The Ink Sink
By Kali and Annie
We welcome all readers — classics students, novel mavens, fanfic fans, comic geeks, audio jammers, ebook devourers, and social media poets. Literature is for everyone.
Join Annie and Kali for episodes about books, news, and our latest lit obsessions.
The Ink SinkNov 04, 2022
Poetry Month Replay: Poems Make You Cry
It's National Poetry Month! In honor of Kali's favorite month, we are sharing one of her favorite episodes: Poems Make You Cry
We have an annotated transcript for this one up on our Substack, here: https://open.substack.com/pub/theinksink/p/poetry-words-and-rhythms-to-make
Scroll, shop, and chat with us wherever you'd like: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
3.3: News: Spotify Riles Audiobooks
Spotify’s audiobook service is here! But what does it mean for independent authors? We dive into the publishing news. Plus, we celebrate two unsung women from history who finally get their due!
Warning: We swear in this episode. Leigh Bardugo’s protagonist has to put up with some bulls***.
You can support us and see our transcripts on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Our sources for this episode:
- A breakdown of high fantasy and low fantasy from Book Riot: https://bookriot.com/high-fantasy-vs-low-fantasy/
- Spotify boosts popular audiobooks: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/audio-books/article/94253-spotify-reports-exponential-audiobook-growth.html
- As the publishing industry digests Spotify's audiobooks program, independent authors notice the terms have shifted: https://writerbeware.blog/2024/02/19/outrage-over-new-terms-of-use-at-findaway-voices-forces-change/
- This sad but necessary story about what librarians have to put up with: https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/story/School-and-Public-Librarians-describe-on-the-job-harassment-censorship
- Very cool new literature prize: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/books/inside-literary-prize.html
- A long-overdue congratulations to Hannah Bond, whom you can now read about in depth: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/14/books/hannah-crafts-biography-gregg-hecimovich.html
- Celebrations: Ángela Ruiz Robles invented an early e-reader: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/obituaries/angela-ruiz-robles-overlooked.html
Read the books we talked about in this episode: Disclaimer: If you purchase a book through one of our Bookshop links, we receive a commission. But more importantly, Bookshop also supports independent bookstores with every book sold. They’ve raised over $30 million so far!
- Harrow the Ninth: a devastating, dizzying book written in second person that Annie will love til her dying day: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250313218
- The Ninth House: dark academia meets gritty urban detective meets magic secret societies, it’s every bit as good as it sounds: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250751362
Chapters:
00:00 Intro 03:35 Corrections corner 06:37 Spotify boosts audiobooks, what’s it costing independent authors? 15:52 Librarians are still dealing with bulls*** 19:29 A new literary prize for incarcerated people debuts 22:22 Celebrating two amazing women who never got their due 28:44 Annie is reading The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 35:28 Kali Koda – No, wait, it’s the outro
News: Goodreads and Hugo Awards Are In Trouble
We’re still on Goodreads, and we’re not ashamed. But the Hugo Awards are a P R O B L E M.
Join us for this week’s news as we dive into the latest from the world of books and reading.
This is our podcast for book nerds, fiction fiends, and lit witches! (NOT liches!)
Warning: There is some cursing in this episode. Annie ******* loves the Olympics.
Subscribe, support, and shop on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Our sources for today’s show:
- Okay but just LOOK at T. Kingfisher’s cool book covers: https://bookshop.org/search?keywords=T.+Kingfisher
- Kali’s love for LeVar Burton means that we are HYPED: https://bookriot.com/butterfly-in-the-sky-reading-rainbow-documentary-coming-out/
- You can check out “LeVar Burton Reads,” the podcast where this man’s incredible voice is on full display: https://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/
- Smithsonian Magazine rounds up libraries’ most checked-out books of 2023: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-most-borrowed-books-from-public-libraries-in-2023-180983521/
- Some good news: 3 in 4 adults can discern real headlines from fake ones: https://journalistsresource.org/media/post-truth-fake-news-real-news/
- Parisian booksellers get to stick around during the Olympics! https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/world/europe/paris-olympics-booksellers.html
- Congress hears from the publishing industry on how AI will impact its future: https://pressgazette.co.uk/north-america/conde-nast-ceo-roger-lynch-ai-senate/
- What’s going on with the Hugo Awards: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/94229-resignations-censures-follow-in-wake-of-hugo-awards-controversy.html
- A measured look at the "Goodreads situation": https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/17/god-forbid-that-a-dog-should-die-when-goodreads-reviews-go-bad
- Shondaland celebrates women making waves in publishing: https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/books/a45897413/these-women-represent-the-future-book-publishing-industry/
- Black women being awarded for unpublished manuscripts: https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/10/cassava-republic-a-30000-nonfiction-prize-for-black-women/
You can browse the books we talked about on our BookShop.Org page. We get a commission if you buy from our lists, but more importantly, BookShop supports independent bookstores with every purchase! They’ve raised over $30 million so far!
- Lessons in Chemistry, where a woman takes her science background to the masses through a cooking show (Bonnie Garmus): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780385547345
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, an account of a former child star (Jennette McCurdy): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781982185824
- Spare, the buzzy memoir from Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780593593806
- Fourth Wing, a book about dragons and the people who love them (Rebecca Yarros): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781649374042
- Verity, the romance bestseller that’s been all over your FYP (Colleen Hoover): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781538724736
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a tale of two friends making a video game (Gabrielle Zevin): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780593321201
- Crush, a poetry collection about love and loss in a modern world (Richard Siken): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780300107890
Chapters
00:00 Welcome back!
03:34 Reading Rainbow documentary coming soon!
07:02 Americans’ favorite library books
09:30 Phew: We CAN spot fake news
12:57 Paris + Olympics: Bookselling Drama
15:50 Media is begging Congress to curb AI
21:16 Hugo Awards bowed to China
25:25 What is going on with Goodreads RN?
35:58 Celebrating the future of publishing and unpublished manuscripts from black women!
38:58 Kali is reading “Crush”
41:46 The Kali Coda
42:49 Thanks for listening!
3.1: 2023 Pushed Us Into Cozy Fantasy
2023 was WILD (we do a recap today). That’s probably why we loved our cozy fantasy books last year (we tell you our favorites today, too).
Follow/support/see us on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Warning: We swear a bit in this episode. As we said, 2023 was WILD.
Our sources for this episode:
- The independent romance author who faked her own death and then somehow things got worse? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/14/romance-novelist-faked-death-susan-meachen
- Book bans continued to come in hard in 2023: https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200647985/book-bans-libraries-schools
- As of this writing, this is the latest in the Texan book-rating law: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/court-refuses-revive-texas-public-school-book-rating-law-2024-01-17/
- The Spine Collector, the spiritual impetus of this podcast, will be deported to a country that will have him: https://www.vulture.com/2023/03/book-thief-filippo-bernardini-gets-no-jail-time-deported.html
- We’re in a new era of digital content. Separately (?) we’re in a new era of AI. We unpack it here: https://theinksink.substack.com/p/buzzfeed-falls-and-ai-rises
- From WSJ: “Libraries Are the New Front Line in America’s Mental-Health Crisis” (https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/library-services-homeless-mental-health-e1f513b7)
- Dolly Parton, America’s gem, expands her Imagination Library: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/92981-dolly-parton-s-imagination-library-expands-national-reach.html
Want to pick up books from our storefront? You should! Bookshop.Org supports independent bookstores with every book sold. (Disclaimer: we also get a small commission when you buy from one of our links.)
- Camp Damascus, the story of a queer woman reclaiming her mind, her love, and her community (by Chuck Tingle): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250874627
- All We Can Save, essays from women around the world who offer hope and encouragement in the fight against climate change (edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780593237083
- The Song of Achilles, a soulful, beautifully written retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of Patroclus as he fights for his love, Achilles (by Madeline Miller): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780062060624
- Beware of Chicken, cozy journey through a fantasy land with farming, roosters, and mystical quests (by Casualfarmer): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781039448094
- Swordheart, the hijinks of a suburban widow and her mystical guardian as they travel through a wild fantasy world (by T. Kingfisher): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781039448094
00:00 Welcome back to the Ink Sink!
