#Salt Publishing

[martyncrucefix]

New Review of 'Between a Drowning Man' - from Shanta Acharya

We all know that reviews of poetry books can take a long time to filter through whatever system they do come through. But then they always come as a pleasant surprise (if that’s not making too many assumptions about their likely contents). Any way – almost 12 months after the appearance of my most recent full collection, Between a Drowning Man (Salt, 2023), the ever-lively site, Everybody’s…

[kaggsy59]

"I got into the habit of reading while walking..." #shadowlines @nicholasroyle

Back in 2021 (is it *really* that long ago??) I had the great pleasure of reading a wonderful book: “White Spines” by Nicholas Royle. The latter is an author and editor, as well as publisher of marvellous little chapbooks under the Nightjar imprint. He’s also a book obsessive and “Spines” explored his search for those books published by Picador which had a distinctive white-spined design. As…

[rj-anderson]

Do you love listening to a really well done audiobook? So do I. That's why I'm delighted to announce that the newly recorded audiobook of my UK-bestselling fantasy novel Knife is now available on Audible, Spotify, and other great listening sites!

There are humans at the bottom of the garden, and a glimpse inside their forbidden House convinces the fierce young faery hunter known as Knife that their knowledge could help her dying people.

But if the human world has so much to offer, why is the faery Queen determined to keep her people away from it? Is there a connection between the House and the faeries’ loss of magic? And why is Knife so drawn to the young Paul McCormick — that strangest of creatures, a human male?

This new 15th anniversary edition is read by Eva Kaminsky, a veteran actress and audiobook narrator, and she's done a terrific job bringing Bryony, Wink, Thorn, and the other inhabitants of the Oakenwyld to life. I'm grateful to Oasis Audio and Enclave Publishing for making this recording possible, and giving more readers a chance to hear Knife's story for the first time.

Learn more and check out an audio sample from the first chapter here!

[keepersofthegate]

The Summons paperback and ebook now open for pre-orders!

(Ebook cover subject to change. Paperback cover shown is also a little out of date as of 9/12 but should load the new version soon)

You've been summoned. But where? Perhaps it is to the presence of the King. Perhaps an otherworldly banquet. Perhaps it is the inescapable pull of the soul to the unapproachable light. Or perhaps you've just been invited to a bible study by a neighbor? Judge wisely, dear reader, for perhaps the darkness has summoned you as well.

From opulent fantastical worlds to the magic hidden behind the veneer of the mundane, these 7 original fairy tales will astound and delight. 5 new Christian writers make their print debut on the literary scene, and Evelyn M. Lewis and Maria Fedina return, in the first Salt and Light Collection. Make haste, and do not delay.

[greensaplinggrace]

honestly the shadow and bone series is fascinating in its own way because I have never seen an author so actively and obviously retcon her own books, and somehow convince a large majority of readers that it’s the truth

[angee1011]

Alex Aster is not a good writer.

It’s amazing to me that she has a publishing deal.

[lightthewaybackhome]

So, my book—Stoneheart—is going to be republished this year! Yay! It's all shiny and new, and we've worked so hard on developing so many things. I truly love the story @alana-k-asby and I have written. In light of this, I'll be sharing quotes, vibes, aesthetics, and more about my writing, along side my love of homemaking, Tolkien, Band of Brothers, SGA, Leverage, and more!

Later this year our fantasy western adventure story will be available!

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

Theory: ND watched the original she-ra, shipped She-Ra and Catra (which is why sea hawk was made into a buffoon) and eventually was able to bring their fanfics to life

yeah, spop was basically just an expensive and badly written fanfic. yikes.

[martyncrucefix]

Ian Brinton reviews 'Between a Drowning Man'

Here is Ian Brinton‘s recent review of my new Salt collection, Between a Drowning Man. It was first published by Litter Magazine in January 2024. The invitation at the opening of these two remarkable sequences of poems by Martyn Crucefix emphasises both ‘difference’ and ‘ambiguity’, an ‘othering’ which hones attention rather than dulling it. Divided into two sections, Works and Days (forty-nine…

[rosesutherlandwrites]

A SWEET STING OF SALT officially has a cover(design by Regina Flath)and also this gorgeous aesthetic reel made by the wonderful team at Random House! Print ARCs(advance reader copies) are headed out into the world and you can now preorder here

A more up close and personal look at this Absolute BEAUTY:

[thathilomgirl]

Just some interesting notes from an interview between Nozomu Mochizuki and the publisher TO Books regarding Tearmoon's writing

[greater-than-the-sword]

Even Better News Everyone!!

The Kingdom of Heaven has populated and is NOW AVAILABLE for pre-order on Barnes & Noble dot com!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-kingdom-of-heaven-evelyn-m-lewis/1143100414?ean=9781960686008

When you order here, the book will be immediately printed and merely wait until the publication date to ship to you. Additionally, since you don’t have to buy a book from Amazon in order to review it on Amazon, it will still be possible to leave reviews on Amazon if the book is ordered through Barnes & Noble. I’m aiming to get 50 reviews on Amazon within 1 month of the publication date.

(Note - unlike my Inkshares pre-order campaign, this one is NOT a crowd funding project and is not conditional. The book is real!)

