AI Acts as Librarian, Revives Agatha Christie, and Outsmarts Humans on Reddit: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
This week’s AI news all falls firmly into the “what’s it done now?” category I mentioned last week.
Comics Plus and Penguin Random House Clash Over E-Book Lending Models: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
Remember back to the innocent days just before COVID turned the world on its head and we were blissfully unaware of NFTs and generative AI? As 2019 closed and 2020 dawned, one of the things keeping people in the book world up at night was the raging battle between libraries and publishers over e-book lending.
BookBub Survey Finds Indie Authors Divided on AI Use, Ethics Still a Major Concern: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
Surveys are always great reading. They have more or less value in terms of understanding the challenging landscape, largely depending on their sample size and the transparency around it. This week we have a survey that’s both interesting and enlightening—and on the becoming-perennial subject of authors’ attitudes toward AI. It comes courtesy of a BookBub survey. This means that the kind of authors represented will be very like a sizeable portion of the cohort of indie authors. Indeed, 69 percent of authors who responded to the survey only self-publish, and 25 percent were hybrid.
AI Fakes Book List in Major Newspaper; Spotify Sees iOS Boost; Authors Push Back on Copyright: Self-Publishing with ALLi Featuring Dan Holloway
On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway covers an incident in which the Chicago Sun-Times recommended AI-invented books by real authors, and a troubling test in which Anthropic’s AI, Claude 4.0, threatened a user with blackmail. He also reports that Spotify has seen a rise in iOS subscriptions following the Apple ruling on in-app purchases, and shares the latest from ongoing AI copyright debates in the UK and EU, where authors and creators continue pushing back against efforts to weaken protections.
Spotify Reports iOS Payment Changes Boost Subscriptions; Bluesky Rolls Out Verification: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
It’s only a couple of weeks since courts ruled that Apple could not keep taking a sizeable slice of all in-app sales. But things have moved really fast in that time (it’s almost as if companies were waiting for the ruling to pounce into action with an oven-ready plan in response to iOS payment changes).
Creators Urge Stronger AI Rules as UK Drops Transparency Amendment; Anthropic’s Claude Raises Alarm: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
Regulation and legislation might have struggled historically to keep pace with technology. AI is no different, but in the past few months, it has been a consistent narrative that various legislative regimes across the world have set themselves on markedly different courses—particularly when it comes to the relative protection and promotion of the creative and technological industries, and in some cases, the introduction or rejection of a transparency amendment.
AI Dreams Up Fake Book Titles; IBPA Conference Focuses on Publishing and AI: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
I can’t not sneak a breaking story in here. If you have been living under a rock, you may not have seen the incident involving the Chicago Sun-Times and AI-generated fake books titles. If that’s you, go over here and have a chucklesnort. Fortunately, this column will never be in danger of that particular embarrassment!
Audible Expands AI Narration Program; KDP Print Royalties Change; UK Rejects AI Copyright Amendment: Self-Publishing with ALLi Featuring Dan Holloway
On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway reports that Audible has launched a major AI narration program featuring 100 synthetic voices, with options for both publishers and indie authors. He also covers upcoming changes to KDP Print royalties and costs, a 10,000-signature petition from European creators calling for stronger AI copyright protections, and news that the UK government has rejected a proposed AI transparency amendment. He closes with the latest developments in the Apple–Epic Games legal case, which could affect in-app book and audiobook sales.
UK Rejects Copyright Transparency in AI Bill; Epic Takes Apple Back to Court: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
Legal shenanigans is the theme for today’s set of stories. First up, we have prospective legislation—specifically, proposed UK legislation on AI. This is something I feel like I have been following for some time. Those who have been following along will know that the UK has tended, especially under the previous administration, to take a much more tech-friendly approach than elsewhere in Europe.
Authors Guild Petitions to Reinstate U.S. Copyright Chief; European Creators Demand AI Transparency: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
It is a week of petitions in the books world. With thanks to Porter Anderson over at Publishing Perspectives for drawing attention to this. Both of them touch on copyright. They may or may not also be connected around a common axis of copyright and technology.
Audible Expands AI Narration and Translation; KDP Adjusts Print Royalties: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway
Audible has announced a huge new AI narration program, offering 100 new voices. For a while, Audible was known as the platform that refused to accept AI-narrated audiobooks. It was always obvious why this was: when they were ready, they would introduce their own AI-generated voices and use those to populate the platform with an expanded range of audiobooks.
Apple Ruling Opens iOS to Direct Book Sales; AAP Calls for AI Cooperation; Audiobook Growth Continues: Self-Publishing with ALLi Featuring Dan Holloway
On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway explains how a major legal ruling against Apple is changing the landscape for in-app purchases, with Kindle, Patreon, and Spotify now enabling direct book sales on iOS. He also covers a call for cooperation between publishers and tech companies from the Association of American Publishers, and reports strong Q1 growth in audiobook subscriptions from Nordic platform Storytel.