03:22 Romance author says “JK, I’m alive!”
06:07 Book bans keep rolling
12:54 The Spine Collector Saga
16:59 The new world of digital news
23:38 Publishing jobs are growing
26:10 Librarians are bada**
30:42 Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library expands
32:00 Favorite books: Swordheart
34:03 Favorite books: Beware of Chicken
37:23 Favorite books: Song of Achilles and All We Can Save
41:58 Favorite books: Camp Damascus and Effin Birds
45:16 Looking forward to Season 3!
50:05 Thanks for listening!
Holiday Replay: Tropefest! Enemies to Lovers + The Mary Sue
Enemies? Lovers? Marys? Sues?
It's time for part two of our Ink Sink Tropefest! This is the second Holiday Replay episode for Season 2 as we prepare for Season 3!
Find out how to keep up with us and support the show here: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Warning: We curse in this episode. We have FEELINGS about internet trolls.
Listen to part one where we covered The Chosen One and the Three Witches.
In this episode, we cover Annie's favorite trope: Enemies to Lovers.
We also cover one of the most maligned tropes in fiction: The Mary Sue.
Check out our sources here:
- Some fan commentary from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/ue11mp/mary_sue_isnt_real_and_she_cannot_hurt_you/
- Some fan commentary from Fansplaining: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/mary-sue
- An academic study into Mary Sue characters: http://www.merrycoz.org/papers/MARYSUE.xhtml
- A history deep dive from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/these-women-coined-term-mary-sue-180972182/
- The TV Tropes wiki: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue
- Summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh: https://www.history.com/news/what-is-the-oldest-known-piece-of-literature
- A master list of enemies-to-lovers TV couples: https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/best-tv-enemies-to-lovers-couples
Holiday Replay: Is AI Coming for Us?
AI apps are taking my newsfeed by storm. Things like Midjourney and DALL-E (which make images) and ChatGPT (which makes text) are everywhere. Schools, businesses, and freelancers are all grappling with how to handle it. There are some wins, some losses, and some questions in the publishing business. Our sources for this episode: - AI roundup from the Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/ai-is-creating-problems-publishers-human-authors - CNET pauses AI-generated articles: https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/cnet-pauses-publishing-ai-written-stories-after-disclosure-controversy,241859 - ChatGPT making fake citations: https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2023/03/09/chatgpt-and-fake-citations/ - BuzzFeed doubles down: https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/digital-journalism/buzzfeed-chatgpt/ - We covered the end of BuzzFeed investigations last year: https://youtu.be/MNRec-TVk6Y - Another measured take on AI, from the business side: https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/drama-angst-and-potential-abuse-dark-side-of-ai-for-the-publishing-industry/ - Breathtakingly annoying take on egg prices from WSJ: Just stop eating breakfast: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/cpi-report-today-january-2023-inflation/card/to-save-money-maybe-you-should-skip-breakfast-fSd6mz0miaAPhUFb2jgy - BuzzFeed News shuts down: https://www.axios.com/2023/04/21/buzzfeed-news-digital-media - Vice News Tonight shuts down: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/27/media/vice-news-tonight-canceled/index.html Follow/Support/Learn from our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
00:00 Welcome Back to the Ink Sink 01:47 The AI Juggernaut 14:08 Farewell BuzzFeed News 15:56 Thanks for listening!
Made With Love (and B**bs): Dipping into Cookbooks and Romance
Erotic cookbooks and romantic baking – finally we get to the meat of our cookbook obsession. (Okay, the puns stop here. We’re sorry.)
Kali and Annie dive down into the history of cookbooks and then they take a look at the erotic cookbooks of the 1970s and the ways that writers use food to set the stage in popular fiction.
This is the beginning of our series on cookbooks, we will absolutely do Part 2. So please send us your food literature obsessions to InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com.
Warning: There is cursing in this episode. Servants in the olden days had some sh** to deal with.
Some of our sources for this episode:
· The Folger Shakespeare Library’s exhibit on consumerism in London in the 1500s-1700s: https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Consuming_Splendor:_Luxury_Goods_in_England,_1580%E2%80%931680
· The History of Cookbooks and Where We Are Today, UCLAHCI https://eatwell.healthy.ucla.edu/2021/03/08/the-history-of-cookbooks-and-where-we-are-today/
· A cool look into early cookbooks: The Library of Congress has a cookbook that was presented to Queen Elizabeth I, purporting to be from 1390, published in the 1700s: https://www.loc.gov/item/44031282/
· Apropos of nothing: Here’s a horror movie about Winnie the Pooh that was made as soon as Pooh got into the public domain. We’re pretty sure they did this just because they knew Disney couldn’t sue them for it? We are constantly in awe of the human race’s capacity for ridiculous things! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19623240/
· Using cookbooks to study genealogy and local history: https://repository.ifla.org/bitstream/123456789/2793/1/s07-2023-brannock-en.pdf
· Food "fakelore" has been a part of cookbooks going back centuries: https://daily.jstor.org/the-fakelore-of-food-origins/
· A deep dive on cooking in anime: Why Anime About Food and Cooking Became So Popular: https://www.cbr.com/gourmet-anime-genre-about-food-cooking-eating-why-popular/
· Many cookbooks come from book packagers, which is a business you can hear more about in our episode about why you’re wrong about Goosebumps: https://theinksink.substack.com/p/book-packaging-why-youre-wrong-about
· And yes, of course, we have a link to Anime with Alvin – a show where a chef recreates dishes from anime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcLTe8MoAV4&list=PLopY4n17t8RAHz5OSGQP6I9z7UZqAZ4WW
· Check out Quincy’s Tavern and support fellow podcast creators! https://www.quincystavern.xyz/
· And check out some of the themed cookbooks we talked about here: https://bookshop.org/lists/pop-culture-takes-over-cookbooks
· Esquire's review of the 1961 Playboy cookbook: https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a21050/playboy-cookbook-food-15268930/
· A history of erotic cookbooks from Eater: https://www.eater.com/23160117/erotic-cookbooks-history-sexuality-playboy
· What’s the Point of Food in Fiction? by Adam Gopnick: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/09/cooked-books
· "This Wizard of the Cooking Stove": How P.G. Wodehouse Contributed to the Field of Gastronomy Through Anatole, the French Chef, in the Jeeves-and-Wooster Series: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ejfds/vol1/iss2/5/
· Romance Novels Are Increasingly Getting Hot and Heavy in the Kitchen by Bettina Makalintal: https://www.eater.com/23188870/summer-romance-novels-baking-cooking
Are you ready to diversify your kitchen? See our list of cookbooks by marginalized authors here! https://bookshop.org/lists/diversify-your-kitchen
00:00 Welcome Back! 01:32 Corrections Corner 03:11 We’re Talking About Cookbooks! 06:37 The History of Writing Down Food Stuff 18:48 Where Do the Ladies Fit In? 23:26 Pop Culture Takes Over 31:33 Time for Some Erotic Cookbooks 40:12 Food in Romance and Pop Fiction 46:27 Kali Coda 47:06 Thanks for Listening!
2.17: News: That's Not in the Dictionary!
This week, we’re looking through trends, tools, and new words!
Warning: We do curse in this episode. We amuse the s*** out of each other.
Stalk us wherever you scroll: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Notes:
- Friends clip of Phoebe getting sick and having a sexy voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXBOQAkrHAo
- The episode of Freakonomics on how horrible meetings are: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/season-9-episode-20
- New words from Dictionary.com: https://www.dictionary.com/e/new-dictionary-words-fall-2023/
- A viral roundup of famous nepo babies from Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/article/what-is-a-nepotism-baby.html
- Our episode on the rise of AI in digital media: https://youtu.be/icUnI1AgL1A
- Jordan Peterson adds another problematic thing to his list of problematic things: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/01/society-of-authors-calls-use-of-bad-reviews-for-book-blurbs-morally-questionable
- In our episode on the “fall” of English majors, we talked about a bookstore that was sticking it to haters by printing one-star reviews on t-shirts: https://youtu.be/T_UFw1qwsVc
- Read the article from Vulture that’s getting the bookish corners of the internet to roll their eyes: https://www.vulture.com/article/fanfic-romance-reylo-publishing-trend.html
- Elsewhere, Mashable rounds up some novels featuring social media: https://mashable.com/article/tech-fiction-books-novels-sillicon-valley-startups
- Millie Bobby Brown wrote a book. Or did she? https://todayinbooks.substack.com/p/millie-bobby-browns-novel-isnt-great
And if you have any funny publishing stories or meeting stories to share with us, please do! Email us at InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com.
