Copyright Termination and the Feds: What Just Happened to Authors

by | Jan 20, 2026 | Author Update | 0 comments

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Headlines

  • OpenAI just announced ads are coming to ChatGPT, and we’ll break down what that means for your writing workflow.
  • A federal appeals court just ruled that copyright termination applies globally, potentially letting you reclaim foreign rights you thought were gone forever.
  • We’ll expose why Christian publishers are setting record Bible sales but tanking on everything else.
  • We’ll explain why the government’s font war between Calibri and Times New Roman actually matters to your book design.
  • We’re covering the indie LitRPG novel that just cracked the top three on Publishers Weekly after selling 800,000 copies.

AI Ads Are Here

Thomas: OpenAI just announced that ads are coming to the free version of ChatGPT. If you are on the free plan or a lower-tier plan, you may start seeing ads.

At the moment, OpenAI says ads are not influencing responses. The answers you get from ChatGPT are the same. They also have not announced any kind of self-serve advertising portal yet.

That matters because advertising in front of ChatGPT’s 800 million usersis a big deal. That is more than twice the population of the United States.

As soon as OpenAI allows advertisers to place ads inside ChatGPT, we will announce it. We are watching this closely because there is usually a first-mover advantage. When companies roll ads into a product for the first time, they often work only with top-tier advertisers, brands like Nike, Apple, and BMW. The goal is to give the platform a sense of prestige, a “this is where the big brands advertise” feel.

Eventually, local businesses will be able to buy ads too. Authors usually get lumped into that self-serve category, partly because authors are not spending millions of dollars on advertising. If you have a million-dollar ad buy, you get an account manager and personal attention. If you have a five-thousand-dollar ad buy, you get a portal and a set of buttons.

This is a big deal. It is the first time ads have been added to a major AI product. We are going to see this across all free tiers because nothing is truly free. If you are not the customer, you are the product.

If you are using the free version of ChatGPT, your data is being used. If you pay, OpenAI says they do not harvest your data and they do not serve you ads. The free version is going to feel a little different.

Jonathan: Hulu has been pushing its ad-free tier harder and harder because ads are taking over everything. OpenAI has been very emphatic about one thing, conversations are not shared with advertisers, and users have full control over data used for targeting.

That matters because authors often put very sensitive information into their conversations with AI. There has been concern that OpenAI might harvest those conversations and send them directly to advertisers. OpenAI says that is not happening.

What is happening is that OpenAI has access to the conversation data and can use it internally to decide which ads to show. Even if advertisers do not see the data, OpenAI can still do the targeting itself.

Thomas: This looks very similar to how Facebook advertising works. Facebook pressures advertisers to let the algorithm do the targeting. You define the goal, clicks, purchases, or sign-ups, and Facebook’s machine-learning system finds the users most likely to take that action.

Because the targeting is done by a machine-learning algorithm, it can do things that would be illegal if a human did them intentionally. The algorithm is optimizing for an objective, not making human judgments.

For example, you cannot directly target Christians on Facebook. But if you tell Facebook that you want book buyers, the algorithm will happily deliver your ads to Christian readers if that helps achieve the goal. That has been true for years.

OpenAI is likely to take a similar approach. When this rolls out, I suspect the interface will be very simple. You will essentially say, “I want people to buy my book,” and OpenAI will say, “Great, give us money.” Then the system will try to find readers who are likely to buy.

We will see whether that ends up being profitable. This is brand new. The announcement just came out, which is why we are leading with this story. It is cutting-edge, but it is not the biggest story of the day.

Sources:
https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-advertising-and-expanding-access

Thomas: One smaller but important update involves the Royalty Analyzer tool in the Patron Toolbox. This tool lets you upload royalty statements and a marketing log, then analyzes how your marketing activity affects sales.

That tool has been in the experimental section for a long time. A publisher recently found it, and someone used a ten-dollar Patron Toolbox subscription to run up $85 in token costs in a single day by uploading book after book.

