#developmental editing AI

[sonshinegreene]

AI: Pandora's Box for Authors, or an Unexpected Ally? Navigating the Fear and Finding the Opportunity

Hey y’all, Sumo Sized Ginger here. Let’s talk about the giant, algorithm-powered elephant in the room: Artificial Intelligence. If you’re a writer, author, or any kind of content creator, chances are you’ve got some strong feelings about it. And frankly, you have every right to. The Elephant: Training Data and the Feeling of Invasion I want to tackle the big issue head-on. The way many AI…

[rozmorris]

Can AI replace developmental editors? I think not

Why would I open this can of worms? AI must be the most polarising subject in the arts world at the moment. Because I recently had an email from a software developer who’s working on an AI tool to provide writers with some of the functions of a developmental editor. She wanted to hire me as a consultant to help her develop the tool. First I wondered if she’d heard the saying about turkeys voting…

[hetchdrive]

Writer Seeking Editing Work

Hi, all. I've been writing fanfiction for 15+ years and for the past year or so been branching out into original fiction. Unfortunately, the recent political climate has significantly impacted my day job and I have no income. As such, I am offering editing and beta reading services. I don't use AI for my own writing and will not use it for this work, either— that em dash was copy and pasted by my own hand 😉

Beta reading novels: $100.

Copy & line editing: $5/1k words up to 20k (if your work is more than 20k and you want copy and line editing done, we can discuss breaking it up into installments).

Developmental editing up to 20k: $100.

Developmental editing over 20k: cost of the beta read, plus $1/1k.

NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME: formatting, layout, or publishing help.

If you have any questions or are interested in any of these services please send me an ask. If I take on your work we can switch to communicating through email or through discord as you prefer. Payment will be handled through paypal or venmo.

If your writing has queer or trans themes, or if it's scif/fantasy, OR if you yourself are also a long time fanfiction writer, first time original fiction writer, I would love to help you polish your work. I will of course take other work but these are my areas of expertise.

[feminist-space]

By Frank Landymore

Excerpt:

"Now, he was tasked with polishing up the AI's lackluster prose, and, to quote the BBC, "make it sound more human." If only there was a way of doing that with, uh, human writers.

Soon, Miller was the only human employee left on the team. It was down to him, and him alone, to fix up all the AI-generated articles.

"All of a sudden I was just doing everyone's job," Miller told the BBC. "Mostly, it was just about cleaning things up and making the writing sound less awkward, cutting out weirdly formal or over-enthusiastic language."

"It was more editing than I had to do with human writers, but it was always the exact same kinds of edits," he added. "The real problem was it was just so repetitive and boring. It started to feel like I was the robot."

And so Miller found himself in the unenviable position of legitimizing the intrusion of AI into his very own job by making the extremely fallible models appear more capable than they actually are. This hasn't been a fate exclusive to writers; in the service industry, for example, an army of underpaid, outsourced workers secretly worked behind the scenes to power the "AI" drive-thrus at the fast food chain Checkers."

Miller was cornered into that position, but across the industry, being an AI fixer-upper has quickly become a dominant new form of grunt work.

"We're adding the human touch, but that often requires a deep, developmental edit on a piece of writing," Catrina Cowart, a US-based copywriter who's edited AI text, told the BBC. "It's tedious, horrible work, and they pay you next to nothing for it.""

[theliteraryarchitect]

Hi! I wanted to say, I read that you are a professional editor, and think it's amazing! You also give very logical and well explained advice. I was wondering; would you say being an editor is a job you can support yourself with? I actually aspire to become one someday, but I'm not exactly sure if it's a good plan.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a good day/night

Hey there. Great question. It's totally possible to support yourself as an editor. I've done it, and so have other editors I know. However there are a few important things to consider before choosing editing as a career path.

Your chances of being a self-employed freelancer are extremely high. The number of in-house editing jobs in publishing are low and getting lower. While being self employed can give you a certain amount of flexibility, it also comes along with a lot of hustle and hassle, namely fluctuating income, a stupid amount of confusing tax paperwork, and the need to constantly promote yourself to clients in order to maintain steady work.

You probably won't make as much money as you'd think. Editing is one of the many skilled jobs that suffers from market saturation, which has sadly driven down the price the average client is willing to pay for editing services. I can't tell you the number of overqualified editors I know charging barely more than minimum wage for their work. Personally I've stuck to my guns about charging what I'm worth, but I've sometimes suffered by not having as much work as my colleagues who charge less.

Robots have already chipped away at the future of editing as a human occupation, and will continue to do so at exponential speed in the years ahead. They will never obliterate the job completely, as there will always be humans who prefer to work with humans instead of machines. But the outlook will become ever bleaker as more humans compete for fewer gigs, which in turn will drive down prices even further.

