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Self-Publishing Partnership Collapse

News Summary: Self-Publishing Partnership Collapse Affects Around 100 Authors

We end with an update on a story I reported on a week or so back, the collapse of the Self-Publishing Partnership (SPP). You will recall that authors had received emails seemingly out of the blue notifying them that the company would cease trading. This left authors with unpaid royalties and print books left in the system, with Gardners trying to find ways to help authors whose books they still had in their distribution network. Much of the groundwork in following things up was done by The Bookseller, and they have just issued an update (update to the update: there’s a second update!).
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New Study Ties Library E-Lending To Falling Print Sales

News Podcast: New Study Ties Library E-Lending to Falling Print Sales; CDs Stage a Comeback

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway looks at the retro tech boom driving an unexpected CD revival — and what Gen Z's love of physical media means for print books. He then digs into a contested new study, cited by the AAP and Authors Guild, that links rising library e-lending to falling print sales, and reminds indie authors they set their own library pricing through OverDrive. He closes with an invitation to take Gotham Ghostwriters' second AI and Writing survey.
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What Should Authors Pay For Professional Editing?

Audio Interview: What Should Authors Pay for Professional Editing? With Howard Lovy and Roz Morris.

On the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, host Howard Lovy talks to editor and author Roz Morris about what professional editing really costs and what authors get for their money. They discuss how editors set their rates, hourly versus fixed pricing, why some manuscripts require more work than others, choosing the right editor for your book, and why using AI before hiring an editor can sometimes prove to be a false economy.
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Bonnier Buys Nextory

News Summary: Bonnier Buys Nextory, CDs Rebound, and a Goodreads Scam Targets Authors

We start with some big news in the audiobook sphere. That news comes from the world of Nordic audiobook companies, where Sweden’s Bonnier, owner of the BookBeat platform, has fully bought audiobook platform Nextory. That this was positioned in the Publishing Perspectives report on the story as a challenge to Storytel is a suitable reminder of just how dominant companies in that part of the world are in the audiobook market.
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Library E-Book Lending Hurts Book Sales

News Summary: New Study Says Library E-Book Lending Hurts Book Sales

The tale of libraries, e-books, and publishers is less a news story and more an album-length epic of prog rock. The TL;DR so far is: libraries say they are being asked to pay too much for e-books; publishers say they have to charge this much because libraries take away from retail sales; meanwhile, indies can set their own prices when they distribute to OverDrive and make our books a very attractive proposition.
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Delay Anthropic Payouts

News Podcast: Lawyers’ Appeal Could Delay Anthropic Payouts; Publishers Fail to Register Copyrights

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway brings two updates on the Anthropic settlement: an appeal by the class lawyers over their reduced fees that could considerably delay the $3,000-per-title payouts, and an Authors Guild survey finding that 93 percent of publishers contractually required to register copyrights failed to do so — a problem that reaches well beyond indie authors. He closes with Google Play Books' new Expert Intelligence feature, an AI tool trained only on books readers have purchased.
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Google Play Books Launches Expert Intelligence

News Summary: Google Play Books Launches Expert Intelligence Ebook Function

Google Play Books is the latest ebook store to jump on the bandwagon of adding AI features that enable readers to interact with the books they are reading. Amazon has already introduced, you will remember, a Story So Far feature that acts as a recap for readers who want to be brought up to speed when they dive back into a book. That feature also allows you to ask about characters and plot arcs within the book you are reading.
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Delay Anthropic Payout

News Summary: Appeal Over Legal Fees Could Delay Anthropic Payout

We start the week with a bit of topping, tailing, and appendixing of some stories we’ve been following for a little while. First and most significantly comes news from the Anthropic case that could have a direct impact, with thanks to Jane Friedman for pointing to the story. It seems as though there might be an appeal in this case. But it’s not coming from where you might expect: the tech giant liable to pay out the $1.5 billion settlement in the class action.
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News Summary: Survey Suggests Many Publishers Still Fail to Register Copyright

A very interesting postscript to the Anthropic case comes courtesy of a survey carried out by the Authors Guild. You will recall that one of the key defining factors of the eligible class in the class action was that copyright was registered in a timely fashion with the US Copyright Office. We know this meant a lot of otherwise eligible indie authors were denied compensation as a result of this.
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