How AI hurts authors

I am not going to enter the discussion about AI in general. Whether it is our future or just another stage which will pass by fleetingly, I have no means of knowing. Maybe it will become an integral part of our lives just like mobile phones with their endless apps to assist us in virtually every routine need we have each day. As some people say, the introduction of the telephone and TV also caused protests and uproar among the population at the time. Or maybe, after the initial overpowering noise, when we are promised to be relieved from the burden of writing texts, searching for information, drawing illustrations – the list seems to be endless – AI will vanish, having left only some traces in its wake. Something we might actually find positive and useful.

The purpose of this post is to share solely one worry I have as an author in connection with the growing influence of AI tools. The opportunities they provide hurt me. And the path of an indie author is stressful enough to add more sources of frustration and annoyance to it.

AI can process huge quantities of information and deliver a succinct summary. It is actually a valuable tool people can use in different situations. We still must learn to find the data we need, sort and analyse it so that the conclusions we draw are based on what we know and not what we are given. Yet, sometimes the information we seek is not that important. We may look for something for fun. For example, we might want to put a quote from some pretty poem about flowers in someone’s happy birthday card. Of course, it is handy to have Google or an AI tool to provide us with relevant options. You won’t go to a library to look for something like this. But if we need the information for work, studies, about health, etc., I doubt that it is wise to count on AI tools to provide it for us.

Since I published my first book four years ago, I’ve received countless offers to help me promote it. I get such messages on social media, in my email, under my posts, everywhere. I understand that indie authors are just another group whom the people offering services view as potential customers, maybe easy targets even. Promoters, real and fake ones, lure us with promises of getting our books in front of thousands of readers. They are sympathetic to our hardships and full of enthusiasm. Sometimes, it is really difficult to say no.

Over the years, I have heard different stories from fellow authors about their experience using such promotion services. Some admitted that it was a complete disaster, and that, along with a certain sum of money, they lost confidence in ever being able to make it as authors. Others said they had some success in terms of selling some books and getting a few reviews. But no one had significant enough results which could serve as a foundation for permanent success.

It used to be innocent enough and, on a good day, totally transparent. These people knew nothing about you and your books. Some did not even read the description on Amazon. They simply inserted the title of your book in italics in the impersonal email text and sent it out. Or, most probably, the email-sending service they use did it for them.

Dozens of almost identical emails with the offer to make you famous. Formulaic, meaningless, dry lines that you know aren’t meant exclusively for you. It was easy to discard them at once upon receipt, delete, and think no more of it.

With its appearance on the stage, AI has changed things. Now, the emails from promoters brim with details from your book. They begin with something like ‘I was captivated by your story’ as if that person has read the book, go on with praising it, revealing the knowledge about the characters and plot, and inevitably end with ‘It is so sad that you have just a few reviews, your wonderful story deserves more.’ And then a bomb in the last paragraph: ‘Let me help you with finding the right readers. As it happens, I have thousands of pals who are passionate readers.’

One author said that a line from such an email – ‘Your book is so brilliant. What a shame it has only fifteen reviews” – has caused an opposite effect from what the promoter surely wanted to achieve. Not only did the author feel zero inclination to write back begging the marketing guru to help him change this horrible unfairness and improve his image, but he was incensed at the contemptuous attitude towards those fifteen reviews. He said that he cherished each one of these fifteen reviews, for they came from people out there who genuinely appreciated his words – and his soul he had put into them.

Paradoxically, AI has given the promoters an opportunity to sound more human in their emails. They still don’t read the books of the authors they approach. They still don’t care. But with the AI at hand, they can generate letters that sound like they do.

AI has many limitations – yet or in general, I am not technically savvy enough to say – but gathering and summarising tons of information is not one of them. It is actually AI’s strong side. With indie authors, it doesn’t have to be especially powerful. I guess it takes seconds to find the information about our books on Amazon and other online retailers, including reader reviews, our bio on our website or social media, and transform it into an email text. And even though most of such letters still sound unnatural, some promoters take time to adapt them to sound more appealing and personal.

That’s where it stops being innocent and becomes harmful.

For authors, to know that their books found the readers who appreciated them is the ultimate fulfilment. It isn’t about fame. It isn’t about money. It is the nature of putting one’s words on the pages and sharing them with the world. Authors do not seek recognition for the sake of the glitter that surrounds the most successful ones. Writing books is our way of communicating our thoughts, emotions, evident and suppressed, our joy, grief, memories – you name it, you can find it in our books. Every time a reader approaches me to say they loved one of my books, a magical garden blossoms in my soul. The sensation is like no other, and its afterglow sustains me for a long time.

So when someone takes the work you put your all into, feeds it into the ‘machine’ and then uses what that ‘machine’ has regurgitated to diddle you out of your money, well, I’ll put it mildly – it is not ok. Moreover, it hurts. It hurts like – mildly again – it hurts very much.

Authors are already expected to deal with so many frustrating things with grace and understanding, that having to deal with people using AI technology as a weapon against us on top of all that feels like some perverse cruelty. Those who stayed on the writing and publishing path for long enough have already learnt to deal with criticism, harsh reviews, changing algorithms on social media, the unpredictable advertising landscape and more. We have accepted that we must take any obstacles in our stride, preferably with a smile on our faces.

Yet, some things we will never accept. Not the fact that AI will keep on diminishing the value of human creativity. It most definitely will, and my only hope is that it will not succeed. More incredible things have happened after all. This hope is feeble, though. I don’t discard the idea that someone might find it profitable to change the direction of AI development. But the way things are going, it looks quite far-fetched.

At the moment, it seems that everyone who is in charge of developing the AI technology aims exclusively at stripping humans of their creative pursuits. Those vacuum-cleaning robots are not perfect yet, you know…? And washing machines and dishwashers would benefit from some enhanced artificial intelligence too… Just saying.

Well, it’s been a long rant, so I’d better finish it. So, the bottom line is this. I am an author. I am a human being. I understand that my books are not everyone’s cup of tea. I accept everyone’s opinion with respect.

But I refuse to accept that it is good and fair to coax people into buying one’s services by using people’s vulnerabilities. We often pour a piece of our hearts into what we write, be it books, reviews or posts like this one. And it is not ok to manipulate authors on an emotional level. It is downright low.

AI does not have a heart. Almost anything in the world is disputable. This isn’t.