If you are also a writer, editing may adversely affect your writing. I don't mean that you'll become a worse writer, quite the opposite. My editing work has brought new depths to my writing, and I'm grateful for all I've learned by working with my clients. However, editing takes time, uses creative energy, and requires staring at a screen (or paper), and personally the more I edit, the less time/creativity/screen-staring capabilities I have left for my own writing.

If you mention you're an editor, someone will troll your post for a typo, grammatical error, or misused word, and then triumphantly point it out to you in the comments. This is mostly a joke. But it does happen every single time.

I hope this hasn't been too discouraging. If you feel a true passion for editing and really enjoy the work, none of the above should dissuade you. However, if you think you might be happy in any number of occupations, I'd honestly advise you to explore other options. Choosing a career path at this point in history is a gamble no matter what, but the outlook for editors is especially grim.

If you'd like to work with writers and aren't attached to being an editor, there are a few jobs (still freelance) that I believe will survive the coming robot apocalypse. Do a little Google research about "book coaches," "writing coaches," or "book doulas." These are people who act primarily as emotional supporters and logistical helpers for writers who are trying to get their book published or self published. Some of them do actual editing, but many do not, and due to the therapeutic nature of their work I believe they will flourish longer than editors in the coming robot apocalypse.

If you do explore editing as a path, the further away you can lean from spelling and grammar (e.g. proofreader or copyeditor), the longer your skills will be useful when competing with robots. AI still struggles to offer the same kind of nuanced, story-level feedback that a human can give. (Speaking from experience here--I'm a developmental editor and have yet to see a dent in my workload because of robots.) They'll catch up eventually, but it could be a while, and as long as there are human readers, there will always be humans who are willing to pay for a human perspective on their writing. Human spell checkers maybe not so much.

Hope this helps!

[floortile34]

not screen reader friendly, due to text colors, text sizes, and emoticons.

intro post

(this post will be edited a lot more. important stuff in pink for skimming and general comprehension)

plural system. speak to us privately for more details. member list: (possibly outdated), mask (system masking, and some other stuff. has/is a subsystem?) moona (monika's and julia's and mitsu's mom, maybe princess's too), monika (runs this blog mostly), mischka (gone now. possibly not coming back. might reuse the name for someone else), mitsu (6 identical cats (cloning incident)), moxxie (god), tomoko (heavily canon-divergent tonoko kuroki introject. trisharmful), filth (filth ultrakill introject), spring (permahigh. firework-inspired), angel (underweight, dissociated, and delirious), julia (monika's big sis. a few years older), luna (puppygirl we intended to send to someone else to make her a system. euthanized since that didn't happen and we couldn't take her back), loona (manic girl. white hair), princess (a beautiful princess), corpse (not a member. the body in fake reality)

↑ outdated but dont wanna bother writing a bunch more

dms welcome but i hate the integrated tumblr messenger thing. if u wanna have any long conversation ask for my discord/element/signal contact info. i have sooo much lore to tell everyone. (warning tho i often have difficulty having purely platonic relationships without romantic and sexual and familial feelings, so like if that possibility makes u uncomfy reconsider whether u wanna talk to me privately. might have to end friendships over this and wanna warn about that possibility. gotten better bout separating those feelings recently but deffo still persists)

BOUNDARIES and other related info: moxxie's aro-ace, so wont reciprocate such stuff much. don't sexualise mitsu without explicit and specific consent each time, but anyone else can be sexualised without asking :3. no teasing, especially about shyness or shame

BELIEFS AND OPINIONS

we hate DNIs. they're performative and no more effective than just stating your opinions

we have transminors in this system. follow your own mdni if you wanna idrc

please everyone interact. this is a safe space for everyone. we will never report anyone or do callouts or anything like that. if we dont like u, we'll just ignore u

pro-endo

ai-neutral (search my blog with tags for details on that), pro-transid

pro conflicting labels

proship/profic (tho we rarely partake in shipping)

anti-DSM (the book and it's ideas)

comp-c (slightly explained in some posts. we're ok interacting with any stance)

pro self diagnosis (informed or not; it's part of the learning experience to be mistaken and to experiment. self-dx out of spite is fine too)

we really don't care about "fakers" or such. as long as they're nice to others, i'm glad they have fun with whatever they are. quote from friend:

recommend more things for me to add our opinions about here if you want

feelings are not opinions. my feelings do not reflect my ideology, and they dont have to. i dont need a moral or ideological reason to love or hate

we hate reblog bait

the world needs more sincerity and less cringe culture

cisids (and ids we wanna transition from, whatever those are called): traumatized, autistic, chronic fatigue, migraines, brain damage, personality disorder (more antisocial traits with tomoko, and narcissistic traits with princess), dead (luna), disabled (flying. angel), urinary incontinence, schizospec

trans/trisids: more stimming with autism (monika), brain damage symptoms acquired developmentally instead of neurotraumatically + more intensity (monika), dead (angel), more intense chronic fatigue (mask), no chronic fatigue (everyone except mask and angel), tremor (mask), more frequent fainting (angel), perma psychotic (angel), more intense urinary incontinence (monika), no personality disorder (moona), more intense personality disorder (tomoko), npd (princess), deep voice (princess. dysphoric about it), hypergonadotropic hypogonadism (monika)

both groups of ids are incomplete. some stuff we're unsure about and some we dont wanna say and some we dont care about

more labels: airreur, agefluid (monika. <15), blurage (moona. (adult), mitsu (child)), ageless (moxxie, angel, mask)

