Victoria Strauss

Check out Part 1 of this interview with moi at SFWA's Planetside: everything you ever wanted to know about Writer Beware, how we do what we do, and why we're still scam-hunting after all these years. (Part 2 will be live this Thursday.)

Anthropic settlement news, from @publisherslunch.bsky.social : "Settlement Administrator will send notices of agreed allocations on or before November 13, 2026, and the initial distribution of the Settlement payments during the week of November 23, 2026."

voter guide* for my massholes in the chat

Last to bloom in my garden: Dendranthema ‘Sheffield Pink’. Such a mysterious color, somewhere between pink and apricot

There’s also a class action exclusion for clients and an arbitration clause. Plus an unproven approach to copyright actions.

Another pig butchering scheme from overseas. This article doesn't dig very deep--for example, it doesn't mention that the scam has re-branded as PW Publishing House, or that its FB account is based in Pakistan--but it does chronicle how such scams bleed writers dry www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...

Ugh, here we go again: the UK proposed (but thankfully did not implement) a similar "exception" to copyright law last year. You can add your name to this public statement from @authorsguild.org and other organizationsin the creative industries. I did. authorsguild.org/news/austral...

Ugh. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/o...

That was fast.

Article from PW on the collective action lawsuits just filed against Meta re: AI training on pirated books confirms that the authors were recruited by ClaimsHero www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

I am the boss of this book

4 more collective actions (plaintiffs file individual suits as group rather than seeking class action) against Meta alleging AI training on pirated works. Seems likely this is ClaimsHero recruiting--same lawfirms as previous suit (Cambronne v Meta) lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2026/10/more...

Interesting outcome of an appeal of a copyright matter to Supreme Court--4 justices recuse. This leaves in place a lower court ruling that US copyright law's 35-year termination provision applies worldwide (paywalled) lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2026/10/supr...

It’s even worse than you thought

It had to happen, and I'm amazed I haven't seen something like this before: a scam exploitiing the Anthropic copyright settlement. See the lines at the end, under "Jessa's" signature? "Source" is the Library of Congress (I clicked the link). Confirms that scammers are harvesting contact info there

Statement from Must Read Magazines on changes to its artist contracts. (This is very good. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised by such a total walkback.)

This seems... interesting. bsky.app/profile/adam...

For those of you struggling with correcting disagreements in your Anthropic settlement claims portal, things are happening, albeit slowly.

SFWA weighs in on the latest questions around Must Read Magazines' contracts for artists file770.com/tag/murderbot/

This is excellent news for my local area! Westfield Planning Board denies permit extension for hyperscale data center project www.nepm.org/regional-new...

New #WriterBeware blog post: Another entry in the annals of publishers behaving badly: fee-charging Australian children's publisher Starfish Bay Publishing, which has failed to honor oblilgations & now has gone dark. Nearly 200 authors are affected (so far) writerbeware.blog/2026/10/16/a...

The British Fantasy Society does not allow the use of generative AI in any of its spaces. For more on this, read the interview with outgoing chair Shona Kinsella from earlier this year. This position has not changed since last week's AGM. ⬇️ britishfantasysociety.org/its-a-cheat-...

If you were wondering...

Reminder that creatives in any field are targets for scammers, and the scams targeting them are very similar.

Please don't harass individual members of the SoA management committee over the AI decisions--there is an address for sending opinions, use that (And for Heaven's sake don't email committee members on their personal email addresses)

Interesting article--supports my own findings about the Nigerian origins of most book club and other AI email scams, and also the targeting of Western writers by scammers in other countries, particularly Pakistan and the Philippines. www.thedial.world/articles/new...

“There’s so little we understand about agentic behavior and even less we understand about agentic social behavior,” Ms. Chang said. “All bets are off when they’re in a room with each other.” !!! (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/10/14/t...

This move is not being greeted with high praise

Sadly true

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In any discussion of what Must Read Magazines is doing, we need to ensure that we're also continuing to talk about Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines. It's five magazines that are affected under MRM. Don't leave them out. Rising tides, and all that!

"If the new owners want to right MRM’s sinking ship, they need to offer fair contracts and be open with what is going on....If Must Read Magazines doesn’t do this, their company’s legacy will be simple: They’ll have destroyed three of the world’s most famous and beloved SF/F magazines."

Scam alert: If you subscribe to HARO (Help a Reporter Out, a subscription list where you can find media queries), be aware that Nigerian AI scammers have infested it as well. Just heard from a writer who responded to 3 talk show queries--all turned out to be impersonators charging fees

So often I see posts that remind me how happy I am that I ditched Threads

An excellent, clear set of explanations.

hello, I am doing some research and would like to tap into the collective brains of BSKY: 1. can you share some genre or literary fiction magazines that have closed and the archive is NO LONGER ONLINE 2. the same but the archives remain online FOR NOW i would also appreciate RTs for awareness 💀

Workers at three major publishing houses tell WIRED that LLMs are being used for publicity, cover art, back cover copy, and emails, as some execs push junior staff to champion the tech.

I love Asimov's Science Fiction and the magazine's editors. I've published many stories in the magazine. I subscribe to the magazine. Despite that, I'm done with the new MRM owners. This statement is BS. The new owners have squandered the goodwill of their magazines' readers, writers, and fans. 1/

New #WriterBeware blog post: Two artists' decisions to go public this week reveal new concerns at Must Read Magazines, which was the subject of controversy last year over its unfriendly contract terms writerbeware.blog/2026/10/09/m...

I'm excited, if a bit late, to announce my workshop, "Publishing Trends, Market Shifts, and Opportunities," coming up October 27 and 29 via Boyds Mills. $59. There will be handouts and a recording. Details and registration here: boydsmills.org/workshop/pub...

I got this email this morning; assumed it was another Medicare scam and deleted. (Well, it is a scam. Just a different type.)

Thread: rights grabs at Must Read Magazines

More concerning info about rights grabs by Must Read magazines, this time for artwork. Side note: looks like they’re still doing the interminable and not necessarily fruitful negotiation process that writers have reported.

Re-posting this because from all the "yay Canada, this is good" responses, I see I didn't strongly enough stress the main point I meant to make, which is that well-intentioned efforts like this that rely solely on the honor system are essentially meaningless

Oh good, more slop variety.com/2026/biz/new...

Today in shit I did not need: a big tree branch came down in the street, and yes those are the overhead wires that connect to my house underneath it. Power back on after a stressful few hours of phone calls and waiting (no internet till tomorrow tho). Thank goodness for the kindness of neighbors.