Australia’s close-knit literary community – from writers and agents through to the Australian Society of Authors – have reacted with outrage. Black Inc, the publisher of the Quarterly Essay as well as fiction and nonfiction books by many prominent writers, had asked consent from its authors to train AI models on their work and then share the revenue with those authors.

Now I have a dog in this race. Actually two dogs. I have published four books with Black Inc, have a fifth coming out next month, and have a contract for a sixth by the end of the year. And I have also been an AI researcher for 40 years, training AI models with data.

I signed Black Inc’s deal. Yes, the publisher could have communicated its intent with more transparency and a little less urgency. With whom exactly is it trying to sign a deal? And for what? And why only give us a few days to sign? But all in all, I am sympathetic to where Black Inc finds itself.

Small publishers such as Black Inc provide a valuable service to Australian literature and to our cultural heritage. No one starts a new publisher to make big money. Indeed, many small publishers are struggling to survive in a market dominated by the Big Five. For example, Penguin Random House – the world’s largest general book publisher – recently acquired one of Australia’s leading independent publishers, the Text

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