Microsoft, TikTok and AI are “disrupting” book publishing. But do we want their effortless art?

Publishing is one of many fields poised to be disrupted by tech companies and artificial intelligence (AI). New platforms and approaches, like a Microsoft book imprint and a self-publishing tech startup that uses AI, promise to make publishing faster and more accessible than ever before.

But they can also threaten jobs – and demand a reconsideration of the status and role of books as cultural objects. And what impact will TikTok owner ByteDance’s move into traditional book publishing have?

Microsoft’s 8080 books

Last week, Microsoft announcement a new book imprint, 8080 Books. It will focus on non-fiction titles related to technology, science and business.

8080 Books plans to “test and experiment with the latest technologies to accelerate and democratize book publishing”, although, as some skeptics have said, noteit’s not yet clear exactly what this will entail.

The first title, No reward for pessimism by Sam Schillace (Deputy Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft) arguably sets the tone for the imprint. These “letters from a disorderly technological optimist” urge readers to embrace the disruptive potential of new technologies (AI is cited in the blurb), arguing that optimism is essential to innovation and creativity. You can even discuss the book with its tailor-made chatbot here.

Elsewhere, in the field of self-publishing, technological startups Thorns aims to market 8,000 new books each year. 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) states that its goal is to make publishing more open and accessible. Above all, it aims to make it faster, reducing the publication time to just a fortnight – rather than the long months of editing, negotiation and waiting required by traditional publishing.

TikTok also publishes books

Technological innovations are not only used to speed up the publishing process, but also to identify profitable audiences, emerging authors, and genres that will sell. Chinese tech giant and TikTok owner ByteDance has launched its publishing brand Eighth note press (initially digital only) last year.

They are now in partnership with Zando (an independent publishing company whose other publications include one by actor Sarah Jessica Parker and another by the Pod Save America team Twisted media) to produce a range of fiction aimed at Generation Z readers. It will produce printed books, intended to be sold in bookstores, from February.

8th Note Press focuses on the fantasy and romance genres (and authors) generating substantial followings on BookTok, the TikTok community that proves invaluable for marketing and promoting new fiction. In the United States, authors with a strong presence on BookTok have seen growth of 23% of print sales in 2024, compared to overall growth of 6%.

Access to TikTok data and the ability to create viral videos could give 8th Note Press a serious advantage over traditional publishers in this area.

Hundreds of self-published AI startups

These initiatives reflect some broader trends in the sector. Since OpenAI first introduced ChatGPT in 2022, around 320 publishing startups have emerged. Almost all of them revolve around AI in one way or another. There is speculation that the world’s five largest publishers all have their own proprietary in-house AI systems in the works.

Spotify’s entry into the audiobook market in 2023 has been described as a game changer by its CEO, and now uses AI to recommend books to listeners. Other companies, like Storytel and Nuanxed, are using AI to automatically generate audiobook narration And speed up translations.

AI adoption could produce useful innovations and efficiencies in publishing processes. This will almost certainly help publishers promote their authors and connect books with an invested audience. But it will have an impact on people working in the sector.

Publishing houses have constantly reduced their internal staff since the 1990s and relying more on freelancers for editorial and design tasks. It would be naive to think that AI and other emerging technologies will not be used to further reduce costs.

We are rapidly moving toward a future in which once-important roles in the publishing industry – editing, translation, narration and dubbing, book design – will increasingly be carried out by machines.

Spines CEO and co-founder Yehuda Niv said when asked: “We are not here to replace human creativity“. He emphasized his belief that this automation will allow more writers to access the book market.

Both Storytel and Nuanxed suggested that growth in audiobook circulation would offset the replacement of human actors and translators. It remains to be seen exactly who will benefit most from this growth – the authors or the anonymous shareholders.

Side hustles, scams and “easy” writing

I appreciate Schillace’s genuine and thoughtful optimism about AI and other new technologies. (I admit I haven’t read his book yet, but I did have a stimulating conversation with his robot.) But my mind is taken back to the techno-utopians of the 19th century, like Edward Bellamy.

In his 1888 novel, Looking backBellamy speculates about a future in which art and literature thrive, once advanced automation frees people from the drudgery of miserable work, leaving them more time for cultural activities.

The opposite seems to be happening now. Previously important and meaningful forms of cultural work are increasingly automated.

Of course, I can be myopic about this. The disruption in publishing is only just beginning, and we have already made great strides in getting rid of the admittedly often quite miserable work of writing itself.

Shortly after ChatGPT launched, science fiction magazines in the United States had to close their submissions because they were inundated with AI-generated short stories, many of which almost identical. Today, there are so many AI-powered books published on Amazon that they have had to limit self-published authors to only three downloads per day.

AI-assisted publishing companies range from secondary activities focusing on republishing editions of texts in the public domain, to scams targeting unsuspecting readers and writers. All of these schemes are based on the idea that writing down ideas can be made easy and effortless.

However, the use of AI may incur other, delayed costs.

Can AI be a “thinking partner”?

When I was younger, writing and publishing bad news simply erased my time and personal relationships. Now I can do this with a one-sentence prompt, if I feel like it – but apparently this will destroy a lake somewhere.

Of course, as the No Prize for Pessimism bookbot takes pains to remind me, using AI in the writing process doesn’t have to be a matter of lazy auto-generation. It can be used for generative writing, which is then revised again and again and integrated into the text.

AI can function as a “thinking partner,” helping the writer with ideation and brainstorming. After all, the technology is still in its infancy, so there’s bound to be some mess at first. But no matter how it is used, AI will help writers publish faster.

8080 Books charter offers plenty of rhetorical praise for the form of the book. We are told that books “matter”, that they transmit “knowledge and wisdom”, that they “build empathy”. 8080 Books also wants to “accelerate the publication process” and reduce the “lag” between manuscript submission and its arrival on the market. He wants books that are immediate and timely.

Slow can be good

But what is a book if it arrives easily and quickly? Whether it is generated or assisted by AI, it will not be quite the same support.

For much of their history, books have been defined by slowness and effort, both in writing and in the journey to publication. A book doesn’t always need to be up to date or of the moment.

In fact, one might hope that the slowness and effort of its production will allow the book to survive its immediate context and remain relevant in other times and places.

Greater speed and broader access may be laudable goals for these publishing innovations. But they will also likely lead to greater availability – at least in the short term – both for publishing professionals and for the books themselves.