Welcome to the 'Net: Is Everyone Lying to You?
Fall down the rabbit hole with us as we figure out how to tell if what we see on the internet is true. Plus, we hunt the bushes for Wikipedia editors (and Batman).
You can follow, subscribe, and support us here: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Warning: We swear in this episode. We REALLY don't like online misinformation.
Some of our sources:
- Our episode on fact-checking: https://youtu.be/c-eS6lS584w
- Be careful about journal studies. There are best practices for looking at those: https://journalistsresource.org/health/two-studies-examine-preprints/
- Some journalists don’t look at peer-reviewed scholarly work for their stories: https://journalistsresource.org/home/user-survey-journalists-research-habits/
- Ground News: https://ground.news/
- The Associated Press: https://apnews.com/
- AI fact-checking tools from Journalism Tools: https://journaliststoolbox.ai/ai-fact-checking-tools/
- Tineye: https://services.tineye.com/
News: What Nonsense Is Fabio Up To?
We want to hear from you about it. DM us or leave a comment on your favorite podcast app: linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Warning, we use strong language in this episode. We have big feelings about social media browsers.
This week’s sources:
• Fabio goes on Fox News to rant about healthy relationships in modern romance. Guess what, blame Biden! themessenger.com/entertainment/fabio-the-book-cover-italian-stallion-thinks-the-publishing-industrys-portrayal-of-masculinity-is-hogwash-he-couldnt-be-more-wrong
• Unexpected uses for AI: cutting through people’s biases: www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/books/old-books-out-of-print-open-road.html
• Totally expected uses for AI: Creating fraudulent books: www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/09/amazon-removes-books-generated-by-ai-for-sale-under-authors-name
• This year’s Digital News Report had some interesting insights: whatsnewinpublishing.com/5-publisher-insights-from-the-reuters-digital-news-report-2023/
• Celebrating marginalized peoples in publishing: Congrats to all our comic faves! www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/trade-shows-events/article/92839-beaton-liu-takeda-win-graphic-novel-eisners.html
If you want to support marginalized peoples in publishing, we recommend buying their books! You can check out our book lists here: bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
2.14: Spaghetti: Not Good On Walls
Welcome back! This week, we dig into some existential book problems: book bans and book excess. How do all these issues affect diverse voices? We’ll talk about it.
Warning: Annie curses in this episode, she can't pronounce "horror."
Our sources for this episode:
· Pritzker (who doesn’t have a starched collar) officially signed a law to force libraries to comply with new regulations that should make it harder to ban books: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/12/us/illinois-public-libraries-schools-book-bans/index.html
· Responses from some librarians: https://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/town-hall-should-state-cut-off-funding-to-those-who-ban-books-local-librarians-weigh/article_3df07d1b-c3fb-5f89-ac23-55241797a645.html
· Meanwhile, media jobs being cut left and right: https://www.axios.com/2023/06/13/media-job-cuts-record
· Our episode on the new era of digital media: https://theinksink.substack.com/p/buzzfeed-falls-and-ai-rises
· Book jobs aren’t safe either: https://fortune.com/2023/07/18/penguin-random-house-buyouts-editors-book-publishing-layoffs/
· One major problem with the book business: excess and lack of planning: https://news.yahoo.com/photo-publishing-company-pile-brand-040000727.html
· KKR buys S&S: https://slate.com/business/2023/08/simon-schuster-kkr-private-equity-publishing-consolidation.html
· Our episode on the slow death of local news: https://youtu.be/wXKAPMCHx_E
We recommend supporting diverse authors by buying their books! Here are some collections:
· Books by trans authors (from The Mary Sue): https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-trans-authors-the-mary-sue
· Books by breakout Latina authors (from Refinery29): https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-breakout-latina-authors-r29
Follow/Listen/Watch/Troll: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
2.13: Bookstores Are Booming
This week, we talk about good news out of bookstores and student newspapers. Plus, what’s up with publishers versus libraries?
Warning, we do some cursing in this episode. Small dogs can be VERY violent.
Check us out on FB/IG/YT: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
- Some good news: more bookstores! https://lithub.com/good-news-there-are-more-bookstores-in-the-us-this-year-than-last
- The ongoing Internet Archive debate: “Information wants to be free” or “information wants to be profitable” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/business/media/internet-archive-emergency-lending-library.html
- Heck yes, student newspapers! https://mailchi.mp/poynter/3m735bk8za?e=e5489eccb5
- At this point, they're trolling us, right? https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/92897-judge-finds-revived-amazon-e-book-monopoly-suit-should-proceed.html
- The new president of poetry: https://lithub.com/the-academy-of-american-poets-has-named-its-first-latino-president/
- Dolly expands her Imagination Library with new commitments from Alabama and Washington: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/92981-dolly-parton-s-imagination-library-expands-national-reach.html
Check out the books we talked about this week*:
- Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250874627
- Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250313225
- Yellowface by R. F. Kuang: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780063250833
- Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781632157096
* If you buy a book from one of our links, we earn a commission. But more importantly, a portion of every purchase through Bookshop.org goes to support independent bookstores. Thank you!
2.12: Book Packaging: Why You're Wrong About Goosebumps
2.11: News: Courtroom Drama(s)
We want to hear from you! Reach out wherever you find us: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Watch a viral TikTok showing Brennan Lee Mulligan (a popular D&D YouTuber and “internet boyfriend”) roleplaying as an anarchist goblin: https://www.tiktok.com/@emmaeditsvids/video/7228356808497384746
The new D&D movie is surprisingly good: https://kotaku.com/dungeons-and-dragons-movie-review-budget-easter-eggs-1850294824
Just because it makes me happy: Here’s the classic scene from Aliens where Vasquez wakes up from cryo sleep and starts doing pullups: https://youtu.be/Cb8bqidtzzo
While we’re on the topic – check out Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies, and the Internet on Netflix. The season finale has hackers recounting their adventures, including one hacker’s roundabout way of doing research with his lawyer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21029130/
And finally, here are the news articles we referenced in this episode:
- Authors supporting each other: https://lithub.com/whats-going-on-with-all-the-empty-author-signing-pics/
- PRH and PEN go after book banner in Florida: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/92322-pen-america-penguin-random-house-sue-florida-school-district-over-unconstitutional-book-bans.html
- Texas judge ordered books returned to a library in April: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/91903-judge-finds-texas-library-s-book-bans-unconstitutional-orders-books-returned.html
- Some hard numbers on book bans: https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/03/ala-book-bannings-in-the-usa-broke-all-records-in-2022/
- The week in libraries from Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/index.html
- Internet Archive loses its case: https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/03/copyright-us-court-rules-against-internet-archive/
- In other legal cases: Dominion settles with Fox News. This matters for defamation cases in general: https://mailchi.mp/poynter/gyhd1w8glz?e=e5489eccb5
- South Asian translated books getting their due: https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/03/the-salt-program-focuses-on-translating-south-asian-literature/
If you were interested in any of the books we recommended, you can check them out here:
- Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher*: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781614505006
- Swordheart by T. Kingfisher*: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781614505228
- The Mincing Mockingbird Guide to Troubled Birds, which you can see on its publisher's site here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316490/the-mincing-mockingbird-guide-to-troubled-birds-by-mockingbird-the-mincing/
* We get a commission when someone buys a book from one of our lists. But more importantly, Bookshop supports small independent bookstores with every purchase. They've raised over $27 million for small bookstores so far!
2.10: Return of the Problematic Authors
Warning: This episode contains discussions of transphobia and racism.
This episode also contains cursing. Because some of these people are just s*** bags.
