If AI writes, then you publish
The fear in the air is that LLMs are going to turn (some kinds of) writing into a commodity. There is something to look forward to in this.
We have been busy reading and writing and being impressed by humans who write and ascribing a magic to them. Overnight this magic will become a commodity and be available on tap.
The business maxim, ācommoditize your complementā, provides guidance on what to do about this. If writing is becoming a commodity then this benefits the industry that is complementary to it: publishing.
We havenāt cared too much about publishers before, because writing was what was difficult and prestigious. Publishers faded to the background and the name we looked for on the cover of a book was that of the author.
So what does a publisher do?
In short, get writing into peopleās hands, get them excited to read it and maybe collect money somewhere in this process.
- Find out what people want to read, and what they are willing to pay for
- Craft a content strategy for the kinds of written and printed materials to publish (responding to what people already want to read but also expressing a new direction for what people should want to read)
- Curate AI and human written materials into works to publish
- Package written/printed materials beautifully - combining lettering, typesetting, photography, graphic design and printing , or website front-end design and user experience design.
- Market and sell the writing
- Be a reliable brand, a marker of quality - particularly important in our new world of slop.
Will we see the rise of more amateur and niche publishing?