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Image Credits:Spines.com / Spines Founders, from L-R: Lev David, CMO; Yehuda Niv, CEO; Niv Ovdat, COO; Nir Kenner, CTO under aCC BY 2.0(opens in a new window)license.
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Image Credits:Spines.com / Spines Founders, from L-R: Lev David, CMO; Yehuda Niv, CEO; Niv Ovdat, COO; Nir Kenner, CTO under aCC BY 2.0(opens in a new window)license.
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Generative AI has upended how we write thing , or evenif we publish at all . Now a startup wants to be the main character in the next chapter of that storey : AI that replaces the role of the publisher .
Spinesis a self - issue political program that claims that — thanks to being power by artificial intelligence — it can do all the work of a publisher , and do it faster and cheaper . That undertaking leaning include blue-pencil a piece of writing , providing suggestions to amend it , and giving users a frank projection on who might read the published work ; provide option for cover design and layout ; and deal the finished ware in e - book or print - on - requirement format .
back ’ pitch is that workplace that might have otherwise taken six to 18 months at a traditional publisher can now be completed in two to three week .
“ Our creation is in the process of production , ” said CEO and co - founder Yehuda Niv .
Since launching in 2021 , the Miami - headquartered , Israel - hatch startup says it has published no less than 1,700 Christian Bible and is presently growing revenues at a rate of 1,000 % . Popular titles , it say , include anautobiographyby the ex - con and cult figure Fleece Johnson ; achildren ’s bookwritten by someone who was gunned down as a stripling and is now rebuilding his life in a wheelchair ; and amotivational guideaimed at woman .
vertebral column currently does not have architectural plan to take on the writing itself , although there are plenty of others run on that already .
Now Spines has raise $ 16 million in a Series A round to take its efforts to the next level , which will include audiobooks .
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Zeev Ventures — a venture house founded by Oren Zeev — is conduct Spines ’ Series A , with previous backer Aleph , M - Fund , and LionTree also participating . Prior to this , spur raised a $ 6.5 million seed round in April 2024 . The inauguration is not disclosing its evaluation .
Spines is the inspiration of Niv , who co - founded the business with Lev David ( CMO ) , Niv Ovdat ( COO ) , and Nir Kenner ( CTO ) .
Niv said he first thought of move into publishing when he was still an electric engineering student at Ben - Gurion University . He ’d write a manuscript , he state , but correct the process of slope and publishing it was too hard .
So after leaving university , he decided to stick to his idea and founded his own publishing household , Niv Books . This was his first foray into bringing more technology to bear on the unconscious process of make books . Using degenerate processes — but with people in the intermixture — Niv Books finally was putting out 1,200 titles every year . Those include Niv ’s own “ Silent Thunder , ” available only in Hebrew , plus a number of best seller , he say .
It was then that Niv — thinking about the runaway success and seemingly endless capableness of generative AI — came up with the idea of an all - AI publishing firm .
The construct was initially incubated at Niv Books .
“ But soon I realized this might be large than what Niv Books could ever be , ” he said . “ The chance is immense . Technology is so in advance , and I demand to raise Washington from top investor . This is an American company , not an Israeli one . It ’s a unlike approach . ”
So he incorporated in Delaware and get on with work up his startup .
Niv claimed that after the boom of concern and visibility he got with the seed round in April , he had 12 different “ top grade ” U.S. VCs knocking on his threshold . That came down to four very serious approaches , which he take to Oren Zeev , who had been giving Niv some advice .
Zeev — once a major investor in Audible , the audiobook startup that Amazon eventually acquired — or else offer to lead the investment himself , which he has with a $ 10 million check .
“ Back in 2003 , I see the untapped potential of audiobooks with hearable , long before they became democratic , ” he said in a instruction . “ Today , I see a exchangeable transformative power in Spines to reshape the book publishing industry . ”
There are century , maybe thousands , of digital publishing house and ego - release houses in the market today . Formidably , they let in the likes of Amazon , but we ’re also seeing efforts that compete more directly with Spines by using AI to speed along the publishing operation . They includePublishing.com‘sPublishing.ai , the imaginatively titledAI Book Publisher , andBlurb , not to mention publishing exploit from heavy names in online writing likeWattpadandInkitt .
Niv believe that , for now at least , Spines is different because the full publication experience still can be what he says is “ tens of M of dollars , ” and there is no warrant that you will get a book deal . With Spines , of course , youdoget the bargain , because you are give for the service yourself .
backbone ’ yield plans , Niv said , commence from about $ 1,200 and can go up to $ 5,000 , depending on how many services an author is requesting . drug user are given options for cover illustrations , but more options might come in with higher cost . There is a professional person on the team who gets involved as well , Niv said .
For those who do not relish the idea of full AI publication , there are costlier options that affect humans . There is also a squad of customer success agent . Not to be disconcert with literary agents , these are citizenry who have been prepare , on average for about a month , on the ins and outs of print with Spines .
That seems relatively limpid , although not everything is at Spines .
Nor does this AI startup seem to give authors a lot of insight and analytics into what is actually working and what is not in term of subject matter . The companionship refused to answer my questions about the most popular genre , instead pointing me to the fact that it has describe 16,000 different genres that stories can fit in , and they all have a guesswork . “ There is nothing that is obvious , ” Niv say .
It ’s fairish to wonder if spur is just an employment in efficiency , or if it might fetch a Modern attribute to the world of literature : Take off all the pain in the neck point and a new written Son might emerge . It ’s not clean-cut that publishing , like any originative endeavour , has ever been that clear slice before . But in the meanwhile , spine will be green - lighting writer , and its AI will be advertise more books out into the earth .
