HarperCollins is turning authors’ books into AI YouTube Shorts

Oh sorry, children’s advocacy orgs and experts, you wanted YouTube to have less AI-generated content aimed at kids? HarperCollins plans to add to the pile.

The Big Five publisher has signed a multiyear deal with Toonstar, which describes itself as an “AI-powered” studio built by “a nimble team of creators, builders and technologists hailing from Disney, Warner Bros. + Dreamworks.” (That DreamWorks misformatting is theirs, not ours.)

The goal of their deal is to churn some of HarperCollins’ top-selling titles into animated franchises intended specifically for release on YouTube.

Their slate will launch with content based on Lisa Greenwald‘s middle-grade series Friendship List. HarperCollins wouldn’t tell Publishers Weekly when the series is expected to debut, but did say episodes will be between two and ten minutes long, and added that as the series drops on YouTube, it plans to publish an accompanying graphic novel through its arm HarperAlley.

It described the process with Toonstar as “creator-led,” and a spokesperson told PW that authors “will be consulted and receive royalties.” Presumably “consulted” means authors will have to give permission before their works can be Toonstar’d, but we don’t know what sort of AI allowances are wrapped into authors’ contracts.

Toonstar’s co-founder and CEO John Attanasio promises the company takes an “artist-centered approach” that “ensures these beloved characters and stories stay true to the author’s vision.”

As PW reports, Toonstar hires human artists, then puts their work through its AI system, called Ink & Pixel

. That tech “enables fast, high-quality production at scale which unlocks the ability to meet audiences where and when they enjoy content today,” Attanasio said in a statement.

“HarperCollins has always embraced innovation that serves our authors and readers by finding new ways to bring great stories to readers wherever they are,” Liate Stehlik, HarperCollins’ CEO and Publisher of U.S. Trade, said in a statement. “Toonstar’s proven ability to translate beloved stories into engaging animation, while keeping artists at the center of the process, makes them the ideal partner to bring Friendship List and other popular titles to new audiences in formats today’s families love.”

It’s not surprising HarperCollins is taking this route. It was, after all, the first of the Big Five publishers to embrace AI: Back in 2024, it signed a deal to hand over select nonfiction books to AI companies for training their LLMs. Authors received $2,500 per book from that agreement.

HarperCollins’ romance division, Harlequin, also just established a similar partnership with short-form AI animation company Dashverse. PW reports that some authors whose titles were selected for adaptation under that deal said they hadn’t been notified in advance.

As for why HarperCollins picked YouTube as the home for its AI adaptations, that’s also not hard to understand. Google is very into AI, and YouTube is one of the top distributors of short-form content on the net–especially when it comes to TVs.