AI Threats, Platform Changes & Cultural Shifts Authors Can’t Ignore
Substack’s controversial move into sponsored ads, Audible’s new in-app video discovery features, scoring 2025 publishing predictions, the growing anti-AI movement, and major cultural zeitgeist shifts.
Authors Lost 40-70% of KENP Overnight
Kindle royalties, audiobook wars, ACX statements, Discord going public, and a new way to sell print books without storing inventory.
Massive Amazon Algorithm Changes
Thomas: Welcome to Author Update, your weekly dose of publishing news that actually matters to your career. This week we are breaking down Amazon’s massive algorithm changes. Some authors are panicked, some are excited. We will cover what changed, why your books...
Why Your Cover, Blurb, and Hook Are All Just Guesses
Discover how split testing can help you write a book readers will love and help you sell that book to the right readers.
Amazon, AI, and Author Strategy Shifts: What You Need to Know Now
Welcome to this week’s Author Update, where we break down what’s happening in the world of publishing, AI, and tech—so you can write better, market smarter, and keep ahead of the curve. In this episode, we covered sweeping changes at Amazon, unexpected shifts in how...
Substack Breach: Author Information Compromised
TikTok is back, but its algorithm retrain may disrupt BookTok, the author-targeted data breach, Amazon’s new DRM download option, soaring Bible sales, ChatGPT ads, Sanderson’s “we are the art” speech, and what the Super Bowl halftime shows reveal about today’s book buyers.
Kindle Unlimited Is Dead: Long Live Kindle+
Amazon retired Kindle Unlimited, Meta gives ultimatum to business accounts, PHP patch, and another trad publisher closes. And in Zeitgeist news, Britain arrests 62,199 people over social posts!
Copyright Termination and the Feds: What Just Happened to Authors
OpenAI’s announcement of ads coming to ChatGPT for free users (and what authors should do about it), a landmark federal court ruling that copyright termination rights now apply globally (potentially returning your foreign rights), record-breaking Bible sales that mask a crisis in Christian publishing, Julia Quinn’s new romance subscription box strategy, and the surprising political battle over fonts that affects book design.
17 Days Left: How to Claim Your $3,000+ From Anthropic’s $1.5B AI Copyright Settlement
This week’s highlights: Authors have only 17 days left to claim up to $3,000+ per book in the $1.5B Anthropic AI copyright settlement. YouTube’s revenue now surpasses Disney, confirming the creator economy’s dominance, a trajectory indie authors are mirroring. Amazon ended its Book Club and excluded authors from new AI ad tools.
Invasion of the AI Images | Author Update
Explore the rise of AI-generated images and their impact on authors in this Author Update. Learn strategies to adapt and leverage AI tools for your writing success. Outline Amazon Ads Expansion Amazon has recently expanded its sponsored ads, including Sponsored...
From Book Blurb to Bestseller: How to Craft Compelling Amazon Pages With Dave Chesson
Learn how a free tool can help improve your book description, increase your sales, and improve the effectiveness of your Amazon sales page.
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.
Is Curios the Shopify Killer for Authors?
Discover how authors sell direct with Curios and find an alternative to Shopify for better financial margins.
Zeitgeist: Two Halftime Shows, One Nation: What the Super Bowl Split Says About American Readers
The 2026 Super Bowl featured two competing halftime shows—the NFL’s official Bad Bunny performance and Turning Point USA’s alternative show with Kid Rock—and the streaming data reveals a seismic cultural shift that every author must understand about audience and platform.