Because of that, we added usage limits. You can now use the Royalty Analyzer ten times per month which is more than enough for most authors. If you legitimately need more than ten analyses in a month, email me.

I also added limits to the book cover generator and a few other tools. If you try a tool for the first time and get a message saying you have already used up your limit, please email me. There is a bug we have not been able to consistently reproduce where some users see that error incorrectly.

We are monitoring it and will keep refining the system.

View all the Patron Toolbox Tools here.

Bridgerton Author Julia Quinn Announces Romance Book Subscription Service “JQ Editions”

Thomas: Julia Quinn has announced a romance book subscription service called JQ Editions. She is curating and handpicking a group of romance novels and sending them out as subscription boxes.

There will be three books launched in 2026 and six more in 2027. The 2027 subscription box appears to be fulfilled directly through her website. Kickstarter is being used to launch the project, but the ongoing subscription will not be administered through Kickstarter.

These are premium collector’s editions. Think sprayed edges and Bookvault-level production quality. The target audience is primarily romance readers who love beautiful, collectible books. That is the point of the product.

I expect a wave of influencers to jump on this, talking about how the Bridgerton author is creating stunning editions while highlighting other romance authors. For any romance author selected as a JQ Edition, this is a significant boost. These are guaranteed sales from subscribers who signed up because of Julia Quinn.

It is also an excellent gift idea. Give your favorite reader a JQ Editions subscription box for Christmas.

Can other authors replicate this model?

Thomas: This is a highly reproducible strategy, especially in large genres like romance. For new readers, romance can be overwhelming. I am not talking about the number of titles. I am talking about the number of subgenres.

You go to the romance section and see thirty subgenres. You click one, and each of those has five more subgenres. If you are not fluent in that vocabulary, it can be intimidating.

But if you know you liked Bridgerton, and that author is personally vouching for other writers, that endorsement is powerful.

Jonathan: Look at the metadata on a favorite romance novel. You get things like small-town billionaire, enemies-to-lovers, historical romance. That is essentially the metadata for Pride and Prejudice.

Thomas: Absolutely, but there are important caveats. Publishing is a power-law industry, and our brains are bad at grasping that.

If you list the top one hundred authors in a genre, it is tempting to think the number one author sells maybe one hundred times more than the number one hundred author. In reality, the top author may sell ten thousand times more than the one hundredth author.

That matters here. If four authors team up, the author whose name should be on the campaign is the most popular one. In almost every case, one author has more readers, subscribers, and influence than the other three combined. That is how power-law distributions work.

If none of you has meaningful reach, this strategy will not perform well. Four authors with a few dozen readers each will still produce only a few dozen sales. There is no automatic synergy.

But partnering with a powerful author changes everything.

Why would a major author do this?

Thomas: This is a smart way for a major author to monetize other authors’ books. In effect, they are acting as a publisher for a premium edition.

The well-known author takes a share, and that is worth it. Giving a famous author a slice of the revenue in exchange for access to their audience can result in automatic sales through a subscription box like this.

We are going to watch this strategy closely. If you are building your network at events like the Novel Marketing Conference, this is something to pay attention to. Ask yourself whether there is an author you could combine forces with for a large-scale Kickstarter event.

Does this work in genres beyond romance?

Jonathan: Kickstarter works especially well in genres like science fiction and fantasy. For example, space marine fiction readers will happily buy a subscription box. They do not need premium editions. They just want their next book each month.

This works because some readers are voracious. I do not see it working as well for literary fiction unless it is framed as a curated bundle or subscription.

Thomas: It could work in literary fiction if the right person is doing the curation. If a respected literary figure is putting their stamp of approval on the selections and saying, “This is top-shelf, sophisticated work,” that endorsement changes the equation.

Jonathan: A federal court has ruled that copyright rights reversion now extends globally for creators who exercise those rights. Previously, if you went to your publisher and regained your rights, you typically only got U.S. rights back. When you signed the contract, you likely granted worldwide rights, since most boilerplate contracts require authors to sell all rights to the publisher.