See all our transcripts, support us on Ko-Fi, and shop our book lists here: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Our sources for this week’s show:
- Warner Brothers developing a new Harry Potter series: https://deadline.com/2023/04/harry-potter-tv-series-max-release-date-cast-1235323284/
- Recent controversy surrounding old Dr. Seuss books: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/books/dr-seuss-books.html
- Robin James writing in the Journal of Popular Music Studies: Feminist responses to the “can we separate artwork from artist” question in the era of #MeToo popular feminism: https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article/32/4/75/114312/Must-Be-Love-On-The-Brain-Feminist-responses-to
- Phillip Deen writing in Studies in American Humor: Separating the Art From the Artist in Stand-Up Comedy: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/studamerhumor.5.2.0288
- Fansplaining episode on writing trans characters: https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/166-writing-trans-characters
The last time we published this episode, we received questions on where people could go to educate themselves about some of the problematic public figures we talked about. We’ve gathered some sources into a list below.
Warning: THIS LIST CONTAINS TRANSPHOBIA, NAZISM, RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA, ANTISEMITISM, SEXISM, SEXUAL ASSAULT, AND ABUSE.
- Vox gives a timeline of Rowling’s comments and actions around trans people (with links included so that you can read her statements and judge for yourself): https://www.vox.com/culture/23622610/jk-rowling-transphobic-statements-timeline-history-controversy
- (Not the thread Annie was reading at the time, but still comprehensive) Historian’s discussion of Lovecraft’s white supremacist views: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/hpgbgy/h_p_lovecrafts_racism_and_views_on_white/
- From 2013, Salon gathers links to sources for Orson Scott Card’s comments on gay people (again, with links, so you can judge for yourself): https://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/sci_fi_icon_orson_scott_card_hates_fan_fiction_the_homosexual_agenda_partner/
- German composer Richard Wagner’s antisemitism entry in the Encyclopedia Brittanica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Wagner-German-composer/Wagners-anti-Semitism
- Tippi Hedren accuses Alfred Hitchcock of assault: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/31/tippi-hedren-alfred-hitchcock-sexually-assaulted-me
- The Southern Poverty Law Center’s discussion guide on sexism in the civil rights movement: https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/sexism-in-the-civil-rights-movement-a-discussion-guide
- A measured look at Gandhi’s history and legacy: https://www.npr.org/2019/10/02/766083651/gandhi-is-deeply-revered-but-his-attitudes-on-race-and-sex-are-under-scrutiny
2.9: Food, Politics, and Book News
See all our platforms on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Plus, see our brand new Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/inksinkpodcast
The books we talked about in this episode*:
- Fictitious Dishes by Dinah Fried: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780062279835
Our sources for this episode:
- Some delicious lit to start us off: https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/04/16/fictitous-dishes-dinah-fried-book/
- Our episode on fact-checking: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/daBYHmy6BAb
- Independent bookstore employees attended a panel on how they deal with these things: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/91643-wi2023-booksellers-respond-to-book-challenges-and-bans.html
- The state of North Dakota is planning to pass some very vague laws with lots of concerning language that is meant to ban depictions of sex in books in the state: https://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/north-dakota-lawmakers-advance-book-ban-bills-targeting-sexual-material/article_69969032-ae04-11ed-a3bb-9feda3bb0e30.html
- National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED528427
- In Wyoming, state politicians push back: https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/politics-government/2023-02-23/in-mountain-west-statehouses-conservative-lawmakers-push-to-censor-books-in-schools-libraries
- Illinois governor stands up for books: https://bookriot.com/politicians-need-to-address-book-bans/
- The Spine Collector avoids jail time, still faces $80k in fines and deportation: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/books/filippo-bernardini-unpublished-manuscripts-deported.html
- More from the ChatGPT debate: https://countercraft.substack.com/p/the-flood-of-chatgpt-crap-about-to
- Adam Conover on AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro130m-f_yk
- The Ozy execs are headed to prison: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ozy-media-ceo-carlos-watson-arrested-after-a-former-executive-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-355e9f89
- The original Ozy saga: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/26/business/media/ozy-media-goldman-sachs.html
* Disclaimer: We earn a commission when you buy a book from one of our Bookshop.Org lists. But more importantly, Bookshop.Org supports independent bookstores with every purchase, with over $26 million raised so far!
2.8: Dracula Returns
We're bringing back one of our favorites from the archive. Are you seeing Dracula in your feed all of a sudden?
Enter Matt Kirkland and Dracula Daily -- a free newsletter that sends you dispatches from the classic novel.
We tackle how all this started, how wonderful the memes are, and what we want to see next.
Check out our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Our sources:
Link to the substack: https://draculadaily.substack.com/about
Slate interview: https://slate.com/culture/2022/05/dracula-daily-bram-stoker-book-newsletter-jonathan-harker.html
Dumb Cuneiform: https://dumbcuneiform.com/#faq
Know Your Meme doing the lords work and tracking down dates: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/dracula-daily
Socks thread: https://cheezburger.com/10036229/beautiful-story-of-socks-finding-her-forever-home-twitter-thread
Recommendations from our survey respondents:
Infinity Train: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8146754/
The Owl House: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8050756/
Les Mis Daily: https://lesmisdaily.substack.com/
Frankenstein Weekly: https://frankweekly.substack.com/
2.7: Is the English Major Finally Dead?
Today's sponsor is Kevin! He wants to remind you about books -- read 'em!
If you'd like to sponsor us, you can reach out at InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com.
Please direct any feedback for Kali to Annie's mailbox. This is the burden she's taken on herself.
Read the best of Ogden Nash, now on our "Hater's Guide to Poetry" list! (https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781566637039)
Our news sources for today's episode:
- The story of Chuck Tingle from Vox: https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/10/18/12775742/who-is-chuck-tingle-fake-explained
- The book Camp Damascus, the new YA title from Tingle and Nightfire: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250874627
- We talked about Tingle in Season 1, Episode 5: Banned Books Bash: https://youtu.be/gKLSxBhA6XA
- Tingle's announcement with Nightfire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChuckTingle/status/1550665547917824000
- Our segment on how authors make money (or don't): https://youtu.be/VtYyJobee2Y?t=1019
- Breakdown of ARC controversies from Counter Craft: https://countercraft.substack.com/p/publishing-numbers-big-and-small
- Bookstore sticks it to the haters: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4427&share=true#m59269
- Trans support at NYT hits a roadblock: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-york-times-trans-coverage-debate
- Interview with the letter's writers: https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/news-brief-the-battle-over-nyts-lurid-tabloid-coverage-of-trans-issues
- English departments in peril? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/06/the-end-of-the-english-major
- Bonus link for Dollywood's recycling system: https://www.wvlt.tv/content/news/Why-is-there-no-recycling-bins-at-Dollywood-565103962.html
- "What can you do with a BA in English?": https://youtu.be/fWw1gNrCwi8
Marginalized people kicking butt in publishing!
- The inaugural class of the women's prize for nonfiction: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/10/why-we-need-womens-prize-for-nonfiction
- Stirred Stories gets a write-up in WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/01/28/stirred-stories-publishing-diversity/
- Fantastic (relatively) new column from “Dorthea,” supporting book lovers in need: https://lithub.com/story-type/life-advice-for-book-lovers/
Bookshop.Org doesn't have The Mincing Mockingbird Guide to Troubled Birds, but you can see it on its publisher's site here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316490/the-mincing-mockingbird-guide-to-troubled-birds-by-mockingbird-the-mincing/
But you can see everything else we're reading here: https://bookshop.org/lists/what-we-re-reading-20648183-3934-47b4-aebd-e8457216d11f
All You Can Save collection here: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780593237083
Support us, follow us, and see all our transcripts at our LinkTree! https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
2.6: End of an Era: BuzzFeed Falls, AI Rises
AI apps are taking my newsfeed by storm. Things like Midjourney and DALL-E (which make images) and ChatGPT (which makes text) are everywhere. Schools, businesses, and freelancers are all grappling with how to handle it.
There are some wins, some losses, and some questions in the publishing business.
