Spotify is back in the news, this time for mental health fiction. Rather than focusing on audiobook sales or author tools, the company has launched a new prize for writers: the Spotify x JED Impact Award.
ALLi News Editor, Dan Holloway
Spotify Launches Mental Health Fiction Prize
The award operates through The Black List, best known as the place where the best unfilmed scripts in Hollywood can be found (and, their writers hope, picked up for the stage). In the award’s own words, this is what it’s looking for:
“The Spotify x JED Impact Award is a new initiative to identify five unpublished, novel-length manuscripts that elevate exceptional depictions of mental health in fiction.”
The writers of each of those manuscripts will receive a $10,000 grant.
It goes on to state further:
“This initiative is open to unpublished manuscripts of all genres, but we particularly encourage submissions that normalize mental health experiences, challenge stereotypes, and showcase help-seeking and help-giving narratives.”
If that applies to you, best of luck with your submission. More details can be found in Publishers Weekly.
TikTok and Bluesky Expand Their Reach
Also in the world of tech platforms, TikTok returned to the US App and Play stores. This comes as the US attorney general wrote to Apple to say the ban on ByteDance-owned apps would not be enforced. It doesn’t mean the ban is overturned, but it is confirmation that, as we had anticipated, for now it will not be carried out in practice.
Finally, on the subject of apps, Bluesky is rolling out more tools. BlueskyHunter is an analytics dashboard that provides creators with all kinds of insights. It also offers scheduling tools. In other words, it seems to want to appeal to anyone who is using the app as a way of doing business. This comes as Bluesky’s continued growth sees it hitting 31.5 million users.
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