A skunk family was living under our neighbor's porch a couple of years ago. I often encountered (carefully) the four babies snuffling around my garden beds, searching the leaf mulch for grubs and bugs. They were the cutest little things.
It would have been nice to mention Writer Beware, since I was the first to report on this lawsuit (back in February) and in much greater detail writerbeware.blog/2026/02/20/a...
authorsguild.org/news/topps-l...
Agreed. Though I think credit also has to go to the extremely intensive notification effort. Not just the court notices but agencies and writers’ orgs really stepped up. Plus a bonanza of publicity about the settlement early on.
If only.
Yes. I believe the average is around 10%.
It's a windfall, for sure--since no one was ever going to get compensated for those pirated works--though only for a minority of the pirated authors. But I'm not sure how much of a win it is, since the other half of the judge's decision gave Anthropic what it wanted on fair use.
When I first wrote my article, I wasn't aware of the extent of their licensing business, but that's got to be a major income generator--free money, basically, since even if they paid their bills, writers wouldn't get a penny for the licensing of their work
And they've been operating this way for a very long time.
I know. It's shocking.
New on the Anthropic settlement from the @authorsguild.org : over 91% (!!) of eligible books were claimed as of the claims deadline (I would not have predicted such a high number!)
Looks like the payout will be close to the $3000 originally estimated authorsguild.org/news/anthrop...
I published this article about the longstanding payment problems at Cricket Media in 2022. Reupping, since I'm STILL hearing from Cricket authors and illustrators who haven't been paid...
hey @scbwi.bsky.social any response?
writerbeware.blog/2022/11/18/l...
A new model contract clause from the @authorsguild.org addresses the use of generative AI in publishing workflows (such as uploading mss into AI systems to generate summaries, marketing copy, etc.) authorsguild.org/news/use-of-...
Lots of AI/writing posts going around. Let this one be the one you read today. (and follow & hire @juliescheina.com for your editorial needs!)
Agreed. I think they're getting significant blowback.
That's good to know--thanks.
Conspiracy theorists all over the US are celebrating.
Yeah, they have a notice on that page that they're dealing with "a high volume of inquiries" so response may be delayed. I just bet they are.
Yes, this is totally nuts. I didn't realize they make it so hard.
I think KDP may be able to remain free, because...Amazon. But I wonder if IngramSpark might be re-thinking its elimination of fees.
Yeah. I think they're going to lose a lot of users from this--but judging by the comments I'm seeing, that may be one of the things they're aiming for (getting rid of small accounts)
Yeah, I didn't realize how hard they make it to cancel an account. Doesn't make a lot of sense--forcing people to contact customer support rather than making it possible to cancel on the website just makes more work for them.
Is it illegal? I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know. (I didn't realize what a hassle it is to cancel an account there. Wow.)
I sympathize with the frustration, but self-pub platforms really are in a bind on AI slop, so I get why they are doing this.
I think a lot of writers are thinking similarly. It'll be interesting to see how big the wave of cancellations will be.
The $20 is just for new _accounts_, but the $12 will apply to everyone (assuming they don't reach the annual $100 threshold).
AI slop is making life worse for everyone: Draft2Digital will be instituting fees in an effort to stem the onslaught of "low-quality accounts": a $20 activation fee for new accounts, & a $12 annual maintenance fee for accounts earning less than $100 over 12 months draft2digital.com/blog/underst...
The Anthropic book theft settlement is essentially done, but many more battles remain. I also agree with Catherynne M. Valente's recent essay calling the settlement "blood money." 1/
www.patreon.com/posts/155693...
Surprising, I know. 😜
I see so many of these scam emails that I can recognize them at a glance. Occasionally I feel impatient with getting the same questions over and over, and I have to periodically remind myself that for anyone who doesn't see twenty scams a day, it's not always so easy to tell that something is a fake
Impersonation scam alert.