Our sources for this episode:
- AI roundup from the Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/ai-is-creating-problems-publishers-human-authors
- CNET pauses AI-generated articles: https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/cnet-pauses-publishing-ai-written-stories-after-disclosure-controversy,241859
- ChatGPT making fake citations: https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2023/03/09/chatgpt-and-fake-citations/
- BuzzFeed doubles down: https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/digital-journalism/buzzfeed-chatgpt/
- We covered the end of BuzzFeed investigations last year: https://youtu.be/MNRec-TVk6Y
- Another measured take on AI, from the business side: https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/drama-angst-and-potential-abuse-dark-side-of-ai-for-the-publishing-industry/
- Breathtakingly annoying take on egg prices from WSJ: Just stop eating breakfast: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/cpi-report-today-january-2023-inflation/card/to-save-money-maybe-you-should-skip-breakfast-fSd6mz0miaAPhUFb2jgy
- BuzzFeed News shuts down: https://www.axios.com/2023/04/21/buzzfeed-news-digital-media
- Vice News Tonight shuts down: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/27/media/vice-news-tonight-canceled/index.html
Follow/Support/Learn from our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
2.5: News: Mess With a Library, Get a Librarian
Join Kali and listen to our podcast on YouTube!
If you listen to us on iTunes, as a heads up, Apple is the only service that charges us to put up our podcast. If you'd like to help us keep our show free on iTunes, you can support us on Spotify, Substack, or LinkTree.
If you loved our poetry episode (so many of you did!) you can check out the transcript, which has all of the poems Kali talked about. And you can check out her favorite poetry books on our Bookshop.Org list.*
Our sources for this episode:
- Why did we go apes*** for The DaVinci Code? A historian answers.
- The FBI was spying on your library checkouts.
- The New York Times interviews a school librarian at the heart of a book-banning debate.
- The Harper Collins workers union has reached an agreement with management.
- T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon breaks down how much bestselling authors can expect to make.
- Contributors to the NYT want the paper to do better by trans folks.
- The Cambridge Dictionary updated its definition of "woman."
Celebrating women and minorities in publishing:
- Julia A. Reidhead will be the new chair of the Association of American Publishers.
- Four breakout Latina authors sat down with Refinery29 to talk about their experiences in publishing.
Check out the books we talked about this week*:
- Books by breakout Latina authors
- Kali continues her saga with Gideon and Harrow the Ninth
- But she's crushing on the new T. Kingfisher book: Nettle and Bone
- She also recommends Kingfisher's Swordheart
- Annie loves all these books, but she hasn't read any other books in their series-es
- She's also reading The Library Book
Listen, watch, read, and follow us with the links in our LinkTree!
* We get a commission when someone buys a book from one of our lists. But more importantly, Bookshop supports small independent bookstores with every purchase. They've raised over $25 million for small bookstores so far!
2.4: Tropefest: Enemies to Lovers + The Mary Sue
Time for part two of our Ink Sink Tropefest!
Listen to part one where we covered The Chosen One and the Three Witches.
In this episode, we cover Annie's favorite trope: Enemies to Lovers.
We also cover one of the most maligned tropes in fiction: The Mary Sue.
Check out our sources here:
Some fan commentary from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/ue11mp/mary_sue_isnt_real_and_she_cannot_hurt_you/
Some fan commentary from Fansplaining: https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/mary-sue
An academic study into Mary Sue characters: http://www.merrycoz.org/papers/MARYSUE.xhtml
A history deep dive from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/these-women-coined-term-mary-sue-180972182/
The TV Tropes wiki: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue
Summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh: https://www.history.com/news/what-is-the-oldest-known-piece-of-literature A master list of enemies-to-lovers TV couples: https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/best-tv-enemies-to-lovers-couples
2.3: News: AI Replacing Writers?
This week's news is full of questions, and we're diving deep.
Follow us on social media and see our transcripts here: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast
Heard of the Icelandic Book Flood? Here's a deep dive: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/icelands-christmas-book-flood-is-a-force-of-nature-180981293/
Book ban update: foundations giving more money to help libraries buy books: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/91016-we-need-diverse-books-launches-bookssavelives-initiative-against-censorship.html
Social Book clubs: still a thing: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/12/legally-bookish-reese-witherspoon-and-the-boom-in-celebrity-book-clubs
E-book price fixing lawsuit is back, for how long? https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/91089-amazon-publishers-seek-to-knock-out-revived-e-book-price-fixing-suit.html
Shadow Libraries Fought the law, but the law won: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2022/december/in-the-shadow-library
The TikTok rumor mill blames influencers for the FBI's attention, but that seems unlikely: https://www.vulture.com/2022/12/booktoks-busy-year-plagiarism-period-drama-and-more.html
A great overview of the AI conversation as it stands today: https://countercraft.substack.com/p/the-only-sure-thing-with-ai-is-writing
Another wrinkle in the AI question, who owns the content it creates? https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2022/12/21/who-ultimately-owns-content-generated-by-chatgpt-and-other-ai-platforms/
And in poetry: Are poems in the eyes of the beholder? https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/can-ai-write-authentic-poetry/
2.2: Poetry: Words & Rhythms to Make You Cry
Yes, Kali will make Annie cry today.
Check out the books we cover at our Bookshop storefront: https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
If you buy a book from one of our Bookshop lists, we may get a commission. But more importantly, Bookshop will donate a portion of the sale to a local independent bookstore. Support your local stores today!
Our episode on what you can do with a BA in English: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/PNJlUb8BExb
Thanks for listening!
2.1: News: Publishing Perils + Patterson's Presents
WELCOME BACK TO SEASON TWO!
Holy shit, we're more than one person's favorite podcast on spotify! We started this last year because we just love this shit. We really appreciate all our supporters, you've made us feel like we can do this and you'll listen. We love you all so much.
Season Two is going to be LIT.
Some levity to start us off: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/books/review/literary-dinner-parties.html
Year-end roundup: https://lithub.com/the-10-biggest-literary-stories-of-the-year-2/
A look at the data from the NYC publishing business: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/91028-new-report-finds-nyc-publishing-bookselling-jobs-fell-between-2010-and-2020.html
It's not just book publishing, mag publishing struggling too: Literary magazines struggle, taking much of the old-school writing world with them: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/03/books/astra-magazine.html
In the UK, women and minorities make much less as authors. But even worse, authors across all demographics are making less and less: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/06/writers-earnings-have-plummeted-with-women-black-and-mixed-race-authors-worst-hit
In the midst of this: Harper Collins Employees strike for pay and respect: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/books/harpercollins-strike.html
Follow the latest on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hcpunion
Independent bookseller good news: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4381&share=true#m58567
Women and minorities killin it in publishing:
Missing Pages, a podcast about literary scandals, wrapped its first season: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/aug/22/missing-pages-podcast-bethanne-patrick-interview-book-scandals
Holiday Replay: What Are Own Voices?
Flashback to our very first episode! We started off spicy, diving into the "own voices" movement and its nuances.
Holiday Replay: Dealing With Problematic Authors
We've all opened our phones to the news that our favorite author/artist/hero is actually a massive problem of a person.
What's a nerd to do?
Kali and Annie dive into separating the art from the artist.
Some of our sources may be paywalled, heads up!
Journal of Popular Music Studies: https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article/32/4/75/114312/Must-Be-Love-On-The-Brain-Feminist-responses-to
Studies in American Humor: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/studamerhumor.5.2.0288
[Check out our Bookshop page for our favorite books! https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink]
Holiday Replay: Rise of Manga in the U.S.
Whimsy! Art! History! Listen to this replay of Episode 6: The Rise of Manga in the U.S.
Sources:
Casey Brienza, Publishing Research Quarterly (2009), Books, Not Comics: Publishing Fields, Globalization, and Japanese Manga in the United States: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-009-9114-2
Toni Johnson-Woods, "Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives": https://worldcat.org/formats-editions/676700636
Replay: Dracula Daily Deep Dive
Why are you seeing Dracula in your feed all of a sudden?
Enter Matt Kirkland and Dracula Daily -- a free newsletter that sends you dispatches from the classic novel.
We tackle how all this started, how wonderful the memes are, and what we want to see next.
