(1) NO THANKS. Artiverse tells “Why Nearly Half of Kobo’s Self-Published Books Get Rejected”.

Rakuten Kobo, a popular self-publishing platform, rejected 45% of book submissions in 2025. That’s almost half of all the books sent to them.

Michael Tamblyn, Kobo’s CEO, explained that most rejections came down to poor-quality AI-generated content. In fact, over 80% of rejected books were clearly created by AI and judged to be very low quality.

Tamblyn emphasized the point: “The 45% is the share of submissions rejected, not the share of submitted books written by AI.” This means not all books use AI, but many low-quality ones get filtered out.

Kobo has strict rules for what they accept. They reject books if titles are too short, if content is AI-generated but poor, if translations are bad, or if prices are too high. They keep the right to refuse or remove any title at any time.

Interestingly, Kobo uses AI themselves to analyze book texts during the review process. This helps them spot AI-generated content and low-quality work more easily….

(2) BEHIND THE SCENES OF SPACEBALLS. June 28 was his birthday, and MovieMaker sent its best wishes: “Happy 100th Mel Brooks! 12 Stories of His Ludicrous Epic, Spaceballs”. Here’s one of those stories:

Daphne Zuniga Wasn’t a Mel Brooks Fan

Prior to working with Brooks, Zuniga (in a promotional image, above) said she found his movie parodies “too crass and just not funny,” according to Turner Classic Movies. But she changed her mind after her Spaceballs experience.

“I have this image of Mel as totally wacko and out to lunch. And he is. But he’s also really perceptive, real sensitive in ways that make actors respond,” she said.

Brooks recalls that when he offered her the part of Vespa, she said, “I don’t know. I haven’t done much comedy.” To which he replied, “That could be a plus!” (He explained that part of good comedy is playing it straight.)

Zuniga, of course, turned out to be very funny in Spaceballs, mostly because her character seemed to be taking all the absurdity around her quite seriously.

(3) THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE TODAY. [Item by Chris Barkley.] “Sci-Fi Classic Space: 1999 Was Originally Meant To Be A British Show’s Second Season” according toTVLine.com.

When it premiered in 1975, “Space: 1999” introduced sci-fi fans to a bold new future. Starring Martin Landau as Commander John Koenig, the courageous leader of Moonbase Alpha, this short-lived series actually began life as the planned second season of a failing British sci-fi show: “UFO.”

A forgotten 1970 television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the plot of “UFO” saw a secret military organization defending Earth from a dying alien race that traveled across space to harvest human organs. The U.S. distributors of “UFO” pulled the plug after its ratings started to dwindle, however, leaving the Andersons with a ton of pre-production work already locked in for Season 2 … and nothing to do with it.

Rather than jettison all that work, a deal was struck. U.S. financial backing was secured, but the creators had to completely overhaul their vision to meet one major condition — the new show had to take place on the moon. So, Gerry Anderson shifted gears and cooked up a new premise: Instead of aliens visiting Earth, the humans would be the ones stranded in deep space. The recalibrated series followed the crew of Moonbase Alpha, who are sent hurling through the cosmos after a nuclear explosion blasts the moon clean out of Earth’s orbit….

(4) AUCTION OF ITEMS FROM WOLLHEIM COLLECTION. Bookseller Mark Funke’s newest catalogue is: International Science Fiction.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls Donald A. Wollheim (1914-90) “one of the first and most vociferous SF fans.” As publisher and editor, Wollheim was a leading influence on science fiction development and fandom in the twentieth century.

This catalogue presents Wollheim’s personal collection of international science fiction, emphasizing books printed in Latin America and items personally inscribed to him.

(5) THREE-PART DISHARMONY. Animation Magazine celebrates as “’Batman: Knightfall’ Official Trailer Debuts from Warner Bros. Animation & DC”.

DC, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment have released the official trailer for Batman: Knightfall, a three-part movie event bringing to life one of the Batman comics’ most iconic sagas.

Part One of the trilogy, Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall premiered tonight at the 2026 edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, with an official release planned for later this year.

Logline: When the mysterious behemoth known only as Bane frees Batman’s entire Rogue’s Gallery from Arkham Asylum, the Caped Crusader is pushed to his mental and physical breaking point.

(6) GLEN A. BOETTCHER (1952-2026). Milwaukee fan Glen A. Boettcher died June 29. He is survived by his wife Nancy Mildebrant, and son Glen Boettcher.  

Whenever I encountered Glen at Worldcons in Chicago he was always doing something that made a good story for my conreport. Here are two examples.

