The European Accessibility Act, which came into effect in June 2025, now applies to ebooks and their online sales, according to the European Commission. This regulation emphasizes the importance of text structure, reading order, navigation, alternative descriptions, and accessibility features in ebook production and distribution. Properly structured EPUB files can improve usability for visually impaired readers and those using mobile devices or audio reading. However, simply marking an ebook as "accessible" in metadata does not guarantee that the file has been properly checked. Maintaining ebooks requires systematic control, including technical validation, table of contents, links, and display across multiple reading devices. Additional checks are conducted after publication, including corrections, cover and summary updates, and availability on retailers' platforms. Regular updates are triggered by the book's lifecycle, such as literary awards, adaptations, new translations, or changes in collections or paper reprints. A dated and archived version of the ebook allows for tracking of what has actually been distributed. The distinction between watermarking and DRM is also important. A watermark is a piece of information embedded in a file to identify its source or trace its commercial journey, while DRM controls access or certain uses. LCP, presented by EDRLab, is a suitable solution when rights need to be enforced, such as terminating a loan at its expiration. Choosing watermarking for convenience or DRM for security without considering the specific needs of the distribution model could lead to suboptimal outcomes. According to the 2026 barometer by SNE, Sofia, and SGDL, 17% of digital readers had resorted to illegal offers in 2025, showing that a lock does not necessarily prevent or cause piracy. Quality management is ultimately an editorial policy, involving recipe criteria, identified responsibilities, version logs, and monitoring user feedback. A clean file does not guarantee a sale, while a poorly structured, outdated, or difficult-to-open file can significantly impact sales. China has decided to strengthen the regulation of online book sales, particularly on platforms, short videos, and live streams. The proposed revision of the Regulation on the Management of the Publishing Market specifies obligations for intermediaries, tightens control over sellers, and targets piracy and certain pricing practices. Meanwhile, Oxford's Bodleian Library is not only digitizing its collections with OpenAI but also providing data for the company's training. Internal documents obtained by the Guardian show that the files produced have also been used in OpenAI's data training. OpenAI was aware that pirating books from LibGen was "fouled up." Judicial documents now publicly available provide new insights. Internally, several employees questioned the source of LibGen, how to present its origin, and the cost of legally acquiring large quantities of books. AI-generated books on Amazon are beginning to affect the market. According to a study on 14,419 fiction ebooks sold mainly on Amazon, 20% of titles exceed 25% of text detected as AI-generated. These books sell less well on average, but their sheer number allows them to gain ground. Amazon claims to be strengthening its control measures. Calibre 9.15 includes a game where users create their own adventure, with AI-driven narrative progression. Transferring EPUB files from Android to Kindle without using Amazon's Send to Kindle service is possible with KindShare, but it requires a significant amount of technical tinkering, including jailbreaking the Kindle, using KOReader, SSH access, and compiling the program. More than 60% of Kobo customers are over 55 years old, suggesting that the publishing industry might be overlooking younger audiences. A report by the Global Coalition on Aging with Rakuten Kobo highlights this demographic. The average age of Kobo customers is between 60 and 65 years in most markets. The PocketBook Q is a smartphone-sized e-reader with a 5.84-inch screen, priced at 199 euros. It is designed to fit in a pocket and be operated with one hand. The device is set to be released in the fourth quarter of 2026. Publitik, a Brazilian tool developed by Bruno Mendes, aims to reduce the interval between a book's mention on BookTok and its recognition by publishers. It aggregates press, sales data, social media, and other sectoral data from 37 sources across 19 countries and 11 languages. Anthropic and Amazon have both been involved in purchasing and destroying books to use as training data for AI models. In February, ActuaLitté reported that Anthropic had bought and destroyed millions of books. Six months later, 404 Media documented a separate operation at Amazon, where a book with an AirTag was tracked to a site in North Las Vegas where books were cut up and digitized. According to a study, 20% of fiction ebooks sold on Amazon contain more than 25% of text generated by AI. These books sell less well on average, but their sheer number allows them to gain ground. The quality of the content can be secondary to the congestion in the market. Katherine Rundell argues in an essay that the use of large language models in education undermines the autonomy of students. She emphasizes the importance of reading, understanding, and writing as essential skills. However, she