On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway reports from a literary conference setting as Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library enters the public domain. He unpacks new reporting on the Anthropic settlement, including unresolved issues for textbook authors and questions over how much claimants may ultimately receive. Dan also looks at a shift toward video in audio discovery, with Audible testing in-app video promotion and Spotify lowering the bar for podcast monetization.
Listen to the Podcast: Agatha Christie Enters the Public Domain
Show Notes
Sage, Textbook Authors Settle Dispute Over Anthropic Settlement Guidance (Publishing Perspectives)
Sponsor
Self-Publishing News is proudly sponsored by PublishMe—helping indie authors succeed globally with expert translation, tailored marketing, and publishing support. From first draft to international launch, PublishMe ensures your book reaches readers everywhere. Visit publishme.me.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
If you’re an ALLi member, head over to the SelfPubConnect forum for support from our experienced community of indie authors, advisors, and our own ALLi team. Simply create an account (if you haven’t already) to request to join the forum and get going.
Non-members looking for more information can search our extensive archive of blog posts and podcast episodes packed with tips and advice at ALLi's Self-Publishing Advice Center.
About the Host
Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is available on Kindle.
Read the Transcript
Dan Holloway: Hello and welcome to Self-Publishing News. This week I'm broadcasting from a conference at a country house hotel near Stratford-upon-Avon — fabulous surroundings for talking all things literary. Just like being in an Agatha Christie novel, which is especially apt since dinners are held every night in the library here. And it's a reminder that as of about ten days ago at the time of recording, Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library — the first of the Miss Marple books — is now in the public domain. So there are exciting creative things you can do with The Body in the Library.
The Anthropic Settlement: Textbooks and the Per-Title Amount
On to a story that hasn't featured in the column before but is really interesting. It's the first in-depth piece by Andrew Albanese since he took over as editor in chief at Publishing Perspectives, and it offers a different perspective on the Anthropic settlement.
The piece starts with notes about textbooks, which have a unique status in the settlement. While the terms were sorted out for trade publishing and other rights holders, there is as yet no agreement on how to split any claims for titles that fall into the textbook category — those are going to be settled on an ad hoc basis. And it seems that during December there was a bit of confusion, or shenanigans depending on whether you give publishers the benefit of the doubt. Sage Publishing, one of the largest textbook publishers, sent a note to authors saying they should file their claim expecting 10% of the settlement amount — which happened to be the royalty rate they received for textbooks. The Textbook and Academic Authors Association went up in arms about this, saying it had no standing in law. A corrective email has since been sent. The amount authors will receive remains to be settled on an ad hoc basis.
But the really interesting material comes at the end of the article, which I'll send Howard to include in the description. It comes from Dave Hansen at the Authors Alliance — not to be confused with ALLi — who has done some calculations on what the actual per-title amount in the settlement is going to be. The often-cited figure of around $3,000 per title is based on the total settlement divided by the number of potential books in the class. But according to Hansen's analysis, that figure is not entirely settled. It could be significantly more if not many of the authors entitled to the settlement actually put in claims, or a little less if they do. Worth bearing in mind. I recommend reading the full piece — in case I've misrepresented anything, always go to the source.
Video Killed the Radio Star — Or Did It?
What else do we have? Quite a lot of news this week on video and audio, and the combination of the two always makes me think of the launch of MTV and ‘Video Killed the Radio Star' — the song that launched MTV about 45 years ago now. That does make me feel very old. It felt at the time as though audio was over and video was ruling the roost.
But of late there has been a really big emphasis on audio-first — the rise of the podcast, the rise of audiobooks, which continue to grow at around double digits per year. The reason seems to be that audio is something you can do while doing other things in a way you simply can't with video. I've even seen talk on tech sites that 2026 is going to be the year we finally ditch screens and everything moves to voice and audio through headphones and smart wearables.
But two stories this week suggest things might actually also be swinging back toward video — specifically, the connection between video and audio and the rise of video podcasting.
Audible Launches In-App Video Advertising for Audiobooks
The first story is from Audible, which is building on the trend of video content pointing people toward audio. One of the key ways people are now discovering what to listen to is through video — not finding audio through audio media, but being pointed to audio content from video platforms. TikTok is the obvious example right now.
Audible has now tapped into this. It's launched, in a very small beta, in-app video advertising for audiobooks — trailers and the kind of extra content you might see associated with films: brief interviews with authors, people involved in production talking about how exciting the book is, short video clips designed to tease you toward audio content. Audible is now joining Spotify as a multimedia platform that includes video as well as audio.
Spotify Cuts the Bar for Podcast Monetization
The other story in this vein is that Spotify, clearly seeing big growth in audio-video content among podcasters, is trying to make it much easier for podcast creators to monetize their video podcasts. They're doing this by drastically cutting the minimum thresholds.
Previously you needed 12 episodes to qualify; now you need just three. The minimum consumption requirement in the past 30 days has dropped from 10,000 hours to 2,000. And the engaged audience requirement has been halved from 2,000 to 1,000 listeners in the past 30 days. So for those of you with video podcasts on Spotify, it has just become much easier to monetize.
A suitably multimedia note on which to end. I very much look forward to speaking to you again at the same time next week — assuming I am not finding myself living through an Agatha Christie country house mystery in which, for some reason, I'm the victim. If I'm not, I'll speak to you then. Thank you for listening.
