Newsletter: May 2025 Edition
AI Intellectual Property Theft, Loss of Funding for the Arts, My Latest Book Starman After Midnight, and More
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Welcome to the May 2025 edition of my newsletter. What a wild past few months it’s been in the publishing and writer worlds. AI is still on the loose absorbing copyrighted works and spitting out gibberish including in a published summer reading list in a major city newspaper of books that don’t exist. A conventionally attractive white dude lands a two-book publishing deal for books he hasn’t written yet, simply because he’s kind of handsome and confesses in public that he likes to read; angry, hardworking authors are losing their minds. And to top it all off, the orange-goblin administration is tearing away funding from the arts through claw backs from NEH, NEA, and more. It’s common knowledge that all great societies have a flourishing art scene. What’s fueling this attempt to destroy creative culture in the U.S.? Greed and tax-cuts for the rich.
So, what can we do as creative people and the audience that loves to read, watch, and consume creative culture? Simply resist. As a writer, I will continue to write and publish fiction. As a consumer, I’ve been supporting my local bookstores by buying my books through them instead of on Amazon. You can also support local bookstores by buying your books and audiobooks from bookshop.org and libro.fm. I’ve gone one step further by canceling my Amazon Prime membership and donating that $150 to five creative organizations I believe in. I’ve also stopped shopping at Target like millions of other people have done, which has shown an actual result in their loss of revenue over the last few months. The massive drop in sales and profits of Tesla shows what we can do when we resist buying from these type of companies. If we use our pocketbooks wisely, then we can instill great change.
These claw backs in funding to NEH and NEA have affected me personally. Last year was the first year I was eligible for an NEA grant. I applied before the deadline and was even assigned a tracking number in the grant tracking system. You can imagine the horror I felt when I read the news this month that these literary grants I applied for were frozen and the likelihood that they’ll be given to writers is very slim. I’m angry beyond belief. My hope is that these grants will still be awarded later in the year, but it’s looking less likely as more news comes out.
As for the proliferation of AI being used by writers, it’s actually shocking to me when I read about writers using AI for their published work. One of the things I love most about being a writer is the writing part. Writing novels is hard work and much of it can be arduous, tedious, and very frustrating. But it’s the discovery of what comes out of this difficult work that is the reward. Using AI in this process is like calling an Uber while you’re running a marathon. Using AI is not writing; it’s cheating. On top of that, AI is pilfering copyrighted material to generate words, which in my mind is intellectual property theft.
As far as the white dude getting a two-book deal from a single video on TikTok, I’m not surprised. There is a facet of the publishing industry that has always looked for a quick buck based on a short-lived trend. Will this guy produce a high-quality book himself? I really doubt it. He’ll probably get someone to ghost write it, or even use AI to produce it. Either way, I really doubt a quality book is coming from this bro.
So what can you do to resist? You can support writers like me. Books make great gifts as well. My latest book is Starman After Midnight and it’s received some lovely reviews which you can read on Publishers Weekly, Booklist, BlueInk Review, Kirkus Reviews, and Lone Star Literary Life. You can find it on Bookshop here.
All of my books are available everywhere you buy books. Find my preferred retailers here:
Latest Novel: STARMAN AFTER MIDNIGHT (2025)
Previous Novel: THE CODGER AND THE SPARROW (2024)
The Novel Before That: THE BENEVOLENT LORDS OF SOMETIMES ISLAND (2020)
The Novel Before That One: TO SQUEEZE A PRAIRIE DOG (2019)
Thank you for your support. Take care and be good to each other.
Sincerely,
Scott
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