{"slug": "generative-ai-floods-and-dilutes-the-market-for-books", "title": "Generative AI floods and dilutes the market for books", "summary": "A study of 14,419 self-published genre-fiction books on Amazon from 2023 to 2026 found that books with substantial AI-generated text (over 25%) now dominate the catalog and are capturing a growing share of sales and top-rank positions, even as overall revenue per selling book declines. The number of books with observed sales grew 19.2-fold while quarterly revenue grew only 8.9-fold, indicating that generative AI is reshaping the market through scale rather than quality, according to researchers at arXiv.", "body_md": "# Computer Science > Computation and Language\n\n[Submitted on 22 Jul 2026]\n\n# Title:Generative AI floods and dilutes the market for books\n\n[View PDF](/pdf/2607.20349)\n\n[HTML (experimental)](https://arxiv.org/html/2607.20349v1)\n\nAbstract:Generative AI can produce book-length works of fiction at near-zero cost. These books are often dismissed as low-quality ``slop'' that buyers will ignore, and are assumed to carry little commercial weight. We test that assumption with full-text AI detection across 14,419 self-published genre-fiction books sold on Amazon from 2023 to 2026, matched to daily sales records through June 2026. None of these books disclose whether or not they contain AI-produced content. We find that books for which we detected substantial AI text ($>$ 25\\%) make up a large share of the catalog but a smaller share of sales. Even so, they reach commercial scale, winning a growing share of sales over time and taking more of the scarce top-rank positions once held by books with no detected AI text. Over this period, the number of books with observed sales in a quarter grew 19.2-fold, while quarterly revenue grew only 8.9-fold. The market therefore added selling books faster than it added revenue, and revenue per selling book fell across most genres. Books with no AI text lose the most ground in genres with high AI diffusion, and most of all where Kindle Unlimited availability is high. Among top-selling books, those with substantial AI text draw on more distinctive language from existing books than do books with no AI text; for these books overlap rises with revenue, a gradient we do not detect for books with no AI text. Generative AI can thus reshape a creative market through scale rather than quality. Our results bear directly on the market-effect question at the center of the fair use defense to copyright infringement.\n\n## Submission history\n\nFrom: Tuhin Chakrabarty Mr [[view email](/show-email/712ac618/2607.20349)]\n\n**[v1]** Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:33:20 UTC (2,284 KB)\n\n### Current browse context:\n\ncs.CL\n\n### References & Citations\n\nLoading...\n\n# Bibliographic and Citation Tools\n\nBibliographic Explorer\n\n*(*[What is the Explorer?](https://info.arxiv.org/labs/showcase.html#arxiv-bibliographic-explorer))\nConnected Papers\n\n*(*[What is Connected Papers?](https://www.connectedpapers.com/about))\nLitmaps\n\n*(*[What is Litmaps?](https://www.litmaps.co/))\nscite Smart Citations\n\n*(*[What are Smart Citations?](https://www.scite.ai/))# Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article\n\nalphaXiv\n\n*(*[What is alphaXiv?](https://alphaxiv.org/))\nCatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers\n\n*(*[What is CatalyzeX?](https://www.catalyzex.com))\nDagsHub\n\n*(*[What is DagsHub?](https://dagshub.com/))\nGotit.pub\n\n*(*[What is GotitPub?](http://gotit.pub/faq))\nHugging Face\n\n*(*[What is Huggingface?](https://huggingface.co/huggingface))\nScienceCast\n\n*(*[What is ScienceCast?](https://sciencecast.org/welcome))# Demos\n\n# Recommenders and Search Tools\n\nInfluence Flower\n\n*(*[What are Influence Flowers?](https://influencemap.cmlab.dev/))\nCORE Recommender\n\n*(*[What is CORE?](https://core.ac.uk/services/recommender))# arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators\n\narXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.\n\nBoth individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.\n\nHave an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? [ Learn more about arXivLabs](https://info.arxiv.org/labs/index.html).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-floods-and-dilutes-the-market-for-books", "canonical_source": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.20349", "published_at": "2026-07-23 11:07:06+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-23 11:22:26.797457+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai", "ai-products", "ai-research"], "entities": ["Amazon", "arXiv"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-floods-and-dilutes-the-market-for-books", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-floods-and-dilutes-the-market-for-books.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-floods-and-dilutes-the-market-for-books.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-floods-and-dilutes-the-market-for-books.jsonld"}}