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Kindle Sales

Amazon Sees Record Kindle Sales; AI Art Auction Sparks Controversy; UK Appoints Ex-Amazon Exec as Antitrust Chief: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

E-books are still doing very well, and Kindle sales have seen a surprising resurgence. That was one of the themes that emerged last year. You will remember Mark Williams gave us one of his timely reminders of how woefully short the official figures fall and the increase to KDP Select payments, which now top $600 million a year and then some. But how are people reading those e-books?
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Spotify Profit

Spotify Celebrates its First Full Year of Profit: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Spotify is excited. And it clearly thinks we should be excited, too. The company has been around for seventeen years (I am sure I have mentioned this before, but if you have even a passing interest in Spotify, the relationship between tech and the arts, or just cracking good television, you should check out the Netflix series The Playlist, which tells the story of Spotify’s early years using some clever narrative devices). And 2024 was its first full year of profitability.
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Bookshop.org Expands To E-Books

Bookshop.org Expands to E-Books; Authors Guild Launches Human Authored Certification: The Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast Featuring Dan Holloway

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway reports on Bookshop.org’s new support for ebooks, giving indie authors more ways to reach readers while supporting local bookstores. He also covers the U.S. Copyright Office’s latest report on AI and copyright, which outlines how current laws apply to AI-assisted works, and the Authors Guild’s new Human Authored certification, designed to provide transparency about AI-generated content in books.
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Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster Drops Blurbs, Encyclopaedia Britannica Eyes IPO, WH Smith Faces Uncertain Future: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

The second round-up of the week has an interesting common thread. Each of the three stories represents the end of an era in some way. The first is more an item of amusing good riddance—an amuse-bouche in every sense. Simon & Schuster has announced that it won’t be pushing authors and editors to paste puff quotes on their covers.
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Human Authored

Authors Guild Launches Human Authored Certification; Copyright Office Releases AI Report: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

You may have noticed that AI is back in the news in a big way, with new discussions about what it means to create "human authored" work. And while I am not, strictly speaking, writing a column about DeepSeek, the entry of another hugely competent and vastly hyped generative AI platform into the fray clearly has implications for us all—not least of which is the demonstration of the vulnerability of whole marketplaces to activities in a single tech sector. As if we needed reminding after the whole FTX debacle and many others before it.
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The Audies

Indie Authors Shine at The Audies; AI and Bookstore Events Make Waves: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

The Audies, run by the Audio Publishing Association, are the industry’s most prestigious awards for audiobooks. And they are of particular interest to us because they have no barriers to entry for indie authors. Indeed, as I have reported over the years, we are sometimes nominated and have even been known to win (2021’s Heroine by Mary Jane Wells). If I had ever been so bold as to proclaim, “The indies are coming!” I would be frustrated at the slow progress over the past few years.
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Audie Awards

Indie Authors Win at the Audie Awards and Creativity Shapes the Future of Work: Self-Publishing with ALLi Featuring Dan Holloway

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast, Dan Holloway celebrates indie successes at the Audie Awards, highlighting notable entries like Spotify’s audiobook Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood. He also discusses the World Economic Forum’s report on the future of jobs, which predicts creative thinking and lifelong curiosity will be among the most valued skills in the next five years, even as reading and writing are seen as declining workplace priorities. Plus, an update on the AI Summit planned for the Bologna Book Fair in April.
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Alliance Of Independent Authors | Self-Publishing News | January 30, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

Bookshop.org Expands into Ebooks, Opening New Doors for Indie Authors: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Bookshop.org is, you will recall, the platform that enables people to buy books wherever they are based and direct a slice of the sales to a local independent bookstore of their choice. It gained publicity and traction during the pandemic, and that has continued—but until now, the focus has been on printed books. Now, Bookshop.org is moving full-on into ebooks.
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Reading Skills

Creative Thinking and Curiosity on the Rise, but Reading Skills Decline: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Last week saw the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, which brought some concerning insights about reading skills. I wish I could report that publishing was front and center of the global agenda—or even that a swathe of AI discussions zoomed in on copyright-adjacent themes. Of course, that wasn’t the case. But it was the case that one of the key annual reports to accompany the event has some interesting (alarming or encouraging or both, depending on which side of the fence you fall—or, indeed, whether you prefer your fence ride to be astride) findings for us.
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AI Summit

AI Summit Planned at Bologna Book Fair: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

If the TikTok drama has done one thing, it has been to keep AI stories at bay. Though the news that tech giants are combining their efforts behind a $500 billion new AI venture unpretentiously monikered Stargate won’t have gone unnoticed. But AI is definitely not off the menu for 2025. We learned this week that the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the event that traditionally kicks off the global conference calendar, will be scheduling in a whole day for an AI Summit. Astute observers and satirists alike will no doubt have noted with wry interest that the event is timetabled for April 1st.
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TikTok’s Near Ban

TikTok’s Near Ban and Crackdowns on Scams: The Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast Featuring Dan Holloway

On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast, Dan Holloway covers the latest developments around TikTok, including its near ban in the United States and the uncertainty it has created for BookTok creators. He also reports on the arrests of individuals behind PageTurner Press and the investigation into Publishing.com, marking significant moves against self-publishing scams.
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