best Thing You Can Do is Nothing – Kate McKean, Agents + Books – From the vantage point of a literary agent, sometimes it’s just better if authors just don’t tinker with their manuscripts when they’re on submission.

Boomers Can’t Stop Gifting Their Grandkids AI-Generated Slop Books – Miles Klee, Wired – Just… don’t do this.

Authors Weigh In on Wilder’s ‘Little House’—Then and Now – Sally Lodge, Publishers Weekly – A new adaptation of the Laura Ingalls Wilder classic is coming to Netflix, and children’s book authors Angeline Boulley, Linda Sue Park, and Cynthia Leitich Smith reflect on the legacy of the Little House books and their incomplete (at best) picture of the historical landscape.

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. Ransom by Daniel Silva
2. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
3. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
4. Whistler by Ann Patchett
5. Project Hail Mary by Andrew Weir

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
2. Strangers by Belle Burden
3. This is the Plan by Ben Wikler
4. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
5. A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

Young adult hardcover:

1. Ruinous Ends by I.V. Marie
2. Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
3. Us Deadly Few by Alexis Patton
4. Us Dark Few by Alexis Patton
5. The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Wombat Waiting by Katherine Applegate
3. War Games by Alan Gratz
4. Pocket Games by Katherine Applegate
5. Refugee by Alan Gratz

This week on the blog

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

• Why you must know your book’s genre

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Threads, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter

And finally:

What Is It Like to Be a Cucumber? – Elizabeth Weil, Intelligencer – Biologist Michael Levin has some seriously out-there ideas about the nature of consciousness and intelligence. What if he’s right?

Have a great weekend!

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