122 - AudibleGate Update + the "Big 4" Merger w/ Nicole Givens Kurtz

Swing and a miss, Audible! After last week's episode, the audiobook giant emailed authors & publishers with a "solution" to their policy of not paying creators. It was... not good. We talk with author & Mocha Memoirs Press publisher Nicole Givens Kurtz about why SO MUCH MORE needs to be done to make publishing equitable and ethical. And while we're at it, we get into the recently announced purchase of Simon & Schuster by Penguin/Random House (taking the "Big 5" publishing houses down to the Big 4), and why this is a raw deal for readers as well as writers, agents. and publishers. On a positive note, congratulations to Nalo Hopkinson on being named SFWA's 37th Grandmaster! See, good stuff happens too, sometimes...

NICOLE GIVENS KURTZ: https://nicolegivenskurtz.net/ & @NicoleGKurtz on Twitter

MOCHA MEMOIRS PRESS: https://mochamemoirspress.com/ & @MochaMemoirs on Twitter

Author Susan May's blog post about AudibleGate 2

Washington Post article about the Penguin/Random House + Simon & Schuster purchase

Petition from Writer’s Guild: https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/sign-our-letter-and-tell-audible-to-stop-charging-authors-for-returns

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