Watch as a full video episode on YouTube
In this week's episode of Adventures in Publishing-land, we dive into the heated debate surrounding Val McDermid and the use of sensitivity readers to revise backlist titles. Should books be treated as historical artifacts, or is updating them a necessary step for modern audiences?
Plus, we’re tackling two massive shifts in the industry: We break down the Society of Authors' "Brave New World" report, which reveals a staggering 86% of creators are already seeing their earnings hit by Gen AI. And the Literacy Crisis: Are we losing a generation of readers? We discuss the alarming reports of Gen Z arriving at college unable to read full sentences and what "scanning" culture means for the future of the book.
00:00 Intro
01:00 Brave New World? AI Already Impacting Creatives
16:23 Editing the Past - Should Old Books Be Revised?
27:52 Can't Read or Won't Read? Is There a Gen Z Literacy Crisis?
39:33 Stranger Than Fiction
44:40 Final Chapter
Links:
All 2.4m of Britain’s creative workers are at risk — and we know why
Brave New World? Justice for Creators in the age of Gen AI
Val McDermid was assigned ‘sensitivity reader’ to cut offensive language from old books
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