On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway examines the controversy surrounding AI-generated romance novels after a New York Times report revealed one author producing hundreds of titles and earning six figures. He also looks at AI’s growing presence in cultural institutions, new legal pressure from UK publishers, and data suggesting piracy remains a major threat to the book market.

The first story today brings a real sense of déjà vu. Not just because "another copyright-related legal battle against tech firms" is hardly new. It's hardly déjà vu either: more "here we go again." It's more that the latest action from the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) is strikingly familiar in form to the action we saw from the Society of Authors some time ago.

On the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Joe Solari explores why publishing success formulas so often fail. Drawing on a landmark study of cultural markets, he explains how randomness and social feedback loops mean that even books of similar quality can have wildly different outcomes. The good news? The market isn't locked—new winners emerge constantly. Rather than chasing guaranteed recipes, Solari argues authors should focus on building durable advantages and staying in the game long enough for luck to find them.