The Most Significant Events in Publishing This Year So Far

The AI Copyright Battles Are Still Expanding

The most closely watched story in publishing this year continues to be the legal fight over AI training. Major publishers including Hachette and MacMillan are still involved in lawsuits against AI companies (including Meta) over allegations that copyrighted books were used without permission to train large language models.

These cases aren’t the first either. Earlier suits were brought by authors like Andrea Bartz, George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, and John Grisham against companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, where the writers argued their books were fed into training datasets without consent or compensation.

The core question behind all of these lawsuits is still unanswered. Does using books in AI training count as fair use or copyright infringement? Whatever the courts ultimately decide will likely have a lasting impact on how publishing and AI interact.

AI Is Also Changing How Publishing Houses Work

At the same time, AI has also found its way into publishing houses’ workflows. Across the industry, publishing teams are experimenting with AI tools to speed up routine tasks like drafting marketing copy, generating book blurbs, and assisting with copyediting.

Some editorial and marketing departments now use AI to produce advertising language that the human teams then refine, rather than writing everything from scratch. Larger publishers, including companies like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, have been seen posting job openings for AI positions, such as AI engineers and “solution managers.” Whether or not this is going to affect editing or writing has yet to be seen.

Book-to-Screen Adaptations Continue to Drive the Industry

It appears that Hollywood has no intentions of slowing down on picking up book-to-screen adaptations. With the success of 2026’s Project Hail Mary and Off Campus, it’s not hard to see why books keep getting scooped up and streaming platforms are competing to lock down anything with a built-in fanbase or buzz behind it.

It feels like there’s a new adaptation announcement every single day at this point. This year alone, we’ve seen announcements for big hits like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Icebreaker, Shatter Me, The House of the Cerulean Sea, The God of the Woods, and more. These are just a few good examples of how online readership can turn into real screen interest faster than it used to. In some instances, such as Storm Breaker by Nisha J. Tuli, we’re even getting adaptation announcements before the book has hit shelves.

It’s clear that how well books sell isn’t the only focal point anymore. They’re also being looked at as potential screen content from the start.

AI Popped Up in Writing Contests (And What Platforms Are Doing To Prevent It)

As AI tools become more common in both writing and editing, it’s becoming unclear about what even counts as “authorship” anymore.

One of the clearest examples this year comes from the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, where three of the 2026 winning entries were accused of being AI-assisted or fully AI-generated. In a statement given by the foundation’s director general, Razmi Farook, it was said that they had detailed discussions with the authors, which included looking at evidence such as working drafts and time-stamped documents. Regardless of how Commonwealth feels, Granta, a well-known literary magazine, came out to say that they will no longer be publishing these short stories and will be discontinuing any external publishing partnerships because of it.

On the flip side, some literary magazines have started moving in the opposite direction by setting clearer boundaries around AI use in their submission rules. Amazon KDP, while it still has a long way to go, has made it so that authors have to divulge whether AI was used during the writing process. It is a step in the right direction, however, the disclosure doesn’t necessarily appear to the reader, which for all intents and purposes, defeats the point.

Until all publishing houses and platforms can get on the same page, we foresee this being an issue.

Draft2Digital and Bookshop.org Partner Up

One of the biggest wins for independent publishing this year came from a partnership between Bookshop.org and Draft2Digital. Because of the partnership, self-published ebooks will now available for purchase through Bookshop.org, giving indie authors access to a wider audience. It also allows independent bookstores to earn money from ebook sales.

We spoke with Kris Austin, the co-founder and CEO of Draft2Digital, and he said, “Since day one, our mission has always been to help authors become more successful. Our partnership with Bookshop.org helps us achieve that mission by expanding our authors’ reach into more than 3,400 independent, brick-and-mortar bookstores across the U.S. and U.K.”

It’s a huge step toward making self-published books more accessible and creating a new source of revenue for indie bookstores.

The Rumpus Was Rebranded

The Rumpus got a fresh start this year under new owners Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman. Along with a new look, the online literary magazine is expanding beyond books to cover more art, design, and culture while keeping the fiction, essays, and interviews readers already know it for. On the topic of AI, Millman said, “With America being seduced by AI, there’s going to be even more of an appetite for craft, for soul, for work that still is original and heartbreaking and bone-tingling. More than ever there needs to be original voices that are beholden to no one but the reader.”