AI training on pirated works; Hamline MFA & Water-Stone Review shuttered; Bodega & great weather for MEDIA closing; questionable contest practices; scammy presses; Buellers, & more!
There used to be bad reviews on Yelp and BBB going back years, but those got cleaned up apparently. Yet, they're still soliciting new work. I get the impression from their blog that they like playing at book design but can't be bothered about the business side of things like sending out orders. If I were an author who knew that one thing standing between my work and a willing reader was my "publisher," I'd be furious.
Yes, it seems that "playing at book design" was the intent but actually being responsible or honest is too far a reach. . . . . . . . . . Here is an old article from 2018 where the Chicago "publisher" Kristy Bowen discusses "literary citizenship"
Oh, dear! She has definitely damaged her brand by this bad behavior! Barb, that's a real pain in the neck. You don't expect that from a poetry publisher. :-(
Same here. Ordered books in August. Emailed every couple of weeks to see if they would ship. No response at all. I had my credit card company cancel the charges.
The books were by friends from grad school. I was very disappointed. This press is not just scamming consumers, it is hoarding the work of the writers it pretends to publish, making it both "previously published" and unavailable. It's an affront to literature.
Same here, I sent multiple emails and no reply. Bums me out because they were books I was really looking forward to, but it's even worse that she runs the same grift on the writers she's supposedly working with!
Libgen used my book 5 times to train. I'm going to be rich!!!! In 3-5 years, I will receive 48 cents and a letter from Meta telling me that they did nothing wrong.
I found 28 things I wrote pirated in the libgen database. I have to admit I was surprised, especially so because all but one were technical geological reports. It will be marginally easier for a student to use the AI to write a paper, because of my work. It probably still won't be a good paper.
Ditto. I paid for a chap from Dancing Girl Press years ago and never received the book. I also never received a response to my emails. I've never met the editor(s) in person, so I know it's not something I said.
Academics I know fight to have their books and papers available online. In fact, they post pirated copies online themselves until they are warned by their publishers. The AI angle, ofc, complicates things. But open access as a philosophy is one I support, so I am a little confused by the development. I give my book away for free and beg people to read my work usually, perhaps because I am not famous.
I support it too. That's why I thought it was important to tease out the threads. The Atlantic article (in my opinion) sort of clumps all these things together--open access; access to pirated works; AI training. But writers might feel differently about each of these things.
Thank you for writing about the lawsuit against Meta! I learned that my book is part of the pirated material (ugh) and it was helpful to understand what the Authors Guild is doing on behalf of all those affected.
Yep, one of my books has been used without my permission. I have never seen such a huge scramble to legalize unethical business practices. From now on, I shall rename AI training to Copyright Infringement Training.
I think it's just one person running it. They published a story of mine last spring. The last time I sent the a story, they didn't respond which for them (he?her?) was odd. I just looked on the website and nothing new in any way shape or form since November. And two emails from me asking about the status of stories has had crickets.
I tried to access database but couldn't enter title. This is dreadful news for anyone who have sent manuscripts to the companies you mentioned. You are doing great work. Josephine Nolan
82 of my scientific papers (they missed 70+) were used to train AI. Copyrights mostly held by the journals, or free in the case of US government published journals, so no monetary issues. But it would be nice to get credit when the material is used.
Becky, as ever great newsletter but...a few of your links didn't work, so you might want to check that out. Moving on, I found academic stuff penned by me in Litgen, not sure what to make of that as it's in a subscription trade journal. Also, Litro. Thank goodness someone else has had the same experience as me. Submitted short story well over a year go, didn't get a yay or a nay, chased it up twice, no response. Something funny going in over there.
Hi Abby, thanks for letting me know. Can you tell me which links you are having trouble with? Everything looks okay on my end but I might have missed something.
Lib-Gen, AI, and Meta - - yes, I found several of my titles in the database used by those pirates. In all cases, they stole my material via JSTOR. * * * NOVELISTS: If they copied from your BOOK, then you can join the class action suit initiated by The Authors Guild. However, my pieces were book reviews I had written for American Book Review and some formal verse that appeared in journals . . . so no one is looking out for wordsmiths in those two categories. :-O
Three titles of academic works of mine from the '90s were snagged - also via JSTOR. I'm less concerned about the pirating than about Meta's monetization of my work without my permission for use in training its AI software. I guess from what you're saying that the Authors Guild is only supporting novelists and anthologists?
Greg, that is what I was told. Pretty unfair because many of us were violated, too. I don't know if anyone else will mount the charge for a 2nd class action suit. The Author's Guild is a dues-paying membership organization so naturally they have the funds to hire lawyers to fight for their author-members. And it's not Meta alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . Defendants:
OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT), Meta (owner of Llama), Anthropic (creator of Claude), and Microsoft (investor in OpenAI).
I wonder would an organization like PEN take up the cause? In any case, once the Authors Guild has (hopefully) won its suit, it might be easier for other writers to make claims for some kind of compensation (e.g. at a rate of 1c per word).
Greg, that's an excellent idea: PEN. All of us are watching this unfold - including well-known horror author Stephen King, whose novels were vacuumed up.
Devastated to hear about Water~Stone.
Dancing Girl Press is a scam. I ordered one of their books, paid for it, and never received it. I emailed the owner and never heard back.
The bad reviews have been appearing for quite some time. I'm sorry you got cheated.
There used to be bad reviews on Yelp and BBB going back years, but those got cleaned up apparently. Yet, they're still soliciting new work. I get the impression from their blog that they like playing at book design but can't be bothered about the business side of things like sending out orders. If I were an author who knew that one thing standing between my work and a willing reader was my "publisher," I'd be furious.
