AI Licensing Deals Heat Up, But Trade Book Publishers Risk Falling Behind
It's time trade publishers got off the comfy fence and started dealing with reality.
Jun 4, 2025 | AI
It's time trade publishers got off the comfy fence and started dealing with reality.
by Mark Williams | Jun 17, 2025 | AI, Digital subscription, Film & TV, Publishing Brief, Publishing Controversies | 0 |
Why publishing must learn from TV’s streaming milestone and embrace AI-powered subscription models before tech disruptors claim the future.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 16, 2025 | AI, Children's Books, Publishing Brief, Publishing Controversies | 0 |
Mattel-OpenAI’s AI toy partnership challenges trade publishing to embrace AI for interactive storytelling or risk obsolescence.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 14, 2025 | AI, Indonesia, S.E. Asia | 0 |
Indonesia plans systematic translation of its classics—could AI accelerate global reach? A hybrid human/AI model may make multi-language publishing viable for emerging markets.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 14, 2025 | South Korea, Taiwan | 0 |
Deputy Culture Minister Sue Wang has positioned the collaboration as a launchpad for expanded partnerships between Taiwan and South Korea across publishing, television, film, and video gaming industries.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 14, 2025 | Arab publishing, MENA publishing, Syria | 0 |
An exciting time for Syrian authors and other publishing industry stakeholders not just to rebuild, but to reframe Syrian publishing for the twenty-first century.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 9, 2025 | MENA publishing, Middle East, United Arab Emirates | 0 |
While other countries may not have the UAE’s resources or govt. commitment to publishing to match the model in full, there’s much to be learned here.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 9, 2025 | Africa, Arab publishing, MENA publishing, Sharjah | 0 |
Almost everyone here learns Arabic as a second or third language, and often it’s their first written language, but I struggle to find anyone here who sees Arabic as language of the arts.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 8, 2025 | Children's Books, illustrations | 0 |
A testament to the enduring power of children’s book art – where storytelling, culture, and emotion intertwine.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 7, 2025 | Book Fairs, Bulgaria, Georgia | 0 |
The event shouts out the region’s growing cultural synergy amid geopolitical tensions.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 7, 2025 | AI, Publishing Brief, Publishing Controversies, Uncategorized | 0 |
The latest PwC report is bad news for the Luddite Fringe.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 4, 2025 | AI | 0 |
It’s time trade publishers got off the comfy fence and started dealing with reality.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 2, 2025 | Translations | 0 |
Translation is about much more than converting words from one language to another.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 2, 2025 | Comics, Film & TV, Publishing Brief | 0 |
with audiences more discerning (and older film-goers like me wedded to C20 characters that Marvel and DC have lately walked away from) and competition fiercer than ever, success is far from guaranteed.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 2, 2025 | IBBY, Indigenous Languages | 0 |
Under the theme “Listening to Each Other’s Voices,” the Congress will explore inclusivity, representation, and sustainability through keynote speeches, workshops, and peer-led discussions.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 1, 2025 | Audiobooks, Digital subscription, Spotify | 0 |
For publishers, the lesson is clear: consumer choice in payment systems isn’t just fair – it’s profitable.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 1, 2025 | Book Fairs, Europe, Romania | 0 |
“Years later I slipped it into the Kindle store one day and, despite it being written in the first person as a twelve year old Romanian girl in WWII, it sold a quarter million copies.”
Read Moreby Mark Williams | Jun 1, 2025 | Africa, IP Rights, Nigeria | 0 |
A bold step forward in the fight against piracy and the push for stronger protections for literary professionals.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | May 27, 2025 | AI, Publishing Controversies | 0 |
A 2012 study found mystery readers scored higher in empathy and analytical thinking, suggesting long-term cognitive benefits.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | May 26, 2025 | AI, Audiobooks, Digital subscription | 0 |
Nextory’s move drives a critical lesson: the future of books lies not just in content, but in how seamlessly readers can find it.
Read Moreby Mark Williams | May 25, 2025 | AI, Audiobooks, USA | 0 |
How Voice Cloning is Reshaping Storytelling, Accessibility, and Ethical Boundaries
The much-hyped launch of Melania Trump’s AI-narrated memoir, Melania, has ignited debate far beyond its political undertones. Leave aside for one moment who she is, and leave aside the uncomfortably cozy relationship of the Trump Administration with the AI billionaire quad.
By collaborating with ElevenLabs to clone her voice for multilingual audiobook production, Melania Trump has thrust the publishing industry into a watershed moment. While critics may fixate on the author, the deeper story lies in the transformative – and irreversible – impact of AI voice technology on publishing.
