·Niko Laamanen · blog · 2 min read
Response to revolutionary publishers
My response to ‘revolutionary publishers’ shilling AI
My response to ‘revolutionary publishers’ shilling AI
You’re not disrupting anything.
Human action dictates whether a book succeeds or fails.
Last week, a picture of the four smug founder dudes from ‘revolutionary publisher’ Spines went viral. @Spines_com is a platform that automates editing, covers, translation, audiobooks, and more. The company raised $16m in VC and plans to publish 8,000 books next year.
Most people were pissed off when they saw the news:
- Publishers claiming it’s a predatory vanity press
- Authors bemoaning the fees, saying KDP is cheaper
- Readers questioning the need for a tranche of low-quality titles
- Editors and translators in fear of losing work
As a publisher with a similar model, I’m not pissed; I’m ambivalent.
Spines charges authors up to $5k to ‘harness the power of AI’.
True, they do provide a cheap and fast option for authors, while traditional publishers can take years to release a book.
All 8,000 books fail without anyone to read them.
When The Bookseller asked Spines to provide sales data for their ‘bestsellers,’ Spines refused 😅. The lesson? Do the work or become the product.
Microsoft is also working with big publishers to train their AI models on their books, and many big tech firms and publishing houses are getting involved.
Here’s what I think is really going on…
It’s about the data. They want to train their LLMs on your manuscripts.
Spines and Microsoft don’t give a fuck if you sell any copies.
They want to build machines capable of cutting humans out of the creative process. They might even succeed. My prediction? Spines will be bought by Penguin Random House within 24 months.
But our community won’t give up the right to thought.
Konsensus Network has been connecting authors and readers since 2019.
We want to tranform your ideas into books that change the world.
And we want you to succeed because we believe in the same ideals.
If you have a freedom manuscript in the works, we want to hear about it. Book a free call with me, and we’ll strategize and go through your options.
If you don’t invest the time, effort, and money in your book project, you don’t truly believe in its ideas.
Authors who settle for a low-rent print-a-page service with zero strategy or support are spineless. And they know where to go.
