Publishing is certainly one of many fields being revolutionized by technology corporations and artificial intelligence (AI). New platforms and approaches, like a Microsoft book publisher and a self-publishing tech startup using AI, promise to make publishing faster and more accessible than ever before.
But they also can jeopardize jobs – and require a reassessment of the status and role of books as cultural assets. And what impact will TikTok owner ByteDance's move into traditional book publishing have?
Microsoft's 8080 books
Last week, Microsoft announced a brand new book publisher, 8080 Books. The focus is on non-fiction titles related to technology, science and business.
8080 Books plans to “test and experiment with the most recent technology to speed up and democratize book publishing,” although some skeptics have said so notedit just isn’t yet entirely clear what this can mean.
The first title, No price for pessimism by Sam Schillace (Deputy Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft) probably sets the tone for the imprint. These “Letters from a Chaotic Tech Optimist” urge readers to embrace the disruptive potential of latest technologies (AI is mentioned by name within the blurb) and argue that optimism is important to innovation and creativity. You may even discuss the book with the customized chatbot Here.
Elsewhere, within the self-publishing space, tech startup spines The goal is to bring 8,000 recent books onto the market yearly. For a fee, authors can use the publishing platform's AI to edit, proofread, design, format and distribute their books.
The move was sentenced by some authors and publishers, but Spines (like Microsoft) says its goal is to make publishing more open and accessible. The predominant goal is to hurry up publication and reduce time to publication to only two weeks – as a substitute of the long months of editing, negotiating and waiting that traditional publications require.
TikTok also publishes books
Technological innovations are getting used not only to hurry up the publishing process, but in addition to discover profitable audiences, emerging authors, and genres that sell. Chinese tech giant and owner of TikTok, ByteDance, has launched its publishing company Press eighth note (initially only digitally) last 12 months.
This is what they at the moment are Partnership with Zando (an independent publisher whose other imprints include one by actors Sarah Jessica Parker and one other from the Pod Save America team Crooked media) to create a fiction range geared toward Generation Z readers. From February onwards, printed books will likely be produced to be sold in bookstores.
Stefan Postlestle/Richard Shotwell/AAP
eighth Note Press focuses on the fantasy and romance genres (and their authors) and generates a major following on BookTok, the TikTok community that has proven invaluable for marketing and promoting recent fiction. In the United States, authors have been seen with a powerful presence on BookTok a growth of 23% in print sales in 2024, in comparison with overall growth of 6%.
Access to Tiktok's data and the flexibility to develop viral videos could give eighth Note Press a major advantage over legacy publishers on this area.
Hundreds of AI self-publishing startups
These initiatives reflect some broader industry trends. Since OpenAI first demonstrated ChatGPT in 2022, about 320 publishing startups have done so developed. Almost all of them revolve around AI not directly. There are speculation that the world's top five publishers all have their very own proprietary internal AI systems within the works.
Spotify's entry into the audiobook market in 2023 has been described as Game changer from its CEO and is now using AI to recommend Books for listeners. Other corporations like Storytel and Nuanxed use AI to do that Automatically generate audio book commentary And Speed up translations.
The introduction of AI can result in some useful innovations and efficiencies in publishing processes. It will almost actually help publishers promote their authors and make books available to interested audiences. But it’s going to have an effect on the individuals who work within the industry.
Karolina Grabowska/Pexels
Publishers are continually reducing their very own staff because the Nineties and to rely more heavily on freelancers for editorial and design tasks. It could be naive to imagine that AI and other recent technologies is not going to be used to further reduce costs.
We are quickly moving toward a future by which once-important tasks in publishing – editing, translation, narration and voice-over, book design – are increasingly being taken over by machines.
When asked, Spines CEO and co-founder Yehuda Niv said: “We aren’t here to switch human creativity“. He emphasized his belief that this automation will allow more authors to access the book market.
Storytel and Nuanxed have each suggested that growth in audiobook circulation will compensate for the substitute of human actors and translators. It stays to be seen who will profit most from this growth – authors or faceless shareholders.
Side hustles, scams and “easy” writing
I appreciate Schillace's real, thoughtful optimism about AI and other emerging technologies. (I admit that I haven't read his book yet, but have had a stimulating conversation along with his bot.) But my thoughts draw me back to the techno-utopians of the nineteenth century Edward Bellamy.
In his 1888 novel ReviewBellamy speculates a couple of future by which art and literature will flourish once advanced automation frees people from the drudgery of miserable work and leaves them more time for cultural activities.
The opposite appears to be happening now. Previously essential and meaningful types of cultural work have gotten increasingly automated.
Of course I could possibly be short-sighted. The shift in publishing is just starting, and we've already made great strides toward foregoing the admittedly often pretty wretched work of writing itself.
Polina Zimmerman/Pexels
Shortly after ChatGPT's launch, science fiction magazines within the US needed to close their submissions as a lot of them were flooded with AI-generated short stories almost equivalent. There are so many AI-powered books published on Amazon nowadays that the variety of self-publishing authors needed to be limited to only just a few three uploads per day.
AI-powered publishing corporations range from Side hustles The focus is on republishing public domain text editions Grifts The goal group is unsuspecting readers and authors. All of those schemes are based on the proven fact that writing ideas could be done easily and effortlessly.
However, using AI can incur other, delayed costs.
Can AI be a “pondering partner”?
When I used to be younger, writing and publishing a crappy short story simply worn out my time and private relationships. Now I can try this with a one-sentence prompt if I feel prefer it – but apparently that's the way it's going to be destroy a lake somewhere.
Of course, Bookbot “No Prize for Pessimism” takes pains to remind me that using AI within the writing process doesn’t must be a matter of slow automatic generation. It could be used for generative design, which is then repeatedly revised and integrated into the text.
AI can act as a “pondering partner” and support the creator in generating ideas and brainstorming. After all, the technology remains to be in its infancy: there will definitely be confusion in the beginning. No matter the way it is used, AI helps authors get to publication faster.
8080 books' Charter praises the shape of the book much rhetorically. We are told that books are “essential,” that they supply “knowledge and wisdom,” and that they “construct empathy.” 8080 Books also desires to “speed up the publishing process” and achieve a reduced “delay” between manuscript submission and its launch. It wants books which might be immediate and current.
Slow could be good
But what’s a book if it arrives easily and quickly? Regardless of whether it’s AI-generated or AI-powered, it’s going to not be quite the identical medium.
For much of their history, books have been characterised by slowness and energy, each in writing and on the option to publication. A book doesn’t all the time must be current or current.
Indeed, the hope is that the slowness and energy of its production may allow the book to outlast its immediate context and remain relevant at other times and places.
Greater speed and broader access could possibly be laudable goals for these publishing innovations. But they may also likely result in greater availability, no less than within the short term, each for publishing professionals and for the books themselves.