When rights reverted, publishers often returned only U.S. rights. That meant if you wanted translations in the EU, India, or other international markets, including selling through Amazon globally, you were stuck. You did not actually have your foreign rights back, which severely limited international outreach.

That has now changed.

Jonathan: This came from a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals case involving a songwriter, not an author. The creator sought to terminate a decades-old grant of worldwide rights to the 1963 song Double Shot of My Baby’s Love. The court ruled that the termination provision in the Copyright Act restores the full bundle of rights originally transferred.

Limiting recovery to U.S. rights alone would have frustrated the law’s purpose, which is to correct unequal bargaining power. In practical terms, when your rights revert, you now get them back globally.

Thomas, what are your thoughts?

Why does this ruling matter to authors right now?

Thomas: I love the Fifth Circuit. It’s my local circuit, and they almost never issue a ruling I disagree with. Their decisions also tend to hold up at the Supreme Court level. When the Fifth Circuit rules, there may be more legal drama later, but the reasoning is usually solid.

This matters because rights reversion has become a major issue over the last 12 to 24 months for two reasons. The first is AI settlements. We’ve been covering the Anthropic settlement, where authors are receiving anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 per title, depending on whether they have their rights reversion letter in hand.

Many publishing contracts require publishers to grant a rights reversion if you request it and meet certain criteria. But a lot of authors never request that letter. As a result, they are missing out on significant money right now because of all the AI-related activity.

How can authors request rights reversion?

Thomas: I have a Patron Toolbox tool called Not a Lawyer. To be very clear, it is not a lawyer. It is an AI tool. It cannot replace legal counsel, but it can read your contract and help you draft a rights reversion request.

Most authors do not need a lawyer to request reversion. They often write these letters themselves, have their agent do it, or work directly from the contract language. But if the book is old, your original agent may no longer be around, or you may not have an agent at all.

Not a Lawyer can read your contract, identify triggerable clauses, and help you draft a rough version of the letter. For some authors, rights cannot yet revert for free, depending on contract language, sales thresholds, or what “in print” means. That definition has changed significantly over time, especially now that books are often always available digitally.

The tool helps analyze those gray areas, which is incredibly useful.

Why should traditionally published authors prioritize getting rights back?

Thomas: This is not just about AI settlements or translating your book into German. It is about control over your book.

I recently spoke with a traditionally published author who had been very successful as an indie. She built a literary universe, ran a podcast, and sold well. A major traditional publisher noticed and signed her for the next book in her series.

The book performed worse because the publisher pressured her into changes that made it less appealing to her target readers. She knew her audience. They did not. Because sales declined, the publisher decided the literary universe was not a winner. They delayed additional contracted books but retained the derivative rights.

She was stuck. She could not publish in that universe, and the publisher would not either. Without a rights reversion letter, her only option was to start over, which she did. She later landed a deal with an even larger publisher, one almost everyone would recognize.

I hope it works out for her. If it does not, she still has the skills to start over again. That leads to an important point.

Thomas: What is valuable is not the book itself. The book is not the asset. The asset is your ability to write the book.

Having written it once, you are now better at writing. If the manuscript disappeared and you had to rewrite it, the next version would be better because your skill has improved. The carpenter does not just build the house. The house builds the carpenter.

That is why you should retain your rights whenever possible and seek reversion when you can.

How else can AI tools help authors with contracts?

Thomas: Another thing a lawyer can do is review contract language for clauses that may hurt you later. I also have a tool called Not a Literary Agent that reviews contracts from an agent’s perspective. It helps identify potential pitfalls and career implications.

These tools run on different models and can provide a kind of second opinion. They are not meant to replace an agent or a lawyer. But they are far better than doing nothing or relying on a random Google search.

Copyright law is heavily tilted against individual creators. In many towns, there are no copyright lawyers because there is no money in it. The money is in patents and trademarks. Copyright primarily benefits large corporations in places like New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville. That imbalance is real.

Jonathan: I know there are a lot of anti–traditional publishing voices in the chat, and I often agree with them. If you go traditional, rights strategy must be part of your plan, not the whole plan.

