This Spring issue of The Author is determinedly positive. Sometimes you just have to be. Even if it may feel now as if the world is being yanked violently into the past, we are looking forward. This issue, accordingly, considers the place of the author in the digital and environmental future. 

 

The author and tech commentator Tom Chatfeld investigates the legal, professional and ethical issues that arise once machines can write. And artifcial intelligence can now write, if not yet entirely convincingly or with anything more than an illusion of purpose. But what would it mean to you, as an author, if an AI, by digesting your works and learning to reproduce your patterns of prose and thought, produced a convincing simulacrum of your writing? Could it churn out a book that was persuasively you? It sounds like an existential threat. I wonder, though, how diferent it would be to fan fction. However good a pastiche might be, whether written by a human or not, I think readers want the authorised version. Readers want authors. 

 

The ‘digital revolution’ is also often presented as a threat to those engaged in traditional crafts, writing and illustrating included. In this issue, tech entrepreneur and author Adrian Hon reviews a new study of the impact of digital on publishing by the Cambridge sociologist and industry analyst John Thompson. Hon notes that while online has revolutionised distribution and production (and of course it has transformed how authors research), we have not seen a revolution in form. Hon describes how his own attempt to launch a digital storytelling renaissance – by means of interactive books designed to be read (viewed? consumed?) on iPads – did not thrive. How you buy your books and how you read them might have changed. That they are books probably has not. 

 

Two articles on the environmental future are both focused on how authors can have a positive impact. Lauren James refects on her eforts, through her fction, to encourage optimism and action in relation to climate change. Piers Torday asks what authors can do, practically, to help reduce the environmental cost of having their work published. Piers chairs the SoA’s new Authors and Illustrators Sustainability Working Group, which has brought together people from across the industry to research and promote better industry practices — pushing for publishers to continue to engage, commit and follow through, author by author, book by book. 

 

There are some important hellos and goodbyes to be said, in this issue. Our extraordinary President, Philip Pullman, is leaving. He has commented on the difculty of speaking in his own voice, as an author, when his every public utterance is also construed as the view of the Society of Authors. The author’s personal voice must of course come frst; I think every member will understand that. And one thing Philip has done with that inimitable voice is speak up for authors – tirelessly, ferily and with such empathy. We owe him our thanks. 

 

We also say goodbye to our excellent managing editor, Carlotta Eden, and welcome Georgia Wilson. And we introduce the author, journalist and notorious book-lover Lucy Mangan, who launches a new column. I say ‘column’ but the idea is not to feature a single, regular author, in the traditional way. Instead, the page will be made available to a range of writers, so as to refect the extraordinary, wonderful diversity of our members. 

 

A last note: this issue was commissioned before Russia’s monstrous invasion of Ukraine. Please be assured that violence, resistance and freedom are subjects that we will tackle before long. Meanwhile, we must keep working, and keep believing in the value of what we do.

 

James McConnachie

mcconnachie.tumblr.com | @j_mcconnachie

Cover Art by Bratislav Milenković

Bratislav Milenković is an illustrator based in Belgrade, Serbia. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, where his love for illustration and printmaking helped solidify his bold and colourful style. Over the last ten years has worked with numerous clients from diferent industries worldwide, and enjoys experimenting with a variety of art and design disciplines in his personal work.

Portfolio: authr.uk/bratislav
Instagram @bratislavm
Twitter @bmilenkovic

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DIGITAL FUTURES

Publishing a sustainable book – Piers Torday asks how we can reduce publishing’s impact on the planet 

Positivity in the apocalypse – Lauren James on engaging young readers with climate change science 

Such a simulacrum – Tom Chatfeld investigates the future of AI-generated text 

The forever war – Adrian Hon reviews John Thompson’s Book Wars

 

FEATURES

What posh white men do? – Shafk Meghji on the diversifcation of travel writing 

Lies matter – Jane Rogoyska on telling the truth of historical events 

Ask an author: Mary Beard – James McConnachie talks to the author and classicist

 

AUTHOR LIFE

The right to be free... – Daniel Gorman of English PEN on defending freedom of expression, in the UK and abroad 

Does France do it better? – Ambre Morvan compares copyright law in the UK and France 

I couldn’t have done it without... – Dea Birkett on whether we should love or loathe writers’ acknowledgements 

Noted – Introducing our regular column, with Lucy Mangan

 

FROM THE SOA

Spotlight: SoA groups and networks – Latest activities and updates 

News – #PayTheCreator, Scotland project, translation prizes and more 

Welcome, new members 

Services for authors