The Authors Guild

@authorsguild.org

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Authors working together to ensure fair pay, protect copyright, and defend free speech.

So what can we do? This shifting definition of first amendment rights to protect the government, not the people, is a stunning degradation of free speech rights. And it's happening in the dark. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell everyone you can. Authors Against Book Bans Freedom to Read Freedom to Create
The tl;dr version: HB 1069 mandates that materials be removed from school classrooms and libraries if an objection is filed alleging that the material is pornographic, harmful to minors, or depicts or describes sexual conduct. It has led to the removal and rejection of a lot of books by districts in a bid to avoid legal trouble and get out ahead of any public objections. Proponents of book censorship are wielding it like a club against school districts, and parents opposed to it have little recourse. Parents, authors, and publishers filed suit in August 2024. It is currently in the appeals process, being heard in the Eleventh Circuit U.S. District Court.
While this is a Florida law and legal suit, 21 states recently filed their own amicus brief in support of the law and the Florida State Board of Education: Arkansas, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, lowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia What is this bill and why does it matter?
There is currently an ongoing legal case in Florida regarding House Bill 1069 (passed in 2023) To defend this bill, the State of Florida is arguing that public school libraries are controlled by the government and considered "government speech," so they are exempt from the First Amendment and can censor anything they disagree with. They classify public school libraries as a "government benefit" that they are not required to provide.
To Writers and Journalists If you're an author participating in the protests or a journalist documenting them, you deserve to speak and report freely. If your voice is silenced or your rights are challenged, contact staff@authorsguild.org for help.
We can never lose sight of what a vital role journalists serve in democracy, informing citizens, acting as "watchdogs" to hold power accountable, uncovering wrongdoing, and promoting transparency, while also facilitating public discourse, defining community, and giving voice to the voiceless. Without a free press, there is no democracy. We must stand firm and protect journalists' right to be present, respected, and protected, to document and to freely share the facts they witness and uncover; otherwise, we are lost.
Support community-defense journalism: • Sahan Journal • MinnPost • Minnesota Public Radio • Minnesota Reformer Fund local newsroom capacity: • Star Tribune Local News Fund is now prioritizing tactical gear and PPE for journalists covering the ICE surge Amplify the reporting: The Star Tribune has unlocked unlimited "gift articles" for subscribers. If you have a subscription, use your gift links to bypass the paywall and share verified, on-the-ground reporting.
How to Support Writers and Journalists in Minnesota If we want these stories told, we have to take care of the storytellers. As Greenbaum writes: "Bolstering the local news ecosystem in realtime demands more than goodwill and likes." Fund safety gear for journalists on the ground: • Crisis Ready Media's Protect the Press Fund distributes body armor, helmets, trauma kits, and safety training to freelancers • IWMF Emergency Fund provides rapid grants for women-identifying journalists • SPJ Journalists' Safety Fund distributes grants directly to newsrooms or freelance journalists
The Authors Guild's mission is to protect authors and journalists' rights, including rights under the First Amendment and copyright systems that serve as the foundation for free expression; and today we stand by writers and journalists on the ground in Minnesota and elsewhere who are calling power to account, as writers have always done.
Journalists and Writers Bearing Witness Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were taken into federal custody-despite two judges finding "no evidence" of criminal behavior. They are among at least eight journalists attacked or arrested in Minnesota this month, including Whitney Wild (CNN), Jalyssa Dugrot (Mint Press News), King Demetrius Pendleton (Listen Media), and JT Cestkowski and Jon Farina (Status Coup). Minnesota's literary community has responded —organizing patrols, legal observers, and rapid-response networks. Their tools are phones, notebooks, and whistles. The Constitution protects all of it.
"Journalists are working in an increasingly hostile environment, one that requires body armor, not just notebooks." —Yoni Greenbaum, Vice President at the American Press Institute
The Authors Guild Stands with Writers and Journalists in Minneapolis. Authors are not bystanders they are essential practitioners.
Still, it is our position that uses such as "Ask this Book " and other Al-enhancements to books must be licensed and compensated. These are entirely new uses that fall outside of the rights granted under most publishing contracts, retail agreements, and platform terms of services.
The Guild's Take In creating a chat feature that allows readers to ask questions about a book— including analysis and summaries— Amazon is possibly creating a derivate use, not a mere search function. We have shared our concerns with Amazon, and appreciate the company's willingness to share information and hear us out, as well as the tweaks it has made since launch.
Amazon's Response We reached out to Amazon with our concerns and they reported to that "The feature only uses content from the book as a prompt which is not retained or used to train the underlying Al model." An Amazon spokesperson explained that Amazon considers the feature to be "a natural language expansion of the search functionality that already exists in Kindle apps and for which no license is required."
So far there is no way for publishers or authors to opt their books out of the feature, though as of this writing the feature is not available for all ebooks. We are concerned that Ask this Book turns books into searchable, interactive products akin to enhanced ebooks or annotated editions—a new format for which rights should be specifically negotiated-and, given Amazon's stronghold on ebook retail, it could usurp the burgeoning licensing market for interactive Al-enabled ebooks and audiobooks.
What It Is: The new "Ask this Book " feature, which is slated for a wider rollout in 2026, allows readers to query an Al chatbot about books they have purchased or borrowed.