The Authors Guild and start-up AI rights licensing platform Created by Humans announced a partnership in which the Guild will promote the new service and “help us make decisions about how to best serve the author community through our platform.” AG ceo Mary Rasenberger will serve on Created by Humans’ advisory board, and the two organizations will “develop informational materials and webinars that clearly explain the terms of licenses and the fees” to authors. The Authors Guild adds that it “aims to ensure that terms are transparent to authors and that their interests are protected.” As we reported in June, […]
Authors
Obituary: Nelson DeMille, 81
Author of 23 books Nelson DeMille has died. His family said in a statement to CBS: “Nelson fought a valiant nine-month battle with esophageal cancer. True to form, he faced this ordeal with courage, grace, and good humor. We are grieving, but also celebrating his wonderful life and his lasting legacy as a father, friend, and storyteller.”
Follett Moves to Hachette
Ken Follett is changing English-language publishers, moving to Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK — after publishing with Penguin for 45 years, and with Pan Macmillan for 35 years. Follett’s next novel, due out on an unspecified date in 2025, will be published by Grand Central in the US and Quercus in the UK. The Follett Office sold rights to Ben Sevier at Grand Central (NA) and Jon Butler at Quercus (UK/Commonwealth), in a one-book deal. Follett said in the announcement, “This is the beginning of an exciting new phase for me: new publisher, new editors, new sales force. I’m […]
One World Sends Authors on Residency
In an unusual initiative in author care, One World sent 21 of its queer and BIPOC writers on residency at Art Omi in upstate New York this week. Writers across disciplines including fiction, nonfiction, and journalism, gathered on the grounds in Ghent, NY, which has resident accommodations and also houses a sprawling sculpture garden. The initiative was spearheaded by executive editor Nicole Counts. One World authors received an email about the program, which encouraged them to apply. “One World sees community as the intentional cultivation of a space where people can be safely heard, seen, and celebrated,” said Counts in […]
Open Submissions, Closed to AI
On Monday, Angry Robot Books announced an open submissions period for late April, but with a twist: “We will be doing things very different this year. We will be using something called Storywise, which is a non generative AI system that will help us sort submissions. This means that it does not learn from author’s works to inform an AI model, and therefore the AI model is not trained by your work.” But the community objected strongly to any use of AI in evaluating authors’ material. The publisher quickly dropped the idea, posting: “We have been watching & listening to […]
Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud On Generative AI
As we have noted recently, the various AI companies (and their backers) have dutifully filed comments with the US Copyright Office explaining why they believe training their systems on copyrighted work is fair use and “just math.” So it’s notable that vice president of audio at Stability AI Ed Newton-Rex left the company recently and made clear at the Cerebral Valley AI Summit he believes those arguments are wrong. (He oversaw their music creation product, Stability Audio.) He resigned “because I don’t agree with the company’s opinion that training generative AI models on copyrighted works is ‘fair use’.” As he […]