Our sources:
Link to the substack: https://draculadaily.substack.com/about
Slate interview: https://slate.com/culture/2022/05/dracula-daily-bram-stoker-book-newsletter-jonathan-harker.html
Dumb Cuneiform: https://dumbcuneiform.com/#faq
Know Your Meme doing the lords work and tracking down dates: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/dracula-daily
Socks thread: https://cheezburger.com/10036229/beautiful-story-of-socks-finding-her-forever-home-twitter-thread
Recommendations from our survey respondents:
Infinity Train: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8146754/
The Owl House: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8050756/
Les Mis Daily: https://lesmisdaily.substack.com/
Frankenstein Weekly: https://frankweekly.substack.com/
News: The Kids Are Alright
The kids refuse to back down, and we couldn't be prouder.
Check out our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
We usually see the other end of this, but here’s one where men answer the question women get often: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskMen/comments/wvecz1/what_is_something_women_who_write_male_characters/
Amid the deprioritization of news on FB, small U.S. news sources band together to start negotiating for bargaining power on Google and FB: https://pressgazette.co.uk/journalism-competition-and-preservation-act-2/
In the saga of FB moving away from news: the news tab is losing its humans: https://pressgazette.co.uk/facebook-news-tab-uk-automated/
Journalists/news orgs weigh in on the twitter drama: https://pressgazette.co.uk/twitter-blue-tick-journalists-publishers/
Local high school paper grapples with community censorship: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/a-school-paused-its-student-newspaper-after-an-lgbtq-pride-issue
Since ads are so important to the publishing industry, we always have to keep one eye on the marketing trends.
These news CEOs talked in the UK about how the advertisers seem to be averse to real news: https://pressgazette.co.uk/ad-blocklists-reach-buzzfeed/
This article made a splash and shows exactly how marketing is broken right now: https://www.wired.com/story/bots-online-advertising/
New imprint from Disney focusing on Black joy : https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/90838-kwame-mbalia-to-head-new-imprint-for-disney.html
Science Is in Trouble: We Need to Solve the Research Crisis
Research is in crisis. What can we do?
We do a deep dive into the problems with the journal publishing industry.
Our sources this week:
The Sokal Hoax: https://www.chronicle.com/article/bait-and-switch/
One solution to the preprint crisis: encouraging public comment to add context: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2022/02/28/guest-post-preprint-feedback-is-here-lets-make-it-constructive-and-fast/
Journal publisher thinking about free access: "is this anything?" https://publishingperspectives.com/2022/04/academic-edition-annual-reviews-opens-journals-on-subscribe-to-open/
What happens when open access scholarship turns into stolen work? https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2021/07/08/what-happens-when-you-find-your-open-access-phd-thesis-for-sale-on-amazon/
+ Support trans authors on Bookshop! https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-trans-authors-the-mary-sue
Writing & News: NaNoWriMo + Ethics in Publishing
One of our favorite months, plus, Annie took a field trip. Listen now!
This week's sources:
List of books by trans authors (from the Mary Sue): https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-trans-authors-the-mary-sue
NaNoWriMo coming up! https://store.nanowrimo.org/pages/your-impact
This list is from 2020, but still good: Nonprofits supporting literacy: https://bookriot.com/literacy-charities/
Judge blocks PRH/S&S Merger: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/books/penguin-random-house-simon-schuster.html
Our previous coverage on the PRH/S&S merger:
Industry observers talking about the trial hearings: News: We Want S***** Batman
The trial hearings themselves: Midnight Releases and Publishing Drama | Episode 16 | The Ink Sink
We talked about the hearing being set in a rapid-fire news section: Episode 3: The Spine Collector
Federal open access mandate gets its teeth filed: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2022/10/13/thoughts-and-observations-on-the-ostp-responses-to-our-interview-questions/
We had celebrated the announcement when it was made public: News: We Want S***** Batman
The 12th GW Ethics in Publishing Conference: https://gwpress.manifoldapp.org/projects/12th-gw-ethics-in-publishing-conference
Nobel prize goes to Annie Ernaux: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4333&share=true#m57844
See Harrow the Ninth and the art of the game Okami on our Bookshop list: https://bookshop.org/lists/what-we-re-reading-20648183-3934-47b4-aebd-e8457216d11f
What CAN You Do With a BA in English?
One of our frequently asked questions: If you're passionate about books and reading, how can you translate that into a career?
Or, as they asked in Avenue Q, what do you do with a BA in English?
If you're interested in business analysis certifications, you can read more about those here.
We can't link to the editorial presentation on reading and writing skills in other industries, but you can look at other webinars from the Society for Editors Academy here.
And if you have any topics you'd like us to cover, please email us at InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com.
News: We Want S***** Batman!
Batman will be coming out of copyright in the 2030s, we speculate on what a public domain dark knight would look like. Also, that segment turns into a plea to support AO3. We're not mad about it?
Today's sources:
A good look at some of the copyrighted works expiring soon and what culture could look like in the future: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/what-expiring-copyright-protections-mean-for-our-media-landscape/
Heartbreaking and hard to read, but necessary: https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/librarians-workplace-changing-social-work/
We won't have a verdict in the DOJ vs PRH/S&S trail for a bit, but NYT summed up some of the takeaways: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/books/prh-penguin-random-house-trial.html
Takeaways from some other industry observers: https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/comments/xewyw7/discussion_how_is_everyone_handling_the_proposed/
Research is about to get a lot cheaper, will it solve the journal crisis? https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-historic-moment-new-guidance-requires-federally-funded-research-to-be-open-access
Inflation and paper costs hit publishers hard: https://trends.spiny.ai/print-price-hikes/
Our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
19: Book to Screen: Stardust
You asked, we listened!
We're doing our very first book-to-screen episode on Stardust: books by Neil Gaiman, movie directed and written by Matthew Vaughn.
We go through the illustrated novella, the full-length novel, the behind-the-scenes drama, and the movie reception.
You can see both versions of Stardust on our Bookshop.org page here.
We hope you enjoy!
18: KIDS READ TOO MUCH?!
The problem with you girly, is you read too much! Listen to the episode this week where we dive into the drama in the publishing world and figure out what's up with Barnes & Noble right now.
Our sources this week:
Our episode on the slow death of local news: https://anchor.fm/the-ink-sink/episodes/17-Your-Neighborhood-Geeks-The-Sad-State-of-Your-Local-News-e1o765i
Our "Dracula Daily" episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pUlJHstbxjQ
Homestuck: https://www.homestuck.com/
Our "Kali Lives to Spite Ezra Pound" short: https://youtube.com/shorts/mPzoFV-kGgk?feature=share
From the guy who brought you the viral "no one wants to work anymore" thread, comes the next one: Kids read too much: https://twitter.com/paulisci/status/1555906361065541633
Recent discourse asked whether we still publish controversial novels like Lolita. Here's a measured response: https://countercraft.substack.com/p/why-do-people-think-scandalous-novels
Our episode on banned books, where we talked about Skyhorse: https://anchor.fm/the-ink-sink/episodes/Episode-5-Banned-Books-Bash-e1fpp5a
Another angle, should publishing companies rethink what they publish in light of rising costs? https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/09/08/books-are-physically-changing-because-of-inflation
Interesting numbers e-readers vs books from a climate perspective: https://www.popsci.com/environment/books-ereader-sustainability/
B&N deprioritizing hardcovers? https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/90151-daunt-addresses-furor-over-middle-grade-fiction-buying-policy.html
Related, Amazon orders fewer books from publishers for its fulfillment warehouses: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/90164-amazon-stands-by-books.html
New Lambda Literary head: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4316&share=true#m57584
Bookshop list of Lambda's 2022 winners: https://bookshop.org/lists/lambda-literary-2022-honorees
What We're Reading: https://bookshop.org/lists/what-we-re-reading-20648183-3934-47b4-aebd-e8457216d11f
“The Allure and Effects of the True Crime Genre” by Geralyn Jones: https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/acadfest/2022/all/198/
17: Your Neighborhood Geeks: The Sad State of Your Local News
Your local news is dying a slow death. Who's to blame? What can we do? And what do we lose when we lose local news? Listen now.