In the Marine Corps, we had a saying, do not give someone control over your life unless you have a reason. The same applies in publishing. Giving up rights should be a tactical decision.

My novel Semper Die is traditionally published. I did that to reach an audience I could not access otherwise. I researched the publisher and confirmed there was an established readership I could tap into. That decision has been frustrating at times, but it has delivered the value I wanted.

By contrast, Shades of Black is my baby. I will never give that away, unless a movie deal shows up and proves me wrong. Semper Die was designed for this purpose from the start. I also have a roadmap that funnels readers from the traditionally published book into my indie titles.

How should authors evaluate publishing offers?

Thomas: The key is going in with your eyes wide open. Authors are often dazzled by an offer and the advance. They feel flattered and do not take the time to understand every paragraph of the contract.

Many assume their literary agent works for them. But the agent does not get paid by the author. The agent gets paid by the publisher. This is similar to real estate, where the buyer’s agent is paid by the seller.

That does not make agents evil. Many are excellent. Others are incompetent or outright scammers. The danger to your career can be the same either way.

I created Not a Literary Agent to help authors have better conversations with their real agents and to understand where conflicts of interest exist.

Can literary agents have conflicts of interest?

Jonathan: We have seen cases where agents acquired material to bury it or passed ideas to better-performing clients. Sometimes it was ideological. Sometimes it was purely commercial.

Thomas: There are conversations you cannot safely have with an agent because of those conflicts. Agents are great at helping you choose between Publisher A and Publisher B, because they benefit when you make more money either way.

But if the choice is Publisher A, Publisher B, or indie publishing, the agent makes nothing if you go indie. In that situation, the agent becomes an advocate for the traditional publishing system rather than for you individually.

Indie publishing is not that complicated once you invest a little effort. Read one of Joanna Penn’s books and you can figure it out. There simply is not much for an agent to do in that scenario, which is why the incentives matter.

Sources:

Novel Marketing Passes 1 Million Downloads

Thomas: Novel Marketing just passed one million total podcast downloads. While Novel Marketing is new to YouTube, this show, Author Update, actually grew out of it. Novel Marketing is my main show, and Author Update originally launched on the Novel Marketing YouTube channel.

We eventually spun it off into its own channel, and it finally became monetized. On our first day of advertising, Author Update made $2.77. So yes, we are deeply thankful for our patrons.

Still, I am genuinely excited about Novel Marketing crossing one million podcast downloads. It only took thirteen years. Hopefully the next million will not take quite that long.

If you are curious about getting into podcasting or YouTube, one of the biggest differences is consistency. Podcast downloads are incredibly steady. We do not see major spikes, and we are getting about the same number of downloads now as we did five years ago. It is a very even, reliable audience.

YouTube is completely different. Especially with Author Update, viewership rises and falls based on the news cycle. If there is a big industry story, people tune in. If there is not, they skip the episode. On YouTube, attention is driven far more by what is happening right now.

Zeitgeist: Record Breaking Bible Sales

Jonathan: Bible sales have reached record highs in the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2025 alone, publishers tracked nineteen million units sold in the U.S., the highest total since BookScan began tracking sales twenty-one years ago. In the U.K., sales climbed 134 percent above 2008 levels, the first year data was recorded.

Despite this surge, religious press revenues have not kept pace with inflation. According to the Association of American Publishers, year-to-date growth through October is only 1 percent.

Why are Bibles selling while other Christian books struggle?

Thomas: If you look closely at the numbers, Bibles are flying off the shelves, along with Bible-adjacent products. That includes devotionals that are mostly Scripture, workbooks centered on the Bible, and partial or adapted Bibles like The Action Bible, which presents Scripture in comic-book form.

The closer a product is to the Bible, the better it sells. The more editorial judgment Christian publishers impose on content, the worse those books perform. You might expect a spiritual revival to produce a flood of interest in Christian books, as it did in past awakenings. Many Christian bookstores, for example, grew out of the Jesus People movement of the 1970s.

