AI Book Settlement Tracker
This new Notion template lets authors track key information about their pirated works.
News broke recently that the Anthropic settlement is back on. That's hardly the only lawsuit that authors, publishers, and other groups have filed against tech companies for illegally using their works to train their large language models.
What You Should Be Tracking
If you're an author, at a minimum, you should be keeping tabs on the following:
- Which of your books qualify for which settlements.
- Whether you submitted your works to law firms representing the class.
- Related documentation.
- How much you're due for each publication for each settlement.
- How much you're due for each publication in total.
- Total payments by traditional publisher (if you've gone that route).
- Whether agents are involved and how much they'll receive.
- The status of each payment.
- Other information as you see fit.
You can certainly use a “system” (ahem) based on email, physical papers, Dropbox, Google Drive, or your memory if you like. I'd highly recommend, though, keeping everything in a single, organized, searchable place that you can access anywhere.
It's foolish to rely upon your memory to track this key information.
Enter Notion.
A Simple Tracking System
I've used my favorite no-code tool to create a straightforward three-database system. It allows authors to track each book, lawsuit, payment amount, and status. Of course, it does more, but I'll let you watch the quick overview video:
I've included plenty of charts, although users on the Free Notion plan can only access one of them. Here's one:
As with any Notion template, you can customize it to meet your needs—and I'm not just talking about your specific titles and new lawsuits. Add new charts, automations, templates, properties, settlement override amounts, and database views to your heart's content. Invite co-authors or agents to collaborate on it if you like.
The cost is $9.94.
Phil Simon
What You Need to Know
Whether you buy and use my Notion template or not, do yourself a favor and track information related to your titles. Don't rely on your memory.