Laterpress Weekly: May 28th, 2026 (Issue #190)

Nate's Notes:

We have had some basic dictation capabilities for a while now, but they were confined to just one feature: Notes. Anyone using the notes feature has had the ability to dictate notes for reference and review at any time, but those notes are not inserted into the manuscript. Nor are they used as context for anyone working with our AI story tools. I thought, "Why don't we take this existing feature and expand on what it can do?"

Now, so long as authors have an internet or cellular data connection, they can dictate their stories directly into the Laterpress editor from anywhere. From your patio, balcony, or backyard. While out on a walk or camping. In bed. The dictation feature works on PC and mobile, and is activated by clicking the new microphone icon in for the chapter you're working on.

This will open a permissions request to access the PC or phone microphone. For example:

After giving access, recording starts. The dictation UI appears in the middle of the text editor, like so:

When you're done dictating, click the blue UP arrow. This uploads the audio file for transcription and formatting, before depositing the finished text into the editor. The text will appear either at the top of the chapter, or where the cursor icon was set in the chapter before clicking the microphone icon.

A few important notes about dictation:

1. Audio clips are deleted once transcription finishes. We do not save or store audio files.
2. The cleanup process does not add new words or change what someone said. It only seeks to format it in an easier to edit form by adding things like quotation marks, punctuation, and paragraph breaks.
3. As with all Laterpress AI features, this feature does not send training data back to OpenAI or Anthropic.
4. I recommend folks stop dictating and have audio transcribed every 5-10 minutes. There is currently a limit of about 10,000 characters, (roughly 1700 words) at a time for transcription. Submitting audio in batches will make sure everything gets preserved. The transcription and formatting process only takes at most 10-15 seconds, in my experience.
5. Using dictation does not bypass moderation filters around sexually explicit content, so it won't work for spicy scenes.
6. Some manual cleanup is still needed, but it's much better than getting a single paragraph brick of text and having to break that up. For fantasy authors like me, assume dictation will misspell some character names or invented words, so be sure to check those.

I've been working on improving my dictation skills, but I'm often dictating in 600-900 word chunks before I need to pause and think. Now, if I have an idea at 11pm, I can pull up the editor, dictate the thought, and come back to it in the morning. If a couple lines of dialogue come to me in a moment of inspiration, I'm dictating them into the editor before I forget. I'm dictating while doing laps of my neighborhood. Heck, I'll probably be using it to dictate the first pass of future Nate's Notes segments, getting my core argument down before I sit down to refine it.

Even if your dictation powers are not at the level that you can speak out a 5,000 word chapter while washing dishes, this can still be a versatile and useful feature.

If you'd like a video overview of dictation, check our new video about it on YouTube.

Check it out, and have fun!

Interesting News and Stories from Around the Publishing World:

​Why KDP is a Trap: The 5 Hidden Platforms for Selling More Books - Indie authors tend to fall into one of two camps, either exclusive to Amazon with everything, or publishing wide with as many retailers as possible, while offering some form of direct sales. In this video, Dale Roberts makes the case for why authors would want to go wide. He covers StoryOrigin, Laterpress, Gumroad, YouTube, and Payhip, explaining how each can fit into an author’s strategy. We appreciate the mention!

​Accessibility And AI: How New Tools Are Opening Doors For Indie Authors With Jeff Adams - Jeff is an author of YA thrillers and gay romance, as well as co-author of Content for Everyone, a guide for creative entrepreneurs for producing accessible web content. In this episode of the Creative Penn podcast, Jeff talks with Joanna about AI can help remove physical and cognitive barriers for authors with disabilities. They discuss the culture of shaming around AI use in writing spaces and how that can be ableist, and talk about practical tools they've used. The interview starts at 20:00.

Their conversation reminds me of one I had with a military veteran given a medical discharge. I am not going to share details of another person's medical situation, but will say he told me that because due to his situation, he'd struggled to make any headway on the story he wanted to tell. AI tools helped him finally see progress and feel like at last he could do it now, that there was a path forward for him. He was so happy to feel capable again, and I hope nobody ever robs him of that joy. He's earned it.