The Melania Case Study: Efficiency Meets Global Reach
Trump’s memoir, narrated by an AI clone of her voice, exemplifies two key advantages driving adoption:
Scalability: Audiobook production, traditionally reliant on costly studio time and voice actors, can now be streamlined. ElevenLabs’ technology reportedly requires just minutes of source audio to create a high-fidelity voice clone, slashing production timelines and costs.
Multilingual Accessibility: The memoir’s upcoming Spanish, Portuguese, and Hindi versions will likely retain Trump’s vocal identity through ElevenLabs’ real-time dubbing tools, which preserve tone and cadence across languages. This eliminates the need for human translators to mimic her voice – a big leap toward democratising global content distribution.
For publishers, such efficiency can be transformative, when they are bold enough to step up. ElevenLabs’ ElevenReader app already hosts AI-narrated works by Maya Angelou and Richard Feynman, and includes posthumous celebrity voices like Judy Garland.
The implications for backlist titles and legacy authors are profound: estates can monetise unpublished works or re-release classics with “authentic” narration long after an author’s death.
Opportunities: Beyond Cost-Cutting
The rise of AI voice cloning isn’t merely about replacing human labour – it unlocks new creative and commercial frontiers:
Hyper-Personalisation: Imagine memoirs narrated in the author’s voice, podcasts dynamically adjusted to listener preferences, or interactive fiction where characters speak with (permissioned) cloned celebrity voices. ElevenLabs’ emotion-aware models already adapt tone to context, enabling nuanced storytelling.
Accessibility: AI narration can cater to visually impaired audiences or non-native speakers through multilingual outputs. Publishers like The Economist have tripled podcast revenue in part by using AI voices, proving demand for accessible formats.
Preservation: Authors and public figures can archive their voices for future projects, ensuring their vocal legacy endures. This aligns with initiatives like the Parkland victims’ AI-generated pleas for gun reform, showcasing technology’s potential for social impact.
Ethical Quandaries: Consent, Authenticity, and the Deepfake Dilemma
While ElevenLabs emphasises ethical safeguards – requiring proof of consent for voice cloning and banning political deepfakes, risks persist:
Consent Boundaries: Even with Trump’s participation, questions linger. How much control do authors retain over their AI voice? Could cloned voices be repurposed without oversight? The Atlantic’s experiment, where a journalist’s clone spewed fabricated statements, means that for now at least, there is fragility of trust.
Erosion of Human Craft: Voice actors and narrators face displacement. While ElevenLabs positions itself as a tool for “augmenting” creativity, unions like SAG-AFTRA warn of job losses in audiobook production. And yes, some job will go. Especially among those who refuse to adapt and learn how to use AI efficiently.
Deepfake Proliferation: Tools similar to ElevenLabs are already exploited to mimic politicians like Joe Biden, raising alarms about electoral misinformation. Publishers must navigate a landscape where synthetic voices blur lines between fact and fiction.
The Road Ahead: Regulation and Reinvention
The genie is out of the bottle – AI narration is here to stay. The industry’s challenge lies in balancing innovation with responsibility. It doesn’t have to be all negative for the human side. But it will require adaptation.
Transparency: Mandating clear labelling of AI-generated content, as proposed by the Brennan Center, could preserve trust. Publishers might adopt blockchain-based verification to certify authentic clones.
Licensing Frameworks: Royalty models for AI voice usage must evolve. ElevenLabs’ partnerships with estates (for example, Jerry Garcia) suggest a blueprint for licensing posthumous voices, but standardised contracts are urgently needed. In the US, progress is being made. In the UK, Luddite resistance reigns.
Creative Collaboration: Forward-thinking publishers are already merging AI efficiency with human artistry. For instance, hybrid projects could pair AI narration with live actor performances, preserving jobs while leveraging scale. Again, adaptation over resistance.
A New Chapter for Publishing
Melania Trump’s AI-narrated memoir is not a gimmick – it’s a harbinger of industry-wide reinvention. The technology’s potential to democratise access, preserve legacies, and innovate storytelling is immense, but the Luddite Fringe is determined to cling to last-century standards.
Yes, there are risks, of course. And some of these risks demand proactive governance. As ElevenLabs’ CEO Mati Staniszewski envisions a “Spotify of voices”, publishers must lead the charge in ethical adoption by meaningful adaptation. The future of audiobooks isn’t human versus machine – it’s about crafting a symphony where both harmonise.
The question is no longer if AI voices will reshape publishing, but how wisely we’ll wield their power.
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