British musician Cat Stevens (also known as Yusef) has canceled events for his memoir, Cat on the Road to Findout, in the US and Canada, he announced on Instagram. According to his website, Stevens had scheduled nine events, from October 2 through 22, throughout the US and in Toronto. “Waiting months for visa approvals, we held out as long as we could,” he writes. “However, at this point, the production logistics necessary for my show cannot be arranged in time.” Stevens notes in his post that if his visa does get approved eventually, the events may be rescheduled for later […]
Authors
Authors Have Questions — And No One Is Getting $3,000 A Book; But Macmillan Will “Make…Whole” Those With Overlooked Copyright Registrations
Writ large, the Anthropic settlement is a huge win for creators, comprising both the largest copyright infringement settlement ever as well as a rare victory over the marauding tech companies that have trampled copyright for their own purposes for over two decades. But for many individual authors, the settlement so far has brought confusion and sometimes disappointment. At least some have rudely discovered that their publishers never properly registered their copyrights in the first place, a basic error that denies both parties the right to participate in this settlement and to benefit from other past infringements by the LLMonsters. On […]
Authors Express Concern Over Unregistered Copyrights
On social media, a rash of authors have reported an initial finding that their publishers may not have formally registered copyright for their books with the US Copyright Office as stipulated by contract — which means those titles would not be eligible to participate in the Anthropic class action settlement. Books must have been registered within five years of the publication date and before the start of Anthropic’s infringement (or within three months of publication) to qualify as part of the class. Any other books are not entitled to any part of the settlement and that cannot be remediated at […]
Unbound’s Successor Boundless Also Reportedly Files for Bankruptcy
Boundless, the much-criticized successor to failed UK crowdfunding publisher Unbound, is reported to have filed for bankruptcy administration, just months after it was formed. In March, Unbound entered in a pre-packaged bankruptcy, selling its assets — primarily author contracts — to Boundless, a new company led at the time by two of Unbound’s executives. (The payment was later revealed to £25,000 upfront and another £25,000 over time, which was “the only firm offer.”) Authors were quick to complain, since at the time of the sale they were promised that the new company would pay “all monies owed to authors by Unbound,” […]
Time Magazine Profile: Taylor Jenkins Reid Sold Five New Books For $8 Million Each
Time Magazine features Taylor Jenkins Reid on the cover, tracing her rise on BookTok, in celebrity book clubs, and through film and TV adaptations of her work. Most notably, the piece mentions a new five-book deal that has her returning to Atria, reportedly for $8 million per book (Atria and Reid’s agent Celeste Fine have not yet responded to PL’s requests for confirmation). Reid’s ATMOSPHERE, about the 1980s space shuttle program, will be published on June 3. Time writes, “Reid’s eight novels before Atmosphere, five of which are New York Times best sellers, have sold more than 21 million print, e-book, and audiobook copies in […]
Book By Muzzled Author on Facebook Sells 60,000 Copies
Publisher Flatiron Books says that Sarah Wynn-Williams’ CARELESS PEOPLE sold 60,000 units across all formats in its first week on sale. Circana Bookscan shows tracked hardcover sales of just over 18,500 copies. Last week Meta won an interim award from an emergency arbitrator ordering the author to not make any “disparaging, critical, or otherwise detrimental comments” about Meta, effectively blocking her promotion of the book. But Wynn-Williams failed to appear at the hearing or even send an attorney to answer Meta’s complaint.