also notes that the distinction between serious concerns and scientific conclusions must be made. In China, Huaxia Publishing House is inscribing in some books that their content cannot be used to train AI. While there is no technical lock, the publisher acknowledges that it is extremely difficult to determine if a text has been used in a model's training data. The warning clearly states the rights holder's intent. ShieldFont is a creative studio and a Danish type foundry that aims to complicate the collection of content for AI training. The font includes a false text in the code that the AI might interpret as the actual text. While this is an ingenious solution, it is not foolproof. A novel titled Call Me, I'll Hide the Body was withdrawn from auction after its agents could no longer guarantee the conditions of its authorship. The author denies using AI. Meanwhile, the Internet Jukebox has added nearly 200 public domain musical scores, including sheet music and audio renditions, providing valuable resources for libraries, teachers, and musicians. Apple has also been affected by the surge of AI-generated "trash books" with content created by large language models. Some books that copy bestsellers have appeared on Apple's Books app, aiming to deceive users. This raises issues of copyright and deception. Over 100,000 volumes from the University of Delaware will temporarily leave their shelves starting in the summer of 2026 to be digitized by Google. The university presents the operation as a way to open up rare collections and provide reliable academic resources for AI systems. Google does not specify the models involved, the legal framework, or the conditions for any potential training. A French researcher, Tanguy Dubroca, has demonstrated that a recent Kindle can be compromised through its built-in browser by visiting a malicious website. This highlights that a reading device is not just a portable library but also a connected device linked to an Amazon account, a store, and a home Wi-Fi network. Lefebvre Dalloz Compétences has deployed three initiatives related to professional training: the AI assistant "GenIA-L," the Skilia platform, and a coaching offer designed with Yuzu. These tools are particularly relevant for human resources directors, training professionals, managers, lawyers, and professionals in law and finance. Alexandria is a tool that converts EPUB files into multi-voice audiobooks, even using the user's own voice. The open-source tool does not sell any titles or offer a catalog, but it installs a small production chain that is of interest to publishers for its flexibility and the verification requirements it entails. Young authors in the UK have launched a campaign against the unauthorized use of their works by generative AI. The campaign, "We Are Better Than This," is supported by several notable authors and illustrators, including Chris Haughton, Momoko Abe, Ged Adamson, Simona Ciraolo, and Benji Davies. It comes at a time when the UK government is under pressure on copyright issues. Several Dutch publishers have launched Bookpact.ai, a commercial platform aimed at regulating the use of books by AI companies. The platform operates on an opt-in principle, where publishers decide with the authors' consent which uses can be authorized, from model training to automated translation or summaries. In Japan, the National Diet Library is developing NDLOCR-Lite, a free tool designed to convert images of Japanese books, journals, and documents into text without a dedicated graphics processor. This is particularly important for researchers, libraries, and small institutions that need to make use of ancient collections with an ordinary computer. Granta magazine has announced that it will end editorial collaborations in which it does not retain control over the texts published under its name. This decision affects its link with the Commonwealth Foundation, which organizes the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, an international major award for short stories, following allegations of AI use against some 2026 winners. Four professionals in the publishing industry are launching a mobile application called NOOK, which is dedicated to tracking reading habits and aiming to redefine how readers track, value, and share their progress. Washington D.C. has relaunched the battle over ebook pricing in libraries, with Mayor Muriel Bowser signing the Library E-book Pricing Fairness Amendment Act of 2025, which focuses on the contracts for digital loans concluded by public libraries in the district. BOOKWALKER is testing a middle ground between reading in the original language and full editorial translation. Starting from May 15, the Japanese and Taiwanese platforms have launched a cross-selling of dōjin manga, readable with a system of automatic translation developed with Mantra. E Ink and MediaTek are strengthening their collaboration around new chips for e-readers and e-ink tablets. The announcement promises better color, smoother refreshes, and onboard AI functions. For digital books, the issue goes beyond the technical specifications: the e-reader is slipping toward a work tool, risking to lose part of its simplicity. An investigation conducted among 559 professionals in the book industry in the United States and Canada shows a real adoption of AI but not yet generalized. AI uses mainly concern administrative, marketing, and data analysis tasks. The strongest concerns are about copyright, transparency, and the quality of generated content. In Australia, 17 organizations representing publishing, authors, media, music, audiovisual, and visual arts are asking the government not to reopen copyright to the benefit of AI companies. Their position defends a clear principle: the use of protected works must pass through negotiated licenses. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2026, an international major award for short stories, is at the center of a controversy over the use of AI. The text of Jamir Nazir, an author from Trinidad and Tobago, awarded in the Caribbean category, is under scrutiny, with several readers, researchers, and detection tools claiming that the text could have been generated, at least in part, by AI. However, no definitive conclusion has been established at this stage. A controversy around the book Pretty Little Liars has raised a sensitive question for digital publishing: what exactly is a reader reading when a purchased text on Kindle changes version? The issue, born from a reader's report and picked up by several media outlets, does not prove a widespread change by Amazon. It highlights the lack of public control over the exact state of a file acquired under license and updated remotely. Spotify is using AI to create audiobooks in a few clicks. Spotify has integrated into its author space a tool for creating audiobooks with synthetic voices, developed with ElevenLabs and tested on invitation from June 2026. Aimed initially at self-published English-speaking authors, the service promises to reduce the entry costs into the audio market. It also installs a clearer competition with Amazon, on a market where transparency, rights, and the quality of listening are becoming decisive for global catalogs. Lost scenes from the legendary film The Magnificent Ambersons by Orson Welles are being recreated by AI. Fable Studio, an American company linked to Showrunner, a platform specialized in generating audiovisual content with AI, is working on the reconstruction of the lost scenes. Hachette Livre has recruited Myriam Gilles from Audible France to accelerate the development of audio books. Starting from October 1, 2026, she will take charge of the production of audio books for the group, under the responsibility of Laure Saget, the general director of Audiolib. Her mission is to develop the production of audio books for Audiolib, as well as for Hachette Livre houses and third-party publishers distributed by the group. De Marque and ElevenLabs have announced a partnership allowing publishers using Cantook Édition to select titles from their catalog to make them available in audio on the ElevenReader app. The initiative concerns especially contents in French, Spanish, and Portuguese, as well as in many other languages. The SNE and the Alliance of the press of general information have announced in a joint statement the assignment of the operators Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange, and SFR before the Paris court. The objective is to obtain the blocking of the platform Bookys, which offers books, newspapers, and magazines in free access, without the authorization of the rights holders. Amazon has finally respected the law and ceased the free delivery of books in its lockers. The French subsidiary of the American multinational has decided to finally respect the law: it announces the end of the free shipping of books and the application of a 5% discount on the price set by the publisher when the books are retrieved from its automated lockers. It had engaged in a legal battle with French authorities on these issues. Organizing PDF documents effectively is a challenge many face. A cluttered "Documents" folder filled with unnamed PDFs, old scans, and mixed personal and professional contracts and invoices can become a problem when a specific document needs to be found quickly for a notary, employer, or administration. 85% of professionals surveyed are already using AI in the production of audiobooks. Preparing a text, checking pronunciation, controlling the recording, translating, or generating a voice: AI is already entering the production of audiobooks. However, a large-scale study shows a sector much less automated than one might imagine. The savings are real but limited, the issues of rights are becoming central, and the human voice still holds strong editorial value. Thotario, a French platform experimenting with a secondary market for digital books, is launching a survey among readers. Purchasing habits, frustrations, prices, lending, second-hand: about twenty questions should mainly allow the company to confront its model with practices and expectations. In Delhi, book piracy is moving to print on demand. The pirate has also discovered the charms of zero stock. On July 20, a police operation prepared with Penguin Random House India, Simon & Schuster India, Hay House, and investigators targeted two addresses in South Ganesh Nagar and Pandav Nagar. OpenAI is accused of replicating a successful German children's book. Carlsen, the author Marc-Uwe Kling, and the illustrator Astrid Henn have sued OpenAI in Germany for copyright infringement. They accuse ChatGPT of being able to produce, from simple requests, stories and illustrations very similar