Lady Whistlethreads May 17th
This may be our longest issue yet...
Dearest Gentle Book Community,
It’s time for our weekly wrap up of book discourse, drama, and terrible behavior!
Most Viral
1 Many Black readers shared their disappointment about a book box depicting a Black character with a lighter skin tone than other art that the author had commissioned. Many shared that they’ve noticed that the more popular a Black book gets, the lighter the character’s skin gets and how awful that feels. Other Black readers shared that the character art has always had a range of skin tones for the character.
2 People continue to find books that have used AI in some way (like, the author discloses that they used it, not just readers guessing) and wonder why a BIPOC author’s book deal was cancelled over allegations while other authors are admitting their usage? (For this week’s book: the author admitted to using AI to write a few “bad AI” passages that they were criticizing in the book.)
3 A new hockey romance adaptation came out, some people loved it, some people said it was YA (it’s not), and some people were upset about plot points that were changed. And I’m the first to complain about changes to my favorite book in a tv/film adaptation, so as long as you aren’t mad about the cast being more diverse than the books, complain away!
4 An author proudly shared that they use AI tools on social media. Many people pointed out how AI generated art is stolen from human artists, so it’s unethical. But she doesn’t care.
5 A white author got called out for publishing a “monster smut” book based on the Hindu God Shiva. (Please white people…do not write monster smut books based on religions you do not follow.)
6 A BookTok/Bookstagrammer got called out for misgendering an author. Instead of apologizing, he shared “hypothetical speculation” about the author’s “real gender”. At one point, he called the criticism he was facing, “deeply unemployed behavior.” Then they apologized for the misgendering, after many people pointed out that maliciously misgendering someone is transphobic.)
7 A woman shared a Mother’s Day gift that she got from her daughter. It featured the woman in bed between Shane & Ilya. Weeeeeird mother/daughter gift. Weeeeeird use of AI. Weeeeeird thing to share publicly.
Everything Else
8 An author I wrote about last week said that his book sales have skyrocketed. People used a “BSR to Sales Calculator” that estimated he is making 1 sale per month. (BSR = Best Seller Rank on the kindle store. His was ranked 1,623,620 in the kindle store.)
9 Publishers Weekly identified a character as white that is not, and when the author reached out, they said the author was wrong unless they provided evidence. And like…they wrote it??? Is that not evidence enough??
10 Rumor has it one major audiobook production company (that often works with indies) is moving to AI for proofing. And I GET that audiobook production is incredibly expensive. But. EW.
11 Someone got called out for posting about being an “Indie Publisher” that operates by charging authors thousands of dollars to publish. Authors were sharing that this is a predatory practice and that money should be flowing TO the author, not away from them.
12 Someone shared that they found books they’d ordered from Amazon in a LFL. Like, a porch pirate grabbed their order and dropped it in the LFL? She was like, “Oh I thought I ordered these books! I should check.” And then was like, “WAIT these were delivered to my house the other day and I never saw them!” Wild.
13 An author shared that they were excited to be tagged in a positive “currently reading” post….until they zoomed in to see a cover that looked LIKE theirs…but was decidedly…strangely…different. Like the cover was the Pinterest version and this post was the Pinterest Fail version. Was the post AI? The version they were reading? Who knows! I hate it!
14 I saw several posts about how people don’t want to be FANS on social media. One person said they would delete their comments if an author hasn’t replied to other comments. And like, respectfully, you are the author’s fan? Unless they are your real life friend, I suppose. My real life friends sometimes don’t reply to my comments because they have other things to do with their life? What an odd thing to be concerned about.
15 Someone said they didn’t like the hair washing trope and a lot of chronically ill people talked about how important it was to them. I love a good caregiving scene, but I guess people are allowed to get the ick from whatever they want.
16 An author shared that she got dropped from a book festival the day before it was supposed to happen because the festival confused her with another Black author who actually dropped out. And the festival couldn’t do anything to fix it. I feel like you must be able to squeeze in one more table SOMEWHERE if you make a mistake like that. (And most importantly, mixing up authors because they are the same race is very very weird.) I hope they are giving her some sort of reimbursement for their mistake.
17 Someone shared an AI ad for a class that can teach you how to “write a book a day with AI+ Amazon”. The picture was the saddest, most despondent looking AI generation you’ve ever seen. Truly a terrible ad and hilarious.
