A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Possible Effects of AI-Produced Books on Authors and Publishers
It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.
This week, we react to a recent announcement by Spines that it plans to publish 8000 AI-generated books in 2025. This is of concern.
The Haystack Grows
Already, it is very difficult for any one book to achieve sufficient visibility to garner good sales. This infusion of books would create a situation of market saturation. Finding any particular book (or getting one seen) (discoverability) becomes that much harder for authors and publishers.
Wallets Deplete
The effect of the growing difficulty associated with discoverability means that publishers and authors will need to take out more advertising in various forms. More often than not, that will take more money than hoped, budgeted, or even available.
Quality Subsides
There is no question that actual authors are better writers than AI, but one can become inured to poor writing, and then it becomes accepted -- at a loss of great literature. This lack of quality n a grand scale can give a bad reputation to the publishing business as a whole and denigrate the role and respect of traditional authors and publishers who contribute to the collection of good literature,
Resources Diminish
Small (and even larger) publishers will have trouble competing for market share, given the amount of resources that could be swallowed up by this rate of production. Think of shelf space in bookstores and at libraries, for example.
Traditional Publishers Disappear
Bookstore book-return policies over the years have put some good publishers out of business. This rate of production, however, could bulldoze many otherwise healthy publishers. Most small publishers manage to stay in business by a threat...and the weight of this set of threats could be enough to break that thread for many.
Bottom line: If you are an author, you may well need to support your publisher's discoverability efforts to a much higher extent going forward or see your sales drop or even disappear.
See more Publisher Conversations with Authors HERE.
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The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic that you would like addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.
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Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.
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