News Summary: Reedsy Launches Novel Sprint to Replace NaNoWriMo, with Prizes and No AI
Reedsy introduces its Novel Sprint as an alternative to NaNoWriMo, offering cash prizes and requiring all 50,000 words to be human written.
News Summary: Baker & Taylor Closure Reshapes Library Supply; Frankfurt Fair Opens Ahead of SelfPubCon 25
The last story I ran last week broke right at the time of writing, meaning there was little time to include much detail. (Well, both did: the Nobel Prize announcement was made about two and a half minutes before I filed with Howard, but while I love its drama, it is not, sadly, indie-oriented enough to warrant a larger unpacking here.)
News Summary: Spotify Clarifies ChatGPT Integration; AI Video App Sora Sparks Debate
Spotify’s relationship with AI feels as though it has become increasingly— for want of a better phrase—a slightly edgy one. The company is, first and foremost, a tech company rather than an arts company. Daniel Ek was a coder before anything else and has always taken the company in a direction that favors innovation. On the other hand, Spotify is passionate about working with creative people—nowhere more so than when it comes to writers.
News Summary: Nobel Prize for Literature Announced; Baker & Taylor to Close After Two Centuries
This is one of my favorite times of year as a reporter in the book world—and even more so as a literary civvy, someone who just loves books, whether writing or reading them. Yes, of course, I mean SelfPubCon (for which there is still time to sign up!). But I also mean the announcement of the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature—our highest-profile and highest-paying moment in the media sun.
News Summary: Digital Publishing Awards Highlight AI Innovation and Accessibility Trends in Book Industry
It's award season in the books world. If you scan the headlines of literary media, you'll see shortlists for the likes of the Goldsmiths (experimental fiction), Booker (fiction), Baillie Gifford (nonfiction), Cundill (history), and Schroders (business). Each of them has a large five-figure sum for the eventual winner. Not to mention the Nobel and its nearly seven-figure purse, and last week I reported on the Speakies.
News Summary: Amazon Launches New Kindle Scribe Models with AI Features for Prime Day
This week is, of course, the time of year for Amazon Prime Day(s). Over the years, Amazon’s red-letter days have been a good indicator of the direction they want to take the business in over the coming year(s).
News Summary: Bookshop.org Expands Ebook Distribution to UK, Supporting Indie Authors and Bookstores
Excellent news to end the week for those who want to sell ebooks while helping independent retailers: Bookshop.org has expanded its ebook distribution to the UK.
News Summary: L. J. Ross Shortlisted for British Audiobook Awards; TikTok Deal Approved; Universal Turing Machine Launches
Let’s start with the celebratory news. The shortlists for the first British Audiobook Awards (which are styling themselves as the “Speakies”) have just been released. The categories reflect many of those in the more established Audie Awards across the pond. As is often the case with audiobooks, in some instances it’s tricky to tell which titles are self-published, especially in the “originals” category.
News Summary: Spotify Clarifies Terms After Creator Concerns; Storytel Launches New Features
We start the week with a story that has been bubbling away in some corners of the creative internet. Earlier this month Spotify changed its terms and conditions. Rights holders became worried about some aspects of those changes that appeared to allow Spotify to share any content uploaded to the platform without the creator’s consent.
News Summary: Judge Gives Preliminary Approval to Anthropic Settlement Covering 482,000 Books
As promised, here is an update on yesterday’s hearing in the Anthropic case. This is very much breaking and emerging news.
News Summary: AAP Reports Audio Surpasses Ebooks; Barnes & Noble Expands, Disney Plus Partners with Webtoon
The latest set of industry figures from the Association of American Publishers (AAP—thanks as always to Porter Anderson at Publishing Perspectives for reporting the reports) is no more definitive than any other and comes with all the regular caveats about not covering large parts of the market such as ebooks with no ISBN. But it remains of interest.
News Summary: Really Sensible Licensing Offers Writers New Options; Anthropic Case Ruling Expected
Thanks to long-term indie friend Guy Gonzalez for sharing details of a new way of communicating how you want AI companies to treat the material to which you hold the rights. Really Sensible Licensing (RSL) allows you to choose the way you want firms to handle your creative content, and the conditions you set for them to do so.