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‘AI is the biggest threat to writers, and the livelihoods of writers, today.’ In conversation with Anna Ganley, Chief Executive at The Society of Authors

We asked Chief Executive at The Society of Authors about how the organisation supports writers, the challenges facing writers at the moment and the threat of AI…

Anna will be giving the key note speech as well as sitting on the Rights of a Writer panel in Brighton on Saturday 26 April at Publishing Industry Day. 

How does Society of Authors support writers?
As the UK’s largest writers’ body, the Society of Authors empowers writers with confidential, individual advice on the book contracts they receive from publishers, on terms, rights and on all aspects of the business of authorship. We provide resources and professional training, online and in person, about everything a writer needs to know to be a professional writer today, from protecting and promoting their work, through to contract negotiation skills, how to ensure they’re paying the right amount of tax on their earnings and how to maximise their income streams. We establish and maintain professional author communities, putting authors in touch with each other based on their professional interest or genre, such as children’s writing, scriptwriting, translation etc., by local area or by need, for example our carers’ network and our network for authors living with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Perhaps most importantly, we advocate on behalf of authors for a fairer publishing industry, which can often feel skewed against the author.

What kind of challenges are facing writers at the moment?
Writing has always been a precarious creative profession, with lumpy income patterns and an industry driven by trends. And while advances in publishing technology mean it has never been easier to get a book published, with so many books now in the market, one of the biggest challenges facing writers is how to stand out from the crowd and build their readership. With competition for readers’ attention from social media and on-demand entertainment, the Society of Authors promotes the values of reading, for pleasure, for wellbeing, for increased empathy, for critical thinking, and for life.

How much of a challenge do you see AI posing to writers now and in the near future?
The industrial scale theft of copyright-protected works by AI tech companies to train their large language models – the models that power generative Artificial Intelligence systems such as ChatGPT – is the biggest threat to writers, and the livelihoods of writers, today.

We are not against AI – many of our members are using generative AI tools as creative prompts, as assistive tools to streamline and speed up their workflows, but when copyright law is wilfully ignored, the copyright-protected works are fed into these models without permission or payment, and the outputs from these models then have the potential to cannibalise writers’ works and take away from their sales, then the ability for writers to earn a living income from their work is seriously threatened.

The Society of Authors is at the heart of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, which is lobbying government and tech companies to respect and strengthen copyright law, for transparency of training data, and to ensure that writers are compensated for the exploitation of their work by tech companies for their commercial advantage.

And although this is the biggest challenge in a generation, writers are not powerless in this fight: join a union, add your voice, find out what you can do. 

Who / what are you enjoying reading at the moment?
I run a book club in the Midlands where I live, and we’re currently reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith, which I first read when it was published in 2005. Twenty years on, the story feels as relevant as ever, with themes of ethnic and cultural differences in the US and the UK, and the clash between liberal and conservative values. It’s loosely based on Howards End by E. M. Forster, and so it’s also led me down a rabbit hole to read The Machine Stops, Forster’s science fiction short story, set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide its needs, which remains prescient in today’s rapidly changing technological times.

Find out more about the New Writing South Publishing and Industry Day where Anna will be appearing here. Saturday 26 April, The Old Courthouse Brighton, 9.30am-5pm, limited tickets still available.