Our sources for this episode:
Our episode on fact-checking: https://anchor.fm/the-ink-sink/episodes/11-The-First-Fact-Checker-Quit-After-Just-a-Few-Months-e1kqg8s
Why it matters: local news is instrumental in things like missing person cases: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/12/jashyah-moore-missing-person-found/
What is lost when we lose local journalists: appreciation for local figures: https://mailchi.mp/poynter/k6pg1xp7fq?e=e5489eccb5
More on the importance of local news, this time from Ukraine: https://pressgazette.co.uk/ukraine-war-local-media/
State of local news in 2022: https://pressgazette.co.uk/news-deserts-research-newspapers-closed/
Trust in the news: https://news.gallup.com/poll/394817/media-confidence-ratings-record-lows.aspx
Impact of government investment on local newsrooms across the world: https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/how-to-pay-for-reliable-information-new-strategies-and-initiatives/
Google investing in local newsletters: https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/reach-creates-email-innovation-lab-partners-with-google-news-initiative-to-turbocharge-newsletters/
Cost consideration: reporters are expensive. Some newsrooms turn to robots; https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/robots-produce-the-information-journalists-do-the-journalism-mcclatchy-goes-real-estate-robotic/
Axios investing in local newsletters: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/business/media/axios-local.html
Independent news media has options, but not many: https://pressgazette.co.uk/future-of-local-news-independent-publishers/
60 Minutes takes on Alden Capital, the corporation buying up and gutting local news: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/local-news-financial-firms-60-minutes-video-2022-02-27/
More from the private capital front lines: https://mailchi.mp/poynter/k2w5awaw67?e=e5489eccb5
16: Midnight Release of Publishing Drama
Turns out publishing company CEOs have no idea what they're doing. Also, we have a hefty helping of news after the break.
We want to hear from you! Reach out to us at InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com!
Our sources this week:
A History of the midnight release party: https://bookriot.com/history-of-the-midnight-release-party/
Please please please please: https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2022/a-26-year-old-entrepreneur-takes-a-fresh-shot-at-selling-news-one-story-at-a-time/
Penguin random house and Simon & Schuster begin their fight with the DOJ: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/90032-doj-v-prh-all-our-coverage.html
Another angle from NYT: This is really about competing with Amazon: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/technology/penguin-random-house-amazon.html
The discourse from Courtney Milan (author and industry commentator) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/status/1556673050895994880
Pearson hasn’t been able to take advantage of the secondary textbook market up til now, but plans to leverage NFTs to make a profit down the road: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/aug/02/pearson-plans-to-sell-its-textbooks-as-nfts
Online book clubs working to decolonize publishing: https://lithub.com/how-one-group-of-global-south-writers-is-decolonizing-literature/
Stardust by Neil Gaiman: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780063070714
Witch's Brew by Shawn Engel and Steven Nichols: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781454942863
Last Book on the Left by Zebrowski, Kissel, Parks: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781328566317
Nothing, Just Kali and Annie Making Themselves Laugh for a Minute and a Half
Happy Labor Day! As a treat, you get to hear these two goofs being goofs.
15: Your Favorite Author Is a Problem. Now What?
We've all opened our phones to the news that our favorite author/artist/hero is actually a massive problem of a person.
What's a nerd to do?
Kali and Annie dive into separating the art from the artist.
Some of our sources may be paywalled, heads up!
Journal of Popular Music Studies: https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article/32/4/75/114312/Must-Be-Love-On-The-Brain-Feminist-responses-to
Studies in American Humor: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/studamerhumor.5.2.0288
14: Return of the Spine Collector
We're covering crimes that run the gamut this week. Should publishers own all digital books? Should libraries need to close to deal with the haters? Should the Spine Collector reach out to us personally to satisfy our curiosity?
Listen to the deep dive!
EVERY TIME, THIS STORY JUST GETS MORE TANTILIZING. What is the plea agreement? What is the compensation? What was his fucking motive?????? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/14/alleged-book-thief-filippo-bernardini-may-avoid-trial-in-the-us
From AdWeek: Facebook's traffic to news sources has fallen: https://www.adweek.com/media/facebook-traffic-publishers-changed/#
Some Surprising Good News: Bookstores Are Booming and Becoming More Diverse: More than 300 bookstores have opened in the past couple of years — a revival that is meeting a demand for “real recommendations from real people.”
From NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/books/bookstores-diversity-pandemic.html
Another take from the Christian Science Monitor: https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2022/0617/Indie-bookstore-boom-turns-page-to-a-more-diverse-America
Lots to unpack here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/89818-is-the-book-sales-boom-finally-over.html
Related: Publishing Perspectives reports that the LGBTQ book market has grown: https://publishingperspectives.com/2022/06/npd-group-united-states-lgbtq-book-sales-are-surging/
And onto libraries: The Internet Archive is a bit of a renegade entity, but the principles it stands on are worth defending, writes The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/internet-archive-lawsuit-libraries
In other library news: We can't overstate how much book bans are STILL having effects on libraries: https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/diversity-inclusion/3567597-library-temporarily-closes-after-resignations-over-lgbtq-book-challenges/
Ada Limón Named U.S. Poet Laureate: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/89829-ada-limon-named-u-s-poet-laureate.html
Maris Kreizman will be the new books editor at vulture: https://twitter.com/mariskreizman/status/1549392358353117187
What we're reading: https://bookshop.org/lists/what-we-re-reading-20648183-3934-47b4-aebd-e8457216d11f
(Note, Bookshop doesn't seem to have Goldmayne in its system. Here's a link to it on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18134972-goldmayne)
13: Dracula Daily Deep Dive
Why are you seeing Dracula in your feed all of a sudden? Enter Matt Kirkland and Dracula Daily -- a free newsletter that sends you dispatches from the classic novel.
We tackle how all this started, how wonderful the memes are, and what we want to see next.
Our sources:
Link to the substack: https://draculadaily.substack.com/about
Slate interview: https://slate.com/culture/2022/05/dracula-daily-bram-stoker-book-newsletter-jonathan-harker.html
Dumb Cuneiform: https://dumbcuneiform.com/#faq
Know Your Meme tracked down some viral thread dates: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/dracula-daily
Socks thread: https://cheezburger.com/10036229/beautiful-story-of-socks-finding-her-forever-home-twitter-thread
Recommendations from our survey respondents:
Infinity Train: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8146754/
The Owl House: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8050756/
Les Mis Daily: https://lesmisdaily.substack.com/
Frankenstein Weekly: https://frankweekly.substack.com/
12: The News Has Rancid Vibes
This week's news roundup is dominated by the big Digital News Report for 2022. We dive in and talk about social media, representation, and old people getting worried about the "youths" these days.
Our sources this week:
Booksellers leader rallies for abortion rights: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4263&share=true#m56778
Comprehensive roundup on the publishers' side from PW: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/89727-post-roe-publishers-scramble-to-meet-the-political-moment.html
"The Digital News Report for 2022," the much-anticipated annual digital journalism review from Reuters, has been released. Key takeaways from What's New in Publishing: https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/digital-news-report-2022-publisher-challenges-and-solutions/
Another article and view from WNiP: https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/burning-questions-the-2022-digital-news-report-answered-and-a-few-it-created/
And some hand-wringing about young people not doing news the old way from stalwart Nieman Lab: https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/06/the-differences-seem-to-be-growing-a-look-at-the-rising-generation-of-news-consumers
Jamilah King will be managing editor at Buzzfeed: https://twitter.com/jamilahking/status/1545061499097563136
Jennifer Kho the new executive editor at the Chicago Sun-Times: https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/2022/6/2/23152077/sun-times-jennifer-kho-executive-editor
Take a look at what we're reading on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
11: The First Fact-Checker Quit After Just a Few Months
In which we learn about our new favorite person: Nancy Ford, Time's first fact-checker from 1923, who walked away after "several grueling months."
Spoilers: fact-checking is still grueling. Annie knows because she was there in the trenches at a newspaper and then at a digital news company.
This week, Kali and Annie dig into the history of fact-checking, the problem with opinion pieces, and what we learn from AO3's tag wranglers.
