The Quiet Ways Algorithms Are Rewriting Literature

Jan Zucker
Sep 6
3 min read

Your Gatekeeper is Now A Machine

Hey, how was your week? Mine… not so great. We had to send our beloved Golden Montana to the Rainbow Bridge. Thirteen and a half, and just tired. RIP, Pal. ❤️

Now for a rant and a half...

From Bagels to Bots

I’ve been watching this game for fifty years. First, distributors had the power. Now, it’s algorithms. Same playbook, different team.

Back in my New York City distribution days, if your magazine cover wasn’t facing out, it didn’t matter how good it was. It died before it had a chance. Distribution was the hidden power.

But here’s the difference: those distributors were people. They had tempers, blind spots, and favorites. You could argue, charm, or bribe them. I know—I was one. And with enough bagels, a schmear, and some lox, you’d be surprised how far you could get.

That gatekeeping was flawed, but it was human. At least feelings were involved.

Today, the gatekeeper is an algorithm. Cold. Silent. Unmoved. It doesn’t care about your heartbreak or brilliance. It cares about one thing: keeping you scrolling.

So outrage spreads, nuance sinks. Junk food headlines get promoted, real voices get buried. Writers adapt—shorter, louder, safer. And when I ask them why, the answer’s always the same: “I’ll sell more books.”

They won’t. Because without risk, there’s no reward. And the feed doesn’t reward risk.

The Quiet Rewrite

Here’s what keeps me up at night: the algorithm isn’t just recommending books—it’s rewriting literature itself.

Writers anticipate the machine. Publishers optimize for it. Readers consume through it. The result? The slow suffocation of anything that doesn’t serve the algorithm’s hunger.

This isn’t just about what we read. It’s about what even gets written in the first place. Once the feed shapes the page, culture stops belonging to us.

The Plea

Writers: Stop pandering to the machine. It doesn’t see you—and it never will.
Publishers: Don’t hide behind “the algorithm made me do it.” You used to build culture. Do it again.
Readers: Put down your phone for an hour. Walk into a bookstore (ideally not a chain). Trip over a book no one recommended. That accident could change your life—or someone else’s, if you pass it on.

If we don’t resist, we’re not just letting algorithms choose what we consume—we’re letting them dictate what we create.

The Close

I know what it means to be a gatekeeper. I’ve been one. But this new gatekeeper isn’t human. You can’t argue with it. You can’t bribe it with bagels. It doesn’t care.

That’s why we need our own spaces—places where meaning beats metrics. I’m opening two of them:

Office Hours – Every Friday. Unscripted, no noise, just real talk.
Roundtable Series – A LinkedIn Intervention: The Game Nobody Wins (But Everyone Plays). A 3-part series with LinkedIn experts.

Check the roundtable page for the next session. Join us. Because if we don’t reclaim this ourselves, the machines will own it.

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