HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette are using AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT to email literary agents, write publicity copy, and design cover art, according to more than 20 anonymous employees. These tools are being used without public disclosure or author consent, revealing a covert shift in publishing practices.
Publishers are using LLMs to generate publicity copy, design cover art, and create marketing materials, often at the direction of their executives. This practice is becoming widespread, with one editor noting that every imprint has a story of someone esteemed whose book was canceled due to AI use.
HarperCollins senior leaders purchased Claude licenses from Anthropic months ago but quickly realized they didn’t know how to implement them. Dozens of staff were then 'voluntold' to become 'AI Champions' and discover use cases in monthly brainstorming sessions with staff across the company.
"It was such a slap in the face," says one employee. "We’ve been making valid business cases for years to be paid a healthy salary, and instead they spent that money on software that most of us don’t really want."
The average entry-level salary for New York City publishing employees at the Big Five and Scholastic was $47,583 in 2023. Some employees were unnerved by the brainstorming sessions, where concerns about the legal, ethical, and environmental impacts of AI were dismissed as 'the cost of doing business.'
"Using AI to generate publicity copy is short-sighted," a Big Five publicist tells me. "Publicists have a duty to engage in good faith with readers and our colleagues in the media, who I’m sure have a low threshold for tolerating AI-generated pitches."
Source: wired
