Authors

The Authors Guild has released new recommendations and shared a proposed contract clause regarding the use of generative AI tools in publishing workflows. The organization reports concern that publishing professionals are “uploading manuscripts and authors’ personal information into consumer-facing AI systems for uses such as generating summaries, assessments, and marketing copy.” Their new suggested contract language is as follows: “Publisher shall not upload the Work or any of Author’s personal information to consumer-facing AI systems for purposes such as generating summaries, assessments, or marketing copy without written permission from the author; and when such permission is granted, it shall use guardrails […]

Christian author Philip Yancey announced that he would retire from writing, due to his engagement in an extramarital affair. Yancey, who has been married for 55 years, had an 8-year-long affair with a married woman, according to a statement he sent to Christianity Today. “My conduct defied everything that I believe about marriage,” he writes. “It was also totally inconsistent with my faith and my writings and caused deep pain for her husband and both of our families.” Yancey’s books have sold more than 20 million copies, the New York Times reports. He is the author of more than 25 […]

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 […]

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 […]