AI, Publishing, and the Fight for Creativity: What I Learned From Three Industry Insiders

There are moments when an industry changes slowly, almost politely. Publishing is not living in one of those moments.

The spark for this conversation came from a discussion with my wife. We were talking about themes that keep showing up in the interviews we do on this show. One theme stood out. Change used to move like a glacier. Now it moves like a freight train. And nothing captures that better than what is happening in publishing right now.

So I brought in three people who live inside the machine. Regina Brooks from Serendipity Literary Agency. Jennifer Weiss from the Weiss Agency. And Anthony Zakardi, publisher at Post Hill Books. One represents authors, one sells their work, and one prints the final product. I asked them a simple question. What has actually changed?

The New Gatekeeping

Twenty years ago, if you were an expert and had something meaningful to say, you could write a book. Now, before you even step through the door, publishers want something else. A platform. Social media numbers. Proof that the world is already paying attention to you.

If you are a world renowned academic or a surgeon with decades of experience, you still get in. But you will be told to step into the social media arena anyway. Not because publishers are shallow, but because discovery has shifted. Readers no longer walk into bookstores to browse. They scroll.

The Rise of Amazon

Whenever you talk about publishing today, you eventually end up talking about Amazon. Some industries have competitors. Publishing has Amazon. It reshaped ebooks. It reshaped distribution. It created Audible and dominated audiobooks. According to Anthony, audiobooks may now outsell ebooks. That shocked me.

TikTok even influences tables at Barnes & Noble. The front display, the most valuable real estate in a bookstore, now features books that trend on a social app known for thirty second videos. I would have laughed at that ten years ago.

Editors Used to Be Artists

Jennifer said something that stuck with me. Editors used to sit in a room and shape a manuscript like a sculptor. The role has shifted. Now they spend as much time doing internal marketing as editing. They have quotas, deadlines, and faster publishing cycles. Publishers want books out the door and into Amazon’s bloodstream quickly.

This is one reason agents are editing more than ever. They have to deliver manuscripts that are nearly finished because the old style of deep editorial work is disappearing.

AI Shows Up

My first real shock with AI came when I asked ChatGPT to write two essays in the voices of two philosophers I read in college. It nailed it in thirty seconds. That is when I knew AI was not a toy.

So I asked them. Is AI impacting publishing already? The answer was not yes. It was that AI is touching every part of the process.

Covers. Marketing copy. Research. Developmental editing. Even entire manuscripts written with the help of large language models. And then the darker side. People using AI to generate a copycat version of an existing book, even using the original author’s name. Piracy but faster.

Some agencies and publishers now run submissions through tools to detect AI involvement. Even Amazon is rejecting fully AI generated books. But the truth is that detection is a moving target and copyright law has not caught up.

Regina made a point that I think will matter a lot in the next decade. AI will not replace creativity. It will determine who gets paid for it. Authors need compensation if their books are fed into training models. Right now, they are not getting it.

What Worries Them

The concerns were clear.

• Advances may shrink.

• Publishers may narrow the range of what they acquire.

• Content is exploding and attention is shrinking.

• Podcasts, video, short form content, everything is competing with reading time.

• The old global publishing model may fracture.

And yet every one of them also believes the industry will survive. Books have survived television, radio, movies, and the internet. Gen Z is even swinging back toward physical books, almost as a rebellion against screens.

The Part That Surprised Me Most

The next major literary movement might not come from New York. It might come from Seoul, Dubai, Lagos, or Singapore. Those markets are exploding. Translations are skyrocketing. Business books in the Asian markets are booming.

Publishing is no longer a New York centric world. It is becoming genuinely global for the first time.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

After talking to these three, here is what I believe.

AI is going to shake this industry hard. Some parts will crack. Others will adapt. But books will survive for the same reason they always have. People want stories. People want information. People want meaning. And nothing delivers those things in the same way a book does.

If I ever write a book, it will not be because of the economics. It will be because I think I have something worth saying. And if publishing still has a soul, it will be because enough writers still feel the same way.

Until next time, this is Steve Eisman, and this has been The Real Eyes Playbook. .
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This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Please consult a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions.