Dear emerging authors, readers and such,

Given January’s ability to stretch endlessly beyond the reach of a post-December budget, it’s no surprise that the headlines have been coming thick and fast with an intensity that could give you whiplash. 

Thankfully, I’m great at rubbernecking and I’m a multitasker. And since we have officially stepped into 2026, it’s only fair that you get an overview of what’s afoot in the industry. It may not give you a headstart, but it might help you close the gap and catch up a bit. Let’s call this edition the Lightning Round for Emerging Authors.

First up, a batch of headlines on the Fake Intellectual – more widely known as artificial intelligence.

Unredacted files reveal Anthropic’s ‘secret plan’ to ‘destructively scan all the books in the world’
Anthropic, the AI company being sued for trying to scrape an unprecedented amount of content from published books, reportedly had much bigger, ambitiously bonkers plans to “scan all the books in the world” before its activities were discovered. I couldn’t make up this kind of villainy; no one would believe me.

‘It was clearly not me’: author Shaun Rein’s voice ‘cloned by AI’ to read book on ‘deepfake’ podcast
Imagine someone sending you a video of you, doing a podcast about your own book that you have no memory of doing because actually, it’s not you at all; it’s AI. Are we in the Twilight Zone, I hear you ask?

Harlequin France ‘trials AI translation’
Finally, this AI headline feels to me the most pressing: Harlequin France, famed publisher of romance, is reportedly transitioning to AI-generated translation. Human translators will be used to check the work of the bots, of course.

What this all means for you as an author, is if you don’t want AI involved in any of your future books, you’ll have to make that explicit in your contracts and vote with your feet; and there are resources available to help you navigate that. Perhaps that feels like a drop in the ocean, given the headlines I’ve just presented to you. But it is important to remember, during this time of change and anxiety, that what you create still belongs to you, first and foremost. 

I am not going to tell you that AI isn’t already having catastrophically negative impacts on the creative industries because you have likely already experienced it firsthand, or you know someone who has, or AI slop has already bounced across one of your social media timelines and ruined your day. But I am going to remind you to look at the people behind the AI, pay attention to them, the companies and the decisions they make, and take note of who and what to avoid in the future as your author career progresses.

It is important to remember, during this time of change and anxiety, that what you create still belongs to you

Now let’s look at getting closer to some good things from January 2026:

MeetCute Book Festival to host Regency-themed event for debut authors
Imagine it’s the 4th July 2026 (stay with me): 15 debut authors dressed in the colours of their book jackets get introduced to ‘polite society’ and get to present their books for an audience to choose their top contenders for a ‘dance’, sort of like an episode of Bridgerton (I imagine). It sounds like a lot of fun and if you write or read romance, this might be the hottest ticket in town (in July).

Right now, though, the rest of you might want to get in on this:

Libraro partners with Hachette UK to launch £50k ‘reader-led’ prize
You know I’ll never leave you without a new way to share your work, and this one is extra special because not only does it have a £50,000 prize (£30,000 winnings plus £20,000 towards the marketing of the finished book), but it is open to all writers regardless of publishing background and level, and will be chosen by an online community of dedicated readers.

And last on the list of ‘give the people what they actually want’:

National Year of Reading campaign for 2026 kicks off at Emirates Stadium
Reading for pleasure is at its lowest since 2005, so 2026 is officially the National Year of Reading. This means we all have permission to talk about books excessively for the whole year to every child, young person and adult in our life who doesn’t read much. And if you think about it, it’s actually our job, as writers in particular, to spread the word about the joy of reading. It’s literally the thing we’re all trying to make a career from, not because it’s lucrative (it’s 2026, let’s be honest), but because we love it, because literacy matters and because it aids critical thinking that will allow the little people in our lives to become a generation that can advocate for itself, debate, critique and, best of all, create stories that change other people’s lives. 

But first, let’s get on with writing the things that we want them to read.