ANDY AWARDS 2027
SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN
The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and Gotham Ghostwriters are pleased to announce that submissions for the 2027 Andy Awards for outstanding book collaborations are now open.
In 2027, the Andy Awards will once again be presented in four nonfiction categories:
- Business and Thought Leadership
- Memoir
- Narrative Nonfiction
- Prescriptive Nonfiction
Submissions for the 2027 Andy Awards will remain open through June 30 for books published between January 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026.
To be eligible, both the author and paid collaborator must jointly submit a book for consideration and agree to share the award. The full eligibility guidelines can be found here.
The full list of 2024 and 2025 Andy Award winners and finalists can be found here.
To learn more about the 2027 Andy Awards, please visit: www.gothamghostwriters.com/the-andy-awards.
We at Gotham Ghostwriters are ready to help authors who want to succeed. Before you’re ready to start writing, please get in touch with us.
The State of the Publishing Industry
THE ART OF THE BOOK PROPOSAL VIDEO EXCERPTS
At GOTG2 last November, we convened a panel of noted literary agents and respected editors on one of the most hot button topics facing authors and collaborators alike: the art of the book proposal. The discussion went deep on that all-important document that can make the difference between a sale and a pass. The panel covered everything from proposal overview and the importance of having a full-press marketing plan in mind to agents’ awareness of collaborators and the successful surprises and crossover appeal that books can have throughout their life cycles. In this incredibly tough market, these clips make for essential viewing.
A NEW PLATFORM FOR SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS
Thanks to a new partnership between Bookshop.org and the self-publishing company Draft2Digital, self-published authors just gained access to a whole new publishing platform and an opportunity to sell their e-books via the popular online bookstore (and noted Amazon alternative). And as Publishers Weekly recently wrote, it’s a win-win for authors as their interests dovetail with indie bookshops.
Bookshop CEO Andy Hunter said that the arrangement is complementary for all parties involved. “Indie bookstores and authors have an outsider and iconoclastic identity,” Hunter noted. “And their interests are aligned, as this will be a great way for indie authors to support their local bookstore, and vice versa.” With up to 15,000 new titles being added each month to the Bookshop platform, it’s an unfettered opportunity for authors to get their work out there in an exciting, dynamic way.
At Gotham, we maintain relationships with a select group of sterling self-publishing consultants, and we often refer clients who are looking to optimize the marketing and polished look and feel of their self-published titles. If you’re exploring self-publishing, let us know if you need an introduction to one of our trusted consultants.
The State of Artificial Intelligence
AI HITS A STORYTELLING WALL
Ben Affleck…writer, director, actor, and…AI soothsayer? The Hollywood star is known as a savvy tech investor. But in a recent appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Affleck set a lot of editorial pros’ hearts aflutter — including former Contently bigwig Joe Lazer — with a nuanced, insight-filled discussion of AI’s limitations as a storytelling alternative.
For his “Storytelling Edge” Substack, Lazer highlighted a couple of Affleck’s most trenchant observations. In particular, Affleck called out the dearth of quality when it comes to AI-produced work, saying, “If you try to get ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude to write you something, it’s really shitty…And it’s really shitty by nature because it goes to the mean. Now, it’s a useful tool if you’re a writer, and you’re going, ‘I’m trying to send something up, and they’re supposed to get a letter, and it’s delayed two days,’ and it’ll give you some examples of that. But I don’t think it’s actually very likely that it’s going to write anything meaningful, or that it’s going to be making movies whole cloth.”
To Affleck’s point, utilizing the tech as a task-specific tool shouldn’t be underestimated or ignored — and it’s a usage that many AI evangelists and collaborators in our community have championed. But in Affleck’s view, for writers to regard it as an imminent threat to their entire profession is a mistake, as the tech’s advancement capabilities have been considerably overstated by tech industry leaders: “It turns out the technology is not progressing in exactly the same way they presented, and really, what it’s going to be is a tool.”
Further bolstering Affleck’s vision of the tech as part of a writer’s arsenal (and not an original content engine harbinger of doom), Lazer noted, “AI is pretty good at formulaic, derivative content; if I give it a research report and ask it to write a landing page to drive sign-ups, it’ll do a B+ job. But AI does struggle mightily with original storytelling and thought leadership, thanks to how it’s trained.”
