The sad, tired, unimpressive sameness of generative AI’s output isn’t even top of my list of reasons not to use it, but oh man does it always look sad, tired, and unimpressively the same.

Every time an author says they’ve used AI to truly realize their vision, I think, *that’s* what the story looked like in your head? 😕

This is the last time Kaleidotrope will be open to fiction and poetry submissions this year, and I don't yet know exactly how long it will be closed after that.

You should absolutely care about your reprint rights, but there are other reasons why you should care how much copyright your publisher tries to take.

Have you read it yet?

If a publisher like MRM is trying to hold on to your copyright, that begs the question of what they're going to do with it. License it all as AI training data, I would have to imagine. 😠

That's lovely to hear. Kaleidotrope doesn't pay enough to attempt any kind of rights grab, but also? Why be that guy? I would much rather have authors and artists who want to work with me again than hold on to the copyrights that are rightfully theirs.

A really useful, informative, and straightforward thread, especially for new authors. Know your rights. Negotiate for them. Publishing is a partnership, and publishers who don’t respect that frankly don’t deserve your work.

Moreover, a publisher who only removes unfair clauses from contracts when they get pushback from more experienced writers or artists isn’t to be trusted.

A publishing contract is just that—a negotiated deal between parties that should honor the rights of *both* authors and publishers. But a contract that’s unfair to authors ultimately hurts publishers too. A publisher who tries to grab too many rights ultimately ends up with none, and rightly so.

as this is a lesbian day, please consider enjoying this story of mine about a giant lesbian!

Just a reminder: anything submitted to Kaleidotrope before the submissions window opens won’t be held until then—it won’t be read at all. If you accidentally send me something too early, you’ll need to re-send it when submissions open.

Always check the date in guidelines whenever you see a call for submissions—even when it’s from the editor/publisher, who ought to know better. 😉