My response to ‘revolutionary publishers’ shilling AI \ stacker news ~AMA

https://m.stacker.news/65616

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 (https://x.com/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

https://m.stacker.news/65620

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 authors with a cheap and fast option, 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.

https://m.stacker.news/65621

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? Penguin Random House will buy spines 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 transform your ideas into books that change the world. And we want you to succeed because we believe in the same ideals.

https://m.stacker.news/65622

If you have a freedom manuscript in the works, I want to hear about it. Book a free call with me, and let's strategize and go through your options. https://calendly.com/konsensus

If you don’t invest the time, effort, and money in your book project, you don’t honestly 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.

30 sats \ 3 replies \ @Satosora 2 Dec

Maybe they should get that game of thrones author to use ai. Then the book would finally come out!

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 2 Dec

🤣

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satosora 2 Dec

He has been writing that book forever. Always saying he is writing, but never getting anything done.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 2 Dec

I stopped reading after Feast for Crows. It was clear that he was losing his direction and focus.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 2 Dec

How is your model similar to and different from Spines? I feel like you should make this clear

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @stack_harder 2 Dec

this is just the next level up from the thin content shit kdp books that have been being shilled as a make-money online opportunity for about a decade now.

Just reams of human waste being outsourced to people to make 'books' for 5 dollars and it's all shit.

Now it's just ai trash with these douchebags being the only ones to make any money at the end of it.

As usual, in a gold rush, sell the shovels !

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 2 Dec

Exactly this.

Every asshat think they can write timeless, wonderful things -- why not profit off it, shovel-style?

I think it's not as predatory as it initially sounds.

The parts of the publishing process they want to automate will actually give greater control in the hands of the author. Typically, the author is not equipped to make their own editing, cover designs, audio recordings, or translate to other languages. By using AI to assist with these the authors can do more on their own before having to pay someone to do it for them.

I think they could be on to something and it might not be totally bad, as long as the text itself is not AI generated.

We'll see how it shakes out.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @aS7017ur5 2 Dec

How come AI can writing compared to human emotion and other things of human.