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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more

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.
Read more
Amazon Rips Up Rare Books

News Podcast: Amazon Rips Up Rare Books to Train AI; Kobo Returns to Best Buy Blurb

On this week's Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway rounds up a busy week for indie authors: the rise of "Summerween," BookTok's new blend of sunny settings and Gothic dread; Kobo's return to big-box retail through Best Buy; and the report that Amazon has been ripping up and shredding books, including rare out-of-print titles, to train its AI. He also digs into KDP trend data showing dystopian fiction bouncing back and self-published titles claiming 38 percent of the US top 100, and closes with Ingram's new Covered platform, which puts digital advance copies in front of 50,000 booksellers and librarians.
Read more
Destroying Books To Train AI

News Summary: Are Amazon and Other AI Companies Destroying Books to Train AI?

In one of those “I thought everyone knew that already” stories, this week the book world has been up in arms at revelations that the AI industry is training its large language models, where digital titles aren’t available, on physical books. Firms are buying copies of print books and then destroying them as they scan them into their computers. Some of the titles ending up subjected to this fate are exceedingly rare and have been out of print for decades.
Read more
Illustrated Narrative Nonfiction

Producing an Illustrated Narrative Nonfiction Book, Retaining IP, and Getting It into Bookstores, with Anna Featherstone and Bee Lim

Clinical psychologist Bee Lim knew her illustrated book on trauma, Welcome Home: Healing Trauma and Reclaiming Wholeness, couldn’t be a standard paperback—and that she wasn’t willing to give up her IP, therapeutic arc, or choice of illustrator, her husband, concept artist Joel Timpson. In this episode, Bee shares why she chose the custom publishing route, hired her own publicist, and planned a multicountry launch. She also discusses the constraints of marketing a book as a regulated health professional.
Read more
Ingram Launches Covered

News Summary: Ingram Launches Covered, Amazon Changes Bestseller Updates

Ingram has now launched its long-touted Covered platform. Covered is an alternative to platforms like NetGalley that offer advance copies of books. It will have a digital focus, initially offering ebooks in EPUB and PDF formats, with audiobooks expected to follow in the near future. The platform will be open to Ingram’s network of 50,000 or so booksellers and librarians, who will be able to order copies of books they like based on the advance reading the platform enables them to do.
Read more
Summerween

News Summary: Summerween, Lit Circle, and Kobo Bring New Options for Readers

As summer comes to an end, thoughts for many of us as readers and writers turn to “spooky season.” But what if you just can’t wait till the evenings really draw in (or indeed out in the Southern Hemisphere) to get your fangs stuck into some ghoulish books? Well, it seems that the latest trend on BookTok is just for you. “Summerween” is a portmanteau named (apparently) for an episode of the animated series Gravity Falls.
Read more
Older Posts →
Back To Top
×Close search
Search
Loading...