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A note from Jane

“Please don’t hear what I’m not saying.”

My sister shared this quote with me, from the podcaster Kris Reece.

I have no idea what the original context was, but it resonated since I often write on topics that provoke anger and frustration—right now, that’s AI. Sometimes people can’t process your arguments, much less your finer points, because their emotions about the topic ring so much louder in their ears.

When I explore controversial issues, I try to remember what my colleague Josh Bernoff once told me about why he appreciates my newsletter The Bottom Line. In a nutshell, he said, I perform the kind of work he once did as an analyst. I report what happened. I explain, if I can, why it happened. I show how things are trending and identify patterns. And, if feasible, I predict what could happen next (although I’m less fond of predictions).

So I try to focus on that job and the people who appreciate me doing that job. If I play it too safe—because I fear hearing from those who misinterpret me—I may end up saying nothing of consequence and wasting not only my time but the time of those who will, in fact, hear my intended message.

Jane

P.S. Most popular post this month: Writing Scams Are Reaching a Whole New Level of Awful

Bob Eckstein

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The best rum cake I’ve ever had

More than 20 years ago, I was gifted a magnificent rum cake by publishing colleagues. When these colleagues retired and stopped sending the cake, I started buying it myself. Check out Barbara Storey’s rum cakes. This is one of those businesses where you should probably just phone your order in rather than use the online form. They’re likely to call you anyway to confirm.

Any Human Ever

Given my recent interest in the history of civilization, I really enjoyed playing around with Any Human Ever. It respawns you as a random human from a random time and place in history. On my first try, I drew a girl born in 1173 BCE in present-day Pakistan, who died of malaria at age two.

My new favorite casual pants

I stumbled on the KÜHL Freeflex Roll-Up Pant while shopping at REI, and I’ve now bought four pairs online. (Only made for women, unfortunately—sorry, gents.) I prefer the Move and Roll-Up styles, but the beauty here is you can pick the style that suits you, plus they offer lots of color choices. When I visited my sister, she commented on what great pants they were, and she’s not one to ever notice clothing. I bought her a pair.

JaneBot: a free reference tool that searches my site as well as other resources

Every day I receive multiple messages from people who ask me questions about the publishing industry. In a typical month I personally respond to about 1–2 people per day, trying to help them. Easily half the time, people ask questions already addressed at my website, but they can’t find the answer. (More than 5,000 articles live at my website, so I understand the challenge. Not even I can recall everything I’ve written and published.)

So I’ve created a conversational chatbot, called JaneBot, to help people find the information they’re looking for. It only references materials I’ve written and published at my site, in my books, or in other documentation. It uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), an AI method that connects an LLM to external data sources or documents. (For those unaware: Big Five publishers currently offer book-based chatbots through Google, and university publishers have launched licensing services based on the same technology.)

JaneBot is free to use. Try it out.

Build a Better Bio (It Matters More Than You Think) with Jane Friedman. $89 webinar hosted by Writers Digest University. Thursday, November 19, 2026. 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

Next online class: Build a Better Bio

Taught by: Jane Friedman
Ideal for: Any writer preparing to go on submission or launch a book, or approaching an important career milestone
Jane says: Your bio is more than a few sentences of basic information. It’s a strategic tool to attract interest.
When: Thursday, November 19, 1:00–2:30 p.m. EST, or wait for the recording

Your turn: photo printing services

In the last issue, I asked what service you use to print photos or make photo books. Here’s a selection of what you said.

I use Picaboo to make albums for our family vacations. It’s easy to use with dozens of templates or freeform photo placement, and the lay-flat albums are spectacular with vivid color and high-quality paper. There are always discounts available. I’ve been using them for more than a decade and have never been disappointed. —Tammy Euliano, MD
My husband is a professional photographer, which comes in handy since we lived on a boat for years and now slow-travel the world. He exclusively uses a British company, BobBooks.co.uk, when curating photo books. Their customer service is exceptional, as is their quality (even by professional standards). Customers can design the page layouts to suit their taste and create unique, coffee table-book quality mementos. Of special note is their lay-flat page format, great for panoramic images. —Wendy Hawkes
For photo books, I find mixbook.com to be an outstanding balance of cost and quality. It is simple to use but also provides an excellent range of creative-design options if you want to drill down into its many features. —Wayne Hall
I’ve used Mpix for years after the recommendation from my photographer. The albums are well constructed, and pictures crisp. The turnaround time is remarkably fast. The web interface is intuitive and easy to use. The customer service is great. I once had printing errors and simply sent them photos of the errors and they sent me a new book. The prints are beautiful too. If you sign up for emails they always have sales. They are my go-to after trying other companies. —Diane Newcomer
I use two different services for creating photo books. For swank, it’s hard to go past Artifact Uprising. Expensive, but they create beautiful, lie-flat photo books and have easy-to-use online tools for designing the books. Social Print Studio makes delightful, tiny (1.7x1.5") photo books that contain a magnet, so you can stick them on your fridge. Fantastic stocking stuffers. At $36 for 3, each containing 23 photos, they’re very affordable. —Rose Vines

❤️ This was a popular question! Read all the responses.

Next question: Is there a specific jigsaw puzzle brand and/or puzzle series you love? Mine is the Charles Wysocki series from Buffalo Games. Hit reply and let me know your favorite(s).

Do you have a tools or resources question you would like me to ask all readers? Offer up your suggestion, and I might feature it.