A couple weeks ago, Draft2Digital, one of the leading distributors for self-publishing authors, sent a survey to its authors, asking for their feedback on whether they’d license their work for AI training and what their desired compensation would be if so. Some authors worried a deal with an AI company was therefore imminent, but the CEO, Kris Austin, says that will not be happening at this time. He writes, “From the beginning, we’ve structured our Terms of Service to only grant the rights we need to distribute your works and nothing more. We cannot, and will not, make choices about your works for you. The stakes are high enough around Al licensing that we felt it was imperative to include the community as much as possible in our decisions to offer these options or not.”
Draft2Digital has shared the results of the survey, which offer fascinating insights into current author attitudes into AI training. Browse the results.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
