Okay, look. There are all kinds of writing devices and software out there. Which one is better? Well, you already know what I'm going to say: whatever works for you. There are those writers who don't want AI anywhere near their manuscript or in their software. There are options for you. But the industry standard for editing is Microsoft Word, and while you can turn AI off in Office programs, it's pretty integral at this point. You may need to find an old version, or the way to shut off all AI features to work with a pro editor. But when it comes to drafting, things like Scrivener or Ellipsus are solid, non-AI options. As to devices: writers are easily distracted, so distraction free devices like FreeWrite or my own favorite, Remarkable eInk tablets are a great choice. No WiFi, no browser, no email or social media, pure writing heaven. Of course, you can do that with any device - create a secondary user on your computer, and don't allow access to browsers, email, or even WiFi, and you have a distraction free device, since you have to swap users to access those other features. You still can, but at least you have to work for it. Right now, my distraction free device is a Remarkable with a keyboard folio. My travel device is a MacBook Neo (definitely worth looking at, for all kinds of reasons). And my desktop is a Mac mini. What are y'll doing, and how to you avoid distractions?

Should a writer take days off? Steven King says write every day (so do I, usually). Writers will often brag about the hours they put in, and if you work a day job, is writing your job on your day job days off? Oof. Sounds like a lot of work. For me writing time is me time too. In a way, it’s part of my relaxation. Editing? Similar most of the time. Marketing, admin, and taxes? That’s work. But what does that mean to you? Well, as many other things, it depends. Some people need quiet time to think without writing. And even your creative brain needs a break. But you have to get to know you-your most creative time for writing, how to balance the rest of your life, and more. We can coach you. Offer advice. But you have to listen to you for all of this writing life to work. So, do you take time off? What does that look like?

The World Cup? This is not a soccer Skool, is it? No, you're in the right place. But let me explain. The World Cup is huge around the world. As much grief as the organizers, FIFA, get for their money grabbing tactics, high ticket prices, and...well, this is not a soccer school, so back to the story. The World Cup brings all kinds of people together, makes soccer fans (even temporary ones) out of people who never watched soccer before. (It's really futbol, but I digress. Again.) When does this happen in the book world? Think about Dungeon Crawler Carl. A lit RPG that is not a super popular genre has masses of people reading and listening to the audiobooks. It's drawn people together, and you know a fan when you hear, or see a bumper sticker that says, "dammit donut!" Can your book do the same thing? Sure it can! Dungeon Crawler Carl is not the best written series in the world. But it has several things we can imitate. Originality. This is not a common, troped up idea, but there are tropes used. It's an outlier, and truly unique. Authenticity. This series has funny moments, and moments that are just plain raw. The characters are not deep (until later in the series) but they struggle with real life problems in the context of a game. Great characters: Speaking of characters, from Carl to the announcer "NEW ACHIEVEMENT" the characters are original, each is unique, and all of them have a distinct role and voice. We could do an entire analysis (maybe we should?) of the stories and the series in a variety of ways. But this also proves something. We said on our podcast that an author needs a few things to create a successful career today. The first is an audience. The second is a backlist. The third is a platform. Dungeon Crawler Carl and the author have all three of those things. They were intentionally built. Not accidents. And you can do the same thing if you look at your career as an author intentionally. But it all started with the key element. A great story.

So as you can imagine with our ongoing AI survey, I have talked to a lot of people (even before that) about AI. And there seem to be two primary reactions: enthusiasm, or fear, although my theory is that those are simply the loudest voices, and most people fall somewhere in between. But let's talk about a few things that might fall on both sides: AI is not a savior, or the devil. It is certainly not the answer to some of the woes of publishing, and may even create new ones (at least temporarily). But in and of itself it is a tool, and tools do not do bad things without evil people to wield them. AI has the potential to do good or bad things, and how that happens is the choice of the user. Digital Privacy and AI. Look, digital privacy has been a myth online for years, and we need to dispel a few things. First, if you use any modern tech, from cell phones to social media in any form, and most email services, and certainly if you own and run a website, have an email list of readers, or use most other tech, your privacy is already compromised to a certain extent, and maybe a great extent. As a public figure, like an author, your image, your name, and at least some information about you is easily found in a Google Search. Because to build the audience and platform you need to sell books, you have to be discoverable. Discoverability is the biggest obstacle most authors face when it comes to marketing. (even though people are more likely to know your name than your face). You can choose, to some extent, how visible you are, but it is extremely challenging to remain invisible and build an author career at the same time. AI is not making that better. It makes it worse, and people constantly give their images to AI to do fun things like put on make up, or make me into an action figure, or try different hairstyles. AI is being used at airports to verify your face and identity. Most people use their face to unlock their phones. This is hard when we see AI in so many things in so many places, and in almost every app we use. Here's the truth: if you are online, you are likely using AI, like it or not. In some places you can turn AI features off, in others it is part of the price of using an app.

At the Apple developers conference over the last couple of days, Apple did what we expected, and what nearly every company is doing: they added AI in what some see as a move to catch up to other big tech companies doing the same thing. Oh, there are other feature updates, and hardware changes, and some cool stuff that is coming down the pipe, but one thing is for sure. Soon, Apple AI will be on every Apple device you have (you do have choices, but they are not great so far). How do you feel about this trend of AI in everything? I'll answer below, but I would love to hear your thoughts as well.