AI Disrupts Book Publishing: Ethics Rule Changes and Scanning Controversy

The Association of American Literary Agents revised its Canon of Ethics to permit agents to provide marketing and other non‑editorial services to independent authors, a change aimed at adapting to the growing role of AI and self‑publishing.

A peer‑reviewed analysis of 14,419 self‑published Amazon titles found that AI‑generated books are commercially viable but sell fewer copies than human‑written titles, while the total number of titles is expanding twice as fast as revenue.

Separately, ISBNdb, a book‑data company, announced a destructive scanning service that would slice book spines to digitise pages for AI training. After widespread criticism, the company withdrew the offer, highlighting concerns about AI firms destroying books to build training data.