18 Someone was very upset to share that their local B&N had tarot & witchcraft books next to the Bible study books.
19 A beloved female narrator shared her frustration that a male narrator was not getting his part of the book done on time. She didn’t share who it was, but generally shared that she felt like male narrators weren’t held to the same standards as female narrators, and could get away with missing deadlines because of their fans.
20 A writer shared that they knew other writers were against using AI…but they started using it to speed up their workflow. But now they’re sad because they feel like they’re losing touch with their writing style! Yeah, that’s ONE reason why you shouldn’t use it. I find it so aggravating when people don’t actually do any research about something and act like some people are just against it for “no reason”.
21 An author shared that they ordered a huge shipment of their books…and Amazon delivered all of them individually packaged. Commenters blamed Amazon’s transition to AI for this kind of decision making. I would be so overwhelmed if I had hundreds of individually packaged books show up at my door, omg.
22 A man was upset that popular indie authors are getting trad pub deals. “It used to be that landing a first-time book contract was a long, grueling process.” Blah blah blah. Some of these authors have been writing for years, mind you. Imagine your 16th book is the one that gets a trad pub deal and someone says you took the quick route. Truly clown behavior.
23 Someone said reviewers are bullying authors if they post negative reviews on release day. Friend, I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this, this is why reviewers want you off of Goodreads. A negative review is not generally a personal attack.
24 Someone was offended by an author’s marketing, which had book content creators create “missing person” posts. As in, “signs I’ve been kidnapped.” (People used examples like that they left home without their headphones, or they haven’t posted a book review in X days.) I didn’t personally see any that looked like an actual missing person’s poster, but you’re allowed to be offended I guess.
25 Someone said they don’t like playlists for books because they don’t like to listen to music with words while reading. So…don’t listen to them? Is someone forcing you to listen to them??
26 Someone got mad that homeless people were allowed at his library. Fortunately, the comments told him exactly how community/public spaces work.
27 People got mad at a bookstore for posting that some booktok famous books are only popular because we gaslit each other into pretending we like them. Not if you’re contrarian enough, you didn’t. I think there’s a lot of people reading popular books without actually reading/listening to/watching reviews, and they’re surprised when they don’t like the thing that’s popular.
28 An author said she’d show up with “an axe and a hammer” if someone plagiarized her book. Let’s maybe not normalize threats of violence.
29 Someone claimed their children’s book was written “with” AI and not “by” AI so she was sad that publishers and agents wouldn’t accept it because they didn’t want to work with books written “by” AI.
30 Someone said pre-ordering books is a “scam”. Because they don’t always get to your house on pub day. If you want to get your book ASAP, you should pre-order from your local bookstore, and pick it up there. (If you’re housebound like me, you have to put your faith in shipping times or digital copies!)
31 Someone replied to the “are audiobooks reading” debate asking “do you read music?”. And like, people can read music. But everything’s a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works!
32 A reader got upset that a book included the job title “Kriminalkommissarie” because it was too hard for them to remember. They also thought it was the character’s name. And listen, I’m glad you’re reading. But this is why people criticize “context clues” - sometimes you need to actually look things up so you can understand the book that you’re reading!
33 A man questioned our ability to read more than 200 books a year. (I say we but maybe that’s just me lol.) Listen, Tim, mind your own hobbies and reading comprehension and leave me out of it. (His name isn’t actually Tim.)
34 An author got upset because everyone online is talking about popular books, including those adapted to tv/movies. And her books exist toooooo but nobody is talking about them! And like, yeah it sucks to not be the most popular person on the internet. But you are not alone in that feeling.
35 Bot accounts pretending to be popular authors are cropping up online. So before you go after an author, double check. Are you mad at Riley Sager or rile.ysager with 3 followers?
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
(This section contains affiliate links, meaning that I may earn a small commission if you choose to buy through them.)
Murder at the Hotel Orient (arc) (Amazon) (Bookshop) (LibroFM) - Be prepared to fall in love with Sterling Lockwood, hotel concierge, keeper of secrets, and dedicated flirt (complimentary). She’s my favorite FMC I’ve read this year - she’s so clever and fierce and tender. If you were a fan of the show Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Murder at the Hotel Orient reminded me of those vibes - although set in the modern day. Murder at the Hotel Orient is a theatrical mystery - each character is bigger and wilder than the last, and I loved them all so so much.
Thanks for reading! New issues every Monday, around 12 PST.
Take care of each other & don’t feed the trolls,
Lady Whistlethreads 🫶🏻🫖