The Atlantic has released a tool that allows people to search what books are included in the massive LibGen pirate database, based on metadata. According to court documents in the Kadrey v. Meta copyright infringement case, Meta used LibGen to train their GenAI tool Llama. LibGen includes approximately 7.5 million books and 81 million research papers. You will see a lot of enraged social media posts from authors, as the tool helps personalize the comprehensive scale of the theft. As previously reported, Meta engaged briefly in conversations with publishers about licensing books, but decided not to because it was too […]
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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.
Authors Talk: Josh Duboff
Early Thirties. (Gallery/Scout Press, March 18. Editor: James Melia. Agent: Elias Altman.) Josh Duboff is a novelist, journalist, and playwright. A former senior writer for Vanity Fair, Duboff has written cover stories on Taylor Swift, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Gigi Hadid, among others, and contributed to The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, and more. A graduate of Yale University, he lives in New York City. How did you find your agent? I have known my agent for a while! He initially reached out to me after a celebrity profile I wrote while I […]
Obituaries: Roger Freet, Felice Picano
Literary agent Roger Freet, 56, died on March 18 from complications from pancreatic cancer. Freet started in publishing as a publicity intern at Princeton University Press in 1997, then worked as associate director of marketing and publicity at HarperOne before moving to editorial. He became an agent at Foundry Literary + Media, then moved to Folio as vice president in 2020. Felice Picano, 81, a novelist, essayist, and poet who chronicled gay male life, died on March 12 in Los Angeles. Picano was the author of 17 novels and eight volumes of memoir, and also founded Sea Horse Press in […]