Dan Holloway, Author at The Self-Publishing Advice Center

Self-Publishing News: Authors Bear Publicity Costs and IBPA Launches Innovative Voices Program

First up today comes one of those pieces that inevitably does the rounds on author websites and forums everywhere. In one of those “yes, we’ve been saying that for years” moments, it seems publicists have finally lifted the lid to the wider world on the fact that even authors whose contracts are with big publishing houses have to pay their own publicity costs.

Self-Publishing News: US Audiobook Revenue Climbs Again, But Fewer Creators Use Chatbots

How long has it been since I reported on another year of double-digit growth for audiobooks? Well, I can guarantee you that it’s as long as I have been writing this column because double-digit sales growth for audiobooks in the United States is as old as ALLi! But whereas ALLi is going strong, the rate of expansion of the audio market has finally, it would seem, succumbed to the inevitable. The Audio Publishers Association, in its sales survey, claims audiobook revenue climbed to an eye-watering $2 billion in 2023, which is a rise of 9 percent.

Self-Publishing News: Autobiography by AI Launched and Oxford University Study Reveals Writers Conflicted About AI

One of the interesting things about the recent Society of Authors survey on AI was that it captured the complexity and what I might call practical ambivalence we have toward this growing technology as a group. By complexity, I mean that AI is not just one thing. Generative AI, such as large platforms like ChatGPT and Midjourney, is only one part of a picture that includes grammar checks, metadata optimization, and even tools to help write an autobiography. By practical ambivalence, I mean that while many of us are very worried and actively critical about some parts of the technology (especially generative AI), we nonetheless use many other parts. Even some of us use the parts we also criticize.

Self-Publishing News: NYT Sues ‘Confusing’ Puzzle to Protect Wordle; Other Media Companies Sign Deals with OpenAI

I’ve often said I find it fascinating how themes can emerge that make one week’s news different from another. This week, that theme is media being, shall we say, unchilled. And yes, I am very much aware that, in writing this, at the risk of evoking the spirit of Judge Dredd, I am the media. But whatever other parlousness I may succumb to, I hope I am guilty of neither of these. The first is something I’ve covered a few times and fear I will be covering a few more. And that’s the willingness of media companies to sign deals with OpenAI allowing their content to be used to train its generative AI. This week, Vox Media and The Atlantic signed deals. They join the likes of Axel Springer, News Corp, Le Monde, and the Financial Times.

Self-Publishing News: Facebook’s AI Policy Sparks Controversy Among Creatives

If a week is a long time in politics, then in the world of technology, Facebook's AI policy sparking controversy among creatives might as well be “living memory.” This means we’re going back to the times of the sagas since we last ran a story on AI. I didn’t even run a story when the whole furore following the launch of ChatGPT-4o (which I did cover) broke as Scarlett Johansson spotted that the voice of the demo sounded a heck of a lot like her, despite her having said she didn’t want to work with OpenAI.

Self-Publishing News: Romantasy Popularity Steadies Print Sales

Last week, we looked at the figures for electronic book sales and the ways in which they are notoriously misleading in their official format. This week, there’s an interesting glimpse into print sales, particularly the genres driving the healthy levels of those sales. Thanks to Porter Anderson over at Publishing Perspectives for outlining the details of an analysis of print sales by the entertainment analysis group Circana.

Self-Publishing News: Sustainability Back in the Literary Spotlight

It has recently been impossible to ignore the fact that the literary and political worlds are intertwined in complex ways. While the geopolitical events at the heart of the most recent entanglements, from Ukraine to Gaza, are new and of our time, the nature of the entanglement remains timeless. Authors are fiercely independent and opinionated beings. We have to be. Yet the publishing industry is reliant on large corporations whose financial dealings are often at odds with many of those opinions. Sustainability back in publishing.

Self-Publishing News: Spotify Expands Audiobook Catalog, Dissecting E-Book Figures, and OverDrive Hits 4 Billion Downloads

We end this week with a round-up of some very interesting news and figures from the world of electronic books (e- and audio-). As we have already been talking about them this week, let’s start with the big news about Spotify. Their audiobook premium subscription now includes titles from the catalog of Bonnier UK. This is the UK division, but Bonnier, of course, is one of the Nordic giants of publishing. Interestingly, they seem to be joined on the Spotify list by Blackstone Publishing.

Self-Publishing News: Buyers Jostle to Bid for TikTok and X Finally Marks the Spot

It has been an interesting week for the social media platforms so many of us rely on for both creative communities and connecting with readers. As buyers jostle to bid for TikTok and X finally marks the spot, these developments are making waves in the book community and beyond.

Self-Publishing News: OpenAI Disbands Risk Team as Microsoft Faces $1B EU Fine Related to AI Risk

This week’s AI-related news falls under the umbrella of “What could possibly go wrong?” (or perhaps more pertinently, “What were they thinking?”). The main news is that OpenAI disbands risk team.

Self-Publishing News: Nonfiction Sales Struggle as Romantasy Goes from Strength to Strength

It’s been a while since I ran a story on publishing figures, but I couldn’t resist this one. The reason is that next Thursday I publish my next nonfiction book about creative thinking. What better time to do so than when there’s a headline in Publishers Weekly announcing that nonfiction sales are struggling?

Self-Publishing News: OpenAI Unveils New Features for ChatGPT-4 and UK Publishers Take on Government Over AI

This week’s big AI news is OpenAI’s demonstration of new features for its ChatGPT-4 platform, which the company emphasized does not yet amount to ChatGPT-5. The announcement of GPT-4o, available to all users, including free users, and as a desktop app, was particularly notable.

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