​Writing & Publishing Awards Have Difficult Decisions to Make Regarding AI - Jane Friedman weighs in on the controversy surrounding the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, in which multiple regional winners were alleged to have used AI in the crafting of their stories. One award-winning author open about AI use is Luke Stoffel. Jane covers his comments about how AI helped him compensate for dyslexia and ADHD. She doesn't think AI detection can be accurate enough or develop fast enough to keep pace with AI development, nor does she believe initiatives like the Authors Guild's Human Authored Certification will solve anything. Anyone adopting no-AI policies needs to determine a method of enforcement and auditing. Is this handled in-house? Is the burden of proof put on authors? What is the process if the reviewer believes there was AI use and the author contests that assumption?

Jane's conclusion: Anti-AI policies will fall away over the long term. "Aggressive AI policing implies that writers are choosing convenience over craft, or that no defensible AI use exists in the writing profession. I’d prefer to treat writers as professionals who decide on their tools and creative workflow, then judge based on output, not process. Of course, individuals with zero tolerance for AI typically have deeply held moral or ethical objections to the technology, but as I see it, many commercial publishers or institutions with diverse stakeholders are not proactive but reactive, mainly trying to stem online backlash, as was the case in the SFWA community regarding the Nebula Awards. The people speaking against AI are loud, but they’re rarely the ones who have to find a defensible and effective way to police AI use." (Emphasis is mine.)

​Time Anxiety and the Writer's Clock: Making Peace With Your Pace - Hustle culture and social media can make it seem like “everyone is doing better than you.” Over here, a debut author whose book went viral and has sold thousands of copies. Over there, an author putting out a novel every three months like clockwork. It can be hard not to play the comparison game, measuring one’s own pace against others. But in a world wanting more, more, more and faster, faster, faster, it’s necessary to stay grounded in sustainability to ward off burnout. In this article for Writer’s Digest, Deanna Martinez-Bey examines reasons authors feel time pressure, and offers tips for diffusing that stress.

​Are hardback books things of 'great beauty' or a dying art? - Are you a lover or a hater of hardcover books? Earlier this month, The Guardian ran an opinion piece suggesting the format needs to die. They are “heavy, awkward, and overly expensive.” It prompted the BBC to examine the format as well. They talked with bookshop owners and publishers to examine why they’re important to publishing companies, and what kinds of readers do or don’t like them. More and more, hardcovers are used as art pieces and display objects more than as reading material.

​Is There Really A Book Price Crisis? - I'd expect opinions on current book prices to differ depending on if someone is a reader looking to buy them, or an author selling them. Do books cost too much? Alison Talks Books created her video in response to one with an clickbait-y title from Daniel Greene: The Book Price Crisis EXPOSED. When everything else is more expensive and budgets are strained, it can make books appear more expensive, though book pricing in general has proven resistant to inflation, even in the face of higher print costs. Then, you have Amazon trapping indie authors in a $2.99 to $9.99 box for maximum royalties on ebooks. (In my opinion, any ebook that's cheaper than a gallon of gas is underpriced.)

Alison comes down on the side of "No, books are not overpriced," and I agree with her. Libraries and used bookstores exist. Ebooks exist, and are cheaper than new print copies. If someone reads 10 books a month and insists on only buying new print copies, then yes, reading can be an expensive hobby. But there are a lot of ways to engage with fiction in more affordable ways. Authors deserve to be compensated for their effort, right?

This Week's Featured Story:

Vengeance Is Hers, by Robert Chazz Chute

This is not a guide for aspiring vigilantes, but it might inspire you!

Welcome to Poeticule Bay, Maine, a village where justice is scarce, and secrets have deadly consequences. When a gay student is brutally attacked and exiled from his home, the police turn a blind eye. Fueled by rage, Molly Jergins launches a relentless campaign against the school bully and his sinister family.

As Molly's quest for retaliation spirals into chaos, the lines between hero and villain blur. To hunt monsters, must she become the very thing she despises? Will revenge prove the best success?

Meme of the Week: