The Challenge of Writing Novels in the Age of Algorithms — Plus... Promos!
A copyright infringement lawsuit against the "Crave" series puts the spotlight on Amazon bookselling algorithms
If you want to jump right to the promos, scroll down to the bottom of the page.
I’m reading a New Yorker story about a copyright infringement lawsuit1 that has me thinking and wondering about things, which is usually a dangerous proposition.
The copyright stuff is interesting. Lynne Freeman’s lawsuit claims she sent a novel to an editor, who then, the lawsuit alleges, went on to help another writer develop the megahit Crave series that Freeman insists was a close facsimile to the story she sent.
Freeman has spent “several hundred thousand dollars” on the suit, which is where I wanted to stop reading. If I had a few hundred thousand dollars to spare suing other authors, even if I thought they were swiping my work, I’d be inclined to let it go.
But I didn’t stop reading, and I’m glad I didn’t. The more interesting part came further into the story, which began to take a cursory dive into the algorithms that govern today’s modern writing and publishing cycle.
I wish the article had gone deeper into that. That was where the real story was.
Freeman’s novel, and the series she says borrowed it, Crave, written by Tracy Wolff, are both part of a genre called Romantasy, a mixture of romance and fantasy. The genre is so successful that it can be divided into a long listicle of tropes such as “werewolves who fart while making love.”
Sorry. I made that up. But you get the idea.
The genre is even more successful than that. Entangled, the publisher of the Crave series, and the target of Freeman’s lawsuit, has established itself as a master of the genre and the Amazon algorithms that govern it by carefully mastering the art of trope anticipation amongst the masses.
As The New Yorker article states:
The reigning principles of this indie world are “more” and “faster.” Because Amazon’s search algorithm appears to favor writers with larger backlists, there’s an incentive to flood the platform with titles—and to pad those titles with as many pages as possible, as Kindle Unlimited distributes royalties to the creators with the highest number of pages read. (This has spawned an epidemic of “page-stuffing,” in which authors load their novels with bonus material; authors have also been accused of using bots to artificially inflate their reader tally.)
In other words, Amazon’s algorithm encourages authors to write dozens of books in a year, and fatten them up with other stuff. The algorithm seems to actively favor it. The fact that so many authors have six, seven, eight, nine, and ten-part series is evidence that authors have discovered that this algorithm exists. The trilogy seems quaint these days.
Many writers seem fine with it. Fantasy writer Holly Black is one writer isn’t, according to the same New Yorker article:2
“I think it puts authors in an impossible position,” the award-winning fantasy novelist Holly Black told me. “No one wants to cut corners on quality, and so you have to do this kind of heroic thing to get your book to be how you want it in a time frame that’s pretty much impossible.” The same conditions that promote speed can also foster “a pressure toward clickbait,” she added. Authors identify the most irresistible tropes and reproduce them as efficiently as possible. The book blogger and author Jenny Trout told me that, “in romantasy, copycats are commonplace. Authors are giving the people what they want, but it’s also like you’re reading the same book over and over again.”
This has opened the writing and publishing process in the Romatasy genre to a desperate rush to market for authors who write for the genre. Some of them write as many as 50 books a year, which begs the obvious question: How many use AI or will use AI in the future to keep up with the impulse to provide more pulp?
Entangle, according to the article, often involves itself directly with the development of novels, to the point where authors and editors find themselves sending emails to each other asking who wrote which line. It’s close to assembly-line writing.
Liz Pelletier, the C.E.O. of Entangled who does double duty as its publisher, had worked with Freeman on her novel, Blue Moon Rising, according to Freeman’s lawsuit. Entangle is such a fiction factory that it’s possible Pelletier truly doesn’t remember working with Freeman because the publisher cranks out so many words in a year, how could she?
Entangled has built its success upon a foundation that relies on what the publisher calls a cooperative relationship with its authors, but looks to me to be something akin to a soup canning business.
Traditionally, the publishing process has worked something like this:
A publisher’s acquisition editor “acquires” a novel submitted by an author, or, more frequently, the author’s agent. A contract is offered, usually including an advance of some sort (ever dwindling, these days) and royalties, which typically have remained fairly standard but don’t mean much if you only sell 1,000 books.
The author’s manuscript then typically goes to an editor, who marks it up for changes. Some publishing houses have even done away with staff editors and instead ask authors to provide an editor at their expense.
Finally, the novel gets a publishing date, which can be a year down the road after final edits for some publishers. The reason for this is that there have traditionally been favored release periods for books (for example, early December). These release periods are in part governed by major book distributors like Ingram, who would rather have a few major selling periods than a whole bunch scattered throughout the year.