[aces-to-apples]

I'm just gonna say it, I'm just gonna say it: to some extent I kind of remember why I liked reader-insert fics when I was a kid so I can at least intellectually acknowledge why it's popular, but I fully admit that I don't understand why multifandom exchanges (or at least most of the ones I've participated in) allow original work as a category for noms/requests/offers. Like? Babes?? That's not a fandom???

[ginnyzero]

Follow up to yesterday's post b/c I am a bit salty still.

The idea people in general are less creative because they're writing fan fic is absolutely ludicrous to me. People write fan fic for so many reasons and fan fic has been a medium for, oh thousands of years, and is now so easy to find means more people are writing and oh my god, gasp, having fun.

But on top of those who are having fun, there are a goodly percentage who do write both! (I can name half a dozen trad pubbed authors off the top of my head who have or do write fan fic.) Or those who start in fan fic and move over to original.

People tell stories because there are stories they want to see and published media isn't giving them those stories. That's the short of it, really. Whether these stories are fan fic or original is rather immaterial in my opinion. (Both have their place. Thank you.)

But oh my god, you say anything along the lines you think people are being less creative because they aren't creating their own universes, it just tells me that you have not LOOKED. Yes, AO3 is great because it makes this free story medium easily available and searchable and tagged. Original fiction still LACKS a AO3 style listing. Just, go to a bookstore. Go to a LIBRARY. For the love of little green apples, check wattpad, AMAZON, royal road, even here on tumblr there is a THRIVING community of original fiction authors BEGGING for attention.

Look traditional publishing is out there trying to push at you what they think sells. And what they think sells isn't always what people have written and want published and want to see, so there is Indie, struggling in the over saturation because of algorithms to be seen and heard and appreciated. And is it all good? Can you find it easily? No. Not really. But it is OUT THERE. People are being creative and maybe if we had MORE publishing houses, there'd be a MORE variety of stories published and in bookstores.

Just... a salty indie author thought.

[brasideios]

I really should stop paying attention to the AI stuff but this is seriously getting to me; so much so that I’m considering quitting writing altogether.

I’ve been digging into my thoughts about this lately and I wanted to break it down a little here; to explain to myself, as well as you poor souls who engage with my bullshit, why I think AI fundamentally sucks and why I’m struggling to find a way to share my work anymore.

It begins with the fact that I strongly dislike the entire concept of traditional publishing.

In a nutshell, publishing houses get to decide what you, the consumer, will read, always based on what will be popular and make them the most money. They have the power to decide what you can’t read, what you shouldn’t read.

How many excellent stories have never been published because they weren’t riding the zeitgeist?

Millions. Millions.

And let’s not get into the ridiculously low percentage of income an author makes from a book published by a traditional publisher. Holy shit, it’s appalling.

Even as an indie author I earn about 32c for every $12USD sale of an ebook at best, and it is much, much worse through a publishing house.

Anyway. I digress.

In my opinion, all stories have a place, a meaning for the people who are listening for them, which is why finding the fanfiction world was so amazing to me.

Every voice here has an equal chance of being heard, and equally, we all have a chance to find the story we’ve been looking for. No one can stop you from publishing whatever it is you feel compelled to say. Whatever it is that drives and moves you.

It was honestly a relief to find stories without perfect prose and grammar getting the love they rightly deserve. Stories with silly or fun premises, LGBTQ+ people taking centre stage or - *insert thing that the publishing world would never publish here* - because it makes people ‘happy’ (whatever emotional form that takes) - both to write and to read.

But that well is poisoned by the people cashing in on that work via AI scraping, making unknowing slaves of creative people - pouring their love and time into a piece of writing only to have it stolen.

And in their own way, people using AI to make stories are just as bad. They too want to take advantage of the labour of others to get some buzz of dopamine from kudos/likes or whatever, which is completely unearned and undeserved.

I’m just going to mention here, while I’m on the subject - if you’re one of those wretches feeding other people’s unfinished fics to the AI to get an ending - I hate you so much there aren’t words. You are actually the worst. I hope none of my followers would do this - but if you do, check yourself.

Moving on…

The thing is, I just can’t understand how writers especially (and not just fic writers) can’t see that AI rips out the heart of storytelling.

Writing as a process is entirely personal; it comes from inside the self. At least in my experience, the process is more important than the end result. The discovery and exploration of themes and emotions entirely your own is only to be found in the process; it can’t be replicated by a computer spitting out strings of words others wrote.

It just can’t.

And I’m just going to say this now - if you, as a writer, don’t think this is important at all - if you don’t think that coming up with ideas and developing them yourself is literally what writing is - then I honestly don’t know what you’re doing, but it isn’t writing.

Anyway (again).

Where in all of this is there a place for a writer who doesn’t want their stories to be grist for the mill, to be regurgitated in some altered, souless form and sold off as if it was someone else’s?

Who’s sick to death of putting money in some other son of a bitches pocket, while they do the work out of love and passion?

I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.

As it stands, we are powerless to stop any of this unless we simply stop writing, or sharing that writing. That’s a miserable acknowledgment to have to make for someone who quite literally just wants to write and share those stories with others without them being stolen.

It shouldn’t be a lot to ask.

[evelynmlewis]

Entered!

My debut novel "The Kingdom of Heaven" has been entered into the Realm Makers Awards into the Debut and Science Fiction - Dystopia categories!

Find the book here: