The Digital vs. Physical War: AI Companies Are Pulping Books by the Pallet
Literary agents can now charge for marketing, indie print revenue jumped 75%, the $1.5B Anthropic settlement was approved, and AI may have crossed the AGI line.
The Atlantic Just Declared the Age of Reading Is Over
Post-literate America, the Google Gemini lawsuit, AI audiobooks winning, and indie authors out-earning traditional. Plus: is the debate hurting your creativity?
The Week That Changed Indie Publishing: KDP Royalties, Book Pirates, and AI Audio Theft
Amazon expands KDP’s 70% royalty to $12.99, authors battle book piracy, AI audiobooks spark controversy, and new K-lytics data reveals Fantasy’s booming market. Plus: Spotify, Xbox layoffs, EU surveillance, and more publishing news.
250 Years Ago, Indie Publishing Made America
America turns 250 from a publishing revolution and your KDP dashboard. A founding father craft lesson, plus KDP terminations, Deckle 1.3 update, Fable 5 safety, and empire death clock.
New BookFunnel Features CRUSH Amazon
BookFunnel launches multimedia bundles Amazon can’t match, KDP’s Global Fund grows while traditional publishing shrinks, a prize goes to a story flagged as 100% AI, Kobo rejects 45% of submissions to fight AI, Apple raises Mac prices, and the Pope has a message for every author.
Kindle Unlimited Pays Indie Authors Record-Breaking Royalties
Amazon smashes the Kindle Unlimited record, Gavin Newsom buys his way onto the NYT bestseller list, the US government kills the most powerful AI model available, MailerLite slashes free accounts, and a suppressed UK report hits 32 million views.
Men Buy Books and Women Borrow Books
Women aren’t buying new books, AI is fixing manuscript pacing, and a $10 tool builds your entire book promo schedule. Here’s what the data says.
Will “Free” Libby Ebooks Bankrupt Libraries?
Publishing news for indie authors: Payhip adds free sales tax handling, libraries flag ebook checkout fraud, LGBTQ children’s book sales collapse, Audible launches a loyalty program, a $107 app challenges Vellum and Scrivener, AI brain fry hits creative workers, and what storytellers must know about Gen Z men.
No ISBN Means No Copyright Protection for Indie Authors
KDP lowers print costs, AI pirates monetize stolen audiobooks, authors lose Meta lawsuit standing, the Enhanced Games flop, and Pope Leo XIV embraces AI.
The Publishing Echo Chamber Nobody Will Admit Exists
Explore the latest trends affecting authors: declining nonfiction sales and the impact of podcasts on traditional publishing.
Amazon Review Purge: The Author Survival Guide
Explore recent publishing news on imprint closures, bestseller challenges, and AI’s influence on the future of books.
Draft2Digital Confirms: Amazon Sales Reports Are Off by 50%
KDP dashboard errors, Chrome’s secret AI install, a Harvard prompting hack, the AI book flood, and how global nationalism is changing what readers want.
Audible Forces Every Title Into New Royalty Model
Audible set a hard deadline for its new royalty model. The FTC fined a self-publishing guru $1.5M for fake promises. AI screeners favor AI-polished proposals over human ones. Independent bookstores are booming with 422 new openings. And science confirmed your TikTok breaks are wrecking your writing focus.
Price Fixing at Amazon
Amazon price-fixing emails unsealed by California’s AG, a banned-book campaign that backfired into a bestseller, proposed copyright fee hikes, the latest AI model drops from OpenAI and Chinese rivals, new cover design tools from Author Media, and surprising data on where the money and readers actually are. Here’s what it all means for your writing career.
Amazon Kills Store Access for 2 Million Kindles
Draft2Digital levies a tax against the “poors,” Amazon kills millions of old Kindles and the Windows 10 Kindle app, and Barnes and Noble Press drops three policy bombs that could wipe your books from sale. Plus, an AI artist just hit number one on iTunes without a single human voice, Ukraine’s robots won their first solo battle with zero casualties, and fresh Pew Research data maps exactly where your readers draw their moral lines.
