10 self-publishing news sites every indie author should follow
Where indie authors actually get their news — ten self-publishing sites worth a bookmark, from ALLi and Jane Friedman to The Passive Voice and…
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Custom Book Studio — Journal
Category: News
Studio news and updates from Custom Book Studio.
Self-publishing by the numbers: the 2026 boom
Four million books, self-published titles up 38.7%, indie outnumbering traditional five to one. The data behind the 2026 self-publishing boom — and what it…
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The paper squeeze: tariffs, mill closures, and your book
New 50% tariffs on Canadian paper and another round of mill closures are tightening the paper supply. What the squeeze means for book printing…
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AI book cover design just went mainstream — but a cover is still a decision
AI cover design has gone mainstream — but a cover is a marketing decision, not a picture. Why genre conventions, the thumbnail test, and…
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AI book illustration just went studio-grade — what it means for your book
AI image tools just crossed into studio-grade quality — 4K in seconds, believable light, and legible in-image text. Here's what that shift means when…
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How Pizza Pete was made
Pizza Pete is a 32-page felt-styled hardcover made end to end in Custom Book Studio. Here are the actual design prompts behind every section…
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Classic Cocktails: fifty recipes, printed as an Art Deco hardcover
A look inside Classic Cocktails — fifty classic drinks set as a real Art Deco hardcover with full-page photography. Flip through the spreads and…
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What Anthropic’s $1.5 billion copyright settlement means for authors
A federal judge has approved Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement with authors whose pirated books trained its AI — the largest copyright payout in U.S.…
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Watchers in Stone: designing a book that is half photograph, half history
How we built Watchers in Stone — fifty concrete gargoyles, each a full-bleed plate facing a page of real history — and the strict…
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From one idea to a bound book: how we made Dash
A behind-the-scenes walkthrough of the Custom Book Studio process — brief, cast, story, illustration, cover and a live 3D proof — using our demo…
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