Harlequin Rising, Dad Books Falling, and the Automation of the Slush Pile

<p>Unedited is back! After a summer devoted to editorial and book-to-screen conversions, the Inkshares team returns to discuss some of the biggest news and trends in the global story economy in 2026. </p><p>Joined by the ever-insightful Will Gish, we examine Harlequin’s partnership with Dashverse, an AI company, to create “microdramas” inspired by the romance publisher’s vast catalog. But would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet when masticated and regurgitated by an LLM?</p><p>Speaking of AI, some lit agents fear publishers are now using artificial help to sort the slush pile. Besides the privacy concerns, does this reduce fiction to a fraction solvable only by a supercomputer? And on the topic of homework help, what is happening to the books our dads read? Some say podcasts are responsible for the fall of certain strands of nonfiction, but we aren’t so sure. </p><p>Join us and catch the full discussion, out now on all platforms.</p><p><br /></p>