AI
- Public figures must opt out of OpenAI’s image generator. OpenAI recently rolled out a new model for image generation for ChatGPT that allows users to generate images that include public figures. Public figures who don’t like this must contact OpenAI to opt out. Read Chris Smith at BGR. Related: OpenAI’s ability to create Studio Ghibli’s style has renewed copyright concerns. Read Matt O’Brien and Sarah Parvini at the AP.
- An interview with the HarperCollins CEO touches on their AI licensing deal: Brian Murray says the vast majority of HarperCollins’s nonfiction authors have opted in to the training deal, netting them $2,500 per title. (Authors are free to opt in or opt out; learn more if you missed this news.) “It’s a little bit like threading a needle—where you want to protect copyright, protect IP, you want to have some payment, but you really want the protections and guidelines so that the work is not used to harm future revenue streams and royalties for those authors. … We’re not trying to rewrite author contracts. I don’t really know what this market is going to look like in a year or five years.” The full podcast episode is worth a listen; he goes on to discuss the potential for author chatbots based on their published works. Listen.
- The New York Times copyright lawsuit against OpenAI moves forward. This is one of the handful of AI lawsuits to keep a close eye on because of its great relevance to nonfiction writers and journalists. A trial date has not yet been set. Read Bobby Allyn at NPR.
Traditional Publishing
- After declaring bankruptcy, Diamond Comic Distributors has a buyer. It’s Alliance Entertainment, a private-equity firm new to the comics business. Read John Maher at Publishers Weekly.
Bookselling
- Reasons to be optimistic from an independent bookseller. Yes, people are still buying books–including young people! Learn more at this Bluesky thread by Charlotte Moore-Lambert, with lots of commentary from other booksellers. H/t Viannah at Duncan Heights Editing.
- How might booksellers use AI for business? Marketing, communications, and analytics are likely to be strong use cases. Read George Walkley at BookBrunch.
- UK’s WH Smith bookstores have been sold to a private equity firm and renamed TGJones. The chain has nearly 500 outlets. Read Neill Denny at Publishers Weekly.
Marketing & Promotion
- The state of publicity: Publicist Kathleen Schmidt discusses book reviews, book signings, and whether authors should hire publicists. Read at Publishing Confidential.
- Another case of a TikTok video turning a book into an overnight bestseller. An author’s book signing at a Barnes & Noble went viral on TikTok when a little girl and her mom filmed it because the author was sitting there alone and they felt sad for him. They bought his book, and the little girl said she wanted to be an author. In two days, the book sold 5,500 books on Amazon; agents and publishers have reached out to him about rights. Here’s the author’s LinkedIn post about the experience. Read Jordan Greene at People magazine.
Culture & Politics
- A federal judge blocked an Iowa state law restricting books in school libraries for a second time. He wrote he could not find “a single case upholding school library restrictions as broad as those found” in Iowa’s new state law. Read Zach Sommers at Iowa Capital Dispatch.
- Trump says a TikTok sale is coming. The deadline is April 5, or else the app will (theoretically) be shut down in the US. Read Andrea Shalal and David Shepardson at Reuters.
- How might tariffs affect the printing industry? Printers were surveyed. About two-thirds of survey respondents expect tariffs to increase their operating costs. About half expect supply chain disruptions. Read Andrew D. Paparozzi at Printing Impressions.
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.