Publishers seek up to 95% of academic Bartz payouts
TAA director Kim Pawlak told Judge Martinez-Olguin that academic publishers are claiming 85% to 95% of settlement funds, leaving authors as little as 5%
Kim Pawlak, Executive Director of the Textbook & Academic Authors Association, submitted a four-page, single-spaced letter to Judge Martinez-Olguin raising problems textbook authors have faced with the Bartz v. Anthropic settlement, ChatGPT Is Eating the World reported.
Under the settlement's terms, academic books are not covered by the default 50/50 split between authors and publishers that applies to other works. That leaves academic textbook authors having to negotiate the percentage split directly with their publishers. Some academic publishers are reportedly taking the position that they are entitled to 85% to 95% of the distribution from the settlement fund, which would leave authors with only 5% to 15%, according to the outlet.
The outlet also reported that Special Master Theodore K. Cheng was appointed by Judge Alsup to handle such disputes, but that few authors reportedly realize he exists — or that they must explicitly ask him to resolve a dispute with their publisher.
A 50/50 split sounds boring until you see what happens without one. Academic textbook authors never got that default — they have to negotiate it, book by book, publisher by publisher — and some publishers are reportedly asking for 85 to 95 cents of every dollar. That's not a clerical error to dispute. That's an opening bid in a negotiation most authors didn't know they were in.
From the Coral Wire edition of Fri, Oct 30 2026 · Coral Index 15/100 (Storm warning)
Coverage — 3 outlets
Every outlet found reporting this story.
- Stanford authors sue Anthropic over use of copyrighted books to train AI | The EDU Ledgertheeduledger.com
- Academic textbook authors voice concerns about their publishers seeking 85% cut of Bartz settlement distributionchatgptiseatingtheworld.com
- Anthropic illegally trained Claude with Stanford professors’ booksstanforddaily.com