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Human Authored – six months in

The SoA’s Human Authored scheme is about to reach its sixth month of existence. Since the launch in March at the London Book Fair, the scheme has been positively received and over 1400 authors have joined, with more than 2000 books registered.  

Launching the scheme was only the first step and the SoA continues to think about what comes next. The ambition is to widen the scheme to illustrated works and, in the future, open it to non-members. We continue to promote the scheme to trade professionals and partners and engage with sister organisations across the world with the hope that more of them will join the global initiative and launch their own national scheme. It remains vital to send a signal both to policy makers and the audience that creativity is unique and intrinsically human and needs to be celebrated, recognised and valued as such.  

This engagement is vital to raise awareness with both authors and industry professionals who are part of the wider publishing ecosystem. As such, we wanted to provide an update on two major events we attended in the last couple of months:  

The annual European Writers Council Annual General Meeting (AGM) 

In June over 80 delegates from authors organisations from 27 countries gathered in Brussels for a packed and busy weekend. The SoA was invited to lead a session on Human Authored as part of the EWC’s Burning Issues Forum where members discuss a wide range of topics and issues that are likely to affect or be relevant to authors across the board – such as Public Lending Right; Second-hand book sales market; Audio streaming; Fair remuneration models; Censorship and books bans. 

We were delighted to host a popular session dedicated to presenting the Human Authored scheme to our European colleagues and start conversations about expanding the global initiative. It led to an interesting and constructive exchange between member organisations, who shared their wider views, concerns and hopes for future policy developments regarding AI labelling. The sentiment of frustration the SoA has felt regarding the lack of Government action to impose AI labelling obligations on tech developers was echoed in the room, and the launch of the HA scheme as a tool both to equip authors to make their work stand out and to urge policymakers to act to protect and safeguard creatives was commended.  

This topic is very much a live issue for all authors’ organisations, and the session led to a wider conversation around labelling, as the EU AI Act labelling obligation was about to come into force (and is now, at the time of writing, effective). 

The Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference  

In July we had the pleasure of attending the RNA conference at the Royal Holloway University of London as part of the SoA’s Outreach program. Members of both our policy and membership teams attended the kickoff of the conference, embracing the opportunity to engage with the attendees, members and non-members alike. The atmosphere was buoyant and cheerful, with a 3-day program of events that promised to be fascinating! 

We met with lots of lovely members, most of whom had registered their books as Human Authored and expressed their enthusiasm and support for the scheme. It was incredibly valuable to get some first-hand feedback from members who use the scheme: why it matters to them to show that their work is Human Authored, and what their concerns were vis-à-vis the rapid and relentless spread of Artificial Intelligence.  

This event also gave us a chance to present the scheme to non-SoA members and outline all the policy work we are doing in the AI sphere (on top of everything else the SoA has to offer and provide to authors!).   

Similarly earlier in June 2026 we attended the National Writers’ Conference hosted by Writing West Midlands at The University of Birmingham. Around 200 attendees enjoyed a day of dynamic panel discussions, presentations, and networking opportunities with writers and industry professionals from across the country. The SoA had a table in the foyer (where people spent their coffee and lunch breaks) and used the opportunity to spread the word about Human Authored. SoA staff from membership, advisory and communications handed out badges and spoke to writers and industry experts on the importance of human creativity and how they could endorse/sign-up to the scheme. The response was always positive. During one of the events an audience member asked whether any of the panellists would use/accept/engage with AI within their work and if so how. The answer was a collective and resounding “no”; music to our ears!   

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As we look towards celebrating  the scheme’s six-month anniversary it gives us a moment to plan:  as we resume engagement with Parliament’s  after summer recess, there are some steps you can take as authors to protect human creativity:  

  • Register your books with our Human Authored scheme: you can register backlist titles (published from 2020 onwards) as well as upcoming publications;  
  • Be an ambassador by spreading the word to encourage fellow authors to join their trade union and access the Human Authored scheme;  
  • Sign this petition demanding legislation on AI firms to disclose training data. If the petition reach 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.  

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