Yes, it seems that "playing at book design" was the intent but actually being responsible or honest is too far a reach. . . . . . . . . . Here is an old article from 2018 where the Chicago "publisher" Kristy Bowen discusses "literary citizenship"
https://kenyonreview.org/2018/12/publisher-spotlight-kristy-bowen-of-dancing-girl-press-studio/
Yeah, this happened years ago.
Oh, dear! She has definitely damaged her brand by this bad behavior! Barb, that's a real pain in the neck. You don't expect that from a poetry publisher. :-(
Nope!
Same here. Ordered books in August. Emailed every couple of weeks to see if they would ship. No response at all. I had my credit card company cancel the charges.
The books were by friends from grad school. I was very disappointed. This press is not just scamming consumers, it is hoarding the work of the writers it pretends to publish, making it both "previously published" and unavailable. It's an affront to literature.
Same here, I sent multiple emails and no reply. Bums me out because they were books I was really looking forward to, but it's even worse that she runs the same grift on the writers she's supposedly working with!
Exactly. I was looking forward to reading the book I ordered too.
Two novels and a story published in Prairie Schooner were used for free to train Meta's AI. For free.
I loved that line in the Diana Wagman piece in Lit Hub too re: Rejections: "Before the no, there is an almost magical sense of yes."
Thank you for the mention!
Libgen used my book 5 times to train. I'm going to be rich!!!! In 3-5 years, I will receive 48 cents and a letter from Meta telling me that they did nothing wrong.
https://marlowe1.substack.com/p/how-dare-you-even-think-these-things
I found 28 things I wrote pirated in the libgen database. I have to admit I was surprised, especially so because all but one were technical geological reports. It will be marginally easier for a student to use the AI to write a paper, because of my work. It probably still won't be a good paper.
Ditto. I paid for a chap from Dancing Girl Press years ago and never received the book. I also never received a response to my emails. I've never met the editor(s) in person, so I know it's not something I said.
Academics I know fight to have their books and papers available online. In fact, they post pirated copies online themselves until they are warned by their publishers. The AI angle, ofc, complicates things. But open access as a philosophy is one I support, so I am a little confused by the development. I give my book away for free and beg people to read my work usually, perhaps because I am not famous.
I support it too. That's why I thought it was important to tease out the threads. The Atlantic article (in my opinion) sort of clumps all these things together--open access; access to pirated works; AI training. But writers might feel differently about each of these things.
Thank you for writing about the lawsuit against Meta! I learned that my book is part of the pirated material (ugh) and it was helpful to understand what the Authors Guild is doing on behalf of all those affected.
Yep, one of my books has been used without my permission. I have never seen such a huge scramble to legalize unethical business practices. From now on, I shall rename AI training to Copyright Infringement Training.
Here's a possible Bueller....
https://www.fireworkstories.com/
I think it's just one person running it. They published a story of mine last spring. The last time I sent the a story, they didn't respond which for them (he?her?) was odd. I just looked on the website and nothing new in any way shape or form since November. And two emails from me asking about the status of stories has had crickets.
I tried to access database but couldn't enter title. This is dreadful news for anyone who have sent manuscripts to the companies you mentioned. You are doing great work. Josephine Nolan
82 of my scientific papers (they missed 70+) were used to train AI. Copyrights mostly held by the journals, or free in the case of US government published journals, so no monetary issues. But it would be nice to get credit when the material is used.
Becky, as ever great newsletter but...a few of your links didn't work, so you might want to check that out. Moving on, I found academic stuff penned by me in Litgen, not sure what to make of that as it's in a subscription trade journal. Also, Litro. Thank goodness someone else has had the same experience as me. Submitted short story well over a year go, didn't get a yay or a nay, chased it up twice, no response. Something funny going in over there.
Hi Abby, thanks for letting me know. Can you tell me which links you are having trouble with? Everything looks okay on my end but I might have missed something.
Your two links to previous posts about Juxtaprose both start with "http://ttps//litmagnews". Perhaps that happened with a few other links as well.
Lib-Gen, AI, and Meta - - yes, I found several of my titles in the database used by those pirates. In all cases, they stole my material via JSTOR. * * * NOVELISTS: If they copied from your BOOK, then you can join the class action suit initiated by The Authors Guild. However, my pieces were book reviews I had written for American Book Review and some formal verse that appeared in journals . . . so no one is looking out for wordsmiths in those two categories. :-O
Three titles of academic works of mine from the '90s were snagged - also via JSTOR. I'm less concerned about the pirating than about Meta's monetization of my work without my permission for use in training its AI software. I guess from what you're saying that the Authors Guild is only supporting novelists and anthologists?
Greg, that is what I was told. Pretty unfair because many of us were violated, too. I don't know if anyone else will mount the charge for a 2nd class action suit. The Author's Guild is a dues-paying membership organization so naturally they have the funds to hire lawyers to fight for their author-members. And it's not Meta alone. . . . . . . . . . . . . Defendants:
OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT), Meta (owner of Llama), Anthropic (creator of Claude), and Microsoft (investor in OpenAI).
I wonder would an organization like PEN take up the cause? In any case, once the Authors Guild has (hopefully) won its suit, it might be easier for other writers to make claims for some kind of compensation (e.g. at a rate of 1c per word).
Greg, that's an excellent idea: PEN. All of us are watching this unfold - including well-known horror author Stephen King, whose novels were vacuumed up.