Textbook authors tell court the Anthropic settlement claims process disadvantages them over publisher splits

What happened

Kim Pawlak, executive director of the Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA), a nonprofit representing some 4,000 textbook and academic authors, filed a letter with the court this week about the claims process in the approved $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement, Publishing Perspectives reported on 30 October 2026. Pawlak asked the court to consider and acknowledge what she called the inherent burden on authors in the process compared with better-resourced publishers, and volunteered to testify on the issues.

The complaints

Pawlak writes that most claimants contacting TAA have been textbook (educational) authors, whose works do not benefit from the 50-50 default split afforded by the settlement to trade and academic works, and that some have been outraged to learn of percentage allocations claimed by their publishers ranging from 85% to 95% of the settlement proceeds for a work, even where authors may be entitled to 100% of the proceeds, such as for out-of-print works whose rights have reverted. Authors with disputed claims have been told they must meet and confer with their publisher, a process Pawlak calls a daunting prospect for authors who may lack publisher contact information or copies of older contracts, and who are not lawyers. Pawlak also reports the settlement claims portal has been riddled with technical problems, and says educational authors are roughly 25% of the class.

What this is not

The letter is a request that the court acknowledge the burden on authors; it is not a court ruling and does not change the settlement's payment schedule. The letter follows a September call by TAA and other authors' organizations, including the Authors Guild, for publishers to voluntarily relinquish claims on out-of-print books and use a portion of payouts for authors excluded because their copyrights were not registered.