How to differentiate your book from the flood of AI-generated crap

The self-publishing platform Spines announced cheap packages that will use AI to rapidly edit, design, and publish 8000 books next year.

Or perhaps I should use scare quotes around “edit” and “design,” because with AI doing the work, these are only simulacra of actual human creative activities.

If you care about your reputation, you must work hard to differentiate your book from this sort of crap.

Self-publishing has already cheapened the book business

At one time, publishers were gatekeepers. As a result, being a published author was an elite accomplishment.

There have always been vanity publishers. But when quality hybrid publishers like Greenleaf and Amplify emerged, they became new channels for authors to get their books out.

At the same time, self-publishing tools like Kindle Direct Publishing (once known as Amazon CreateSpace) and Ingram Spark made it possible for anyone to “publish” a book and make it available on Amazon.

While there were a few excellent self-published books, there were way more really rapidly produced crappy books. So the book world started to look like this:

By volume, most of the books on Amazon are self-published crap. There are millions of them. They sell few copies and change few minds.

But it still took a little bit of effort to create a self-published book. Now AI can reduce or eliminate the effort by substituting for editors, designers, and book production professionals. And if you need help writing, it can do that, too.

Even as Amazon attempts (and mostly fails) to halt the onslaught, the world of books is going to look like this.

What this means for you

Take a close look at that pyramid. Most of it is crap. You do not want to be in mass of crap in the bottom two pieces.

Here’s what that means.

If you can get a traditional publisher and that works for you, great. If you can pay for a hybrid publisher, almost as good.

But you need to invest in a real developmental editor. You need a great title and great cover design. And you need to invest your time and effort in book promotion, including hiring a firm that knows how to get the word out.

You really need quality writing. That means investing your time in writing things that matter based on real evidence — or in a ghostwriter that can work with you to create a quality product.

Because you don’t want to live amongst the squalor and enshittification that is going to flood the bottom of the market.

AI is a fine tool to help writers. But it’s not a tool to create worthwhile books, because it creates crap. There’s already enough crap in the world, so that makes life harder for real writes.

Differentiate or drown. Your choice.