Spotify started accepting audiobooks created with AI software from ElevenLabs into its library last week, with the software company pitching the initiative to independent authors (though multiple major publishers are working with ElevenLabs as well). Audiobooks generated this way will be “clearly marked in the metadata on Spotify.” Additionally, the book description will begin by stating: “This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.” (In December, Spotify’s Findaway Voices started distributing AI audiobooks from Google Play to “select retail partners.”) Spotify declined to provide a projection of the number of titles this will add to their library. Owen Smith, vp […]
UK Agency and Printer Victims of Cyber Attacks
UK literary agency The Agency was attacked by ransomware group Rhysida, first reported by security vendor FalconFeeds.io on February 14. The Bookseller reports on an email from books department head Jessica Hare, the attack caused a “significant IT outage.” The group said they would publish stolen data if they aren’t paid. “We are contacting you because your personal data may have been copied and, if the criminals carry through their threat, may be leaked. Whilst our IT specialists and an additional cyber security company are working hard to identify which items of data have been copied, the attack methodology of Rhysida […]
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Watch The Buzz Books Horror Panel
You can now watch our latest Buzz Books Authors and Editors panel, dedicated to a genre that author Markus Redmond likened to punk music: “It’s rebellious, it has something to say, and it’s totally in your face.” With their editors, authors Ivy Pochoda, Redmond, Hester Steel, and Daphne Fama discussed their upcoming titles and then the group engage in an inspiring and illuminating panel discussion about how vibrant, evolving, and diverse the genre can be. As Page Street editor Alexandra Murphy said, “There is horror for everyone out there….It’s a sandbox of a genre where you can throw any other […]
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ABA’s Hill On the “Values-Focused” Work, As “Amazon Owns the Playing Field”
ABA ceo Allison Hill reflects on her five years leading the organization, ahead of a commemoration of the ABA’s 125th anniversary at Winter Institute next week. Her focus has been to “transform ABA into a values-focused organization over the past 5 years. It’s always been a mission-driven organization, but we’ve worked really hard to define our values and focus our work, using those values as a North Star.” More broadly, she says: “The challenges booksellers have faced during my time in the industry have been a roller coaster. “It was, ‘oh no, e-books are coming,’ but now we’re in a […]