There’s a lot of talk right now about the new self-publishing start up Spines, who plan to bring to publication 8,000 titles in 2025 by using AI to deal with the entire publishing process, from editing and proofreading through to publication and beyond. Someone with a manuscript will pay up to $5,000 for the privilege, as this article in The Bookseller explains.
In my view, Spines is just another step towards the automation of publishing, cutting out staff employed as cover designers, book editors and proofreaders and office workers. I bet the big publishers are watching with interest as Spines’ owners rake in the profits. (8,000 titles multiplied by the top tier of $5,000 = $40,000,000)
As the various publishing roles disappear, authors get to see their work turned into a sausage in a sausage factory. Authors who quickly discover, after shelling out their hard cash, that their book is doomed to sell a couple of hundred copies at best unless they themselves perform miracles in the promo sphere.
Fiction publishing is already becoming a creative dead zone filled with uninspiring mass market books churned out by the indies and trad publishers alike to make as much money as possible. A flat landscape that has all but forgotten the concepts of art and creativity. A desert devoid of quality and integrity. A terrain that offers readers little to nothing by way of elevation or insight or light bulb moments.
In response, this author will keep bucking the trend regardless of how many copies get sold. If those are the sorts of books you like, stick around.
Isobel Blackthorn 