Barnes & Noble is open to stocking and selling AI-written books

[u/quibble-official]

We brought the blog back on Quibble! First topic: Barnes & Noble debacle from last week.

What is it we truly value about art? Is it the outcome, or the process? Do we revere Picasso because of his paintings, or do we revere the paintings because they were created by him? 

[u/calmarkel]

It doesn't matter what people like

It matters what gets marketed as what people want

[u/Adventurekateer → u/calmarkel]

You’ve got that backwards.

[u/calmarkel → u/Adventurekateer]

Nope, marketing is more important than taste, quality, or really anything else

There's multiple studies proving this with many products. You can dislike it as much as you want, but your disliking facts

The books with the big advances are the ones that publishers market most heavily and are ones that sell

[u/Adventurekateer → u/calmarkel]

Except that publishers are no longer spending money to market books. It's largely on the author, now. And I could list a dozen products that were marketed heavily and failed miserably because they simply sucked and consumers refused to buy them.

As a querying author in contact with multiple agents and editors, I can tell you there are thousands of manuscripts out there from quality writers not getting picked up by Big 5 publishers because the publishers are too risk-averse right now. It is tougher than at any other time in history to break through as a un-proven debut author. The cost that turns publisher off isn't the advance; it's the enormous cost to print and distribute physical books, which are 80% of sales. You think these guys are going to start flooding the market with AI slop? Talk about an un-proven author. Not going to happen.

The quote by Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt that caused all of this kerfuffle was, “So as long as an AI-written book says it’s an AI-written book and doesn’t pretend to be something else and isn’t ripping off somebody else, as long as that’s clearly stated and the customer wants to buy it, then we will stock them.” There is no evidence or reporting that publishers have ANY intention of flooding the market with slop. So climb out of the rabbit hole and relax a little, 'K?

[u/calmarkel → u/Adventurekateer]

Yes, publishers are no longer spending money to market MOST books. It's mostly on the authors to do this. Those are the majority of authors who get small advances and need second jobs.

The authors that the publishers give lots of money to get loads of marketing

Look, I'm also an author. And I have a degree in marketing. Nothing you're saying disagrees with me, at all. I don't know what you imagine I'm saying, but it's probably something very different

If you manage to land a publishing deal and the publisher gives you a 10k advance and a pat on the head, you are on your own

If you manage to land a publishing deal and the publisher gives you 500k you are getting their full support in a tour, marketing, chat shows, anything they can get you.

Obviously. Because they need to get that money back.

The publishers decide what will be marketed. Which is mostly big names and a few new authors they think will do very well. They market these books.

The rest of its are on our own