On this episode of Self-Publishing with ALLi, Dan Holloway reports on the return of BookCon to New York after a pandemic-era hiatus, where the Indie Alley proved a genuine hit with readers — a sign that the established book world is increasingly making room for independent authors. He also has an update on the Anthropic copyright settlement, where 91 percent of eligible titles were claimed before the deadline, putting the expected payout per title at around $2,931, with a reminder that traditionally published authors may receive less due to rights splits with their publishers.
Listen to the Podcast: BookCon Returns with a Welcome for Indie Authors
Show Notes
BookCon Indie Alley application
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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.
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Read the Transcript
Dan Holloway: Hello and welcome to another week of Self-Publishing News. I'm just back from all the excitement of the London Marathon, to bring you the highlights of another large public event: BookCon. BookCon last week was the revival of an event that had not been held since before the pandemic. BookCon used to be held in conjunction with BookExpo, which has not taken place since 2020, and until this year BookCon hadn't been held since 2020 either. But now it's back in New York — and it has been an interesting event for indie authors.
This is an event that is doubling down on readers and looking to attract indie authors to connect with them. The so-called Indie Alley, which was full of indie authors, seems to have been a big hit. I'll admit that usually makes me skeptical. A lot of book fairs — or a lot of exhibitors at book fairs — make a big deal of trying to attract indie authors, only for those authors to find themselves with one book on an unstaffed stall, either front-facing if they're lucky, or spine-out on a shelf somewhere at the back. But the Indie Alley was apparently not like that. It was a very large affair and seems to have attracted a lot of fans.
There was a fascinating write-up in Publishing Perspectives, which made the comment that these readers aren't judgmental when it comes to indie authors, and that publishers haven't seen indie authors as much of a threat to their sales bottom line — but that this could change rapidly, citing the age of BookTok, independent publishing, and AI. I'm not necessarily sure that publishers haven't seen indie authors as a threat — that probably depends on the genre. But it is clear that at these reader-led events, readers want to meet the authors they love, and the authors they love are generally the ones who tell the stories they love. Who would have thought? Readers aren't necessarily aware of whether an author is indie or traditionally published. They just know they love the stories, and they will increasingly have come across them through channels that are not curated in the traditional way — channels like BookTok, where books are picked up by people who love them and spread without anyone commenting on how they were published.
Interestingly, topping the bill at BookCon were romance, fantasy, and romantasy — all heavily BookTok-driven genres and areas where indie authors are very prominent. There are now becoming public spaces in the established book world where indie authors are welcomed, because — who would have thought — we tend to bring in readers just as much as anyone else. That seems encouraging. There is a sign-up page for 2027 for those interested. I'll try to put the link in the description of this podcast. I've also put it in my column piece on this story.
Anthropic Settlement: Class Claims Close at 91%
There is more news this week from the Anthropic settlement. The end of March was the deadline for the final class to be established — that is, the deadline for eligible rights holders to come forward and claim authorship of one of those titles and therefore be considered part of the class, and therefore part of the $1.5 billion payout.
There were 482,460 eligible titles. Per the Authors Guild statement on the subject, 440,490 of those titles have been claimed — 91% of the total. For a class action lawsuit, this is a very, very high number. That obviously has an impact on the expected payment per title. Until a couple of weeks before the deadline, only just over half the class had come forward. Because the total payout is fixed at $1.5 billion, those who had already filed and were calculating their expected share will have seen that figure diminish over those final weeks. But the good news is that more of the rights holders actually entitled to a payout will receive it.
The Authors Guild has done some calculations to work out the expected payment per title. The figure they've arrived at is $2,931 — close to the $3,000 originally mooted, and likely to be closer to or higher than that once interest is taken into account. It is now too late for anyone who hasn't already come forward. But the campaigning done to encourage rights holders to claim their titles has clearly been very successful. You'll recall that the judge made it a condition that authors' groups and other organizations do serious outreach to make sure rights holders came forward — and they have.
Best wishes to all the indie authors and everyone else who has been able to claim their titles. One important reminder: if your titles are traditionally published, or if you are not considered the sole rights holder, you may not receive the full $2,931 or whatever the final figure turns out to be. There are splits agreed between different groups of rights holders, meaning the payment will be shared with publishers. How that split works depends on the type of book involved. If your title is not self-published, your publisher should already have been in touch with you about the amount you will receive.
With that — it seems like a fairly good news week all round. I hope to bring you more good news next week. Looking forward very much to speaking to you then. Thank you very much.
