There is an article on the Literary Hub website written by Brittany Allen on May 20, 2026, announcing that Waterstones/Daunt Bookstores will carry books written by AI.

The only Brittany Allen I can find is an active Canadian actress, It seems unlikely that a Canadian actress posts almost daily on Literary Hub.

Brittany say says: “The joke around the proverbial water cooler goes that this is apparently the week all the bigwigs in lit world got together and decided to embrace their own destruction. [Insert sad trombone sound.]

James Daunt

James Daunt, the CEO of Barnes & Noble and the mogul behind Britain’s Waterstone’s and Daunt Books, told NBC this Monday that he theoretically “has no problem” selling books written by AI in his many, many stores.

Speaking to Today host and book club leader Jenna Bush Hager in a segment for NBC News  Daunt confirmed that he has “actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn’t masquerade or pretend to be something that it isn’t.” This was in response to a line of questions about what AI means for human authors.

Taking a neutral tone, Daunt elaborated. “So as long as an AI-written book says it’s AI-written book and doesn’t pretend to be something else and isn’t ripping off somebody else, as long as that’s clearly stated and the customer wants to buy it, then we will stock them…so I think it’s something that one should treat with common sense and acceptance.” [Ed. note: Actually, all AI books are ripping off  somebody else.]

Daunt has previously expressed ambivalence about AI books while deferring responsibility to the consumer. In 2025 he told the BBC, “As a bookseller, we sell what publishers publish, but I can say that instinctively [AI books] are something that we would recoil [from].” But as one hand disparaged the trend, the other was beckoning. Daunt’s capacious strategy has helped turn Barnes & Noble around. When he assumed the helm in 2019, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, but there are now plans to open 60 new locations this year. Under Daunt’s leadership, stores have fostered an indie ethos while turning profits. And the company has even swept in to save struggling local chain.

That such a talented businessman seems to have so little faith in the point of his product certainly rankles this consumer. And as Amber Raiken of The Independent observed, remarks like these tank tghemauthor morale in a moment when many human book-writers are terrified for their livelihoods. (That’s before we even get into the environmental and creative-impulse-killing arguments against this tech—but sleuth around this site for 30 seconds, and you’ll find them.)

It’s dispiriting to see so many powerful, creative people accept this unwished-for technology as inevitable. Especially when we’ve got all the young folks booing its ubiquity. And there’s no longer room to debate the point: we all know large language models steal from authors. That is how they work. We also know authors suffer from loss of work due to generative AI, in implicit and obvious ways. And we know readers aren’t clamoring for these books.”

I think the solution to this problem is to arrange an ‘AI only’ section in the stores. This way they won’t lose any sales which seems to be Mr Daunt’s principle concern. There may be some paint spilled on the AI books, which will be reported in the local and national press. Publicity is always good, right? His response will be to add an AI Security Guard. That will guarantee publicity. Good. Then it will turn out that the cost of the security guard more than offsets the margin from a pile of unsold AI books. What should he do then? Leave the AI sector to Amazon, which doesn’t have problems with paint spillage.