My mother has told stories about becoming a Christian in college at a school hostile to Christianity. When she moved on to graduate school and did not yet know anyone or have a church, she would visit the local Christian bookstore just to be around other Christians. It was a refuge, a place that understood her questions and struggles. Many people were effectively discipled through Christian bookstores.

We are not seeing that now.

What do flat revenues reveal about Christian publishing?

Thomas: Christian publishers are struggling to sell anything other than Bibles and devotionals. If Bible sales are breaking records and overall revenue is flat, that means everything else is declining. If non-Bible categories were also growing, total revenue would be rising.

This is not because people are only buying public-domain translations like the King James Version. Most sales are of copyrighted translations such as the NIV, NLT, and NKJV. These editions offer more options, from font size to binding to cover design. When I recently bought a Bible for a friend, I was struck by how many choices there were.

A few months ago on The Christian Publishing Show, I discussed why Christian publishers have moved sharply left culturally. Many would not publish authors like Charlie Kirk or Meghan Basham. Since that episode, people have privately shared additional examples of conservative or traditionally orthodox books that Christian publishers refuse to touch. Most are unwilling to go on the record because they fear retaliation.

Thomas: One advantage of being patron-supported is that I am not really cancelable. Author Update exists beyond YouTube. Losing YouTube would hurt, but it would not end the show.

Jonathan: We would just scream into the void.

Thomas: Exactly. People ask why Christian publishers would not publish someone like Charlie Kirk. He is one of the biggest names connected to Christianity right now. His book on the Sabbath has been sold out for months. I ordered a copy over a month ago and still have not received it. On Amazon, used copies disappear almost instantly. That kind of demand is extraordinary.

If conservative authors with traditional theology were being published by major Christian houses, those publishers would not be seeing flat revenues while Bible sales soar. That disconnect is telling.

Thomas: Much of the current revival is happening among young, masculine men, what people might call gym bros. This is not new. A similar revival occurred between the 1870s and 1890s in a movement known as muscular Christianity.

Most people know nothing about muscular Christianity, yet many modern sports were born from it. Basketball and football emerged during this same period. Once you understand cultural cycles, you start to see how history rhymes.

If you are a conservative, masculine young man turning to the Bible, there is often nothing for you at a Christian bookstore and little in mainstream evangelical culture. The churches that are growing reflect this reality.

Which churches are growing and which are shrinking?

Thomas: In the U.K., the Church of England has declined dramatically. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church is growing because it remains more theologically conservative. Britain does not have the same vibrant independent Baptist or conservative evangelical movement found in the U.S., partly because those groups were historically persecuted and emigrated.

Jonathan: Yes, they left. We went away.

Thomas: My ancestors were conservative evangelicals who left Britain for that reason. I still love our British listeners, even if our shared history goes back a long way.

In the U.S., denomination data from 2000 to 2024 shows that nearly all major denominations have declined. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is down 58 percent. Southern Baptists, American Baptists, Episcopalians, and others are all shrinking.

The groups growing the fastest are the Presbyterian Church in America, the Anglican Church in North America, and the Assemblies of God. These represent either traditional worship with conservative theology or conservative theology with a modern expression. Everything else is contracting.

What does this mean for Christian writers?

Thomas: Many writers want Christians to read their books, even if they are not writing explicitly Christian titles. Yet Christian publishing has adopted a trend sometimes described as “punch to the right and coddle to the left.” That approach is out of step with the broader cultural shift, which is moving right.

The churches growing are conservative. The churches shrinking are progressive. Publishing that ignores this reality will continue to struggle.

Jonathan: Christianity is fundamentally warlike in structure, though not in the sense of physical conquest. Jesus said, “I come to bring a sword.” Scripture speaks of armor, battle, and division. Families and nations are divided by the gospel. Conflict is inherent.

Even practices like the Lord’s Supper carry martial symbolism. In the Passover tradition, Jesus did not drink the final cup. He said he would drink it later, together with his followers. That mirrors a warrior tradition where survivors gather after battle to honor those who did not return.

