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The Authors Guild 2025 Wrapped

Take a look back at our biggest advocacy updates and most popular programming of the year.

December 22, 2025

Gradient background transitioning from blue to green with the Authors Guild logo and text: The Authors Guild 2025 Wrapped
Close up of stacked books with text: We've reached 17,000 members! Thank you for turning to us for guidance throughout your author careers!
Text: Authors won the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson, and Charles Graeber led a class action that secured $1.5 billion from Anthropic for pirating books to train AI. The Guild advised class counsel on contracts and notice terms and has informed authors about the claims process. The message to AI companies: You can't build your technology on stolen work.
Text: Authors struck down Florida's book ban law Julia Alvarez, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas joined publishers, parents, and the Authors Guild to challenge HB 1069 and won. A federal judge ruled the law unconstitutional, affirming that "none of these books are obscene."
Text: Authors defeated Texas's READER Act After a two-year fight, booksellers, publishers, and the Authors Guild secured a permanent injunction against the law that would have forced vendors to rate books and submit to state censorship. Texas parents, not the government, get to decide what their kids read.
Text: Authors blocked Iowa's book removal law Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Malinda Lo, and Jodi Picoult helped win a preliminary injunction against Senate File 496, with the court condemning its "puritanical pall of orthodoxy." The Authors Guild joined as a plaintiff alongside major publishers.
Text: AG protected NEH funding for scholars and authors The Authors Guild filed a class action on behalf of 1,400 scholars and authors whose humanities grants were abruptly canceled and won a major First Amendment ruling. The court found the mass terminations likely violated the Constitution and ordered the funds preserved.
Text: Rhode Island authors gained the right to fight back The Freedom to Read Act passed after the Authors Guild submitted testimony in support, giving authors the ability to sue government entities that censor their work, with damages up to $5,000 per book.
Text: 2500+ legal queries answered by our team including book contract reviews, translation contracts, electronic rights, literary estates, contract disputes, contract questions, periodical and multimedia contracts, movie and television options, internet piracy, liability insurance, finding an agent, and attorney referrals.
Text: - Election Day 2025: Voters consistently rejected book restrictions in school board races nationwide - New Hampshire HB 324 vetoed - Most Attended Webinar: Anthropic Settlement: What Authors Should Know (1,223 attendees)
Text: - Top Web Series: Money Matters, Business Bootcamps for Writers, Launchpad - National Book Award winners/honorees include Guild council member Roxane Gay (Literarian Award) - 752,650 minutes of live programming watched - 19,500 views on YouTube
Text: Top 5 Attended Webinars - Anthropic Settlement: What Authors Should Know - Making Sense of 21st-Century Publishing - How & Where to Find Your Readers - Nonfiction Proposals: What Agents & Editors Want - How to Book Podcasts as an Author
Text: Most popular on YouTube - Children’s Book Marketing & Publicity with Sally M. Kim - How to Book Podcasts as an Author - How & Where to Find Your Readers - What I Wish I’d Known Before Publishing - Inside an Author Scam: What Happened at PageTurner Press
Text: Top 5 Collaborators - Erin Lowry - Literary Agents of Change (LAOC) - Blue Stoop - Created by Humans - Alliance of Independent Authors
Text: Thank You to all Our Members Authors Guild logo