to their successful children's series Das NEINhorn, even generating book layouts ready for printing. In Brazil, the detection of pirated books has increased. The ABDR has recorded 20,566 links providing access to pirated books in July 2026, compared to 10,923 a year earlier. That is an increase of 88.3%. Spectacular, but misleading if read as an explosion of piracy: the association has recently changed its research program. The number tells as much about illegal circulation as about the more effective way of detecting it. In Russia, self-publishing now represents 61% of the digital book market. According to LitRes, it now represents 61% of the textual segment, compared to 53% in 2024. Its market has exceeded 2.7 billion rubles in the first quarter of 2026, up 13% year-on-year. And 10 of the 20 best-selling authors on LitRes now belong to the category of "digital-authors." Kobo has returned to American stores. Best Buy is now selling a selection of Kobo e-readers and accessories, two years after the end of an unproductive partnership with Walmart. The return is timely: Michael Tamblyn, CEO of Kobo, states that sales in the United States have doubled in 2025, then again in 2026. Without publishing the corresponding volumes, certainly. But in the realm of Kindle, competition is regaining some colors. Barack Obama recounts the books that changed his life. Starting from September 24, 2026, A Great Book with Barack Obama will bring together the former American president and guests around six books that marked his life and shaped his worldview. A selection crossed by memory, power, identity, or the black American history, which extends an old relationship between Barack Obama and reading, and an editorial and audio strategy now well established among the Obamas. Piracy: France is 8th in the world, and manga dominates. Online piracy is declining globally, but publishing is an exception. According to the 2025 MUSO report, websites linked to editorial content have recorded nearly 66 billion visits last year. France ranks 10th in the world for this single sector. And behind this figure, one format dominates overwhelmingly: manga. After Comixology, the digital comics market is looking for a new market. Amazon has definitively turned off the Comixology application on December 4, 2023, after gradually absorbing the service into Kindle. Nearly three years later, the American digital comics market has not yet found a new single gate. But it is moving again: Neon Ichiban transforms the file into a collectible object, Sweet Shop bets on simplicity, while the big publishers mainly describe the digital as a tool for recruitment and internationalization. Hinge transforms couples into characters of audiobooks. After helping its users meet, Hinge now wants to tell what happens next. The application launches its first audiobook, composed of five "true" stories of couples formed on the platform and entrusted to as many writers. Everything will be accessible for free. After industrializing the meeting, here is Hinge discovering an editorial vocation. Readers prefer ChatGPT stories as long as they believe them to be human. A study published on August 5, 2026, in Judgment and Decision Making compares American readers to three literary stories and three texts produced by ChatGPT. In this limited protocol, synthetic creations obtain better quality and immersion scores. However, simply announcing a human origin improves the reception of the narrative, regardless of its real origin. Analysis of the rise of live entertainment and real-time digital media. In an editorial attached to books, live is no longer a background noise reserved for concerts and matches. It touches the launch of novels, filmed literary salons, readings on Twitch, editors' workshops on Instagram, and debates among authors followed in chat. Poems under copyright transformed into lessons for children by AI. AI does not always just swallow works for their training. Some of them redistribute them, text included. The American poet Kyle Dargan discovered four of his poems reproduced without permission on Giggle Academy, with images, notes, and questions seemingly generated by AI. Publishers Weekly has found hundreds of pages similar, apparently composed from the online library of the Poetry Foundation. In Greece, AI gives voice to book piracy. Editorial piracy is no longer just scanning pages: it is making them speak. The OSDEL announces the removal of 35 audio files of pirated books distributed without authorization on YouTube and Spotify, as well as the closure of six accounts. Its first-half 2026 report shows how artificial voices accelerate the production and circulation of sound counterfeits. Amazon is pushing its users toward "Your Books," without breaking everything. Amazon is beginning to change access to personal libraries on its American site. Instead of the usual shortcut to Manage Your Content and Devices, the account menu now redirects some users to Your Books. More visual, this interface brings together paper, Kindle, and Audible—but leaves behind several essential commands. The old manager has therefore not surrendered. ERP or specialized software: what are the implications for publishing houses? Publishing houses can associate several "best-of-breed" solutions, each dedicated to a part of their activity, or adopt an ERP covering the entire value