How AI is accelerating—and devaluing—book publishing

AI has the power to pump out words in record speed. And already, that’s substantially inflating the book publishing market. 

Lovers of 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. 

How AI inflated book publishing 

The new publisher Spines wants 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 its own publisher 8080 Books to publish science and technology-focused books. While the imprint is not specifically AI-focused, it maintains 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 owns TikTok, is also opening an imprint to respond to swelling BookTok trends. 

AI could also bring more foreign-language books into the English-speaking market. Veen Bosch & Keuning, the biggest publisher in the Netherlands, which was recently acquired by Simon & Schuster, will use AI to translate books from Dutch to English. Stockholm-based Nuanxed is also expanding their translation service to books. CEO Robert Casten Carlberg explained to Publishers Weekly that AI can accelerate translation for book series, as the model learns from the previous books.

While these publishing companies are using AI to expand their offerings an arguably better service readers, another subset of AI slop specialists are already invading digital bookshops. Kindle users may notice AI books advertised on their home screens, and AI-generated book “summaries” flooded Amazon. One public library cataloguer told New York that AI-written books regularly crossed his desk—including a diet book that recommended readers “eat straight marinara sauce for lunch.” 

How will the big publishers react?

In their founding statement, Microsoft’s 8080 Books took aim at the big publishing houses: “Technology has quickened the pace of almost every industry except publishing.” Hyperbole aside, the major imprints have indeed been largely resistant to AI. Penguin Random House’s AI approach prioritizes human creativity and intellectual property before a third clause to “innovate responsibly.” Hachette UK specifically opposes “machine creativity,” but encourages responsible operational uses. 

Much of this weariness dates back to the IP debate, as writers remain anxious that their works will be fed to LLMs for training. But recently, these publishing houses have started opening up to deals with AI companies. HarperCollins announced an agreement last week to sell “select nonfiction backlist titles” for AI training, with author consent. MIT Press also emailed their authors to ask for input on a possible training deal. 

As AI-powered publishing balloons, the sheer market volume may make it difficult for these publishers to stand out. They’ll have to adapt.

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