Happy Wednesday…

And happy Summer! This is officially the first newsletter on this side of the sun 🌞 Live it up and book it up!

Check out our latest Creators Talk Podcast with the wonderful Sam Fox, Senior Director, Content Creation and Strategy at HarperCollins.

We discussed book marketing campaigns, bookish brand trips like Shelves and the City, creative writing, and of course, books!

Great insights for book content creators and authors.

Enjoy!

This Week’s Sunlight:

• 📚 Nook with Frederick Joseph & Friends

•  📺 Anthropic’s Court Ruling on Book Pirating

• 📖 Toni Morrison at Random House

This Week On Bookum:

We are keeping the bookish vibes high this weekend!

Join us this Saturday, June 28, with NY Times bestselling author Frederick Joseph to discuss his latest book, This Thing of Ours, our Bookum Club pick of June!

Joining us in conversation with Frederick Joseph will be special book guest “the greatest reader alive” Jerid P. Woods (@ablackmanreading), the scholarly Tyreke Wesley, and the always insightful Drew Jay Davis!

The conversation will be hosted live on Bookum in our real-time audio rooms (Nooks).

Excited to have you join us!

This Week in The Book World:

We got a lot of book world news this week, so check the footnotes at the end as well (everything from BookCon returning, friend of the app Danielle Robay hosting HelloSunshine’s Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club, SJM’s licensing deal with IMG, TikTok’s parent company shutting down its publishing company 8th Note Press, and the list goes on!)

AND EVEN STILL, the news that might be most alarming (especially to authors and creators) is that Anthropic (known for its AI model Claude) has actually won (in part) its federal ruling on training AI on books!

Taking a direct quote from the NBC News article:

In simple terms: Yes, Anthropic can simply digitize a purchased printed copy of a book under fair use to train their AI models.

However, the ruling also found that they pirated over 7 million downloaded books that did not meet the fair use statute!

A lot of legalese. What does this mean for authors and creators?

If this ruling holds up, AI companies can purchase your book once, train it on their models, and your book will be in their systems.

For creators, this means AI copies could get a transcript of your content, digitize it, and train their models from it.

The creator economy & book publishing world is rapidly changing, and we want to make sure we are keeping our readers informed!

What do you think about all this? Let’s set up a Nook and discuss!

Full articles courtesy the register and NBC below:

This Week in Publishing:

Alright, we can always find a home with the beloved Toni Morrison.

Out this week is the highly anticipated Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship.

Author Dana A. Williams unveils never-before-seen and lesser-known stories of Toni Morrison’s impact as an editor at Random House (now Penguin Random House).

Summary:

Drawing on extensive research and firsthand accounts, this comprehensive study discusses Morrison’s remarkable journey from her early days at Random House to her emergence as one of its most important editors. During her tenure in editorial, Morrison refashioned the literary landscape, working with important authors, including Toni Cade Bambara, Leon Forrest, and Lucille Clifton, and empowering cultural icons such as Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali to tell their stories on their own terms.

Get your copy of Toni at Random today!

As always, if you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, please share it with others. Every share helps and keeps us growing!

Definitely share to a book content creator friend that might enjoy our newsletter!

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Happy Reading!

Download Bookum on Apple or Android Here!

See you next week!

Footnotes (Aka other articles we are reading and Bookum content):

Book Content Creator Haley Pham and Husband Ryan Trahan Visit 50 States in 50 Days and finally make it to the great state of Colorado - https://youtu.be/gkkmYXLvdPQ?si=aowGDxi80xktVd8A

BookCon is Back - https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2025/06/18/bookcon-2026-event-announcement/84247955007/

Creator and Journalism is the Host for the New Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club Podcast - https://bookriot.com/reeses-book-club-bookmarked-podcast/

TikTok’s Owner Wanted to Publish Books. Not Anymore. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/books/review/bytedance-tiktok-publisher-shuts-down.html

Sarah J. Maas Inks Multiyear, Worldwide Deal ACOTAR Licensing With IMG - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sarah-j-maas-multi-year-deal-img-licensing-exclusive-acotar-1236295117/