Glory in warlike cultures is earned, not conferred. Memorializing the fallen matters deeply. “Remember me” is a powerful command, and no cultures remember their dead better than those shaped by conflict.

I explored this symbolism in Shades of Black II: After Light. I am not sure many readers caught it, but it is all there.

Thomas: If you look at the fourth turning of the 1860s, you also see the rise of muscular Christianity and the founding of the Salvation Army in 1865. The Salvation Army was originally structured with military language, generals, ranks, and missions.

They preached the gospel, fed the poor, and played music in the streets, often right outside saloons. This warlike ethos resonated deeply during that era and drove massive growth.

Thomas: Hopefully this gives some cultural context for where things are heading.

Jonathan: There is going to be a hunger for strong, biblical material that feeds this surge of muscular, conflict-facing Christianity. This movement is predominantly masculine, but it affects everyone.

Even if you are not writing for men, you are writing for women connected to men shaped by this shift. They will need help navigating it, understanding it, and living alongside it.

This is the trend unfolding right now.

Sources:

Zeitgeist: Reformed Christian Church Splits

Thomas: There is one more point worth adding, and it ties into a broader cultural shift we planned to cover later. The Christian Reformed Church in America is currently going through a church split, and it is notable because it reverses a long-standing pattern.

For the past century, most major church splits have followed the same trajectory. A denomination becomes increasingly progressive, conservatives eventually leave, and liberals retain control of the institution, along with its power and financial resources.

This time, the opposite is happening.

For the first time in decades, conservatives are holding the institution and the liberals are leaving. The conservative faction has chosen to fight for the church rather than walk away.

The top three denominations, the only ones that experienced growth, are theologically conservative. Source

Thomas: The Christian Reformed Church in America is not particularly large in my area. It is a strongly Calvinistic denomination, often considered more Reformed than Presbyterian. What makes this split remarkable is that the core institutions are remaining with the conservative majority.

That includes the denomination’s publishing arm, which produces its magazine and books, its university, and the main body of its congregations. Meanwhile, the more progressive, LGBT-affirming congregations, many of which are Canadian, are departing.

This represents a reversal of the usual outcome, where progressive factions retain institutional control.

Thomas: It remains to be seen whether this marks the beginning of a larger trend within churches. We have seen related tensions in groups like the Southern Baptist Convention, though the dynamics there were different.

From a cultural perspective, this is something worth watching closely.

Sources:

Zeitgeist: Fonts Get Political

Thomas: One more story before we move on. It is lighter on the surface, but I think it is deeply revealing. We are talking about culture and fonts, which somehow have become politicized.

For background, the U.S. government used Times New Roman for as long as I can remember. It is a traditional serif font, boring, staid, and normal. Under the Biden administration, the State Department switched its documents from Times New Roman to Calibri, a sans serif font.

When Marco Rubio became Secretary of State, one of his first symbolic moves was to purge Calibri and return to Times New Roman. He could have framed it as a cost-saving measure, since Times New Roman is one of the most space-efficient fonts. That would have been true.

Instead, the argument was cultural. Times New Roman was framed as a conservative font, and Calibri as a progressive font. Now the internet is fighting font wars.

What does this say about the current zeitgeist?

Thomas: I want to share Michael Knowles’s take because it captures the moment we are in. He said, “Sans serif fonts, in their inhuman minimalism, are for libs. Serif fonts, with their delightful and elegant adornments, elevate the soul. This return to tradition is not only a welcome change, but literally significant.”

Welcome to 2026. Even fonts have politics now.

Jonathan: I do not care that much. The way I learned it, sans serif fonts are for science fiction and serif fonts are for fantasy.

Thomas: This connects to something deeper. There is a broader rejection of minimalism. I recently saw a chart showing unpopular interior colors by decade. Over time, everything moves from bright, saturated colors to muted tones, until we end up with various shades of sad beige.

The same thing has happened in architecture. Compare a building from the 1800s with columns, statues, and ornamentation to a building from the 1980s made of glass and steel. No adornment. No art. Just brutalism. People are tired of it.