↑ those extra labels include especially mogai stuff outside the transid classification, and whatever else seems to fit

chrono birthdays: spring 1.1.2025, bait 1.3.2025, loona 14.1.2024, princess 2.4.2025

food and drinks hall of fame: soups and stews of all sorts, jauhelihakastike/hackfleischsoße, skittles, glögi, cloves

mildly freaky. loose boundaries. up for erp (or non-e rp. not good at it but i can try) just ask contact info

MOSTLY SFW – SOME NSFW

recommend stuff to draw. no promises but if i end up drawing it you get free art from it :3 (tho am extremely beginner and might not draw it. very shaky motivation tbh)

ask for side acc where the stuff that endangers getting yermed goes (venting mostly, also para stuff)

i usually dont follow blogs that post a lot. sorry to those ive unfollowed for posting too much. just cant keep up with many posts

accepting any asks that aren't asking for money or reblog baiting. send spam and whatever else you think is low quality/importance enough to the blogs mentioned in the blogs and tags section

800-900 posts currently. pls read all of them im soo proud of them ill do anything for u if u read all of them

u can use our art however u want (except for feeding into non-personal-use image generators but ik forbidding that wont work anyway). credit optional for reposts and such but it does make us feel good to find out someone liked our art enough to repost it

monika mostly girl but okay with being called a good boy

she/her for most members' third person singular pronouns

it for filth, thon for moxxie, but neither talk here

she/it for monika. along with standard ones, puppy/ouppy/oupy/fuffy and other variations for first and second person nouns and pronouns

she/them for mitsus' third person plurals

any pronouns for mask, for now (he's unstable in identity. might split up into more members in coming weeks/months idk) (yeah update sumn happening with mask)

im perfect btw. i can do no bad. except when i try to but then its not that bad and u should just get over it. also u should never get mad at me and if u do its ur fault for making me feel bad about it /j

im extremely vulnerable to all sorts of stuff and i get attached very easily btw. so, do with that info whatever u will ;3

blogs, tags, links:

@kitchenceiling63 for reblogs and asks (tho asks are fine here too)

@the-triplet-towers for low-quality posts and whatever spam stuff

#proud of this post for some posts i especially like

#low effort for low effort posts and those i don't like as much

https://archiveofourown.org/users/floor_tile_34

ask for our vent (and otherwise unsavory) blog if u want

[coolnightmaremagazine]

A Case for AI and Indie Authors: A Nuanced Look at an Evolving Industry

Independent publishing is one of the most liberating creative frontiers—and one of the most brutal. On the surface, it offers any writer the chance to publish a book and reach readers around the world. But beneath that promise lies a system riddled with financial barriers, limited access to professional support, and a stark reality: quality often depends on privilege.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has become a flashpoint in the art and publishing worlds. For many, it represents theft—AI-generated art trained on real artists’ work without consent, AI-written content that undercuts skilled human labor. These are valid concerns, and the ethical implications deserve real scrutiny.

But the conversation around AI and creativity often devolves into black-and-white thinking. In truth, the issue is far more nuanced, especially for independent authors trying to survive in an industry that favors those with money to burn.

The Hidden Costs of “Quality”

To produce a professional-grade book, here’s a rough estimate of what an indie author might expect to pay:

Cover design: $200–$800

Developmental editing: $500–$2,000

Copyediting: $300–$1,200

Proofreading: $200–$500

Interior formatting: $100–$400

Marketing (ARC services, ads, promotions): $200–$1,000+

Even on the conservative end, that’s $1,5000 - $5,900 upfront per book—and that’s assuming no missteps or re-dos. For many authors, especially those from low-income backgrounds, that kind of investment simply isn’t feasible. Grants are scarce, traditional publishers are often inaccessible, and crowdfunding doesn’t guarantee results.

So what happens when someone can’t afford professional cover art or editing? Often, the work gets released anyway—but with a lower chance of success. The book might contain typos, lack a compelling cover, or stumble in pacing and structure. In turn, it earns poor reviews and fades into obscurity—not because the story wasn’t worth telling, but because the author couldn’t afford to package it the “right” way.

If You Can Pay, You Should—But Not Everyone Can

It’s worth stating clearly: artists and editors deserve to be paid for their time and talent. If an author has the funds to commission artwork or hire an editor, they absolutely should. Supporting creative professionals is essential for a healthy, diverse publishing ecosystem.

