Software for Book Publishers

There is very little built-from-the-ground-up AI software specifically for book publishers (though there’s lots available for authors).

Scholarly publishers have many more options, with a variety of AI tools for research, writing and publishing.

For trade publishers most of the options relate to AI and audio. Outside of audio, the choices are coalescing around editing and marketing tools. There are also several AI content-detection tools, and content licensing tools and services.

The editing software is positioned towards authors, not professional editors—there are many more authors than editors.

The marketing tools likewise aim more broadly than just book publishers, but for marketers everywhere, with tools for web content, copy generation and SEO. Jasper.ai is a leader in this category, and claims HarperCollins as a customer.

Shimmr, a sponsor of this book, is an AI-powered ad creation tool specifically for book publishers. The company, and its founder, Nadim Sadek, were profiled in a May 2024 article in Publishers Weekly.

“What we do is use AI to consider the psychological profile of a book and match it to the frame of mind of a specific audience, ensuring a more effective connection between readers and books,” Sadek told PW. “We call it ‘Book DNA,’ and it involves not only knowing the characters and plot of a book, but the values, interests, and emotions of the book.”

Calling on the Book DNA, Shimmr’s AI tools then create targeted advertisements for search and social media channels (currently Google and Meta). The ads take the form of display ads, featuring AI-generated images accompanied by taglines. (Shimmr tell me that video ads are in the works, as well as new advertising channels.)

I point out to publishers evaluating Shimmr that the software can generate incremental revenue, which is what we hope a new advertising/marketing tool can bring to the table.

Another new vendor born out of the opportunity with AI, is Veristage (also a sponsor of this book). Veristage offers Insight, its “AI Publishing Assistant,” a task-specific front-end across multiple publishing functions.

The Insight journey starts with the manuscript. Uploading an early version unlocks a range of tools, some more valuable to editorial, others more valuable to marketing. After working with any and all of the features, you can download a PDF report that includes editorial aspects, like writing tone, tropes, cliches and use of adverbs and adjectives, and then marketing content, like descriptions, metadata, unique selling points, comps, Amazon-optimized content, and suggested social media posts.

What I like best about Insight is that it takes a holistic approach to applying AI to the publishing process, rather than having to gather multiple software tools, each for a different function.

I want also to highlight here Leanpub, the publishing platform that hosts this book. They’ve been amazing to work with. Small is beautiful: they take chances with technology and services that larger companies would steer away from. Of top interest to authors and smaller publishers is their new TranslateWord service, where you can translate a book written in Microsoft Word into up to 31 languages, via the GPT-4o API (which powers ChatGPT). That’s what I’m using to translate this book.

I looked elsewhere to try to find an AI service for book translation. There are tons of translation firms, some employing AI. The only one I could find that offers book translation is DeepL. But books and book publishing are not a focus for the company. Right now Leanpub is the place to go.

I’ve spoken with several of the publishing system software vendors. They’re all looking at the opportunities, but treading carefully.

knk has run two webinars on AI, and released a whitepaper, but, as of May 2025, had not announced any AI features in its products.

Virtusales has launched its first set of AI-enabled tools, including image tagging, alt-text generation, copyediting tools, sales and marketing copy generation, and translations of that copy.

I spoke with Klopotek on its Klopotek Publishing Radio. They have “started an AI initiative in the area of Customer Services,” and vaguely reference partnering “with a specialist AI company to develop an integrated solution for modern publishers.

Supadu, which offers publishers “web design, ecommerce and data solutions,” now features “Supadu Smart AI,” (pdf) with “‘avatar-led’ video book reviews, fully integrated with Supadu Smart Buy Buttons, and easy author video translations for global markets.”

Some people are familiar with the work I’ve done around book publishing technology-based startups. There is a report in Publishers Weekly that describes the project, and also links to the database.

As you’ll see in the report, I look pretty broadly at startups across the book publishing spectrum. I don’t include new book publishing companies, unless they are doing some unusual things with technology. The basic criteria is: do you use technology to try to invigorate some aspect of the book(ish) publishing process? I’ve got over 1,800 companies in the database, most launched after Amazon released the first Kindle in 2007.

After you get an overall sense of the database, you can start to dive in more deeply. On the far right tab you’ll see a way to sort only by the AI-related publishing startups.

As you can see in the illustration, there are over 300 AI-related publishing startups (as of May 2025). We count the audio publishing startups that employ AI as a separate category and the total of the two is some 350 companies. The majority, over 280, were launched after ChatGPT first appeared in November of 2022. This volume of new business startups is unprecedented within book publishing. It’s astounding.

As is characteristic of the full database, these AI startups mostly target authors (70%). Some 13% are looking, per se, to serve publishing companies. 10% are children’s publishing-focused.

About 50 of the startups target readers with a range of inventive offerings. Several are storytelling platforms. There are quite a few summarizers. There are multiple discovery sites, “use AI to find your new favorite book.” Fast-improving AI-generated voices have led to a selection of “read it to me” tools.

As is characteristic of the larger startup cohort, many of these startups are between miniscule and tiny, just one person with a website and a half-baked idea. I include them all—who knows where they’re headed.

I encourage you to play with the database. Click a few links. I think you’ll be tickled by the innovation and audacity of many of these organizations.

One of the sponsors of this book, Book Advisors, specializes in mergers and acquisitions in the publishing industry. I’m always advocating to innovative startups that they look for partners, and Book Advisors is where I send them to talk through the process. Book publishing is served by several respected M&A firms, including The Fisher Company and Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips. Book Advisors is the only firm I know that also works with technology startups.