chain. These models have different effects on data, costs, or productivity. Fonts, heatwaves, and submersions: the climate crisis intensifies. On July 15, new observations reported by the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership showed that deep Antarctic waters are decreasing four times faster since 2015. This phenomenon, which affects a key but little visible element of the global climate, strangely echoes Shearwater Ghosts by Charlotte McConaghy (Actes Sud Audio, translated by Marie Chabin): on an island in the Southern Ocean struck by storms, a family tries to preserve a seed bank as the water rises and the secrets rise with it. Can one bet on the Nobel Prize for Literature? France blocks Polymarket. Who will receive the next Nobel Prize for Literature? Will George R. R. Martin finally announce the release of The Winds of Winter? These questions have become real online bets on Polymarket and Kalshi, where internet users can wager money. But behind this transformation of literary news into a betting object, an international legal battle is being played out. France has recently tightened the blocking of Polymarket, while several American states are trying to regain control. In Argentina, Kobo installs itself against Kindle imported devices. Kobo completes its installation in Argentina with three e-readers distributed officially by Electro World Group. Launched at the end of 2025, the offer now includes the Clara BW, Clara Colour, and Libra Colour, with guarantee and technical service in the country. A concrete advantage on a market still largely dependent on import circuits. AI now swallows 50,000 books per month in publishing houses. Proofreading, translation, metadata, accessibility, or exploration of collections: Veristage claims that its Insight platform processes each month a volume of text equivalent to more than 50,000 books. A figure provided by the company, which has increased strongly since February, illustrates the passage from initial tests to regular use in editorial chains. Gus, the T-Rex at 50 million dollars: where do the limits of private property end? On July 14, "Gus," a 67-million-year-old T-Rex, was auctioned for 50.1 million dollars to an anonymous buyer. According to the Associated Press, some paleontologists now fear that this specimen will be removed from research and the public. Between scientific heritage, private property, and spectacle, this sale revives the irony of The Crocodile by Dostoevsky (Actes Sud Audio, translated by André Markowicz), where saving a man swallowed by a crocodile threatens the financial interests of the animal's owner. AI-generated: without a real human author, no copyright. Is a prompt enough to become an author? Can an image completely generated benefit from copyright? What to do with a text imitating the style of a writer? In a 132-page report, the CSPLA excludes the creation of a new right in favor of purely synthetic productions, but opens protection to creations in which a visible human direction remains. Amazon changes the rules of the Kindle: authors will earn more. At Amazon, three dollars can separate a price increase from a sharp drop in remuneration. Since July 7, 2026, ebooks published by Kindle Direct Publishing can be offered up to 12.99 dollars—and 12.99 euros in the relevant markets—while remaining eligible for the 70% rate. The previous ceiling of 9.99 dollars, unchanged since 2007, had finally become too tight for long books, boxes, and specialized essays. Anthropic: the court approves the record 1.5 billion dollar agreement for pirated books. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín has granted, on July 20, 2026, her final approval to the agreement reached in the Bartz v. Anthropic case. The company will pay 1.5 billion dollars to the rights holders of 482,460 books recovered from LibGen and Pirate Library Mirror, and must destroy the files concerned. The largest settlement ever approved in a class action in copyright matters closes the piracy aspect—not the debate on AI training. Fire or flood: what we refuse to see catches up with us. After 48 hours of fighting and the mobilization of about 800 firefighters, the two fires in the Fontainebleau forest were controlled in the evening of July 14. More than 2,000 hectares were swept by the flames, according to Le Parisien. This forest suddenly threatened by flames brings back Rochebrune by Sophie Divry (Actes Sud Audio), a novel in which a family is faced with an environment that turns and alerts that each chooses to hear or ignore. Does AI read novels better than actors? This test surprises listeners. An American survey commissioned by Spoken gives an advantage to its AI narration in scenes with multiple characters. However, the test does not compare a synthetic distribution to multiple actors, but to a single human narrator. A significant nuance, while the sector hesitates between cost reduction, listening quality, and defense of interpretation. The AI reads better than actors? This test surprises listeners. An American survey commissioned by Spoken gives an advantage to its AI narration in scenes with multiple characters. However, the test does not compare a synthetic distribution to multiple actors, but to a single human narrator. A significant nuance, while the sector hesitates between cost reduction, listening quality, and defense of interpretation.