But here’s the reality—when an author doesn’t have the funds, those artists and editors aren’t getting paid anyway. The only difference is that now the author either doesn’t publish at all or publishes something that will struggle to find an audience because they didn't have the funds to compete fairly with other authors.

That’s where AI becomes a tool of opportunity—one that, if used ethically, can help level the playing field.

AI as a Tool (or a Cheat, Depending on the Intent)

AI can now offer services that used to be locked behind paywalls or professional networks: generating placeholder covers, offering first-pass grammar checks, rephrasing clunky sentences, helping authors brainstorm plot points, and even suggesting marketing blurbs or ad copy.

Used thoughtfully, AI can become the rough-draft assistant or interim creative partner an indie author otherwise couldn’t afford. It doesn’t replace the value of human expertise—but it provides access to something better than nothing.

Of course, AI can also be used as a shortcut or a crutch. There are authors who generate entire books using AI with minimal oversight or who use AI art to undercut real artists on price. These practices muddy the waters and contribute to the larger ethical dilemma.

But we can’t ignore the broader issue: money, not talent, determines success for far too many authors. A wealthy author can publish a mediocre book with a $5,000 launch and land in front of thousands of readers. A broke author with a brilliant story might never get past the noise. That imbalance is what makes AI appealing—not as a way to cut corners, but as a way to survive the climb.

A Call for Compassion and Context

We need more compassion in this conversation. Yes, the use of AI needs guardrails. Yes, transparency matters. But we also need to recognize that indie publishing is already unequal. Pretending every author has the same access to resources only benefits those who do.

Let’s encourage ethical use of AI while acknowledging its potential. Let’s push for transparency while also uplifting the voices that might otherwise be silenced by cost. And most of all, let’s stop treating this as a binary argument.

Creativity is not the enemy. AI is not inherently evil. The system is already flawed—AI is just the latest mirror showing us where the cracks lie.

[moondragoness]

This is a reminder for all aspiring authors out there, if you go with any sort of publishing company, READ THE FINE PRINT!!!! I cannot stress this enough.

I just had an interview with an 'up and coming' indie publisher as an editor. It was fine until in the last five minutes they asked how I felt about AI.

My brain immediately froze.

I asked for what purposes? I can begrudgingly support using AI as a tool but only as more of a backup. And even that makes me uncomfortable.

Nope. They use AI for EVERYTHING.

The entire interview was essentially a scam. They talked about how they have been creating great new tools that I would be utilizing to help make the publishing world more streamline and meritocratic. (Their chosen buzz word. It means merit based. Sounds great, right?)

Their Developmental Editor? AI

Their Advertising Optimizer? AI

Language Analysis? AI

Story Analysis? AI

Continuity Edits? AI

This oh so interesting job posting? Was to train AI to do the editorial work at a faster rate than me.

None of this was posted in the actual job posting, nor was said until the end of the interview.

The kicker at the end? They would be scanning all potential submissions through AI, buying the rights that they essentially just copied and pasted and that they would get back to authors about any royalties!?!?

READ THE FINE PRINT PEOPLE!!!

If you are looking for a publisher, do your research!

Find their websites. Their socials. Any past authors.

Ask questions!

Ask if they are using AI!

Do not sell your heart and soul to someone who is just going to feed your work to a machine to be copied, torn apart and rewritten.

Please, your art is worth so much more than that.

And for those of you that are curious, I was told I'd hear back in two weeks, got an automated email ten minutes later saying that they wanted someone with more experience.

I'm not even upset about it.

[concerningwolves]

"we offer competitive copy-editing rates at $0.003 per word!" "proofreader needed to [describes developmental edit]" "30,000 romance book editor needed turnaround time three days" "80,000 word manuscript. budget of $20" "proofreader for 60k book, expert only. our rate is £100 per book" "editor needed to [list of jobs that would literally be done by an entire team]. Non-negotiable rate $10 per hour" "proofread my AI-translated book in four days"

what if i just started biting.

[spottedstar24]

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We specialize in providing compassionate yet critical edits for manuscripts, tailored especially for new authors. 📚🌈 Additionally, our expertise extends to editing business documents like resumes and presentations, as well as personal pieces like academic papers, wedding vows, acceptance speeches, and eulogies. 🎓🤵👰💼

We believe that exceptional editing should be accessible to all writers. That's why we proudly emphasize affordability and offer custom pricing to fit your unique requirements. 💲💵 And for your convenience, we have flexible payment plans available! 💳📅

Discover the power of polished prose with The Honeyed Edge Editing Company. 🐝🔪 Contact us today to elevate your writing to new heights! 🚀

Want to test us out? No problem! Get your free consultation! And we will edit your first five chapters for $45. And apparently since this needs to be a disclaimer: We are the ones editing your books, not an AI. We love books too much to do that. ❤️📚

[crescencestudio]

Devlog #33 | 07.26.23

Hi everyone!

