How a small Canadian publisher is resisting the AI book wave

How a small Canadian publisher is resisting the AI book wave

Nimbus Publishing's managing editor says the company is putting humans before computers

Did a human write the last book you read?

It's a question you might be asking more often as authors increasingly incorporate artificial intelligence into their work.

But as AI continues to creep into the book world, a Halifax-based publisher is fighting back.

Whitney Moran is the managing editor at Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press. She says the company, which publishes around 50 Atlantic Canadian titles a year, is taking a hard stance against the technology.

“As soon as you start engaging with generative AI to help you even do an outline, I don't feel like the work is yours anymore,” said Moran.

Moran said using AI to write runs counter to Nimbus’s mission to share human stories.

She also said publishers are responsible not only for selling and distributing authors’ words but for protecting their intellectual property too.

“It's so disrespectful to other writers to just kind of mine the information that's out there. If that's the way you're going to go, then we're not the publisher for you.”

Moran said it’s been tricky to navigate the transforming industry, especially without any industrywide standards in place. Nimbus has developed its own AI policy as it waits for more widespread regulation.

The policy says Nimbus "does not condone the use of generative AI in creating text, artwork, editorial or publicity materials."

As the company holds fast in its commitment to humans, some experts are leaning in.

Olivier Blais is the co-founder and chief technology officer at Moov AI, a Quebec-based AI consulting company. He also co-chairs the federal government’s advisory council on artificial intelligence.

Blais says artificial intelligence is an incredible tool that can make the writing process smoother for people such as himself with little experience.

Blais is writing a book about how companies can implement AI into their operations.

A francophone, he said writing the book in English is proving difficult and he's combining his thoughts with AI’s writing capabilities.

“I've written pages and pages and pages of bullet points and the way I'd like it to be structured,” Blais said of his process. "But then I have used generative AI as a way to help write in a language that's a little bit closer to what's in a book.”

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However, he recognizes the long-term impact AI could have on the world of books.

“I think it will be bad for the industry because it will reduce the overall quality of what's being written and published.”

That’s exactly what Paul MacKay is worried about. MacKay manages the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax and stocks the new books section at Trident Booksellers & Cafe, which primarily sells used books.

MacKay thinks readers are already getting tired of seeing AI on the shelf.

“It just seems like we're kind of hitting an inflection point where people have kind of had enough of AI art and AI writing in general.”

Neither store will knowingly sell a book that AI was used to create, said MacKay.

He said it’s not simply about whether AI was used to write the words, or the quality of its work. The technology, he says, also takes jobs away from the many people who work on a book, from editors to fact checkers to cover artists.

MacKay said he received several preorders for Mia Ballard’s novel Shy Girl earlier this year. But after reports that AI was used during its creation, the book’s publisher Hachette Book Group cancelled the release. It's one example of many such controversies.

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“We really need to rely on publishers to be clear about their stance and what they will do for this sort of thing,” said MacKay.

Moran said it's a situation Nimbus has already found itself in. The company also distributes titles for other publishers. It recently found out that a title in its fall 2026 catalogue, a word search book by MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc., used AI to generate and scramble words in some puzzles.

"At this point we're still distributing those titles but we will not be using it for our own titles," said Moran.

As the technology continues to develop and grow in popularity, Nimbus will hold out as long as it can, she said.

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Ben Dornan is a reporter for CBC Nova Scotia based in Halifax. You can get in contact with him via email at ben.dornan@cbc.ca.