Dan Holloway, Author at The Self-Publishing Advice Center

Oscars Open to AI-Generated Films and Literary Events Make a Comeback: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

It was inevitable that AI would poke its nose in before the week drew to a close, and here we are (though we also have a delightfully analog story as a counterbalance). You will recall that the Grammys recently announced they would permit music that AI had played a part in creating to be eligible for their awards. This week, the Oscars followed suit, announcing that AI-generated films will be eligible for top honors.

Spotify Recognized for Audiobook Innovation: Self-Publishing with ALLi featuring Dan Holloway

On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway reports on Spotify receiving the BISG Industry Innovator Award for its audiobook efforts, including new tools for indie authors. He also highlights Patreon’s launch of unlimited in-platform livestreaming, a move that supports creators building subscription-based communities. Finally, Dan explores a growing trend in book subscription services: curating and now publishing original content tailored to their audiences.

Patreon Livestreaming and Book Box Publishers Highlight Creator-Led Trends: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

An increasing number of my favorite online creatives are moving more of their content behind a paywall, and new tools like Patreon livestreaming are helping them do it. This applies to YouTube channels, and it also applies to writers and bloggers. Creators are increasingly discovering that the OG of internet art, the 1,000 true fans model, is still a viable way to avoid the twin perils of the algorithm and changing payment models that come with relying on ad revenue, general fee pools, and other forms of reliance on wider platforms.

April 24, 2025
Dan Holloway
News
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Spotify Audiobooks for Authors Earn Industry Innovator Award: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

It won’t have escaped your notice that Spotify audiobooks for authors have become a growing focus lately. Having started their audiobook journey quietly, they are now not only making audiobooks central to their listening offer, they are building more and more tools for authors to work with them directly.

Amazon’s TikTok Bid Sparks Booksellers’ Opposition; Publishers File Brief Against Meta: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

We end the week with a round-up that begins with a story I seem to have missed when it first broke at the start of April. It’s an interesting and highly relevant twist in the TikTok ownership saga. You will recall that we are currently in a ninety-day extension to the time at which the TikTok ban is scheduled to come into force. The condition for avoiding the ban is that TikTok in the US is sold to a company not based in China and uses a different algorithm from the one the ByteDance-owned company currently operates everywhere it is available.

Printed Books Exempt from New US Tariffs, Canva Adds AI Tools, Ingram Launches MediaScout: Self-Publishing with ALLi featuring Dan Holloway

On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway reports that new US tariffs will not apply to printed books, thanks to an information exemption, though the impact on printing materials remains unclear. He covers Canva’s launch of AI tools following a pricing change, a legal brief challenging Meta’s use of copyrighted content, and Ingram’s new MediaScout platform, which showcases indie books for film and TV adaptation.

Ingram Mediascout Offers Film Rights Exposure for Indie Authors: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

In my day job in higher education, I am, like many others, winding down for the holiday season. But in the book world, we seem to have stumbled into a particularly busy time for news. So expect more than one story from each column this week. I begin with particularly exciting news for indie authors looking to extract the maximum return from all of the rights they own in their work. Ingram has just gone live with its Mediascout program.

Canva Unveils AI Tools, Including Image Generation; Law Professors Challenge Meta’s Copyright Use: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

This week’s AI news focuses on two issues of great interest to indie authors. I will start with Canva. In part because I haven’t talked about them for a while. And partly because this news picks up from the last time I did talk about them. Which was last year, when they made a lot of people unhappy by increasing the price of its Pro offering from a flat $120 per year for a team license to $10 a month per team member.

Books Exempt from Latest US Tariffs, but Printing Materials May Be Hit: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

You will probably have noticed an absence of reporting on what has been an almost constant in the regular news media: the impact of the various new international trade tariffs. That is because there has been considerable lack of clarity on the impact this would have on the book business and our particular corner of it. This week we learned a lot more. Tl;dr: books are exempt from the latest round of tariffs imposed on trade imports into the US.

NaNoWriMo Shuts Down, AI Lawsuits Consolidated, and Amazon Adds Kindle Recaps: Self-Publishing with ALLi featuring Dan Holloway

On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway reports that National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo, has announced it will not officially take place this November, citing financial and reputational concerns. He also covers the latest in AI and copyright, including the consolidation of major lawsuits against tech companies, protests outside Meta’s London offices, and new research suggesting copyrighted materials have been used to train AI models. Finally, he discusses Amazon’s new AI-powered Kindle Recap feature and questions around whether authors have consented to its use.

AI Copyright Lawsuits Consolidated as Authors Protest Meta’s Use of Shadow Library: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

For some time, there have been several AI copyright lawsuits brought by rights holders against tech firms, each focusing on how they trained their generative models and whether they breached copyright in doing so. Now, twelve of those cases have been consolidated, including the highest profile of all—the one brought by (inter alia) Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates—during which Meta’s now-infamous internal comms about LibGen were released.

AI-Powered Kindle Recaps Launched for Series Readers; TikTok Ban Delayed: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Users of Amazon’s Kindle (in the US for now, but surely to be widened) now have access to a new “recaps” feature. Kindle Recaps is designed for people who like book series. As the title suggests, it allows readers to refresh their memories about what happened earlier in the series while they are reading the latest installment.

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