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Brain Rot

UK Government Seeks Responses to AI Consultation; ‘Brain Rot’ is Word of the Year: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Is it just me, or have there been more “words of the year” than usual this year? Maybe I’ve just noticed them more. If so, that could be a result of “brain rot,” which is the word of the year for the Oxford English Dictionary. It refers to the gradual degeneration of cognitive powers in the face of social media pablum—which, of course, you will never find here! I was absolutely delighted to see that the shortlist contained one of the words I’ve used most this year: “Romantasy,” whose popularity the OED specifically attributed to the BookTok community.
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AI Training

Harvard and Google Release AI Training Dataset with Public Domain Books, Raising Copyright Questions: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Any process that improves by being trained on a set of materials will only ever get as good as the materials it’s trained on will allow. That’s as true of machine learning algorithms as it is of human beings. This week’s news that Harvard will release a dataset of 1 million volumes for AI training highlights efforts to address inequities caused by the need for high-quality training data.
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Tumblr Launches Communities

Tumblr Launches Communities to Connect Fans and Bluesky Doesn’t Rule Out Ads: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

I want to start the week with a brief roundup of some news from across the social media platforms we have used, have thought about using, and often feel we ought to use. This week, "Tumblr launches Communities" stood out as a key development, alongside updates from Bluesky and TikTok. These stories, though small on their own, cluster together thematically to highlight shifts across platforms that impact creatives and their audiences.
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Ghostwriter Recognition

Society of Authors Pushes for Ghostwriter Recognition on Celebrity Books: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

One of the trends I have found encouraging in recent years has been the push for greater recognition of everyone involved in producing the books people love. First, there was widespread acknowledgment that illustrators were as responsible for captivating readers as writers. More recently, translators have taken their rightful place on book covers. Now, the conversation has turned to ghostwriter recognition, with a focus on ensuring these often-overlooked contributors receive the credit they deserve.
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Internet Archive Lawsuit

Not With a Bang but a Whimper, Internet Archive Lawsuit Comes to an End: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

The case of publishing against the Internet Archive has come to an end. The story could be summed up, to continue the literary allusions, as a tale of two blog posts. For the Internet Archive, this is the worst of times. Their comment on the closing of the legal chapter against them is short and melancholy. At the heart of it is a simple statement, referring to September’s decision upholding the complaint in Hachette v. Internet Archive: “The Internet Archive has decided not to pursue Supreme Court review.”
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UK Audiobook Market

The UK Audiobook Market Could Be Worth £1 Billion, Says New Analysis: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

I’m often grateful to Mark Williams for his reporting, and this week especially so for pointing the way to a piece I originally missed. Alongside his usual insightful commentary, it elaborates on one of his most longstanding and emphatic themes: markets that get misrepresented by official figures—especially official figures that ignore indie and streaming or subscription titles.
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Spotify Expands Audiobooks

Spotify Expands Audiobooks with Bloomsbury Deal; Amazon Adds Audible to Music Unlimited: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

I speculated for a while that Spotify was cooling its interest in audiobooks. That seems not to be the case. It has just announced a deal with Bloomsbury to make the publisher’s audiobooks available to “Audiobooks in Premium” subscribers and à la carte purchasers. These include stellar titles like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
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