AI Authors: New Competition in an Already Competitive Industry

Is AI taking over creative writing? Learn how authors have nothing to fear.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being integrated into many facets of our lives, simultaneously making life both easier and harder. A common worry, especially for aspiring authors, is that people who use AI to write books will make traditional publishing harder in an already competitive industry. It would be wise for writers to look at the data surrounding the use of AI to predict how it might change the publishing world.

THE RESEARCH

In 2024, researchers Álvaro Cabezas-Clavijo, Marta Magadán-Díaz, Jesús I. Rivas-García, and Pavel Sidorenko-Bautista from the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja gathered data on the books sold through Amazon and published their findings in “This Book Is Written by ChatGPT: A Quantitative Analysis of ChatGPT Authorships Through Amazon.com.” They looked at the books published on Amazon during the first four months after ChatGPT was released on November 30, 2022, to observe general features of books authored by AI.

They were able to determine if a book had been written or assisted by AI through the books’ metadata. If an author publishes through the Kindle Unlimited Program (KUP) offered through Amazon, they must explicitly state the use of AI or else risk Amazon acting in cases of false authorship or copyright infringement.

The researchers found that of the 1,405 books written with AI listed as an author or coauthor, 85.3% of the works were written in the nonfiction genre. Additionally, of the books produced by ChatGPT that were available through the KUP, 98.5% were self-published. Only 3.5% of the AI-written books were longer than 200 pages, while the average length of most traditional books on the KUP is 320 pages. These results indicate that books written with AI are rarely works of fiction, suggesting that these books do not replicate the full scope of human writing when applied to creative genres.

THE IMPLICATIONS

Freed from Pandora’s box, generative AI is changing the publication world. While the data from this study is nearly three years old, it still provides relevant information—AI appears to generally not be used for creative or fiction writing, and AI-assisted writing seems to be usually self-published. However, the publication world may continue to change as AI grows more sophisticated and can better replicate human patterns.

Rather than outright rejecting AI, those who are concerned about its use can advocate for human authors. This can be done by not spending money on or consuming books written with AI. Additionally, advocacy can look like setting industry standards by using AI to streamline technical parts of the publication process rather than using it in creative settings. For example, the researchers observed, “AI’s ability to personalize and analyze data can allow publishers to understand users’ reading preferences and behaviors and enhance their experience…without replacing human participation” (Cabezas-Clavijo et al. 2024, 148).

Generative AI is changing the publishing industry, but authors who understand the data surrounding AI use can better adapt to a future with AI and advocate for continued involvement of human authors in the industry.

To learn more about how AI is affecting creative writing, read the full article:
Cabezas-Clavijo, Álvaro, Marta Magadán-Díaz, Jesús I. Rivas-García, and Pavel Sidorenko-Bautista. 2024. “This Book Is Written by ChatGPT: A Quantitative Analysis of ChatGPT Authorships Through Amazon.com.” Publishing Research Quarterly 40:147–163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-024-09998-w.

—Emma Jean Nelson, Editing Research

FEATURE IMAGE BY MOHAMED NOHASSI

Find more research

Find out more about how AI is changing the publishing industry by reading Elise Green’s Editing Research article, “What You Should Know About Generative AI’s Editing Capabilities.”

Take a look at Ahnaf Chowdhury Niloy, Salma Akter, Nayeema Sultana, Jakia Sultana, and Sayed Imran Ur Rahman’s (2023) article to learn more about AI in creative writing: “Is ChatGPT a Menace for Creative Writing Ability? An Experiment.” Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12929.