Welcome back to The Edit, our monthly column about what everyone in publishing is reading. This month, we spoke to Atria editor Sean deLone, who writes the informative publishing Substack Dear Head of Mine (check out his recent post about the state of the nonfiction book market). For October, DeLone highlights Phantom Limb by Brian Evenson (Coffee House, 10/13). He writes, “I was recommended Brain Evenson’s stories in 2020 from a lovely production editor colleague and finally got around to reading him last year (if you recommend a book to an editor, we will read it…eventually)—he’s terrific. I’m about ready […]
Obituary: Edite Kroll
Agent Edite Kroll, 87, died at home in Maine on September 23 after a long illness. Born in 1939 in Germany, she started in publishing in London at Chatto & Windus. She moved to New York in 1965, working at Harper & Row with Charlotte Zolotow. She later opened up her own eponymous literary agency and represented clients including Shel Silverstein and Sandra Boynton. In 2018, Kroll transferred most of her clients and contacts to Victoria Wells at HG Literary, but continued agenting work until the week before her death. “She was the dearest mentor, friend, and source of inspiration […]
People 9/28
Spotify Expands AI Audiobook Creation
Spotify has expanded their Audiobook Creation Tools, which were previously in beta, to all English-language books by self-published authors in the US. The service uses Eleven Labs’ AI voices to create an audiobook from a finished manuscript, and the audiobook does not need to be exclusive to Spotify. It’s free to create an audiobook, but users must have a “validated payment profile” to access the tool. “Some limits on usage and audiobook generation apply,” Spotify’s website notes. “The goal of Audiobook Creation Tools is simple: Help more authors break into the world of audiobooks and reach new fans,” Spotify states. […]
Dystel, Goderich, & Bourret Leaves AALA Over Ethics Disagreement
Dystel, Goderich & Bourret has resigned from the Association of American Literary Agents in protest over the organization’s new Canon of Ethics, the agency announced. The agency takes issue specifically with a clause in the canon that allows agencies to offer paid editorial services to non-clients, and could decide to represent those clients in the future. The cannon states that agents must put in writing that providing those services does not “indicate or imply that the member will represent them as a literary agent.” In DGB’s view, the policy indicates a “conflict of interest.” “Whether or not an agent claims […]
Prix Goncourt Drops Thélyson Orélien From Longlist Following Plagiarism Accusations
The Academie Goncourt, the organization behind the Prix Goncourt, removed Thélyson Orélien’s novel It Was Either That Or Die from the prize longlist. The news follows accusations that surfaced online that Orélien had used AI to write the novel, as well as an investigation by Canadian newspaper La Press that found evidence of plagiarism in his published work before the advent of AI. The Academie said in a statement to Reuters that they dropped the book from consideration “to preserve the integrity of the Goncourt Prize and that of the Academie, whose central role is to promote and honour literature […]