Romance authors busted using AI expose alarming trend in publishing

Indianapolis Star

9 hours ago

When I open a book, I expect every word to be produced by a human.
Why shouldn't I? Humans have written literary masterpieces without machines for hundreds of years. There is more than enough evidence to prove it is possible.
However, the literary landscape has changed since then. Reading in genres like self-published romance and fantasy, often called romantasy, has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity, thanks to social media platforms like TikTok and its BookTok community.
But with the rise of AI and its abilities in writing, it seems some people are drawn to the quickest shortcut.
As a hopeful novelist myself, I followed the story of two self-published authors of romantic fiction who were caught using AI in their novels. Readers didn't have to dig far to see the proof ― it might as well have been broadcast in bright, bold letters.
Fans of the romantasy series "Darkhollow Academy: Year One" by Lena McDonald were excited for the second installment of the series, but a passage in chapter three of "Darkhollow Academy: Year Two" gave them pause:
"I've rewritten the passage to align more with J. Bree's style, which features more tension, gritty undertones, and raw emotional subtext beneath the supernatural elements."
For anyone who has used generative AI tools like ChatGPT, there is no doubt this is an AI response to a prompt McDonald used to enhance her writing. What's worse is that she chose a specific, successful author to mimic. Bree is the international bestseller of paranormal romance series "The Bonds that Tie."
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If I were Bree, I would feel incredibly cheated knowing that other authors were using the work I spent countless hours on to refine their own writing.
In an apology that is no longer visible on her Amazon author page, McDonald admits to using AI as an editing tool:
"As a full-time teacher and mom, I simply can't afford a professional editor, and I turned to AI as a tool to help refine my writing...I'm taking this seriously and will be reviewing the book carefully, making corrections where needed, and being more transparent in the future about my process."
Those who keep up with BookTok controversies will recognize this broad and nonspecific apology style. What does "making corrections" even mean? Getting rid of the AI involvement, or hiding the evidence of it better?
The next author is K.C. Crowne, author of a mafia romance novel ― a type of story in which the main character, most often a woman, is either a member of a mafia family or gets involved with a dark and mysterious mafia man who is, of course, alluringly dangerous. "Dark Obsession" also includes an AI response in the middle of a high-tension scene:
"Certainly! Here's an enhanced version of your passage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori. Changes are highlighted in bold for clarity."
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Due to overwhelming negative reviews, Crowne had no choice but to apologize in an email to Futurism, a technology-focused online publication. However, she follows the same style as McDonald, with an almost noncommittal tone:
"I made an honest mistake. I accidentally uploaded the wrong draft file, which included an AI prompt. That error was entirely my responsibility, and that's why I made the tough decision to address it publicly," Crowne wrote in the email.
Readers were upset at the prompt in the novel, sure, but the bigger issue is that Crowne used AI in the first place. She takes accountability for the editing mistake, not the use of AI.
There is so much I could try to unpack about why some authors choose to use AI, but there is so much that I don't understand.
In a survey recently conducted by the online industry publication BookBub, 45% of 1,200 surveyed authors are currently using AI in their process, at least for marketing and administrative tasks, but over 25% said they do include AI in the writing process. Around 69% of respondents said they are self-published.
Jennifer Lewy, an author who proudly uses AI, participated in an interview in which she described how she used the technology to write. But I could solve each problem Lewy cited with something completely human.
Need prompts for where the story could go next? There are hundreds of blogs out there created by humans who need engagement. Need to review a paragraph for clarity or intrigue? Ask your friends, they would be happy to help, and could offer intelligent insight.
These methods encourage human connection and support for small creators, all without AI's devastating impact on the environment.
I believe authors are turning to AI because they don't want to think.
Writing a novel takes a lot of tedious work, like researching logistics to make sure magical elements like the main character's powers hold up in an author's fantasy world, getting hung up on crafting the best plot twist and more challenges that add up to hundreds of hours of work. It seems that some writers don't like to spend hours creating the backdrop for a fantastical landscape they will only use in one scene.
But where would the gratification be if this work could be done in one hour instead of 15? The process is important to me, even if I'm stuck at my desk for hours pulling my hair out over tiny details, like figuring out what kind of food my fantasy characters would eat.
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If I let AI do the work for me, I would lose the satisfaction of connecting all of the red string on the corkboard and seeing the pieces come together. I would lose the pride I have in my work, knowing that I had to have a robot mindlessly generate ideas instead of naming characters myself or playing with word choice or connecting with a friend and talking for hours.
I would lose the part of writing that makes me a better writer.
It seems impossible that authors using AI won't stagnate. Without those grueling hours of creative thinking, plots will turn towards cliches and become even more predictable, spelling a downturn in quality.
I believe having artificial intelligence think for them means that these authors will stop growing and improving.
These AI-generated and assisted stories will learn from each other, and cycle out the same narrative with different titles. It will get itself stuck in an endless loop of poor quality and low creativity until reading loses its popularity again.
When I eventually publish a book, there is a high chance that some form of AI will steal it. This leaves me with two options: unwillingly become a part of a system that I despise, or never follow my long time-publishing dreams. Ten-year-old me would be devastated if robots got the chance to be bestsellers before she did.
This terrifies me. If soulless AI writing becomes the standard, there is no way that my work will ever stand a chance.
As a reader, I crave unique magic and diverse characters. If AI sticks to the script of what's popular, both could disappear entirely.
Others may see AI as the future, a new tool to revolutionize the writing world. I see the space I've built out of the special books that have changed my life falling to pieces.