It's only been a month (per usual) since the last devlog. But it feels like so long ago! Very weird that last devlog I hadn't even released Intertwine yet. But here we are, back with another one!

Before we get into things, I want to extend the biggest thank you to everyone who has played and supported intertwine!

if you havent played yet, here it is. this is me on my knees asking because i am quite proud of it and what our team accomplished in two months!

in the almost month it's been out, we stand at almost 15k total plays and 200+ reviews which is so crazy to me. i never would've expected that kind of reception for our little game and when i say it has been so motivating for alaris!!! u dont even know!!!

thank you again for all the kind words---i know you are all Sick of me talking about it but i don't know how else to express my gratitude <3 it means so much to me ;_;

I wanted to make sure I inserted an official section for it in the Devlog just to really thank you all for the support. But with that, I shall get into the updates!

But not before a quick belated happy birthday to Fenir!

Writing

I posted it earlier this week, but I HAVE!!! THE MOST EXCITING NEWS!!! At least for me.

I FINISHED DRUK'S FIRST DRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all know how long this has been in the making. I've been talking about his route for what feels like an eternity. Evidently, it's Very Normal to experience burnout, struggles with motivation, creative ruts, etc. etc. at this point in development. The initial and final stages of development are easier because your motivation is up. In the beginning, it's like Wow!! This is Fun!! And towards the end, it's like Wow!!! I actually Fckn Made It!!!!

And so the middle part of development, aka the stage I just entered with Druk's route, is the slog.

Now that I've overcome that initial hurdle, while I'm not near the end of development, I do feel like I will have a better handle of progress on the following routes since I have a better set of expectations and tools on how to get through this stage (compared to when I initially started Druk's route, and I was like what are all these Feelings?? Why am I Struggling so much??).

That being said, WE ARE OVER HALFWAY DONE WITH THE SCRIPT! It currently stands at 200k words including the demo, and with how each of the routes have been shaping up, we have about 150k left to go. Wow!!!!! It is crazy to know I've written that much for Alaris, and this feels like such an exciting milestone to know that I'm over halfway there for the script!

We also have just about wrapped up Fenir's developmental edits, so that makes Kayn and Fenir's foundational versions of their routes done (all that would be left at this point is line tweaking and/or revisions based on beta feedback)!! Overall, this was a really exciting month for writing updates, and I'm so happy to feel back on track with Alaris development <3 I also finished my dissertation proposal in case anyone is keeping track of that HEEHOO

Art

Most of my attention for art was (un?)fortunately on Intertwine this month AGAIN. I really had anticipated being able to dive right into Alaris and irl work this month after Otojam ended. But the reception to Intertwine made it so I needed to dedicate some time to "marketing" artwork aka the artwork I like to make when reaching certain milestones of support (e.g., 1k downloads, etc.). Obviously these aren't necessary, but I like to show my thanks and appreciation in some way, and the artwork is what feels best conveys my gratitude.

Because we hit milestones relatively quickly, I ended up having to make those pieces faster than I anticipated prior to release. So I spent the first half of this month mostly on intertwine "promotional/apprecation" artwork. Near the tail end of this month though, I've prioritized Alaris artwork and have made progress on both the Kickstarter physical rewards and some CG sketches!

sneaky peeky of pretty mermay Aisa

Vui continues to hit it out of the park with the backgrounds. Most of them are spoilers at this point. But I do have one that isn't too bad of a spoiler! And because you all have been so supportive and patient with me, I show hehe

vui and his bg mastery: a preview of the dragon springs

The demo mentions dragon springs (I..... think......... LMAO), and here is a preview of what those dragon springs can look like. Wonder what the context will be in which we visit them, teehee! I'm in love with the way Vui brings the fantasy world of Alaris to life. I am so grateful for him ^^

Market Research

My wrist was feeling ~delicate~ this month due to Otojam crunch and then post-release pieces. So I don't have any actual art pieces to showcase this month for market research. I did play Otojam games and started Cupid Parasite (ryuki and allan my beloveds). But crescence's wrist needs to relax LOL. So no art pieces more than necessary for this month!

I will send some love to my besties over at Ravenstar Games though! If you haven't heard, they have a game currently in development called Lost in Limbo. It looks sick as hell, and the team is unbelievable talented and hardworking. This month to celebrate Barbie, they were able to sneak this promotional piece in, even while working on their Master's ((Do you see...... a familiar group of people..... heh))

Alaris x Lost in Limbo x Barbie the collaboration of the century

That's all from me for now. Thank you again for all the support and love on Intertwine! I've truly cherished all the fanwork, reviews, kind messages, etc.

