Scott Rosenberg

As GenAI and LLMs change the way published content is consumed, publishers face questions as to how to shift their monetization structure. This article dives into how publishers can maximize value.

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Good article on the value of original quality content and risks of GenAI’s generics & distortions today when AI volume is everywhere online. The image simulation is cool example!

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It’s important for both writers and editors to understand the nuances of the phrase "to have" and its past participle "had," as they reveal deeper connections between subjects and actions. https://lnkd.in/e4QXnABb #Writing #Editing #Usage #Language #CopyEditing #RightTouchEditing

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A recent post from N2 Communications’ AI Strategist Das Rush about the essential role that human writers and creatives need to play for Large Language Models to work properly. Put simply, in an AI world, your content is now your data. At N2, we’re betting that the best content creators are going to be key to this new data revolution. Augmented and aided by technology for sure, but never replaced.  https://lnkd.in/eawnkzFu

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Call for Submissions: Writers & Poets for Publication with Wildpress Publishing Are you a storyteller, a poet, or a voice for change? Do you believe in the transformative power of words? Wildpress Publishing, in partnership with WILDthenonprofit, is seeking compelling and authentic works from writers and poets who are passionate about making a difference. Join Us in Shaping a Future of Hope and Healing At WILDthenonprofit, we are committed to creating a world where every child is safe, every woman’s strength is respected, and every voice is heard. We believe that stories of resilience and courage should never go untold, especially those that can inspire others to overcome domestic violence and child abuse. Through the written word, we aim to restore hope, amplify voices, and contribute to a brighter, safer future for all. If you are a writer or poet who shares our vision, we invite you to submit your work for publication. Whether you are an emerging author or an established voice, we seek to collaborate with you to produce a collection of impactful stories and poems that resonate with readers and drive positive change. Submission Guidelines: • Open to all genres, provided the work aligns with the mission of WILDthenonprofit. • Submissions are welcomed from survivors, advocates, and anyone committed to creating change. • Submissions are accepted on an ongoing basis and there is no submission fee. Call for Submissions: SharedTales Volume 1 Anthology Series We are currently seeking poetry and prose created by victims and survivors of abuse for our SharedTales Volume 1 Anthology Series. Our mission is to provide a platform for these voices, helping to heal and empower those who have endured, allowing them to thrive. Where to Submit: • For consideration in Wildhomesandgardens magazine, please submit your manuscript to [email protected]. • For publication in SharedTales on the WILDthenonprofit website, please email your submission to [email protected]. All manuscripts will undergo a selective review process as we strive to identify and showcase exceptional work. Let’s Make a Lasting Impact—Together For more information, please visit WILDthenonprofit.com or contact us at [email protected]. Sincerely, Diana Kouprina & Ashton Loren Ryan Co-Founders, WILDthenonprofit

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Defending Digital Campaigns Michael Kaiser sheds light on the tactics used by bad actors in election interference, emphasizing their goal could be to sow chaos and apathy rather than influence voting. “They’re trying to divide us at another level,” he said. “For some bad actors, the misinformation and disinformation is not about how you vote. It's just that we're divided.” Learn more in Paige Gross’s article in States Newsroom about combating misinformation and disinformation in the upcoming elections. #Misinformation #Disinformation #Election2024 #ArtificialIntelligence #AI https://lnkd.in/eBypvBP6

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Linked below is a very sobering article about how the publishing industry works. The author read all the transcripts from the antitrust case stemming from Penguin Random House trying to buy Simon & Shuster (it was blocked). From the testimony, the author draws out some statistics: 📖 The industry is "hit driven," meaning almost all books fail, and business is kept alive by the tiny percentage that succeed 📖 96% of books sell less than 1,000 copies; 50% of books sell less than a dozen copies 📖 The big hits are consistently celebrity books and "franchise authors"; these are the people who get advances you can live on (Something else I learned from a friend: lots of "traditional" publishing houses will only publish your book if you guarantee a minimum purchase. Consequently, this friend had pallets of her book in her garage. Also, if you want your book on the front table at an airport bookstore, that'll be $7,500 per week, thanks.) I've published four books about CMS(-ish). O'Reilly published the first, I self-published the next two through Amazon, and the fourth was published through some other means (I just co-wrote it; I didn't do much with production). Technical book have nose-dived. I can tell you from my experience with O'Reilly that they're way, way more interested in online access and video tutorials these days. The publisher A Book Apart just recently went under. And the other day, I realized that the computer book section at Barnes and Noble was only about three-feet of shelf space, way in the corner. I'm left wondering if books are the right medium for transmitting larger bodies of information in this age. Don't get me wrong, I love books --- I have a home library of some 1,300 titles. But if you really want to get information across to an audience, is a serial, chapter-by-chapter book the right way to do it anymore? (Note that I differentiate this from reading for pleasure. There's still value in a serialized narrative, but that's very different from learning or reading for information.) There have been amazing advances in the ePub standard. I read an entire book (ha!) on ePub3, and the format is less of a book, and more of a container for an interactive experience. You could create something in the ePub format that only vaguely resembled a "book" in the traditional sense. I have another friend who wrote something amazing in Notion (or Roam?), the note-taking app. It became a source to generate a website that had inter-connected chapters that we're only loosely organized into a series. I have a couple more books in me, I think. Mark Demeny and I are playing around with a second edition of "Web Content Management: Systems, Features, and Best Practices" (the O'Reilly book) and there are a couple other topics bouncing around in my head. But, increasingly, I think a "book" might just become just one more transmission format for a domain of information that needs to be absorbed, and probably not even the most effective one.

