I have been galavanting around and it is so nice to just be at home. It was a long weekend. Conflux had been cancelled so no SF convention to attend but we filled up the time nicely. Now it is my retirement Tuesday and I am determined to rebuild my routine. I’ve been for a walk. Albeit an hour and half later than I had planned. I blame that on the start of daylight savings. The first week always plays havoc.
On Saturday morning, I did a recording of a sample of The Founders’ Legacy with the Narratives Library, met with the romance writers at Tilley’s and then went to the Shadows Awards on Saturday night. The driving was hazaradous due to deluge of rain. I was in fear of my life.
We hosted a writing day on Sunday, which was lovely. I eked out 1000 words, rewriting a chapter start in my current WIP. Amethyst Way! It was good to reconnect with the story as I’ve been busy and I haven’t been near it. During the preceding week, after the Books and Beyond event in Ourimbah, I went as far as South West Rocks with my sister to visit my aunty and stayed a couple of nights. I spent two nights in Springwood before driving home on Friday. This morning, I’m proud to say I have tinkered with my manuscript somewhat adding nearly another 1000 words and I’m not done yet. I can’t say I’m flying on with it as I’m still reconnecting to it but I should get there. I also found my missing books that I was reading in Singapore just now.
Monday we had visitors and went visiting.
We are still in the process of reclaiming the house. I managed to move a few boxes elsewhere instead of on the couch this morning and I’m doing the laundry while trying to write and think. Such a glamorous life us authors lead.
Speaking of authors’ lives, well it is getting harder. I was looking at some statistics recently. When Rayessa and the Space Pirates was published by Escape Publishing in 2013 there were around 1.5 million ISBN registrations. This under estimates the amount of books published because you do not need an ISBN to publish on Kindle for example. This year I believe the figure is over 2.5 million ISBN registrations. The amount of books a reader has to choose from has nearly doubled. There is so much competition. And adding in AI to the mix, well a lot of AI slop to wade through.
I find it so hard sometimes to keep going and I know a few fellow authors that are rethinking what they want to do and whether it is worth continuing. Returns a low. I use what I earn to reinvest in book production. I’m no longer working so there will come a time where I have no money to invest anymore. World economics impact book sales. Global uncertainty upsets the apple cart too. And just a general sense of dread means people find it hard to engage with things, streaming, movies, books, games etc. The reverse is also true that these challenges make seeking escape through fiction and streaming more likely. I really can’t do high stress fiction or streaming as it makes me anxious.
What is interesting is some of the changes that have been happening. Recently Amazon announced that KDP account holders were limited to upload two books at day. I am supposing this is in response to people uploading their 5000 AI written books to Amazon. Even uploading two books is a bit hard to imagine unless they were preorders for books yet unwritten.
Earlier this year, Draft2Digital, an ebook aggregator that manages books across a lot of different platforms started charging for their servces because of bad actors trying to upload a multitude of books. More likely, AI sloop again. I have heard many short fiction SF genre magazines complain they are inundated with AI written stories seriously impacting their ability to operate submissions.
I get that some authors think using AI helps them write a story. I don’t agree with it, but I can see into their thinking.
But these other people, who are using story prompts or copies or whatever it is they are doing to create a lot of books at once and uploading them, are just trying to scam the system, make money off trash and have no interest in entertaining readers.
The way social media is working these days, people get paid for engagement. (Waves hand, I don’t!). It’s not real but it’s there. I had a recent experience on You Tube while I was in Singapore. I wanted to watch the anniversary parade and I found some footage. It was before the parade started, which I didn’t know and there were a few hundred people watching. I was watching this footage, amazed at these elaborate floats and lots of military personnel marching etc. I texted my son, saying there was some amazing floats. The footage stopped often for ads. When he wrote back to say it hadn’t started, I reaslied slowly that I was watching AI, a creation that had no bearing on reality.
I was wondering why and then realised it was for the ad revenue. I also googled up this and saw that anything with Festival in its name was bogus. I watched the actual page from the Singapore network’s page and that fake footage really had been bogus. The real parade was nothing so fantastic as the floats on the fake channel. I was left feeling rather dirty as if I had been robbed. I had generated ad revenue for some jerks. Really, really annoying and disgusting.
It is really horrible that these days people use AI just to make money for doing nothing. Any footage I see on social media has to be immediately questioned. Also, you would have seen that people put together AI images of the Nepal floods just to make money off that awful, awful tragedy.
For me telling a story is a Human to Human thing. When I read and fall in love with a series I make a connection to the writers’ ideas, to them as a person. I might even go see them at a convention or a signing and tell them how much I love their work, their world building, their characters.
AI is not Human to Human. It is stolen knowledge and talent fed to unsuspecting humans as real, which it is not. It is real as it is concrete. But it is not real Human creation.
Bottom line is, feel sorry for us poor writers. We are here waving our books saying read me, in a dense jungle of other writers who are doing the same and now we are in quicksand, drowning in fake stories written by AI.
If you do like an author’s work. Reach out and tell them. Leave a rating or a review. Comment on their social media, their blogs, anything because I am telling you it is very hard right now and very isolating. I want to keep writing. I have so many ideas but writing is hard work.
Giving AI a few story prompts is not writing. Writing a novel is a complex thing, requiring deep thinking, creativity and stamina. It is not easy to sit there day after day until the story is done with you and even harder to go back and revise, refine and sculpt a story. You need to thresh out character and situations, stick within the limitations of your world rules and generate a strong, emotionally engaging ending. That sometimes takes years but often not, but it does take time and use a lot of mental energy.
People who think they can do that with AI are shiesters!
I do not use AI to write my books. I don’t even use editing programs. (I tried but got rid it). I have Human editors and proofreaders.
Anyway, I will climb off my podium right now.
Next year I am planning to scale back on my in person events. Although I will do some that are close to home. I will try to work out how to market ebooks, which I do not do well.
On Saturday I’ll be at ‘Once Upon a Fairytale’ at The Cube in Campbelltown, dressed in full fairy god grandmother mode. There will be photos. I don’t think there are tickets left though.
I’ll be in Goulburn for the Steampunk Festival, the following weekend, and Books in Sight the following weekend after thatin Canberra. I will be done.
Then I can settle down until Cancon in January 2027.
Man this year has rocketed by.
To End I shall put in the cover of my WIP. There be adventures in the Fae Lands.
