Playing the AI publishing game: A case study of one author’s digital publishing model

With AI spamming causing Amazon to limit daily uploads to Kindle Unlimited (KU), this case study looks at one professional author on Amazon who is utilising data and AI in order to identify topics and produce short digital guide books on a huge range of topics from engineering to cheese making; currently they have over 5000 books listed on Amazon, available as part of a KU.

While this illustrates data-driven publishing and AI-generated material, giving rise to questions around curation , authorial integrity and quality in digital environments , it also represents a probabilistic approach to publishing, reflecting the changing quality thresholds of readers who do not need the books to be good, just good enough (Surowiecki, 2005).

Based on analysis of the books uploaded onto Amazon and considered in Good Reads, and a qualitative interview with the author, this study examines how data and AI has been influential in this author’s approach to publishing. It assesses the business model adopted by the author, how they have developed a publisher identity and how they view their position in the publishing ecosystem.