10 ways Claude AI can help you self-edit your book — for free
Reading Time: 16 minutes Claude AI is the single best editor I’ve tried so far. And it can do a whole book at a time. For free.
Book editing with AI: Code Interpreter vs. Claude — there’s no contest
Reading Time: 8 minutes Anthropic’s Claude beats ChatGPT hands-down when it comes to analyzing full-length books.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jul. 9, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we got an interview with Brandon Sanderson where he talks about the future of publishing — and what he thinks about AI.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for July 7, 2023
Reading Time: 15 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes witches, werewolves, aliens, and magic schools.
Hugo Award nominations are out, and She-Hulk made the list
Reading Time: 5 minutes This year’s Hugo Awards nominees include Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nope, and an episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jul. 2, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, lots of great tips for creating a writing habit, plus practical advice for using AI to help your marketing — and your writing.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 30, 2023
Reading Time: 14 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes four ghosts who murder bullies and take over their bodies and several fantasy romances.
Best free Canva fonts for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror
Reading Time: 6 minutes More than 70 great free fonts for Canva ebook covers for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jun. 25, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, we’ve got some great videos from the 2023 AuthorTube Writing Conference.
Midjourney’s new zoom out feature great for book covers
Reading Time: 7 minutes Midjourney adds zoom out feature, which is great for creating art for book covers.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 23, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a space opera about a man who watches all of humanity get destroyed by aliens.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jun. 18, 2023
Reading Time: 10 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, we’ve got all about deep point of view, the pros and cons of using ChatGPT as a writing coach, and more than 90 other advice articles.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 16, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list features an action-packed space opera by a USA Today bestselling author, a secret organization like Men in Black, but for fairies and dwarves, and a couple of very sexy aliens.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jun. 11, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, learn about impostor syndrome, self-kindness, and how to set better goals.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 9, 2023
Reading Time: 16 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a space opera by a USA Today bestselling author, a Western with outlaws and mages, and a cynical private eye who shape-shifts into a wolverine.
Adobe will indemnify customers against lawsuits
Reading Time: 2 minutes Adobe promises to cover any legal costs that companies might incur as a result of using their AI-powered image generation tools.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Jun. 4, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, more conversations about AI, but also the usual good advice about writing, publishing, and staying motivated.
Claude AI can read and analyze an entire book at once — here’s how to use it
Reading Time: 19 minutes Claude can read a 75,000-word book and identify structural and style problems. It can also create outlines and character sheets.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for June 2, 2023
Reading Time: 16 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a divorced witch, an archeologist sent to explore alien ruins, and two teenage girls accidentally pulled into a dystopian future.
Authors can now use WordPress to create newsletters — and get paid for them
Reading Time: 3 minutes Wordpress.com now lets authors get paid for their newsletters.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for May. 28, 2023
Reading Time: 7 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. Some excellent marketing advice this week.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 26, 2023
Reading Time: 16 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a creepy stalker-ish vampire, a witch trying to get her powers back, another witch who has to solve a murder mystery, and a box set of six EMP survival books.
Adobe adds Firefly’s AI image generation to Photoshop
Reading Time: 7 minutes Adobe has added Firefly’s AI image generation to Photoshop so that you, or your cover designer, can create book covers using commercially-safe AI image generation.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for May. 21, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 19, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a home care nurse who takes care of old vampires and werewolves, several different types of witches, and a gravedigger’s son who finds a mysterious amulet.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for May. 14, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week we had a couple of great podcasts about AI from Joanna Penn.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 12, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes space battles, a journalist investigating a zombie cure, and a prison inmate who will have to survive an EMP disaster.
Top ten online sci-fi magazines
Reading Time: 6 minutes We look up the traffic numbers for 33 of today’s most popular sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazines. MetaStellar is in second place.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for May. 7, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to over a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, Joanna Penn had a very inspiring and thoughtful podcast about AI-assisted writing — plus, there was great news about self-published author incomes from Alli.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for May 5, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a sexy gargoyle, several different kinds of vampires, and a dragon rider.
Leonardo AI best new alternative to Midjourney — and free
Reading Time: 8 minutes Leonardo AI offers 150 free images a day. They’re not quite as good-looking at Midjourney, but within throwing distance.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Apr. 30, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to more than a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. Some excellent marketing advice this week, as well as the usual help for people struggling with motivation or needing help with the craft of writing.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for April 28, 2023
Reading Time: 15 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a ghost trapper dealing with a creepy haunting, a sexy werebear, and a woman who discovers her magical powers just as she’s trapped at a Renaissance Faire.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Apr. 23, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to more than a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week — remarkably little despair about AI!
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Apr. 21, 2023
Reading Time: 15 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a war with dragons, a private eye who can tell if someone is lying, and a time-traveling Edgar Allen Poe.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Apr. 16, 2023
Reading Time: 7 minutes I subscribe to more than a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week’s 70 links cover all the basics of motivation, writing, and marketing.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Apr. 14, 2023
Reading Time: 16 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a shape-shifting horse that’s in love with a unicorn, a group of human surviving a zombie apocalypse, a sexy old vampire, a war between humans and elves, and a confused robot on an unmanned startship.
How to use the new Midjourney ‘describe’ function to create great book covers
Reading Time: 6 minutes A week ago, Midjourney, which is the best AI generator on the market today, added the “describe” function, which lets you upload any image and get some suggestions for prompts that could have created it. It’s a great shortcut for creating images for book covers — or anything else you need graphics for.
Publishers aren’t going to replace writers with AI. Startups are already doing it.
Reading Time: 5 minutes Startups are popping up that use new AI tools to bypass traditional publishing and distribution systems entirely.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Apr. 9, 2023
Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to more than a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. Some more AI resources this week, lots of process advice, and tips for getting unstuck.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Apr. 7, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a teenage assassin, several orphans, a three-headed dragon, a magic-wielding librarian, and a ten-level magic death dungeon.
3 AI tools I use regularly that aren’t ChatGPT or Midjourney
Reading Time: 4 minutes I use Otter AI, Canva, and Notion nearly every day, and here is why other writers should, too.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Apr. 2, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than a hundred writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Mar. 31, 2023
Reading Time: 16 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a cursed vampire, a woman who’s part bear and part dragon, and a bed-and-breakfast owner who’s stuck playing host to three smelly aliens.
This week’s top writing advice from around the web for Mar. 26, 2023
Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to 166 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. Some good motivational advice this week — and more AI discussion.
Adobe’s Firefly will be a Midjourney killer for book cover art
Reading Time: 4 minutes Adobe Firefly’s images are almost as good as Midjourney, the interface is infinitely better, and artists will get paid for their training data. The beta is open now, and it’s looking extremely promising.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Mar. 24, 2023
Reading Time: 17 minutes We read the first few chapters of each of the top ten free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes space-faring warriors, a zombie apocalypse, and a magic-wielding assassin in a medieval fantasy world.
WGA backtracks on anti-AI stance, as long as writers get credit
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Writers Guild of America, which represents screenwriters, is backing off on its anti-AI stance, Variety reported today.
AIs ‘learn’ by creating mini-AIs and it’s super weird but also very cool
Reading Time: 3 minutes According to a paper released last fall by researchers from Google, Stanford, and MIT, large language models learn new information and concepts by creating new, miniature machine learning systems on the fly.
Google falling farther behind in AI race
Reading Time: 5 minutes Edge, Opera and Brave all now have AI built in. Google’s Chrome is not even in the race yet.