Why This AI is Not Going to Disrupt the Publishing Industry

But how did those guys get $16M in funding? Also: Holiday discounts!

Photo by Ahmad Ossayli on Unsplash

ETA: I was contacted by the PR person for Spines, who wrote:

“I'd like to make an important distinction: Spines DO NOT use AI for writing. We use it for proofreading, cover design, audiobook generation, distribution, metadata creating and marketing. The authors using the Spines platform upload their SELF-WRITTEN manuscript and start the process. By the way, we do not offer editing as well - AI can not edit a book, it has a 16 page comprehension limit. Humans are part of the process at Spines and any author that wants the "human touch" is welcome to ask for that. We have literary experts working with us who help smooth the process along with the technology.”

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There’s been a brouhaha on social media this week about Spines, a startup that considers itself a “publisher” and aims to publish (or print, in my view and many others) 8,000 books in 2025 alone. This company says it’s going to disrupt the publishing industry, which (in my view and many others) demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about what the publishing industry is and how it operates.

Psst… Read to the end of the newsletter for some holiday discounts on
Sarah-powered editing and coaching services

Spines is a vanity publisher with lots of money

Seriously, though, how did these guys get $16M in funding? If someone gave me $16M, I’d happily give away my services for free. Hell, I’d offer free retreats, or start a nonprofit foundation, or do fifty other things instead of launching a not-terribly-original business.

Vanity publishers have been around since the invention of the printing press (probably). The term means that people pay someone else to publish (or more accurately, print) their book. Many are predatory; a few are not.

This is not to be confused with hybrid publishing, which is coming into its own as a category. The best hybrids don’t accept any author that pays them; to the best of my knowledge, legit hybrids will evaluate manuscripts based on quality but not on marketability. That’s a whole other post.

Spines is calling itself a new ‘platform,’ which seems odd. Lulu Press, one of the OG self-publishing platforms, has been around for more than 20 years and charges around $5-$10 per copy to print.

AI is a terrible editor

[ETA: This is a segue, not specifically about Spines] Apps like Grammarly or ProWritingAid work for people who want to go from bad writing to good, for student term papers, or for those who have challenges with fundamental composition skills (e.g., a high percentage of passive-voice or runon sentences). Those are all totally legit reason to use these apps, but they’re not going to help you get a book—or even an essay—to the level expected by trade publishers or media/essay outlets.

Writing and editing books requires an understanding of human consciousness and the human experience—especially the sensory and emotional experience. That’s something AI lacks.

Writing, regardless of genre, is about connecting with a reader. Whether you’re allowing the reader to inhabit a different life for 250 pages (fiction, memoir) or you’re aiming to inspire or educate (practical nonfiction, historical nonfiction, self-help), it’s all about the way an author invites the reader into an experience or conversation.

Beginning back in the 1990s, I would have arguments with Microsoft Word about sentences they flagged as having grammar problems. In most instances, the sentences were grammatically correct; in others, I was intentionally using literary techniques that it didn’t recognize.

Then in the 2010s, I noticed Gmail kept flagging ‘all right’ as a spelling error and insisting that ‘alright’ was the correct spelling.

It is not.

There are four levels of editing and even more ways of working with editors (one-off, an intensive or retreat, three passes, weekly or monthly coaching…). I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure Spines is using AI to do a single pass of copy editing or proofreading, not stylistic or developmental editing, which require deep human insight.

Another aspect of editing is finding the human who connects best with the story you’re trying to tell. All quality editors agree on craft, yet we’re all individuals with different personalities, and that informs the way we work. No one editor is right for all clients, and no client is perfect for all editors.

The world doesn’t need more books

There are at least 33 million books (both ebooks and print) available on Amazon US. That data is nearly two years old, so with an average of four million new books being added each year—and that’s probably much higher now, thanks to AI—it’s possible the number is closer to 50 million.

The vast majority of these books don’t sell. By definition, only 100,000 titles can be in the top 100,000 on Amazon. One hundred thousand is approximately the ranking of a book that sells one copy per day (take that number with a grain of salt). Each one of those books has been marketed or gained word-of-mouth traction.

This is why trade (traditional) publishers require a platform, or ready-made audience of buyers, for nonfiction. For fiction, there’s typically a ready-made audience for each genre (including general commercial and literary), though those genres come with very specific reader expectations.

There’s a difference between writing and storytelling

Even practical nonfiction has to tell a story of some kind. The skills we learned in English class may be enough to write an email, but in the absence of a creative writing degree or working with an experienced editor, most aspiring authors lack the understanding of how to carry a story over 200+ pages, or how engage readers deeply enough to bother reading through to the end.

A harsh reality: If a reader gets bored, they’re not going to read any further. That’s as true on page 128 as it is on page 1. If you’re self-publishing and want to be part of Kindle Unlimited (which pays based on pages read), this can have a significant impact on your royalties.

There are some ways AI can help writers

I’m not throwing the AI baby out with the bathwater. When OpenAI released ChatGPT last year, I insisted that I would never use AI for anything creative.

Then I discovered that the paid version of ChatGPT ($20USD per month) can be an excellent brainstorming and initial research tool. That’s a whole other post, but I’m not saying AI is universally unhelpful to writers.

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As Promised: Holiday Goodies!

Photo by Yevhen Buzuk on Unsplash

You can receive a 10% discount on any of my services by doing one of the following before December 20:

• Donate at least $100 to your local food bank (send me a photo of the receipt)

• Book any six-month coaching package (already discounted 15% from monthly coaching) and receive an additional 10% off.

• Refer a friend before December 20, and if they hire me, you’ll receive 10% off your next edit or coaching package.

Bonus coaching/consultation sessions!

I’ve enabled payments on this newsletter. If I can earn a higher percentage of my income from this newsletter, then I can dedicate more of my energy to it. All posts will remain free to all subscribers. But I do appreciate “patronage” subscriptions. To that end, I’ve created the following bonuses that aren’t time-limited:

• Become an annual subscriber ($120 USD) and receive an extra 30 minutes of free coaching (combined with a free consultation, that’s 60 minutes total per year)

• Become a Supporter ($240 USD) and receive two one-hour coaching sessions for less than the price of one every year.

• If you know someone who would benefit from writing craft and process insights, along with publishing ones, consider giving them a gift subscription. As the giver, you will receive the above rewards for each gift subscription (Annual or Supporter).

Extra bonus: If you’re working on a book, the amount you pay may be tax-deductible as research. Check with a tax accountant in your area.

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