News Archives — The Self-Publishing Advice Center

News Summary: UK Independent Publishers Issue AI Copyright Warning; TikTok Backs National Year of Reading

The first story today brings a real sense of déjà vu. Not just because "another copyright-related legal battle against tech firms" is hardly new. It's hardly déjà vu either: more "here we go again." It's more that the latest action from the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) is strikingly familiar in form to the action we saw from the Society of Authors some time ago.

February 19, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: Italian Piracy Report Shows University Students Lead Downloads; AI Content Marketplaces Emerge

While the focus for ALLi's news is the Anglophone marketplace, it is often the case that stories from other territories are of direct interest. And that's the case with this week's first story, looking at a recent report from Italy. Thanks to Publishing Perspectives for highlighting this.

February 17, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: Publishers Defend Bid to Join Google AI Lawsuit; AI-Generated Romance Novels Spark Debate

A roundup of AI news to end the week brings a story that has already whipped up a storm and a story that might well do so. But first, a development in the Gemini legal case I reported on recently. You will recall that publishers have sought to join authors in a copyright case against Google's Gemini.

February 14, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: Claude Integrates with WordPress; Amazon Reports Record Sales Driven by AWS

After all that excitement about Bookshop.org, here finally is a story that doesn't feature them. It's been refreshing to see AI take a back seat in the news, but its developments are still with us and important to keep abreast of.

February 12, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: Spotify Partners with Bookshop.org for Physical Book Sales, Introduces Page Match Feature

Bookshop has been very busy of late. We ended last week with two significant stories related to the platform that lets people buy globally and support local bookstores. And we start this week with the biggest story of the trio.

February 10, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: Bookshop.org Partners with Draft2Digital; Libro.fm Launches Annual Subscription

The end of the week sees two big stories involving Bookshop.org. First up is some audiobook news, which is a significant development from Libro.fm. This is the audiobook platform that has partnered with Bookshop.org to allow people to purchase audiobooks wherever they're based and benefit local booksellers.

February 7, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: Publishing Perspectives Surveys Book Awards; Anthropic’s Book Purchasing Revealed

It has been some time since I reported on a survey, so maybe people are starting to recover a little from the survey fatigue that can set in sometimes. If that applies to you, then you might want to take a moment to answer some of the questions for Publishing Perspectives on a topic close to many of our hearts: awards. Which is very appropriate as we started the week with an announcement about the Selfies.

February 5, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: The Selfies Book Awards Go Global for 2026

Huge news to start the week. I have been reporting on the Selfies for a decade, and it is always one of my favorite tasks to highlight indie author success. The Selfies have expanded a little in that time and now have three categories: general fiction; children's (and young adult) fiction; and memoir.

February 3, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: London Book Fair Moves to Excel Centre; AI Copyright Lawsuits Persist

We begin the last news of January with a reminder that today is the last day to get your early bird discount for ALLi's Indie Author Lab. The event is taking place all day at Kensington Town Hall in London and is a fantastic hands-on collection of sessions to tackle the issues you face in your indie author journey with industry-leading experts, ALLi legends (and quite possibly me).

January 31, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: Microdrama Apps Generate Billions; TikTok Finalizes US Deal

TikTok appears in multiple stories this week, so I'll begin with a bit of a recap of a story I first reported on last week, as new context has emerged. That development is TikTok's launch of its new microdrama app PineDrama.

January 29, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: New £30,000 Libraro Prize Opens to Indie Authors; Queen Weighs in on Audiobooks

I love new prizes, especially reporting on new prizes that are open to indie authors. And this week sees a prize that both is open to indies and carries a large prize. The Libraro Prize carries a winning package of £30,000 with a £20,000 marketing budget thrown in for the winning book, which will be self-published by Hachette.

January 24, 2026
Dan Holloway
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News Summary: Publishers Seek to Join Copyright Lawsuit against Google’s Gemini AI

AI lawsuits are in the news again. And it's not Anthropic this week, but the large ongoing lawsuit against Google's Gemini. It takes the form of a motion to intervene, as I believe it's called (you can read the motion in question here to fill yourselves in). The motion is brought by two major publishing groups, Cengage and Hachette. It requests, as I understand it, that the two publishing groups join the case brought by writers and illustrators in 2023 and currently before the Northern California judiciary, intervening as class representatives.

January 22, 2026
Dan Holloway
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