Me and AI

Questioning a Relationship

I think I probably began hating AI when every business phone number I dialed began to force me to jump through a torturous set of hoops that always made it seem they just wanted me to hang up and not bother them, particularly if my issue did not fit their list of options. Now this was early days when we were having to put strings of letters in using the NUMBERS on the phone keypad for any letters, i.e . 3=D,E, or F. Heaven forbid you missed one and had to start over from the beginning.

I notice there are slight improvements in a FEW systems these days, where you can SAY the numbers or letters or answer with your voice. Of course the methods and quality among the different systems still varies greatly, and yes, I find myself cussing the voice on the other end of the line…you know, the one that will say,”I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Goodbye.”

Now for me, having been a publisher for decades, and as writer myself for even longer, I wasn’t having any AI issues in my writing or editing work. I did do research online sometimes to check or verify something I was editing, but all the reports involving students having AI write their papers or the proliferation of bots on social media were not yet in the news.

My anger grew as the “get rich quick” publishing programs proliferated, promising that if you’d just give them $5,000 dollars, they would show you how to make thousands of dollars monthly by publishing and selling books on Amazon. It was simple: basically you picked a popular subject (AI could give you a list of the best selling topics). Then you would tell AI to write you a short book on that subject, maybe 30,000 words. Then just ask AI to make you an appropriate cover and you could upload your new book to Amazon. No need to read or edit what AI gives you nor have any concerns about the cover design. Just upload and start selling! You can easily “write and publish” 10 or even 20 books a day! The money will start rolling in!

Well it took Amazon a while to catch on. I guess when the number of new titles published MONTHLY across the industry suddenly became 350,000+ , Amazon began to notice the sudden proliferation of multiple books by individuals being uploaded daily. So they decided to limit the uploads to ONLY 2 per day. I notice now you have to say if there is AI involved. (I’m not sure what they do with that info, maybe they have people who spot check a few titles?)

So as our imprint print sales began to slow, and even eBook sales numbers started to drop, we began considering republishing some of our audio books. We had a Pronghorn Press Audio site many years ago, but we were ahead of our time and eventually dropped it.

Two years ago, I was looking for narrators and having a few books and stories recorded. The AI voices available at the time were very robotic, so our live human narrators did some wonderful work for us.

Fast forward to today when multiple AI voices are available, some free if you use them with certain programs or with Amazon. (I have yet to try these so I don’t know if the AI voices have inflections or changes for different characters. I suspect it would just be like some reading to you?)

Now, if you want your book translated, voice or text, to another language? No problem, AI is on it. And yet how would I know if the translation is correct without being fluent myself or hiring someone to read it who is? Or is that maybe something I shouldn’t care about, no matter how much I want to publish quality work?

So here is the problem I am dealing with today, both personally and professionally: I love to write, both fiction and nonsense verse for children (and adults with a sense of humor!) I have published 3 children’s books, one on noses, one on jungle animals, both of which I illustrated, and a sweet Christmas story that a friend illustrated for me. My problem is that while I rarely have time to write these days I do have at least 7 children’s books finished, all needing illustrations that I don’t have time to do. So should I revise my relationship with AI from my perception of the monster devouring every aspect of my livelihood, make friends and see if I can coerce it to give me illustrations for those books?

I admit I tried a few free samples from some programs and have been pleased with most of them. I know there would be a learning curve and a financial one, as well, but it seems like a reasonable solution. I will also be happy to acknowledge my interest in and appreciation for some of the amazing work of designers I find on Facebook reels in their videos, and while it would be great fun to be able to do those sorts of things, my ambitions are much more modest.

So that’s where I find myself, pondering abandoning my resentment for the very thing that has diluted my ability to make a living. Nonetheless I may be ready to turn the other cheek and forge ahead.

Will keep you posted!