AI Disclosure

Required for every title

Schools, universities and government buyers now ask us how the books in our catalogue were made. The Department of Basic Education and a number of academic bodies require an AI declaration before they will consider a title. We cannot answer for you, so we have to ask.

Your answers are written into your book’s ONIX record — the standard metadata file that travels with your title to every retailer, library and school that buys it.

Using AI does not disqualify your book. We distribute books that use AI. We are required to describe them accurately, and an inaccurate declaration is far more damaging than an honest one.

This applies to titles already with us as well as new ones. If you are an existing client, we need this once for each book in our system.

Two terms, used throughout

AI-assisted: A person created the original material, and an AI tool was used to refine, correct, edit or improve it.
AI-generated: An AI tool created the original material. This still counts as AI-generated even if you edited it heavily afterwards.

This is the same distinction Amazon and most large retailers use, so your answers here should match whatever you declare on other platforms.

01

The book

One form per ISBN. A new edition with a different ISBN needs its own.

02

Declared in your metadata

These five answers are published in your ONIX record and go out to retailers, schools and libraries. Please answer every line, including the ones that do not apply.

1The text of the bookThe writing itself, not the editing.
2TranslationIf this book was translated from another language.
3Illustrations and images inside the bookDrawings, photographs, diagrams, maps.
4Cover artworkThe cover image, separate from the typography.
5Audiobook narrationSynthetic or cloned voices count as AI.
03

For our records only

Not published anywhere. We keep this so we can answer questions from schools and institutional buyers without coming back to you each time.

6Research and fact-checkingWhether AI was used to gather or verify information in the book.
7Blurb and marketing copyThe back-cover text and catalogue description we publish on your behalf.
8Editing and proofreadingSpellcheck and grammar tools do not count — answer “No AI” for those.
04

Real people

One question with legal weight. Using a real person’s voice or likeness without permission is the AI issue most likely to get a book pulled from sale.

9Does any AI-generated part of this book reproduce or imitate a real, identifiable person?Their voice, face, likeness or performance.
05

Declaration

We publish what you tell us here. Please read both lines before signing.