Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼
@bonabooks.bsky.social
Publishing radical queer specfic from London, UK. Founded: @trip.bsky.social, @robwillb.bsky.social, @chrismccartney.bsky.social. Harassed by: @lyamkk.bsky.social 🛸I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! (2024) 🧱Wrath Month (2026) https://linktr.ee/bonabooksltd
man it sucks to see people blaming small SFF magazines and their volunteer staff for getting got by AI submissions. this is like those smug jerks who think they're too clever to get taken in by phone scams. I get it, man. I'd like to be unfoolable also. but unfortunately none of us are.
I guarantee that everyone has read something generated by AI without clocking it at this point. Blaming a small press for being transparent about being fooled is wild.
Jenny Hamilton@readingtheend.bsky.social · 3w agoman it sucks to see people blaming small SFF magazines and their volunteer staff for getting got by AI submissions. this is like those smug jerks who think they're too clever to get taken in by phone scams. I get it, man. I'd like to be unfoolable also. but unfortunately none of us are.
I found this report really interesting. Most of it supports what I've been saying in conversations with authors worried about how to respond to potential accusations of AI use in their work, as well as editors who ask how I screen for AI-generated material: it becomes clear through revisions. 🧵/
Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 4w agoAI fraud nearly derailed our next anthology. Today we’re talking about what went down, the things we missed, and publishing the report we wish we’d had when it happened. Read all about it on our new blog, and download the full report:
This is a good, tough thread. A couple of things I want to comment on, as an editor: Chacha/Ogechi/Collins/etc. has FOR SURE generated and submitted way more than they've gotten away with publishing. At least 8 to PodCastle alone. 80% of the scam is using multiple IDs to run a numbers game 1/5
Gwen C. Katz@gwenckatz.bsky.social · 4w agoSFF, we need to talk. I'm not here to rag specifically on Bona, who did the right thing by going public. No, I'm looking at all of you. Or at least, 15 of you. Because this right here? This is buckwild.
This is one of our top concerns in the report and its recommendations - it lobs massive barriers between the new and/or marginalised author and a pro-published career. We will do more work on identifying and combatting these impacts (watch this space! 👀). But yes, this is pure hell, basically.
John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 4w agoThis is the sort of thing means new/emerging writers will have yet one more hoop to jump through to prove their work is actually from their brain and not ChatGPT, etc. There's not an easy answer to this; the reward for the "AI" scammers is too great to get them to stop.
Wrt my last repost, this validates everything I’m trying to teach in the Clarion West Novel Writing Workshop. AI can’t do what we do.
Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 4w agoWe didn’t find a smoking gun. Nothing so neat. But we found patterns: • hollow worldbuilding • limited interiority • strange behaviour in editorial • missing drafts/notes • contradictions • weak craft conversation
Whichever version you opt for, this is essential reading, for publishers, authors and readers.
Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 4w agoWe're mainly sharing the link to the rather more digestible blog post, but if you want to jump to the straight our AI report:
Well, another Wrath Month has rolled around and we still don’t have a book. About that… 💙📚 #BookSky #SmallPress #Publishing #QueerBooks #AI (1/20)
We have 100% confidence that all of our remaining and forthcoming stories are certifiably human-authored by our righteous contributors. And a cracking bunch of reprobates they are too 🤘🏼😛🧱
Adrienne@adrienneleigh.bsky.social · 4w agothis is why i've mostly just given up on anything published after 2020 or so, except by authors i already trust not to use slopbots (and there are not a lot of those!)
This was a very tight rope to walk - we tried our utmost to make the advice practical and relevant, while not just handing our arms over to the other side. @chrismccartney.bsky.social can say more on how the limitations of LLMs mean our report is likely not much use to a present-day AI scammer. 🏋️♂️
Shannon Fallon@shannonfallon.com · 4w agoLove that you published this to show the patterns you noticed and the strategies you used to detect. But without creating an easy cheat sheet for "this is how to sound convincingly like an author". I fear that scammers will try to perfect their scams ☹️
A detailed read that's well worth your time Also please support Bona Books, they deserve it!
Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 4w agoAI fraud nearly derailed our next anthology. Today we’re talking about what went down, the things we missed, and publishing the report we wish we’d had when it happened. Read all about it on our new blog, and download the full report:
This situation is a perfect example of how sloppers drain others. They put nothing in and steal so much. I appreciate Bona Books doing their diligence along with community help. And I'm honored they've asked me to join the anthology with a blasphemous Wrath story of my own making 🖤
Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 4w agoAI fraud nearly derailed our next anthology. Today we’re talking about what went down, the things we missed, and publishing the report we wish we’d had when it happened. Read all about it on our new blog, and download the full report:
Well, another Wrath Month has rolled around and we still don’t have a book. About that… 💙📚 #BookSky #SmallPress #Publishing #QueerBooks #AI (1/20)
Celebrate Pride and check out I Want That Twink Obliterated (Bona Books), the anthology that features 'The Dearth of Temptation' by our Christopher Caldwell! It's part of Storybundle's latest, um, bundle, so grab yourself a bargain at the link below. @seraph76.bsky.social @bonabooks.bsky.social
StoryBundle@storybundle.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt's Pride again, and time for another queer-themed bundle! At a time when the community is once again under threat, we felt it was more important than ever to showcase the work and the writers that celebrate us. storybundle.com/pride
My story "The Three Bussy Problem" is included in this bundle! (It's in the I Want That Twink Obliterated anthology.)
Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 2mo ago2026 Pride Bundle, the Twinks are in you! A genuinely incredible bunch of books for $30: An Oz masterpiece from Geoff Ryman, books by @chazbrenchley.bsky.social & @fozmeadows.bsky.social, brilliant releases from @neonhemlock.bsky.social @wtpress.bsky.social @wctracy.bsky.social, and MORE. 💙📚🌈📚
2026 Pride Bundle, the Twinks are in you! A genuinely incredible bunch of books for $30: An Oz masterpiece from Geoff Ryman, books by @chazbrenchley.bsky.social & @fozmeadows.bsky.social, brilliant releases from @neonhemlock.bsky.social @wtpress.bsky.social @wctracy.bsky.social, and MORE. 💙📚🌈📚
Well well well… if it isn’t the book pinned to the top of our profile 😈🧱 (Licensing Haring might have been prohibitive but you can 100% stick it on the cover yourself, that would be very metal ✊🏼)
doop@doop.bsky.social · 2mo agoIf we do pride month we should also do wrath month, and Haring’s unfinished painting should be its flag
It's Pride again, and time for another queer-themed bundle! At a time when the community is once again under threat, we felt it was more important than ever to showcase the work and the writers that celebrate us. storybundle.com/pride
I have read Yoke of Stars, it’s outstanding: gavreads.co.uk/2025/11/20/w... It’s one of those stories that gets under your skin because it feels unfair. And the pulpy and provocative stories in I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! gavreads.co.uk/2025/09/01/b... It’s worth getting for those two alone.
BFA25 Review: I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! edited by Berg, McCartney & Galey
This is the second review from my challenge to read the 2025 British Fantasy Award Best Anthology category. The title of I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! is provocative. It came from a comm…
gavreads.co.uk
Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 2mo ago2026 Pride Bundle, the Twinks are in you! A genuinely incredible bunch of books for $30: An Oz masterpiece from Geoff Ryman, books by @chazbrenchley.bsky.social & @fozmeadows.bsky.social, brilliant releases from @neonhemlock.bsky.social @wtpress.bsky.social @wctracy.bsky.social, and MORE. 💙📚🌈📚
This is worth it just for "I Want This Twink Obliterated!" but genuinely, this is a great bundle!
Bona Books 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 2mo ago2026 Pride Bundle, the Twinks are in you! A genuinely incredible bunch of books for $30: An Oz masterpiece from Geoff Ryman, books by @chazbrenchley.bsky.social & @fozmeadows.bsky.social, brilliant releases from @neonhemlock.bsky.social @wtpress.bsky.social @wctracy.bsky.social, and MORE. 💙📚🌈📚
2026 Pride Bundle, the Twinks are in you! A genuinely incredible bunch of books for $30: An Oz masterpiece from Geoff Ryman, books by @chazbrenchley.bsky.social & @fozmeadows.bsky.social, brilliant releases from @neonhemlock.bsky.social @wtpress.bsky.social @wctracy.bsky.social, and MORE. 💙📚🌈📚
We’d be nowhere without AK (literally!) - help them go places! 🐦⬛🚐
AK Faulkner 🔜 MCM Birmingham@ravenswordpress.com · 3mo agoHi! Did you know that business loans below £25,000 are ridiculously predatory, often with flat fees in the £1,500 range before the "low" interest rate?! Please help me get a van without it costing 25% more than it needs to so I can stop renting one every free weeks 😭😘 ko-fi.com/akfaulkner/g...
We’d be nowhere without AK (literally!) - help them go places! 🐦⬛🚐
AK Faulkner 🔜 MCM Birmingham@ravenswordpress.com · 3mo agoHi! Did you know that business loans below £25,000 are ridiculously predatory, often with flat fees in the £1,500 range before the "low" interest rate?! Please help me get a van without it costing 25% more than it needs to so I can stop renting one every free weeks 😭😘 ko-fi.com/akfaulkner/g...
Speaking of podcasts, if you become a Patreon supporter of the brilliant @onceuponavhs.bsky.social, you'll get to listen to a very special episode on FRAGGLE ROCK, for which I selected 10 of my favourite eps for them to watch--an extremely fun project for me, and such a great discussion!
Ding ding! 🔔 The editors have donned their gloves and limbered their triceps for the final bout of setting the contents for #wrathmonth 🧱 This energetic dance takes both grace and agility. Float like a butterfly, sting like… 18 original SFFH stories of queer rage! 💙📚🌈📚 #indiepub
Ding ding! 🔔 The editors have donned their gloves and limbered their triceps for the final bout of setting the contents for #wrathmonth 🧱 This energetic dance takes both grace and agility. Float like a butterfly, sting like… 18 original SFFH stories of queer rage! 💙📚🌈📚 #indiepub
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF VALENZIAGA has broken £7k! Less than £500 to go to unlock no-frills audiobooks for BOTH books in the campaign! Tell your friends! Remember: a Kickstarter is like really good gossip—best when shared with someone who will appreciate it! www.kickstarter.com/projects/tri...
The Fall of the House of Valenziaga: A Special Edition Novel
It’s Drag Race meets a gay Game of Thrones meets The Chronicles of Amber in this queer post-apocalyptic science-fantasy extravaganza!
kickstarter.com
London Book Fair, we are in you. 😈
Rob Berg@robwillb.bsky.social · 5mo agoTaking over London Book Fair 😏