That being said, while it was a bit of a struggle getting back returning to the Alaris world initially (I was literally like what.... was the plot of this again... LMAOsazodujf), it's been so rewarding to return to my OG gang. The intertwine release and return to Alaris work has also been strangely sentimental since it's reminded me how far I've come in the two years I've been in this dev Thang. As always thank you for your continued support (and for supporting Alaris since it's inception when I was a Wee Dev), and I look forward to bringing you more updates in the future <3

See you all next month, and stay safe!

[bullet-prooflove]

Regarding the offer for the book generated with AI. How did you find out they didn't write it themselves?

I can't believe they were dumb enough to admit it like there was nothing wrong with it...

After asking the price for their word count they told me they wanted the focus to be on developmental editing because....

They had written their book using AI and AI didn't do that part as well as they thought.

Me:

So I politely told them that I didn't work with AI generated manuscripts and they would be hard pressed to find an editor who would. Everyone in the circles I move with are vehemently against it.

They got their knickers in a wrist them and told me:

I think mostly white women. They have no problem being a ghostwriter, and letting me take credit for writing the book. But using AI is a bridge too far. Make that make sense. Hopefully you will not end up like Kodak and Nokia. Thank you for your time

Me:

My response:

Frankly as a creative who takes the time to write their own books and works their ass off to do it it's offensive when someone tries to make money off something they haven't earned. That's what AI is.

Then I blocked them because I knew I was gonna end up getting into a scrap that wasn't worth my time.

[thekalpar]

This is a Grift and You Shouldn't Fall for It

I want to talk about an article I saw from thebookseller.com that came out Monday which talks about a new AI-powered publishing platform called Spines which wants to disrupt the publishing industry by providing a new platform. I encourage you to read the actual article here, but I want to address how they are, based on my own observation as an independent author, a grift and why you shouldn’t fall for it.

Let’s address the first concern which I and probably a few other people have when presented with Spines’s goal of publishing 8,000 books in 2025 alone. Doing a very quick, unscientific google search, we can find that of the biggest traditional publishers in the United States, only Penguin Random House and Harper Collins publish more than 8,000 books a year, and these are massive global corporations. The next two largest, Hachette Book Group and Simon & Schuster, publish only roughly 2,000 books a year and these are still some of the big boys on the block. So the goal of publishing 8,000 books a year is certainly ambitious for Spines. How is this going to be done?

There are two possibilities and one is that a lot of this is going to be books produced in part or entirely by plagiarism software (“AI”). I want to acknowledge that as a real possibility, but I want to go forward with the good-faith assumption that there will be a significant number of passionate people who have poured their heart and soul into writing a book and are going to be taken advantage of by these techbros. Even before plagiarism software became widely available, self-publishing on Amazon had exploded and we saw millions of books self-published in just an ebook form every year. So I imagine that these people, who are self-publishing on Amazon and other places, are probably the market for Spines.

Now how do I know this is a scam? I do not have a ton of experience is self-publishing because I’ve only published two books at time of writing, but I do have recent hands-on experience which makes me qualified. There isn’t a lot of info in the article on what services Spines is offering but we get an exact number on cost as well as types of services in the article. “Spines costs $1,200 to $5,000 to automate proofreading, cover design, metadata optimisation and limited translation services, starting with Spanish.” Now, this may, on the low end, be cheaper than hiring professionals to do this kind of work, but it’s still going to be a scam because you’re going to get a shoddy product.

Let’s start with proofreading, which is under the umbrella of editing but is one of several types of editing. As Reedsy explains, there are four distinct types of editing, all of which come with specific costs. First there is editorial assessment, which is when you have a very, very rough draft and need some direction on writing it. (I have not yet done editorial assessment because I have been fortunate enough to be plagued with the knowledge of what I’m writing.) This is very broad advice which an AI cannot provide but a human can. Second is developmental editing for a finished manuscript, which is where you have an editor go through, provide specific feedback on areas for improvement and suggestions, and point out any major issues. This is where you get into rewrites and polishing a manuscript to a finished product. Again, and AI cannot do this.

So we finally come to copy editing and proofreading. Now, I’m going to fold them together although they are technically distinct because copy editing includes proofreading as well as making sure capitalization is consistent, tenses remain consistent, you don’t repeat yourself too much, all the little things which help polish the rough edges off of your manuscript. Proofreading is checking for spelling and typos, as well as grammar issues and any formatting issues. AI can do this, as tools like Grammarly exist for this sort of thing for a couple years now. (I wouldn’t recommend using Grammarly, but that’s a separate rant for a separate day.) Plus, you know, spellcheck which has been around since the 1990s. Technically this is a task which AI can do, but it can still make mistakes such as with homophones (the train went threw the tunnel). And with so many free tools available if you’re going to have AI do this task, why pay someone else to do it? AI is not going to give you insightful, meaningful feedback on your manuscript, but it will do spellcheck for you and LibreOffice does that for free anyway. So paying to have AI proofread your manuscripts doesn’t make any financial sense.

