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Self-Publishing | With ALLi | News Analysis & Commentary | Proudly Sponsored By | Bookvault | Miblart | Dan Holloway | Sel…

News Podcast: European Accessibility Act Now in Force; US Court Rules AI Outputs Are Fair Use

On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway explains how the European Accessibility Act will impact authors selling into the EU, with practical tips on accessible formats and why EPUB matters more than ever. He also covers a major U.S. court ruling against Anthropic for scraping copyrighted books—while still declaring its AI-generated content fair use.
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Alliance Of Independent | Authors | Self-Publishing | News | July 1, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

News Summary: EU Accessibility Act Takes Effect, Raising the Bar for Digital Publishing Standards

I decided I should probably write this entry while listening, with bleary-eyed nostalgia, to New Order. Because this story quite simply evokes the line, “I used to think that the day would never come.” I have been writing about the European Union’s Accessibility Act for years now. Such is the way with European legislation—its journey into law has more hidden levels than Super Mario Brothers.
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Alliance Of Independent Authors | Self-Publishing News | June 28, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

News Summary: Booktrovert Launches, New Poetry Prize Announced, and Marginalia Returns via TikTok

A suitable Saturday round-up brings us new opportunities and the oldest of literary trends. First up, news of a new platform that seeks to offer something distinctive in what I’d call the “curated discovery” space. It feels like a crowded space already, but in practical terms it is dominated by BookBub. Its name is Booktrovert, and it is brought to the world by the NetGalley team.
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Self-Publishing | With ALLi | News Analysis & | Commentary | Proudly | Sponsored By | Bookvault | Miblart | Dan Holloway |…

News Podcast: Audiobook Downloads Surge, TikTok’s 8th Note Press Stalls, and AI Copyright Concerns Rise

On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway covers strong UK audio growth, with audiobook downloads up 31 percent in 2024, and rising fiction sales led by romance. He previews a major London conference on copyright, AI, and shadow libraries, and reports that Mastodon has joined other platforms in adopting anti-scraping clauses. Finally, he looks at the apparent collapse of TikTok’s publishing venture, 8th Note Press, leaving some authors without sales or rights to their work.
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Alliance Of Independent Authors | Self-Publishing News June 26, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

TikTok’s 8th Note Press Faces Shutdown Amid Author Complaints: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

My previous story reported on the opening of a new romance-only bookstore (one hopes the wedding venue license will be coming soon for literary lovers’ very own HEA!). Needless to say, the owner of the store in question cited TikTok as one of the driving factors in the decision to open the store. This is a theme. The resurgence of bookstores and the influence of BookTok go hand in hand.
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Alliance Of Independent Authors | Self-Publishing News June 24, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

Romance Drives Fiction Boom and Audiobooks Surge: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

'Tis the season to celebrate audiobook growth, it seems. So what better way to mark the solstice—when the city is full of folk dancers and the countryside is full of all manner of people doing all manner of things to mark the longest (or shortest, depending upon your hemisphere) day—than to report on yet another set of industry figures that points to the health of the audio market?
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Alliance Of Independent Authors | Self-Publishing News June 21, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

TikTok Ban Deadline Extended Again; UK Conference Tackles AI and Piracy: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

I had approached filing the end-of-week news with the kind of trepidation that seems to come around on a regular cycle—a cycle that lasts as long as the latest TikTok ban deadline. But sure enough, as I sat down to write, the news came through that will be music to my editor’s ears. No last-minute rush (on this, at least). Sure enough, the deadline for the sale of TikTok’s operations in the United States has been extended by another ninety days and will not come into force this week. The third such extension this year, apparently, this time it really will lead to the closing of a deal to see TikTok in the U.S. into new, non-Chinese ownership. I fully anticipate reporting the same come September.
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Self-Publishing | With ALLi | News Analysis & | Commentary | Proudly | Sponsored By | Bookvault | Miblart | Dan Holloway |…

New Speakies Awards Spotlight Indie Audiobooks; Spotify Reports Double-Digit Growth: Self-Publishing with ALLi Featuring Dan Holloway

On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway reports that audiobook growth continues across major English-language markets, with Spotify claiming a 30 percent rise in listeners and a 36 percent increase in listening hours year over year. Dan also explores Spotify’s evolving role in the audiobook industry, the launch of the new UK-based Speakies Awards open to indie authors, and a troubling trend reported by the Wall Street Journal—AI-generated search summaries may be reducing ad revenue by diverting clicks away from content creators.
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Alliance Of Independent Authors | Self-Publishing News June 19, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

Spotify Reports Audiobook Growth; AI Search Summaries Cut Publisher Traffic: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Spotify is doing well and helping publishers in the process—or so says the latest release from, er, Spotify. Despite the obvious possible messiah complex going on, there are some really interesting and encouraging figures in the report. The catalog of English-language audiobooks now exceeds 400,000, which shows the scale of the operation.
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Alliance Of Independent Authors | Self-Publishing News June 17, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

New UK-Based Speakies Awards Offer Audiobook Alternative to the Audies: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

As we celebrate the return of double-digit growth to audiobooks, it might seem strange that there is still really only one big audiobook award. The Audies, run by the Audio Publishers Association, is a huge affair with nearly thirty categories. And of course, it’s open to indie authors. Well, now there’s another contender: the Speakies (surely to become known as the Speakeasies—and if there’s not a Bugsy Malone feel to the first staging, I will be hugely disappointed).
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Alliance Of Independent Authors | Self-Publishing News June 14, 2025 | With Dan Holloway

Unbound Struggles Continue, UK Rejects AI Transparency, and PWC Tracks Job Shifts: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

The ongoing Unbound struggles continue to unfold as more troubling news emerges about the transition from Unbound to Boundless Books. Having made it AI-free through the first half of the week, we end with a round-up of a few stories from the area. First (with a tangential AI link I hadn’t previously spotted), and with thanks to all-round legend Sam Missingham for this highly thoughtful thread on Bluesky, is the latest development in the Unbound/Boundless saga.
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