After all that, the writer makes a pittance unless she hits the equivalent of the publishing lottery and finds herself with a bestseller.
Writers have lived with this for a long time and know what they’re getting into when they get involved in the writing and publishing process. It’s fair to say that most writers don’t write novels for the love of money. For every Stephen King, there are a few hundred thousand writers who earn next to nothing, even if they’re writing good fiction. It’s just how it is. Nothing to see here.
But assembly line writing changes the dynamic. With assembly line writing, writers hook up with a publisher to mimic the book packaging concept (see notes).3
In this case, the publisher already knows what it wants to do. For example, maybe they want a book about dragons who smoke cigarettes whilst romancing goblins in the northernmost reaches of Alaska. They’ll put together a spec sheet and a basic synopsis/plot line, then hire a writing/editing team to produce the work.
Entangled’s Pelletier says her firm doesn’t take it that far, but they come close. The New Yorker again:4
“We are invited into the author’s process from day zero and continue in that spirit throughout editing,” Pelletier told Publishers Weekly. Entangled’s biggest romantasy titles, including Yarros’s “Empyrean” series, now come from its Red Tower imprint, whose model falls somewhere between that of a book packager and that of a traditional publisher. Book packagers assign teams of writers and editors to create content for an outside client, who can request specific elements, such as “the fae” or “hockey-themed romance.” Often, the writers receive a flat fee for their work (“work for hire”), sign over their I.P. rights, and are not entitled to royalties. Packaged titles are relatively safe bets for publishers, offering agility and responsiveness to subtle changes in market demand.
Pelletier denies engaging in book packaging, but acknowledged, through her attorney, that, “unlike some other traditional publishers, Entangled tends to work more with its authors at the ideation stage to try to organically bake in a high concept.” Crave, according to the defense counsel, was “a collaborative project with Pelletier providing to Wolff in writing the main plot, location, characters, and scenes, and actively participating in the editing and writing process.”
Needless to say, I won’t ever be working with them. That would completely take the joy away from my characters, who like to boss me around and tell me what’s what.
I’m not sure Pelletier or anyone else adapting for the Amazon algorithm can be blamed for trying to take advantage of it. She’s put together a fiction factory in response to Amazon’s destructive algorithm, and some authors are happy to help her out.
The real danger is that those writers who are under pressure to write 30-50 books a year (or whatever) will turn to AI, if they haven’t already. Reports are rife that AI-generated books are appearing on Amazon bestseller lists.
So what are writers to do?
Everyone will need to come to their own safe space for this. Mine is to just write what I want to write. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’ll never want to write three books a year, much less ten or more.
Like most things, maybe the speed algorithms will go away someday. Amazon currently has little incentive to disengage, however. Twenty Kindle books, multiplied by thousands of authors per year, is a lot of money in the bank, because Amazon pockets its share of sales no matter what.
As usual, we’re stuck with the whims of a massive international conglomerate that controls how we publish. But now, increasingly, they’re dictating how we write, too.
Check out some promos from other indie writers…
"Space Rogues 1: The Adventures of Wil Calder"
by John Wilker
"Off-Limits Protectors 2"
by Daisy Grace
"Transform the World"
by J. Scott Coatsworth
"Ava Ramey FBI Mystery Thriller Series: (Books 1-4) Ava Ramey Series Box Set"
by Axl Blaze
From Axl:
I just wanted to let you know that I'll be running a KDP promo on each book of my Ava Ramey FBI Mystery Thriller series, and all the books will be available for just 99 cents each on the day your newsletter goes out.
Thanks for reading!
Notes
Waldman, Katy. 2025. “Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Writer’s Story?” The New Yorker. January 6, 2025. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/01/13/did-a-best-selling-romantasy-novelist-steal-another-writers-story?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_011224&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_digest&bxid=5ec51ffcfc58dc70fc7e2905&cndid=61166420&hasha=a199357b3793d3a390f7cce9eab11956&hashb=f09b95e4cf6f09d82f43c7232e772ae454f42691&hashc=32a2151992bcb0085ff2bd935c7a593f68b69bcac9f535df19452730187009c7&esrc=bounceX&mbid=CRMNYR062419.
I say “reading” because New Yorker articles are usually very long and take me several months to finish.
ibid
A book packager is an independent service that teams up writers and editors to produce a book, fiction or non-fiction, per spec according to a request made by a client, typically a publisher. The writer is paid a fee, but usually makes no royalties.
ibid, The New Yorker