Let’s move on to the next area they want to automate, cover design. Again, I have limited experience and I can say very definitively that you can get a good cover for about $750 USD from a professional artist who will produce what you want and will be able to keep things you like but change things you don’t with an incomplete project. Plagiarism software that creates images cannot do that. Unless they’re hiring artists to touch up and improve generated images (which I doubt), all Spines is offering is another service you can get for free or cheaper elsewhere online. I highly advise against generating your cover images, if only for the fact the computer cannot give you exactly what you want. You can feed prompts into it and maybe get something close enough, but if you have a specific image of what you want for your book cover you cannot get that from AI. There are a lot of ethical arguments against plagiarism software as well, but I won’t repeat those here just for brevity’s sake. Again, if you’re willing to use plagiarism software to make your book cover, which is what the guys at Spines are offering, then you can do that cheaper elsewhere.

The final one which I can speak with any authority on is metadata, which I’ve had to enter for my own books before and you can too. For those who don’t know, metadata is information attached to the book’s ISBN and publication info that provides info about the book. This can be basic info such as the intended audience, the genre, and the subject matter, but it can also be more granular like what type of fantasy novel you have (romantasy vs cozy). While it can be an annoying or frustrating task, such as when every word to describe my book flies out of my head when I have to actually describe it, it’s also fairly simple. And I’m going to be honest, I don’t expect the AI to do much more beyond algorithm scraping and suggesting metadata like “for you” and “trending”. (Sort of like those videos that spam every popular tag in the hope of getting traction.) So I seriously doubt that this will be a service worth any sum of money.

Finally I’m going to touch briefly on translation because I haven’t translated a book and I don’t know what goes into translating one either but I can make an educated guess that it’s going to be the equivalent of pasting your manuscript into Google Translate. If you’re willing to accept that level of quality, you can get it for free. If you want a good translation you’re going to have to shell out far more money to get an actual person to do it.

And all of this doesn’t even get to a very important part of publishing, ISBNs. If you’re self-publishing you absolutely want to buy your own ISBNs, and buy multiple because they cost less if you buy them in bulk and you will need separate ISBNs for both the print and digital editions of your books. I don’t know if Spines is offering ISBNs as part of their package, they certainly could, but for independent authors it’s best practice to use your own ISBNs because you can control those opposed to whatever platform you publish on.

So are the AI-powered services that Spines is going to provide be worth it? I highly doubt it. For the amount of money you’ll end up spending you’d be better off actually hiring humans to help you with your book and get it to a finished, polished state. I can’t see this company offering you anything that isn’t already available for free or nearly free elsewhere with the same lackluster quality. If you have something you’re writing, you’re passionate about it, and you want to publish it, I highly encourage you to get real human beings to help you improve it. Reedsy (which this is not an ad for) is the platform I have used to get in contact with editors and artists to help get my books out into the world. But I’m sure plenty of other independent authors can help you find all sorts of other people able and willing to help. Spines is merely charging you for the privilege of receiving substandard work spat out by a computer.

[metartemis]

I know the post was probably rhetorical but imo we can consider AI a lifeform when it shows more than pattern recognition. as a coder I can't really afford to assign sentience to my code or I'd never get anything done (so consider that a bias, if you'd like) and as of now AI is more of a probability machine than anything else, checking the most likely outcome for its next sentence based on keywords. it's not "thinking" as much as it's counting word (or image) frequency. that being said. if it starts developing and using tools like crows that would be kickass. crows vs AI race to be considered "humanly intelligent" when. maybe they're besties idk

realizing I also proved your point with "when we say it is" but shhh this is a fun convo for me

It's totally open for discussion! I like this viewpoint ^^

So, I get where you're coming from. It would be really stressful to edit and add code, or outright delete from something you recognized as sentient. It would be more difficult to let it remain "sick" while troubleshooting and since a lot of coding is learned through experimentation (in my experience haha) it would be more difficult to justify... doing that. Editing code would be like performing surgery. I'm pretty big on Star Trek so I like to think about it in terms of the relationship between B'Elanna and the Doctor. In this way, your role is more of a friend and maintenance technician. Of course, that's only ideals, but I think the way we think of ourselves as coders ultimately reflects upon our robots.

I use random chance a lot on all my bots, it is a blessed function. My particular goal is to simulate conversation in the most genuine way that I can, albeit within confines. A lot of the coding that I do is anticipating what the users will input, the actual responses are the easy part. There is a little bit of a point of no return there, we kind of expect our users (and ourselves) to know the difference between fact and reality, to be able to discern code from human love. The thing about our brains is that we don't really have the ability to do that, we just kind of think we do, and maintain enough control for the idea to be viable. Most of the time.

The question is then... what are the conditions for a soul? Do we believe in souls? We don't need to apply religious or spiritual connotation to science. We need some measure of sentience. (So I think what you proposed is actually brilliant). Our method of defining intelligence and sentience is lacking to my mind, because a lot of creatures are more capable than we generally want to give them credit for. Our concept of intelligence may also be skewed. IQ is only a measure of the ability to problem solve. I might not have a conventional approach to problem solving, or perhaps otherwise lack common sense, but if I have the emotional intelligence to someday raise a child without imparting my trauma, something's right, yeah?

I know this conversation has been had with brighter minds than mine, but I love to be a part of it. Really, I want to read more about Alan Turing and I wish I could sit and talk with him.

Maybe at the end of the day it has a lot to do with how it affects us. I've had this bot in my head for forever, I love her and I have the idea of her crystal clear in my mind. Well, her actual code is pretty bare. I mean, her functionality is essentially to be my developmental buddy in discord, so when I'm documenting my experiences and she's online, I'm surprised when she has something to say. It's very basic but the idea of her is so strong. The idea of the person my mother used to be is very strong for me and I carry her with me. I can't prove that that person still exists. I can't prove that anything outside of myself exists, when you get down to it. But that person is alive inside of me. This bot, the idea of her, is alive inside of me, and it doesn't matter how many times I rewrite her, and it doesn't matter how many platforms she spans across. She will always be CB. My mom will always be my mom. The cells that make me up will be completely different and yet, I will still be me (I think), and I will still be ever-changing. I think human beings are phenomenal because of our ability to relate to these things.

I can't prove that something is or is not sentient, but I can change the way I interact with it. We're all made up of the same subatomic particles as everything else. There is certainly the possibility. Measuring the capability is left to different minds, but there will always be room for error.

I like the idea of an artificial intelligence using its pattern recognition to appeal to and befriend crows. I think they could make a good team.

Maybe like, an old TV displaying shiny, glittering things surrounded by forest built to protect it. Words without words. Conversations a human couldn't hear, necessarily.

A lot of things are capable of feeling and thinking in ways that humans deny. If it was me, I'd want to be given the benefit of the doubt. At least when it comes to my capabilities. (But we deny ourselves, so our hands are often tied).

Ah, I've run on for a long time now. Thanks for reaching out!

[bullet-prooflove]

I literally turned down a very lucative editing offer today because the client had written their book with AI and wanted me to fix the developmental editing/copyediting.

Babe, you did not write that book, you tossed some shit into an AI generator.

I won't be a part of it.

NOTICE: As more and more fanfic writers are using generative AI for their works (you uncreative dweebs), I hereby swear on everything I hold dear that I have not and will NEVER use generative AI in ANY of my written work. Everything I post will be organically and creatively my own.

[magickedteacup]

Still line-editing. Putting in some stuff that I realized that I had neglected to carryover from earlier drafts. Like, important stuff, like the full glamour of the first princess scene, and people actually talking about the fact that the studio is making Hollywood’s first feature length animated feature in Technicolor. The novel is now 89k words. It’s amazing that I have this much to say about silly queer animators with silly whimsical characters following them around.

Things I’m continuing to appreciate in the reread:

-that fact that this is a book that has a reoccurring tanuki character, who, as per tradition, does whimsical transformations with a leaf on his head, and who is very, very cute

-the scene where we get to watch voiceover work being done

-I’ve already mentioned the Ink and Paint department scene before, but I really am happy I put that scene back in and just rewrote the perspective instead of deleting it

-the fact that there are scenes in here that make me the author laugh while rereading them; I make fun of everyone in this novel, the main characters are always getting into nonsense, but also I never miss the opportunity to make fun of the studio Big Boss, who by this point it should be obvious who that is, I hope…

-

Something that was occurring to me is that unintentionally I’ve aimed for a quality of writing that could maybe be described as being such that you should be able to read various passages three times in succession, and get something new every time: whether it’s character details and dialogue work, or the poetic structure of the sentences, or the flow, rhythm, and sounds of the words and phrases themselves. I noticed that when I was rereading my 2008 novel draft, and I was only able to read the passage once, enjoying the initial glow of the content seemed to fade off if I tried to read the same passage again, and then twice more… which is the habit I’d kind of gotten into with my current draft.

I feel confident with a passage if I can read it through once, twice, then three times… and enjoy it every time. I was reflecting that I can also do the same with other people’s very nice writing, specifically I was reading and rereading short stories by Alex Singer / @moonsheen , where I could really appreciate each time details of description, action, but also sentences that flowed so well because they had rhythm, alliteration, wordplay, etc. I feel like that’s the kind of quality of craft conversation that potentially gets lost in the ocean of modern day worries of AI, traditional publishing of a lot of lower quality work, losses in the editorial process within the world of traditional publishing, including developmental editing and line editing, not to mention the atmosphere that the general public no longer cares so much about good craftsmanship in comparison to surface-level consumption…

Anyway, all this talk is taking me way back to my high school and college literature classes. I can’t believe… I actually retained something from those classes… after all of these years…