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So true! I've seen so many professional editors be harsh with authors and I cringe every time. Editing is an art in and of itself, and good communication and understanding between the author and editor is crucial. Fiction editing, in particular, lends itself to "breaking the rules" in terms of grammar and style. As editors, we need to remember that we read things a lot differently than the average reader. We also need to remember that an author sharing their writing is a vulnerable act, and their work is essentially their baby. Stay humble and respect the author. If you disagree with the author, ask questions and try to get into their mind to understand their reasoning. Don't belittle them!

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Is your manuscript ready for the world? My latest blog post breaks down the 4 key stages of book editing (and when you need each one), including: ️• How to spot a trustworthy editor (avoid shady characters!) ️• The editing timeline (is there overlap?) • Acceptable error rates (so you know what to expect) Ready to level up your editing game? Get your manuscript shining like a diamond. ✨ Read the full post and conquer the book editing process like a pro! #bookediting #writingcommunity #authorlife #amwriting #bookstagram #writersofinstagram #selfpublishing #booktok #indieauthors

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https://lnkd.in/gWPbZGDz Have you ever wondered why a book that has a solid plot structure can receive reviews that say the pace dragged? There are other issues outside of the plot that can cause pacing problems. The four pacing problems I address most often as a line editor are repeated information, unnecessary stage direction, repetition in word choice and sentence structure, and extra dialogue tags.

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Meta just announced a new AI translation tool that automatically translates, dubs and lip-syncs Reels. While the promotion of it has focused on expanding the reach of social media influencers, I think this is going to be huge for reaching culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) audiences in public awareness and election campaigns. The lip-synching is a bit clunky (no doubt it'll get better), but the ability to automatically convert a video of a spokesperson or politician into multiple different language versions for diverse audiences is extremely powerful. https://lnkd.in/gGnEx7pC

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Why #digitalliteracy matters: as I scrolled through all the Juneteenth content this past week, one viral post in particular caught my eye for all the wrong (or right?) reasons. Part of why misinformation and disinformation spreads so easily is because it exploits our references for truth. While the content of this image is believable, in line with artifacts from the days of slavery, there are substantial anachronisms that indicate this is not an actual ad from 1848. This is not to shame anyone - unfortunately we all fall for something, sometimes - but to raise awareness of how to spot misinformation and keep it from spreading. Can you spot the reasons this is fake? Some are obvious, but some aren’t - drop a comment and let me know.

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There's so much talk about using AI to generate content, especially now that tools like ChatGPT make it look so easy. But is that coming at a cost to the reader experience? I'm a huge fan of (properly using) AI. It's been great at summarizing meetings. I use it sometimes to generate headline ideas or to generate a first draft of social media copy. I'm legitimately amazed at how fast this technology is developing. But as someone who has been "generating content" for newspapers, websites, blogs and social media since MySpace was the dominant social platform, I see far too many companies rushing to adopt AI for content generation without question. It seems so easy — because it is. Upload some reputable, trustworthy data sources (at least, please tell me you're doing this), click a couple buttons and you've got a story ready to go! Unfortunately, going this route ignores a lot of success factors. - Is it going to rank on Google? (No — the algorithm wants human experience and expertise that AI can't magically generate.) - Is it something that will add value for your customers? (People don't really want to read awkward AI copy, and will just bounce.) - Is it going to read well? (Unless you're also a robot ... no.) Instead, use AI to *assist* human writers. It's great at summarizing interviews, gathering key data points and helping you brainstorm. It can generate a first draft that gives you a structure to work with, if you're stuck. AI is a wonderful tool as an assistant, but it's not a long-term content strategy. While the technology changes over time, one thing doesn't — people want to trust that the article they're reading will help them out. Seeing how often people add "Reddit" on the end of their Google searches just confirms this. If you really want to stand out among your competitors and get long-lasting results, don't use AI as a content generator. Use it to help your human writers and editors do their job better.

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A client's spokesperson recently used ChatGPT to help them write responses to a reporter's questions. Here's why that's a no-go (and why I asked them to re-write before I sent it!). ➡ Reporters are REALLY good at Googling and doing online research. They *literally* do this professionally. They don't really need generic quotes from you about information that's already publicly available online (and if it's in a public LLM, likely years old). Plus, in many cases, using AI-generated content violates their editorial or ethical guidelines. If you're stumped at how to respond to a reporter's questions, here are some great ideas for what you might bring to the table that AI cannot: 🌟 Anecdotes/stories that reflect your personal experience with the topic/subject of the interview. 🌟 Unique insights about what's happening behind the scenes - what don't people know or understand about how your industry works? What aren't people paying attention to right now that's going to be huge? 🌟 Stories or examples about your customers - how does this topic impact them? What have you heard from them? 🌟 Advice on who else they should connect with or other potential sources of information that you are aware of as an industry insider. Offering value that goes beyond promoting yourself is a great way to build a strong relationship! I don't believe this spokesperson intended to "cheat" on their media interview - they simply thought they were being more efficient. But just to be safe... I now always use a tool that checks for AI-generated content before I send quotes to a reporter 😁 #PR #journalism #publicrelations #mediarelations

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As our world gets more fraught and complex, audiences are increasingly choosing news sources which are more visual, reports are more watched, less read, with YouTube continuing its rise. The implications of this trend for deep understanding of difficult issues is worth pondering. More people are concerned about how to grapple with the rising torrent of fake news, and many having doubts about how AI might be deployed by newsrooms. Edelman has partnered with the Reuters Institute for this annual report as we are all in the business of communicating and good, credible and trusted information is critical to everyone in that process

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