The bot-enable author website
Winkletter • 17 May 2025 •
What does a website become when you have an LLM that can dream a new page or feature from scratch? With all the code gen tools on the market now, we’re seeing something that approaches this new paradigm, but we’re still in the “horseless carriage” mindset, and haven’t transitioned into the automobile era.
Imagine I’m a writer with a book to sell. If I have a website that is being fully managed by an AI-enabled bot, I can do a lot more than generate the simple author website we normally see online.
- Public pages: The bot reads your book and builds a static website. But then it starts working with the writer as if it were a full-time professional designer, suggesting and implementing new features. And you don’t just add new features, you A/B test them with the bot monitoring the conversion rate.
- Community pages: Part of what the bot builds is a hub for fans–ways for them to interact with the writer and each other. Some of these features might be suggested by the community, but they get approval first by the writer.
- Personal pages: The system develops integrated tools for the writer to use to manage book ideas, writing sessions, book launches, and fan contact. Example, a pomodoro timer also tracks word counts towards writing projects. This data feeds into a word count tracker on the public pages. Visitors can hit a “cheer” button every time the word count goes up, and the writer sees some sort of feedback. 🎊
And since the tool is being used by other writers, there can be some aggregate data to assist in the process. The bot becomes a career coach as well.
“In dark fantasy, character interviews outperform plot summaries by 17%. Want to try a villain-led pitch?”
That being said, I’m afraid to explore what the writer’s “book” becomes in this new-fangled AI age we’re living in. I’m going to draw the line there and just say, “The writer still has a book to sell, and readers still want to buy them.” 😅
Comments
That would be the system aggregating data from various A/B tests. Most authors pitch their books with a basic plot summary, but others could pitch the book on the website with a short “character interview” to give the potential readers a taste of the character’s voice.
I did later think about what the book might become, and I don’t think it’s too dire. People are still going to want basic books. And while the line between reader and writer starts to dissolve, I think we’re going to see a lot of innovative products that expand our storytelling potential.
For example, let’s say I create a story world powered by AI. Readers can get a daily story about a character they alone follow. Their characters occasionally interact in the stories, and they might have some limited ability to influence what happens in the next daily installment, but only if they read. If they skip a month and come back they get a summary of what the character did in the meantime. It’s like an RPG without having to mash buttons. You just read. And the writer is more like a game designer.
I think we’re going to see a lot of different ideas that expand stories beyond the book. But people still want books to put in the background for their Zoom calls.
@Winkletter The last describes me! 🤣
But as I was reading your description I thought maybe we don’t need to have a shared experience reading the same book. We can have discussions about what characters we’re following and what we enjoy about the virtual world we inhabit with other readers.
What do you mean by “character interviews outperform plot summaries by 17%”? Do authors make their character interviews public?
I don’t know where I read, but the prospect of AI generating custom books and movies based on reader/viewer preferences will rob us of the experience of having shared experiences we can discuss. That’s a concern with the book no longer being a book. 😅