I have been to Russia. I have seen true brutalist architecture. The Soviets built structures to survive war, not to be beautiful or comfortable. Whether they could survive a nuclear blast, thankfully, we never found out.

Thomas: People argue that minimalism exists to save money. Sometimes that is true, but not always. In this case, Calibri actually costs more to print because it is less space-efficient than Times New Roman.

Cultures reveal their values by what they are willing to spend money on. Look at a lamppost from 1880 London, with carvings and statues, then compare it to a lamppost from 1980. One is preserved because it is beautiful. The other is invisible at best and ugly at worst.

How does this show up in books and publishing?

Thomas: Readers will spend up to one hundred dollars on special editions where the text is identical. What changes are the sprayed edges, flourishes, and artistic embellishments.

Jonathan: The book contributes to the home.

Thomas: Exactly. Some readers value extra content like short stories or illustrations. Many women value how a book makes their home look. A shelf of beautiful books signals identity. For example, Hobby Lobby’s entire business model is built on people filling their homes with objects that define them.

As authors, you need to think about whether your book is just a reading experience or also a physical object that carries meaning.

Thomas: This is happening in fashion too. There has been a trend toward mass-produced clothing that is cheap, uncomfortable, and constantly changing. Fast fashion is not about beauty or durability. It is about being current.

People are getting tired of that. As we move into a new cultural cycle, there is a growing hunger for enduring quality and beauty.

We are seeing this in churches as well. People want beautiful churches. My family experienced this firsthand when we visited Dallas around Christmas. We wanted our kids to see stained glass and classic architecture.

We went to a beautiful church that was otherwise very middle-of-the-road theologically. The parking was completely full. We missed half the service because so many people were drawn by the beauty of the space. Beauty alone was enough to drive attendance.

Jonathan: I appreciate beauty. I love Catholic cathedrals. The destruction of Notre Dame was a crime against human history. I love stained glass. Mormon temples are beautiful. Many mosques are beautiful too.

But I come from a very functional, war-oriented culture. Beauty requires protection. When beauty is central to worship, people feel compelled to preserve it. I respect that, but it is not how I operate.

Thomas: Regional culture and theological heritage are at play. Independent Baptists trace their roots to the Anabaptists, who are connected historically to groups like the Mennonites. The Amish, a branch of that tradition, avoid adornment, yet an Amish chair is a uniquely American kind of beauty. Simple, functional, but crafted at an exceptionally high level.

That value runs deep in American culture. Even fashion history reflects it. Lace fell out of favor during the American Revolution, partly due to British taxes and partly because lace symbolized European aristocracy.

Sources:

Why does this matter for authors?

Thomas: America is not one culture. It is made up of multiple cultural nations. I have a whole episode on this. Your book will not resonate equally with all of them.

Austin, where the Novel Marketing Conference is held, sits at the border between El Norte, heavily influenced by Mexican culture, and Greater Appalachia, one of the most overlooked but populous cultural regions in the country.

Greater Appalachia produces a disproportionate number of Marines.

Jonathan: The beauty I value is not decorative. It is legacy. Honor. Victory. Continuity. That is the beauty of the Marine Corps. We remember Tripoli, Midway, Iwo Jima, Fallujah. We remember sacrifice.

That is the beauty I try to create in life. It is harder, but it lasts.

Thomas: That is beauty of character. Internal and spiritual rather than physical. A book can have both, but how you market it matters.

You probably are not the kind of reader who buys special editions.

Jonathan: Only if I love the story.

Thomas: Some of my special editions define my personality.

Jonathan: Brandon Sanderson does not define my personality. I do not identify with his heroes. They are not hard enough. I almost liked Kaladin, but not quite. Sanderson seems like a genuinely nice guy. His books just do not reach me.

Thomas: Different readers value different kinds of beauty. Some care about sentence-level prose. Some care about characters. Some care about plot or magic systems.

There is more than one kind of beauty, but if you want readers, your book must embody some kind of beauty. You need to know which kind you do best and put that forward clearly.

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