Happy Tuesday!

Let's start this newsletter at the end.

Definitely check out the footnotes this week. There's so much interesting, crazy, and dope news in the book world that I can't touch on it all.

Everything from AI voice replicas of audiobook narrators (narrators can sign up for royalties on their VIL deals—Voice, Image & Likeness 😆), book creator Kierra Lewis signing a big book podcast deal with Alex Cooper's Unwell (then BookTok attacking her, per usual), and R4A ending its boycott (but then having to update statements) of St. Martin Press, and the list goes on.

Anyways...

This Week's Headers:

• 📚 Date Set for Conversation with Special Guest Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

•  📺 The Black List Enters Publishing

• 📖 Danzy Senna: Colored Television

This Week On Bookum:

Quick product update: the team has entered into preproduction on V2, and let me tell you... the app is looking amazing!

Excited to share all the new updates in the coming weeks😎!

In other exciting news, the phenomenal writer of Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, is joining us on Bookum on September 18th for an exclusive Nook conversation about the book.

Even if you haven’t read the book yet (please do, it is absolutely phenomenal), please join us for what is sure to be an exciting Nook.

We will be joined by special guest host Sol @TheSolReaader!

Here is the flyer and the details to join below:

This Week in The Book World:

We got some major news for the ultimate book content creators (aka writers and authors) this week!

The Black List has entered publishing.

Who is The Black List, you might ask?

Ask the writers of Argo, Slumdog Millionaire, or The King's Speech, and they will tell you The Black List gave them the spotlight needed to receive Hollywood's biggest prize: the Oscar for Best Picture.

Since 2004, The Black List has made a real impact in the movie and TV space by amplifying, evaluating, and celebrating scripts that otherwise might have never found the right producers.

Now, The Black List will open its platform and tools for editing, book evaluations, etc., to fiction writers.

It is also starting its efforts in publishing with its 2025 Unpublished Novel Award, which will grant prize winners $10,000 in each of the following categories to support their journey to publication: Children’s & Young Adult, Crime & Mystery, Horror, Literary Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Thriller & Suspense.

(Also, check out the judges—you might have seen a few of them on our Creators Talk Podcast. Shoutout to Sara Hildreth, Lupita Aquino and Traci Thomas!)

Here’s the link if you want to submit:
https://blcklst.com/programs/2025-unpublished-novel-award

Based on our conversations with publishing experts Kathleen Schmidt and Brooke Warner, you know publishing has had a major problem helping undiscovered authors get to the traditional publishing promised land.

With issues like query letters, submitting manuscripts, getting professional editing advice, etc., the book space has been spammed with grifters and malpractice that have hurt creators across the board.

Our Take:
If The Black List does even half of what it did for the movie space, authors from around the world should rejoice.

This Week in Publishing:

Author Danzy Senna is back with another book that has been on many people's "most anticipated book of the year" list: Colored Television.

Senna is the author of classics such as Caucasia, New People, and more!

Summary of Colored Television:

 Jane has high hopes that her life is about to turn around. After a long, precarious stretch bouncing among sketchy rentals and sublets, she and her family are living in luxury for a year, house-sitting in the hills above Los Angeles. The gig magically coincides with Jane’s sabbatical, giving her the time and space she needs to finish her second novel—a centuries-spanning epic her artist husband, Lenny, dubs her “mulatto War and Peace.” Finally, some semblance of stability and success seems to be within her grasp.

But things don’t work out quite as hoped. Desperate for a plan B, like countless writers before her Jane turns her gaze to Hollywood. When she finagles a meeting with Hampton Ford, a hot producer with a major development deal at a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a “real writer,” and together they begin to develop “the Jackie Robinson of biracial comedies.” Things finally seem to be going right for Jane—until they go terribly wrong.

As always, if you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, please share it with others. Every share helps and keeps us growing!

Definitely share to a book content creator friend that might enjoy our newsletter!

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Happy Reading!

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See you next week!

Footnotes (Aka other articles we are reading and Bookum content):

The Black List Helped Reshape Hollywood. Can It Change Publishing? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/04/books/the-black-list-publishing.html

Book Content Creator Alex & Books Launches “Reading Parties” in NYC - https://x.com/AlexAndBooks_/status/1828814517666558039

Why I Write: Art from the Ashes - https://www.altaonline.com/california-book-club/a45121769/why-i-write-art-from-the-ashes-danzy-senna-colored-television/

Kierra Lewis Signs with Alex Copper’s Unwell for New Bookish Podcast - https://www.tiktok.com/@kierralewis75/video/740832199544989622

Audible to Start Generating AI Voice Replicas of Select Audiobook Narrators - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-09/amazon-s-audible-to-create-ai-voice-replicas-of-select-audiobook-narrators

Leonard Riggio, 83, Dies; Founded Barnes & Noble and Upended Publishing - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/business/leonard-riggio-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HE4.YG7B.iZ9DHaEZGjSR

R4A Two Statements on St. Martin Boycott: