James McConnachie
@jamesmcconnachie.bsky.social
Writer. Reviews non-fiction for the Sunday Times, edits The Author magazine. Books about the Kamasutra, Conspiracy Theories, Nepal and, next, a Himalayan mountain. Books, singing, wildlife, languages, running...
Pinned
Girl in the water | Psyche Stories of Change
I’d saved someone from drowning. Had I done the right thing?
psyche.co
I wrote this for the launch of Psyche's new memoir strand: "The girl was lying on a stretcher, wrapped in a blanket, and he reached for a medallion hanging around her neck, showing to me the two words embossed on it: Sourde-Muette." psyche.co/stories-of-c...
...presumably on legal advice. This is going to be an unpopular view but there's a difference between 'censorship' and avoiding making defamatory statements that would be hard to substantiate, however much you may believe them to be true.
This sentence was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre.
I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC. /2
I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC. /2
November 25, 2025 at 10:55 AM
...presumably on legal advice. This is going to be an unpopular view but there's a difference between 'censorship' and avoiding making defamatory statements that would be hard to substantiate, however much you may believe them to be true.
do it
Can confirm I now have a USB stick permanently attached to my laptop. Save to hard drive, copy to stick, every damn day.
Losing 1.5 novels to a catastrophic hard drive failure radicalised me. ~ Anna
Losing 1.5 novels to a catastrophic hard drive failure radicalised me. ~ Anna
Unsolicited artist advice of the day: if you're a freelancer with no back up devices or storage, remember to pick a few things up in the black Friday sales. Even a pen drive to back up your projects so if you have a catastrophic hard drive failure you wont lose everything..learn from my mistakes. 😅
November 25, 2025 at 9:16 AM
do it
Many rivers to cross and it's only my will
That keeps me alive
I've been licked, washed up for years,
And I merely survive because of my pride.
That keeps me alive
I've been licked, washed up for years,
And I merely survive because of my pride.
November 24, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Many rivers to cross and it's only my will
That keeps me alive
I've been licked, washed up for years,
And I merely survive because of my pride.
That keeps me alive
I've been licked, washed up for years,
And I merely survive because of my pride.
Reposted by James McConnachie
The Bookseller has taken home the award for Content Piece of the Year at this year’s PPA Independent Publisher Award for its investigation into the crowdfunding publisher Unbound earlier this year 👇 #BookSky
The Bookseller wins PPA Independent Publisher Award for Unbound investigation
ebx.sh
November 24, 2025 at 12:51 PM
The Bookseller has taken home the award for Content Piece of the Year at this year’s PPA Independent Publisher Award for its investigation into the crowdfunding publisher Unbound earlier this year 👇 #BookSky
Take the point, but prefer my non-fiction to be less haphazard and amateur.
“I’m not a serious thinker. I’m a writer: that’s very different. I think a writer’s intelligence has to be alive, has to be incomplete. It has to carry contradiction. It has to be sort of haphazard and amateur.”
- Benjamín Labatut
- Benjamín Labatut
November 24, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Take the point, but prefer my non-fiction to be less haphazard and amateur.
Reposted by James McConnachie
'The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has indicated she is sympathetic to artists’ demands not to have their copyrighted works scraped by AI companies without payment and said she wanted to “reset” the debate.'
Minister indicates sympathy for artists in debate over AI and copyright
People rightly want to get get paid for their work, says Liz Kendall, in apparent change of tack to predecessor
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:50 AM
'The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has indicated she is sympathetic to artists’ demands not to have their copyrighted works scraped by AI companies without payment and said she wanted to “reset” the debate.'
Christ no I realise this sentence was even longer. And it was the week before. Mustn't get into a habit...
October 29, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Christ no I realise this sentence was even longer. And it was the week before. Mustn't get into a habit...
Just discovered that 'point-blank range' doesn't mean ultra-close. It actually means fairly close - and in fact a very specific kind of close: close enough not to have to lift the barrel of the gun a bit so as to adjust for 'bullet drop'. Love how meaning drifts as a technical term becomes a cliché.
October 28, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Just discovered that 'point-blank range' doesn't mean ultra-close. It actually means fairly close - and in fact a very specific kind of close: close enough not to have to lift the barrel of the gun a bit so as to adjust for 'bullet drop'. Love how meaning drifts as a technical term becomes a cliché.
"It’s just crazy to me to see this engine for intellectual property theft that is totally indefensible taking place with the full cooperation of Amazon.”
Generative AI has made Amazon’s knockoff problem more inescapable than ever. Authors tell Rolling Stone it’s leaving them frustrated— and the internet worse in the process.
Amazon Is the World's Biggest Online Book Marketplace. It's Filled With AI Knockoffs
bit.ly
October 27, 2025 at 8:09 PM
"It’s just crazy to me to see this engine for intellectual property theft that is totally indefensible taking place with the full cooperation of Amazon.”
"A quick search on TikTok shows close to 90,000 videos and tutorials on how to make passive income on KDP with constant AI publishing"
Generative AI has made Amazon’s knockoff problem more inescapable than ever. Authors tell Rolling Stone it’s leaving them frustrated— and the internet worse in the process.
Amazon Is the World's Biggest Online Book Marketplace. It's Filled With AI Knockoffs
bit.ly
October 27, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"A quick search on TikTok shows close to 90,000 videos and tutorials on how to make passive income on KDP with constant AI publishing"
...as we reported in The Author. Getting worse?
Generative AI has made Amazon’s knockoff problem more inescapable than ever. Authors tell Rolling Stone it’s leaving them frustrated— and the internet worse in the process.
Amazon Is the World's Biggest Online Book Marketplace. It's Filled With AI Knockoffs
bit.ly
October 27, 2025 at 8:07 PM
...as we reported in The Author. Getting worse?
Reposted by James McConnachie
Must be the longest sentence I've ever published
October 26, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Must be the longest sentence I've ever published
Reposted by James McConnachie
In huge positive news, the Australian government just ruled out handing the work of their country’s creatives to AI companies for free 🙌
They resisted the well-funded tech lobby & shut down proposals to upend copyright law.
Other governments should do the same!
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
They resisted the well-funded tech lobby & shut down proposals to upend copyright law.
Other governments should do the same!
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
October 27, 2025 at 6:35 AM
In huge positive news, the Australian government just ruled out handing the work of their country’s creatives to AI companies for free 🙌
They resisted the well-funded tech lobby & shut down proposals to upend copyright law.
Other governments should do the same!
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
They resisted the well-funded tech lobby & shut down proposals to upend copyright law.
Other governments should do the same!
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Must be the longest sentence I've ever published
October 26, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Must be the longest sentence I've ever published
“an endless wet nightmare of huge seas, puking, pork chops, and sexing crab” – no, that's not the book, which is excellent, it's a quote from it. I reviewed Rose George's Every Last Fish for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/culture/book...
‘If farm animals were treated like fish there would be an outcry’
Every Last Fish by Rose George is an unsparing investigation of the fishing industry and its abuses
www.thetimes.com
October 26, 2025 at 11:19 AM
“an endless wet nightmare of huge seas, puking, pork chops, and sexing crab” – no, that's not the book, which is excellent, it's a quote from it. I reviewed Rose George's Every Last Fish for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/culture/book...
Philip Jones describing @thebookseller.com as 'the Pravda of the book trade'!
October 25, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Philip Jones describing @thebookseller.com as 'the Pravda of the book trade'!
Reposted by James McConnachie
The more I reflect on the damage the AI bubble could wreak when it bursts, the angrier I get at the credulousness that has inflated it. Especially in the media, and especially the tech media, which often seems like an industry PR machine. My lastest column.
www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...
AI is a bubble that is going to burst
The industry has fostered a cult of personality that seems to leave the tech press starstruck and unquestioning of nonsensical claims
www.thenewworld.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 12:57 PM
The more I reflect on the damage the AI bubble could wreak when it bursts, the angrier I get at the credulousness that has inflated it. Especially in the media, and especially the tech media, which often seems like an industry PR machine. My lastest column.
www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...
Did they even need a ladder? Just a pair of climbing shoes, a steady head and all that lovely rustication.
