Creators Will Move Up the Value Chain in Algorithmic Publishing

I received some more interesting feedback about the PageKicker publishing tool suite from independent publishing expert Aaron Shepard and Bob McLain, publisher of Theme Park Press, which has more than 130 books in print about, you guessed it, theme parks. For those tuning in now, PageKicker is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, angel-funded startup whose open source software enables users to build instant books, in Chicago Manual of Style format, with a wealth of relevant customized content, in a matter of seconds, at a cost of pennies, at unlimited scale.

Aaron:

Fred, the flaw in your logic is that, if you supplant the creators of source material, the spring will dry up and your algorithms will have nothing to draw on. Not to mention, if the spammers adopt your software to flood Amazon, most of us will be driven out of business. That’s a worst-case scenario, of course. But why strive for calamity? Why not devote [yourself to] supporting creators, rather than undermining them?

McLain:

I defy any automated process to create a book as well edited, as well structured, and as well presented as mine (or those of any other dedicated publisher). If such a process *did* become viable, which I doubt, what is the incentive for an author to write a book, only to toss his carefully crafted content into a vast stew of words from which mechanical “arms” pull forth bits and pieces according to an algorithm that can’t possibly make the decisions that a competent editor can make? It’s an intriguing concept, and my hat’s off to you for coming up with it and putting at least some of the infrastructure in place, but I really hope nothing comes of it. Authors have a hard enough time finding dry land in the ocean of Amazon without someone throwing countless auto-generated books in the water, like so much chum, as well.

Some clarifications:

1. Frankly, the quality of the books varies greatly. Sometimes they are pretty interesting, and sometimes they are completely off base. It depends a lot on the skill of the software at interpreting the author’s intent, and then on the availability of relevant content. So it is absolutely correct that current versions of the algorithm are not nearly as smart and cogent as even an averagely skilled human author or editor. But because this is software, the book results get better every day. For example, just last night I pushed out version 0.7.1.1-Gissing, which adds a “spidering” component to search, meaning that books come back with about 10 times more articles than they did the day before. This is not necessarily an unqualified benefit, but it gives future versions of the algorithms more to work with.
2. The software treats books as dynamic entities and rebuilds them at reading time; so uploading static files to Amazon would be stupid, as it would undermine one of the system’s fundamental advantages. Also, the current proof of concept relies on Wikipedia data, and Amazon won’t allow no-value-added republication of data “freely available on the Internet.” However …
3. We won’t be limited to public domain content for long. We will be adding the ability for authors and publishers to incorporate their own content very soon. Even more fundamentally, we will not be relying on humans as the only “authors”. Companies like Narrative Science are already creating news and feature articles from structured data. And PageKicker has figured out a variety of ways of infusing anthropomorphic “personality” into what we call “robot” authors. This is the way technology is heading, and the AI tsunami will not ignore the book business. PageKicker is simply riding the wave.

Let me close with a comment from my highly bibliophilic (and bibliotropic) daughter Kelsey.

I agree with the guy saying it makes him nervous. I’ve wondered for a long time why you, someone who [loves] books and reading, wants to basically destroy the industry.

I know most book people are going to hate this. It is profoundly disruptive. But innovation will grow the world of books just as it has grown the world of other goods. Robotics eliminated many manufacturing jobs but created many new jobs in marketing, design, and software. Indeed, we have more goods of higher quality than we ever had before. As the world of publishing experiences another Great Transition, it will be painful for many authors and publishers, but it will also create many new opportunities. I foresee a world where everyone will have a “virtual bookshelf” that is always updated, always improving, always growing, and puts just the right information in the readers’ hand at just the right moment.