Some sources from Kali's historical research:
The Rise and Fall of Facts (Columbia Journalism Review): https://www.cjr.org/special_report/rise-and-fall-of-fact-checking.php
Here’s How the First Fact-Checkers Were Able to Do Their Jobs Before the Internet (Time): https://time.com/4858683/fact-checking-history/
To Fix Fake News, Look To Yellow Journalism (JSTOR): https://daily.jstor.org/to-fix-fake-news-look-to-yellow-journalism/
Plus, take a look at what we're reading on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
10: We Love Each Other, And Books
Kali and I are out this week, so we're bringing you an episode from the archives!
This episode goes into how women are represented in books, news, and fire-retardant writing. Plus, we update you on the state of Meta and Alphabet's battle with the news companies that want them to pay for news.
Today's sources:
AI finds that male-coded characters are four times more common in literature than female-coded characters: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/apr/27/four-times-more-male-characters-in-literature-than-female-research-suggests
Deep dive on the current state of Meta and Alphabet's news partnerships: https://pressgazette.co.uk/facebook-news-payments-meta-unfriend-news/
PRH reorganizes licensed content into single imprint: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/89341-random-house-brings-licensed-titles-under-one-roof.html
The book banning convo has gone meta: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2022-05-24/_unburnable_edition_of_the_handmaid_s_tale_to_be_auctioned_for_anti-censorship_fundraiser.html
New EIC at Slate: https://www.axios.com/2022/05/11/slate-hillary-frey-new-editor-in-chief
Percy Jackson and Mass Effect in our Bookshop storefront: https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
9: Ash Ketchum Is the True Hero of Our Times
We're coming to you weekly! In this episode, we cover our main topic for this week: our favorite fantasy tropes! Annie covers the "three witches" trope and Kali dives into the "chosen one." She decides to tell us who the most choesn-est chosen one of all time is. And she spoils every major movie and story on the way.
Link up with us on our brand new YouTube channel!
Plus, check out what we're reading on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
8: Fiction is Growth
Alright, we hear you. We're bringing you weekly episodes from here on! We'll be in your ears, alternating between news and main topics every week. Starting this week! Today you get to hear Kali defend Buzzfeed, libraries, the south, and Gone Girl.
Listen now!
Sources:
Ten years since the iconic Cool Girl monologue: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a40079306/gone-girl-legacy/
VA lawsuit says that books with mature themes should require a parent's consent before purchase: https://www.salon.com/2022/05/20/book-ban-jumps-from-public-schools-to-private-stores-like-barnes-and-noble/
Voices from prisons, where books are tightly controlled, often for arbitrary reasons: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/book-bans-prison-cut-inmates-lifeline-world-rcna29097
A history of gender-exclusionary speculative fiction here, and a good breakdown of the current market. She also defends herself: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/25/sandra-newman-female-utopian-fiction
The swan song of BuzzFeed Investigations: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/a-battered-buzzfeed-news-forges-on
Ukraine fatigue reminding us that news is a business: https://pressgazette.co.uk/ukrainecast-bbc-podcast/
List of scifi and fantasy from trans authors (not all feature trans characters, but this is a good time to support our trans author friends): https://www.themarysue.com/science-fiction-and-fantasy-books-by-trans-authors-sff-poc/
7: Handpicked by Kali and Annie
We've been having technical difficulties, fam. That's bad news for us, but good news for you! It means that you get to hear some of our favorite segments from the cutting room floor!
This episode we cover new words in the dictionary, free speech, and Brandon Sanderson's kickstarter smash.
Also we're on Bookshop now!
Sources:
Drowned cookbooks: https://www.eater.com/2022/1/27/22904560/cookbook-delays-shipping-container-collapse-melissa-clark-mason-hereford
New words in Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/new-words-in-the-dictionary
American Booksellers Association releases a statement on how, as a private entity, it would rather protect minorities than enforce free speech: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4178#m55462
Brandon Sanderson launches Kickstarter to fund shipment of latest books: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2022-03-02/author_brandon_sanderson_launches_mega-kickstarter_campaign for_secret_new_books_.html
Our brand new Bookshop storefront: https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink
Episode 6: Whimsy, Art, History: Rise of Manga
Canada considering legislation to require Google and Meta to pay for news featured on their platforms: https://pressgazette.co.uk/canada-online-news-act-google-meta-facebook/
Connecticut joins the state legislatures trying to regulate library costs with publishers: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/88625-connecticut-introduces-library-e-book-bill.html
Great quote:
"Libraries regularly pay four to five times what consumers pay for the same e-books and then are forced to re-buy the same titles every year, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars over the life of a single e-book and making a robust e-book collection out of reach for many libraries."
Axios adding local journalism desks: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/business/media/axios-local.html
Business update: VC money in news is getting more and more cautious: https://pressgazette.co.uk/venture-capital-vc-funding-media/
The Tolkien site update:
New artttttt:
thebookseller.com/news/news/tolkien-estate-updates-website-with-previously-unseen-content
Related to our fanfic episode:
Strong language surrounding fanfic (they're not pro fanfic)
Heck yeah Sabrina! https://www.nytco.com/press/sabrina-tavernise-joins-the-daily-as-a-host/
Jamie Stockwell killin it at axios:
Episode 5: Banned Books Bash
In this episode, we tell you the secret to combatting misinformation: don't speak to anyone, ever -- even your token extrovert. Trust us.
We also fangirl over the unbridled chaotic good that is Chuck Tingle.
Plus, we'll show you the other side of banned books: a publisher that's giving a home to controversial books.
Here are our sources!
Several legacy magazines will be ending their print runs. Most of the coverage is either apocalyptic or rosy, here's something more measured: https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/thoughts-on-dotdash-meredith-and-the-data-industrial-complex/
The conglomerates are doing just fine online, though: Conde Nast with banger subscription numbers: https://www.wsj.com/articles/magazine-giant-conde-nast-posts-first-profit-in-years-11645117633
Your news interest can be predicted by your political party: Ihttps://pressgazette.co.uk/democrats-paying-less-attention-to-us-national-news-than-republicans-for-first-time-in-four-years/
Despite that, some newsrooms are expanding: WaPo adds positions in health/wellness: https://pressgazette.co.uk/washington-post-creates-70-newsroom-jobs/
AP Expands climate change reporting: https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2022/ap-announces-sweeping-climate-journalism-initiative
AAP successfully blocks MD Libraries' attempt to enforce reasonable digital book prices: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/88550-court-blocks-maryland-s-library-e-book-law.html
Dont know if they can stop this train, though:
With Missouri and Tennessee, the number of states attempting to regulate terms that publishers offer books to libraries has gone up to five: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/88515-tennessee-missouri-introduce-library-e-book-bills-illinois-bill-advances.html
Update: Palin vs. NYT: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-23/sarah-palin-to-request-new-trial-in-n-y-times-defamation-case
FB not meeting its commitment to curb climate misinformation: https://pressgazette.co.uk/facebook-climate-misinformation/
Mindy Kaling expands Amazon partnership into new "story studio" (read: imprint): https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/88546-mindy-kaling-and-amazon-launch-mindy-s-book-studio.html
Lampblack publishing, bringing tools and funding to black writers: https://www.scribd.com/article/559937160/The-Lampblack-Model
Lampblack's Twitter: https://twitter.com/lampblack_lit
Episode 4: The Truth Is Allowed to be Strange
Kali's life is a sitcom. Rasputin is a bigger alpha male than anyone.
Things get weird.
You can find our news sources here:
Anne Frank book controversy: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/31/apology-over-dutch-book-that-claimed-to-identify-anne-franks-betrayer
A Tennessee school board has ruled that the graphic novel MAUS should be taken out of the eighth-grade curriculum: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/01/sales-maus-soar-tennessee-school-board-ban.html
We've talked about pre-printed scientific articles before. We've said that they're vaguely untrustworthy, but now we have some hard numbers on exactly how their conclusions change from preprint to publication: https://journalistsresource.org/health/two-studies-examine-preprints/
Team up to publish black Christian voices: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/88432-hccp-urban-ministries-launch-a-platform-for-black-voices.html
Related, Christian trade books reportedly doing gangbusters: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/88492-sales-rise-for-christian-retailers.html