Legacy book publishers are getting worked up.
Lovers of large language models (otherwise referred to as LLMs) are pushing into the traditional publishing system, building their own book-publishing entities. They’re jump-starting their own publishing imprints, and self-publishing books (often slop) on digital marketplaces. The goal here is very often speed: Just how many books can these companies publish, and how quickly can they do it?
But that push for volume could threaten the foundation of the book market, making it harder for everyday readers to find quality works.
The new publisher Spines intend to distribute 8,000 books in 2025. (For reference, legacy publisher Simon & Schuster publishes around 2,000 titles annually). To hit this goal, they’ll use AI to tighten the editing and distribution process. For a writer with $5,000 on hand, Spines could publish your book in under three weeks. And, like so many AI companies, they’ve scored a bulky seed round of $16 million.
They’re not the only tech-focused imprint opening shop. Microsoft launched their own publisher 8080 Books to publish science and technology-focused books. While the imprint is not specifically AI-focused, they maintain a similar goal of speed. Per a company statement, 8080 Books will “accelerate the publishing process, shortening the lag between the final manuscript and the book’s arrival in the marketplace”.
ByteDance, which own TikTok, plan to also open an imprint to respond to swelling BookTok trends.
Indeed, AI has the power to pump out words in record speed. And if it is pushing the publishing world toward volume, that may unavoidably drown out quality works.
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