The German company that makes the mechanical ladder used in the Louvre heist has used the image to advertise, with the text 'When you need to move fast'
10/10 response, no notes
10/10 response, no notes
October 24, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Did they even need a ladder? Just a pair of climbing shoes, a steady head and all that lovely rustication.
"Coincidentally, the [family seat] also belonged to my wife’s family for 200 years at the end of the Middle Ages.'
Rory Stewart: ‘Brexit was devastating for farmers’.
The Rest Is Politics podcast host and former MP on a startling experience in his Lake District cottage, and why the Cumbrian landscape is under threat ⬇️
The Rest Is Politics podcast host and former MP on a startling experience in his Lake District cottage, and why the Cumbrian landscape is under threat ⬇️
Rory Stewart: ‘Brexit was devastating for farmers’
The Rest Is Politics podcast host and former MP on a startling experience in his Lake District cottage, and why the Cumbrian landscape is under threat
www.thetimes.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:38 AM
"Coincidentally, the [family seat] also belonged to my wife’s family for 200 years at the end of the Middle Ages.'
My Dad always warned me that in any group of people some, in other circumstances, would be openly fascist. He used to look around the table at meetings and wonder. Well, they're crawling out from cover now, Dad. ¡No Pasarán!
October 21, 2025 at 6:32 PM
My Dad always warned me that in any group of people some, in other circumstances, would be openly fascist. He used to look around the table at meetings and wonder. Well, they're crawling out from cover now, Dad. ¡No Pasarán!
Ha! But also:
Journalists: what's the fee?
Academics: let me have the privilege of sharing a lifetime's knowledge and insight for free
Journalists: what's the fee?
Academics: let me have the privilege of sharing a lifetime's knowledge and insight for free
Me, talking about deadlines
Journaists: Can I have until midnight tonight?
Academics: I require an additional 16 months
Journaists: Can I have until midnight tonight?
Academics: I require an additional 16 months
October 21, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Ha! But also:
Journalists: what's the fee?
Academics: let me have the privilege of sharing a lifetime's knowledge and insight for free
Journalists: what's the fee?
Academics: let me have the privilege of sharing a lifetime's knowledge and insight for free
Reposted by James McConnachie
The Industry Insider with the @societyofauthors.bsky.social will help explain to authors and industry professionals how access forms work and why they make requesting access requirements easier and ultimately save everyone involved time, money and stress.
Sign up here…
bit.ly/48Bmxxb
Sign up here…
bit.ly/48Bmxxb
Industry Insider - Understanding Access Forms and Riders - Tools for Disabled, Chronically Ill and Neurodivergent Authors - The Society of Authors
To celebrate the launch of the SoA’s Access Form template, ADCI is hosting a panel discussion on what an Access Form is and how it can help authors, agents, publishers, event organisers, and anyone el...
bit.ly
October 20, 2025 at 10:32 PM
The Industry Insider with the @societyofauthors.bsky.social will help explain to authors and industry professionals how access forms work and why they make requesting access requirements easier and ultimately save everyone involved time, money and stress.
Sign up here…
bit.ly/48Bmxxb
Sign up here…
bit.ly/48Bmxxb
Nourishment for the inner nerd: I reviewed Danny Bate, on the alphabet, for The Sunday Times:
October 19, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Nourishment for the inner nerd: I reviewed Danny Bate, on the alphabet, for The Sunday Times:
Reposted by James McConnachie
The fact that our next book Telenovela is going to carry a Books By People stamp certifying that it is AI-free has also now been reported around the world in Publisher's Weekly: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Frankfurt Book Fair 2025: Identity Stamps
Two new startups, Books by People and Amlet, aim to certify a book’s authenticity in the AI era
www.publishersweekly.com
October 16, 2025 at 9:21 AM
The fact that our next book Telenovela is going to carry a Books By People stamp certifying that it is AI-free has also now been reported around the world in Publisher's Weekly: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Reposted by James McConnachie
I realised recently that there is a massive up-side to being a ghost writer: you wouldn’t be expected to market and promote the books you write.
October 16, 2025 at 7:10 AM
I realised recently that there is a massive up-side to being a ghost writer: you wouldn’t be expected to market and promote the books you write.