At the 1991 Worldcon, where Glen helped run the Green Room, his Division Head told him that Hyatt management said they could bring in anything as long as they kept it basically a secret from the hotel staff. Which is how fans have to operate in every hotel in the world, so what was the big favor? The Green Room staff’s secret route to bring in supplies through the hotel was dubbed “Red Route One” because it ran between two Pepsi machines that reminded someone of Thor’s Peaks in the Tom Clancy novel Hunt for Red October. Vande Bunt gestured at their orange hand truck, “Hotel employees don’t hear us coming because of our caterpillar drive.” And about the split‑second timing involved in using Hyatt service corridors, he said, “If you don’t have a stopwatch, you’re in trouble.”

At Chicon 2000 I sat down with Glen Boettcher and Nancy Mildebrandt. Glen was buoyant because Jeff Walker had designated him to accept the Hugo if The Matrix, Iron Giant or Sixth Sense won. Ten seconds after he explained that to me word passed through the room that the script writer and producer of Galaxy Quest had arrived in person, and Glen started to worry that pair would beat his three aces….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

June 29, 1920 — Ray Harryhausen. (Died 2013.)

By Paul Weimer: Once again, WPIX comes through.  Many of Ray Harryhausen’s movies wound up on WPIX in my early movie watching. Jason and the Argonauts and its memorable animations, including the skeletons (oh, those skeletons gave me nightmares). One Million B.C., Mysterious Island, The Sinbad movies. All of them I ate up with a spoon in the late 70’s and early 1980’s. The practical special effects astonished me, inspired me and enthralled me all at the same time. In an age before computer special effects, what he was able to do was beyond belief (and incredibly intensive in terms of work needed). The amount of work that was required for him to do his magic was incredible, but so were the results. 

But Clash of the Titans made the mark for me. I had been reading and enjoying Greek Mythology for quite some time when I finally saw it on WPIX in the mid 1980’s. The last of the great Harryhausen movies, when his craft and skill were on the edge of being replaced by more modern techniques, but still showing their power. Harryhausen showed me why I loved Greek mythological stories so much. Also, a fun fact, because of the limitations of animation at the time, he gave Medusa a serpent’s body, which is not in the myth or prior source material.  However, that vision was so fully and completely realized (and terrifying) that a snake body Medusa is practically the default in fantasy and roleplaying games, now. That shows just how influential and amazingly effective his creations could be. He changed the monster, with a movie.

And don’t forget Bubo. Is he a bit corny and cheesy? Yes. But do I adore him? Absolutely! When, in the Clash of the Titans remake, Perseus finds Bubo and then immediately trashes him, I shook my fist at the screen. That felt…personal. Don’t mess with Bubo. 

An epic master craftsman whose creations haunt my dreams and influence my creativity. What more can one ask for?

Ray Harryhausen

(8) COMICS SECTION.

• xkcd gets ready for a cosmic reversal.
• Carpe Diem needs better timing.
• Close to Home gives directions.
• Pardon My Planet can tell.
• Strange Brew offers a prescription.
• The Other Coast knows an easy solution.
• Zen Pencils sees beauty.

(9) HUMANS BACK ON THE JOB. “Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks” reports BBC.

Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience.

In a bid to reap the benefits of the tech, which developers claim can cut costs and boost productivity, the US carmaker adopted it across some parts of its operations including for quality checks.

But, according to Bloomberg, its executives said the firm has rehired more than 300 “veteran” quality inspectors in recent years to make up for the pitfalls of automated systems.

“Artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” Charles Poon, vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, told reporters.

“Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers that have been with us through many product cycles,” he said….

(10) UNEXPECTED GOLD. ScienceAlert says “There’s a Volcano in Antarctica Spewing Crystals of Gold Into The Atmosphere”.

Lava. Ash. Horrifying death.

All are known and expected outputs from an active volcano.

But one volcano deep in the farthest, frozen reaches of our planet marches to the beat of a slightly different drum.

On Ross Island in the Ross Sea, a deep bay in Antarctica, Mount Erebus fumes about 1,350 kilometers (840 miles) from the Geographic South Pole. The world’s southernmost active volcano, it bubbles with a permanent lake of blazing lava.

And in the gas constantly pouring forth from this gate to the underworld, scientists found microscopic particles of crystalline, elemental gold.

According to a 1991 research paper, published in Geophysical Research Letters, Erebus belches out about 80 grams (2.8 ounces) of microscopic gold dust per day, scattering it as far as 1,000 kilometers away – maybe even farther.

(11) TODAY’S TITLE EXPLAINED. [Item by Daniel Dern.] “My Avatar Told Me That I Was Right Out Of My Heads” is inspired by “Twisted” (an Annie Ross song). Filers probably know the Joni Mitchell recording.

Here’s Annie Ross (with Count Basie). I’m also fond of the  Lambert, Hendryx and [Annie] Ross version.

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]