By Dave Harris

Is there is a danger that LLMs (or other AI) will create an “uber-textbook” using the work of individual authors, basically stealing the best of all the individual work of scholars for profit, while paying the authors nothing? This question came up in the November 6, 2024 TAA Conversation Circle on royalties, and I wanted to touch on it again, after writing a related piece this past spring.

The previous piece argued (1) that current AI is too limited to do good intellectual work, and, (2) regardless of the capability of AI, that it’s important to take one’s own interests, desires, and personal experience into account because writing and research are personally uplifting positive experiences worth having, even if you’re not necessarily selling your work.

Now, I move away from the question of AI to the question of what could qualify as an uber-textbook: even if there were an AI that is much smarter than any human, could it write an “uber-textbook” and what would such a book be like. Below, I argue that there will never be an uber-textbook.

I start with abstract philosophical considerations, but the real focus here is on identifying what makes your work special, especially in contrast to market competitors, and using that in writing a book proposal and book that you can sell to a publisher.

Uber-textbook

Can there be an uber-textbook? One textbook better than all others? One textbook to rule them all (forgive me, JRR Tolkien)? My answer: no, there cannot. There will always be debate about which textbook is best, which creates an opportunity for every scholar/teacher/writer.

What makes a textbook good?

There are many criteria by which we judge a textbook, including content, pedagogy, writing, and suitability for specific audiences.

One criterion is that a good text has the most up-to-date research. The newest research tends to be controversial, however, so it might be hard to find consensus on what new research qualifies to be included in a textbook (which is a question that is dependent on defining an audience, too).

Another criterion for a good textbook is the use of a good pedagogical approach, including choice of material. Of course, pedagogical approaches are controversial.

Another criterion is that a good textbook has a good market and reaches a good audience.  This criterion presents the author with a question that has no clear answer: do you choose to write for a larger, more general audience, or do you write for a smaller audience, allowing greater precision in targeting the material and presentation? Is it written to get a small proportion of a large audience or a large proportion of a small audience?

An author faces a multitude of complex choices in writing a textbook, and all of these choices are potentially controversial. As a result, people are going to disagree on whether any specific text is good. Indeed, an uber-textbook is clear example of an “essentially contested concept”—a concept on which there will never be universal agreement.

Essentially Contested Concepts

In 1958, W.B. Gallie, a philosopher, argued that some concepts will always be debatable— they are “essentially contested”. Gallie wrote: “there are disputes,…which, although not resolvable by argument of any kind, are nevertheless sustained by perfectly respectable arguments and evidence,” and:

In order to count as essentially contested,… a concept must possess the four following characteristics: (I) it must be appraisive in the sense that it signifies or accredits some kind of valued achievement. (II) This achievement must be of an internally complex character, for all that its worth is attributed to it as a whole. (III) Any explanation of its worth must therefore include reference to the respective contributions of its various parts or features; yet prior to experimentation there is nothing absurd or contradictory in any one of a number of possible rival descriptions of its total worth, one such description setting its component parts or features in one order of importance, a second setting them in a second order, and so on. In fine, the accredited achievement is initially variously describable. (IV) The accredited achievement must be of a kind that admits of considerable modification in the light of changing circumstances; and such modification cannot be prescribed or predicted in advance.

The idea of an uber-textbook meets these criteria because: (I) it is inherently appraisive because to be “best,” each text is judged/appraised in comparison to others; (II) it is internally complex, as discussed above, and we cannot say clearly whether one criterion is more important than other—for example, whether pedagogical approach or content is of greater importance; (III) any explanation of its worth depends on reference to various parts; and (IV) it admits considerable modification, given the continued advance of science and research, which can’t be predicted.

Basically, any textbook that is good enough to be considered “best of all” will naturally have aspects on which people disagree. Therefore, if you want to write a text book, there will always be an opportunity to write one that is distinct from anything on the market in ways that can justify preferring your text to any other. (A separate concern is the possibility that a market might be flooded with AI-generated textbooks, but that’s for another essay, perhaps).

Publication and competition

The preceding philosophical discussion has a practical end in mind: writing and publishing your textbook. Thinking about the different characteristics of your textbook, especially the points on which its value might be contested, will help in writing both a book proposal and a book itself. And, to identify what makes your book good, it is very useful to look at your potential competition: what would make someone want to buy your textbook instead of the ones already available?

For most writers, a textbook (or other book) grows out of a sense that other texts are lacking in some way, but this motivating intuition is not always kept in focus when trying to write. I’ve worked with many writers who were motivated by the sense their book was new and special, but who had given little or no thought to clearly identifying their competitors or how to explain why their book is different from, and better than, others books that have already been published for the same market.

There is, I think, a common idea that a book depends on the writer’s internal vision of what is good and what isn’t. Without question, a writer’s personal vision of what the book is crucial to writing. But writing a book is so complex that even a writer with a pretty clear focus on what they want to write will struggle with having too many ideas. A good way to clarify goals for a book, and thus make it easier to bring to completion, is to try writing a book proposal, especially the market/competition section, which asks the author to explain what makes their book special, for whom it is special, and why it is better than the competitors.

Attempting to describe a book in comparison to potential competitors helps bring into clear focus the features that you would do differently (and better) than other authors.

Considerations mentioned above—novel material, novel pedagogy, and novel choice of audience—are among those that will help a book proposal be more compelling, and will help you focus on features that you want your book to include so that it stands out from the competition and can be effectively marketed.

Because publication is so competitive, often the question is not how good a book is in the abstract, but how it does compared to a competitor.  Getting a book published is shaped by the competitive aspect more than a lot of other writing: a publisher is choosing books from among many submissions. Writing a doctoral dissertation or a journal article for many journals is more about achieving a certain level of quality, beyond which your work is good enough.  By analogy, a sprinter needs to meet an objective goal to qualify to run in the Olympics, but to win at the Olympics, you only need to be faster than your competitors (even if you’re slower than the qualifying standard).  Knowing what makes your work better than other works, and being able to explain that superiority is key for selling your book to a publisher, for selling that book, and also for writing the book.

It’s unlikely you’re setting out to write a book thinking that you have nothing good to offer. You can help yourself by explicitly understanding what strengths you bring to your work—not only can you invest your energy into aspects that will help you most in the market, but you’ll also feel emotionally supported by being clear about what you have to offer.

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Dave Harris, Ph.D., editor, writing coach, and dissertation coach, helps writers develop effective writing practices, express their ideas clearly, and finish their projects. He is author of Getting the Best of Your Dissertation (Thought Clearing, 2015), Literature Review and Research Design: A Guide to Effective Research Practice (Routledge, 2020) and second author with Jean-Pierre Protzen of The Universe of Design: Horst Rittel’s Theories of Design and Planning (Routledge, 2010).Dave can be found on the web at www.thoughtclearing.com