Zuid-Holland publisher floods Dutch market with 2,000 undisclosed AI books
A company in Zuid-Holland has produced more than 2,000 non-fiction books using artificial intelligence, turning out about 10 titles a day, yet most major online bookstores in the Netherlands have not disclosed that the works are AI-generated, the Auteursbond authors’ union said.
Andries B.V., based in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, sells the books through print-on-demand with no inventory, Trouw reported. They typically cost 16.95 euros and have been offered since mid-2025 on platforms including Bol.com, Libris, Bruna, Boekenwereld, AthenaeumScheltema in Amsterdam, and Van der Velde in Noordoost-Nederland.
The number of Andries B.V. titles available ranges from 758 to 1,440 on the last two sites. Only Bol.com clearly labels the books “AI-gegenereerd.” Shoppers on the other sites are not informed of the books’ origins.
Noor van der Heijden from the Auteursbond, an authors’ and screenwriters’ union, called the scale unprecedented and alarming. “I know of a few providers who have made dozens of AI books, but one producer of thousands of those books—that is unprecedented. And alarming for the consumer, who does not know what he is buying. And for writers. Because the AI models are trained with illegally obtained, copyrighted material. The AI bookmaker is now competing with the robbed writers, having stolen their texts. We as the Auteursbond are against that,” she told Trouw.
The company also sells sandpaper, printed wristbands, zippers, and operates an online department store. Andries Herremans, identified by the Chamber of Commerce as the person behind Andries B.V., confirmed the books are AI-made. He answered Trouw's questions in writing.
“Our textbooks are made by AI,” Herremans told Trouw. AI itself selects the subjects, which he described as “quite niche.” That leads to “books that no Dutch publisher would easily venture into, because there is simply hardly any target group for them. Everything about one dog breed, one city, one hobby, or, for example, a philosophical movement.”
Many titles begin with “Alles over …” and cover topics such as making your own compost, Nietzsche, Tajikistan, taxidermy, art deco, and electricity.
The firm released a book titled “Hoe schrijf ik een boek,” offering tips on overcoming writer’s block. Herremans said “a team of different AI models works on it — a topic generator, writer, editor, designer, reviewers. Each with their own task and specialty, whereby they check each other.”
Humans “look sharply along and steer this process,” he added, but “we do not have a human expert who looks along substantively per title.” The information comes from “the general knowledge that the AI models have.”
Herremans said the company informed bookstores of the AI involvement and that its newest titles include an AI mention within the book itself.
Van der Heijden added, "The platforms should at least provide clear information: this book is made by AI." “We are going to address them about that.”
After Trouw inquired, AthenaeumScheltema.nl abeled all Andries B.V. books as “AI-gegenereerd” within one hour.
Audax, the parent company of Readshop and Bruna, said it would add the same label to its entire active assortment of Andries B.V. books this week. De Slegte immediately added supplementary text to the titles.