And that feedback and training, which favors “safe, inoffensive outputs,” concurrently results in safe, inoffensive, and bland content. If you can remember the last time that safe, inoffensive, and bland anything set the world on fire, we’re all ears.
On Our Radar
LANDING THAT LINKEDIN POST
Writing online content that’s on brand, on voice, and on message all at once can be daunting. But our friend Ted Merz — fresh off attending a series of webinars organized by LinkedIn — shared a number of helpful tips on crafting posts that check all those brand, voice, and messaging boxes. Ted’s recent LI post breaks down LinkedIn’s best practices seamlessly, highlighting how consistency, authenticity, focusing on the larger strategic picture, and not stressing about being perfectly polished can all drive meaningful social media comms success.
Also making waves on the social content front is Blazel, a new startup that’s aiming to innovate how corporate thought leadership social posts are written. While they’re focusing on LinkedIn currently, they have grander scaling ambitions (including across podcasts, X, blogs, and video content) and how to license their platform to internal communications teams.
David Murray, Executive Director of the Professional Speechwriters Association, recently spoke with Blazel’s CMO, exploring how the startup employs a mix of deep research on past speeches and speaking styles, AI, and analysis from “seasoned content strategist[s]” to create an a la carte menu of customized social media posts for thought leaders and corporate executives. With eventual goals to create a platform and license their services to Fortune 500 comms teams, Blazel is seeking to reframe how thought leadership is approached and how speechwriters factor into this new context.
THE WORD NERDS ARE WINNING
In an era teeming with AI “slopaganda,” is it any surprise that word nerds are coming out on top when it comes to tech industry corporate communications? Business Insider dug into the growing trend of writers and editors taking top storytelling, narrative, and communications-centered roles at companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Every. Talented wordsmiths adept at creating expertly written corporate narratives are in white-hot demand. As Cristin Culver, a communications firm founder, put it, “Ironically in this era of AI, some of the most poignant storytelling belongs to the people who’ve realized that everything is sloppified and they’ve pivoted to very tactical storytelling.” It’s a seismic development when you consider how some writers, editors, and comms people have been forecasting doomsday for the professional writing industry in the age of AI.
COPYRIGHT IS EVERYTHING
As professional writers and collaborators, we know how important copyright is as a verification of IP ownership and proof of authorship. And in a time when vast amounts of written content are being used to train AI, it’s arguably more vital than ever for writers to credibly prove ownership of their work. But how?
The team behind DartFrog Books is now offering True Origin, a new service that’s available to DartFrog authors and non-authors alike. True Origin verifies when a work came into existence by generating a secure and timestamped digital fingerprint of a file — but without storing, copying, or exposing any of the copyrighted manuscript text. Once the process is complete, writers receive a verified certificate of provenance to keep on file and reference should any ownership issues arise down the road. While no solution is going to be perfect when it comes to protecting copyrighted content, having this type of ironclad ownership documentation is a valuable tool to have on hand as insurance should a writer ever need it.
Word of the Month
librocubicularist (noun): a person who reads in bed.
“Instead of bemoaning that spring hasn’t yet arrived, the coziest among us embrace their librocubicularist tendencies, snuggle deeper into the covers with a favorite read, and turn another page.”
Just for Fun
DON’T PUT ALL YOUR IDIOMS IN ONE BASKET
Think for a moment: do you have a favorite idiom? Whether it’s “the pot calling the kettle black” or “burning the candle at both ends,” chances are you use it well and often. But do you know where it originates from? Luckily for us, the linguistic history buffs at Word Smarts have answers to a few of the most popular, time tested, and beloved idioms. It might surprise you just how vintage they are! Did you know that people have been “biting the dust” since the days of Homer (the poet, not the Simpson)? Well, you do now.
NEW ON THE GG BLOG: What Publishing Pros Want in a Book Proposal
This month’s featured blog post from GG friend Weld Royal covers our GOTG2 panel Inside the Pitch: What Publishing Pros Really Want in a Book Proposal. Running the gamut from the importance of recent and relevant comps to one panelist’s “two page test” to platform visibility and the great sample chapter debate, nothing escaped our savvy contributors.
And for further insights, check out our video excerpts on proposal overview, marketing plan takeaways, the inside scoop on agents’ awareness of collaborators, and how books can become successful surprises and carry crossover appeal throughout their life cycles.
