What Authors Really Think of AI

So over the last week I put out a survey to all my authors on my mailing list and most of the answers have come in now and I thought I’d share this information with the wider community, because it definitely makes for some interesting reading.

Some of the results surprised me, some didn’t at all, given my feeling for the whole topic. Some of the results might even surprise you. But definitely some of the assumptions about AI I found wildly off-base. 

So I’m going to share my thoughts along with all this data. My interpretations of it and what I feel authors are getting wrong and right about it.

But please don’t shoot the messenger, eh? And by all means argue with my interpretations in comments. 

And just for clarity, my newsletter went out to a few thousand people and I had a few hundred people respond to the survey which I think is a good enough sample size to get some good opinions. But I have to also say that any time I’ve mentioned AI on a newsletter I’ve had ten to fifteen people unsubscribe, so I don’t know how many of the truly anti-AI people I’ve cleared out.

So grab yourself the biggest pizza you can find and get ready to find out what all your fellow authors think about AI.

How much do you know about AI?

A moderate amount – 43.2%

A little bit – 26.1%

A lot – 21.6%

I’m obsessed – 5.7%

Nothing – 3.4%

This one really did make my eye’s pop out of my head like I was in some sort of cartoon. If you add the ‘moderate amount’ to the ‘A lot’ figures we’re talking about almost two thirds of the authors thinking they think they’ve got a good grasp on this topic. Wow! 

To put it into context, I’ve been trying to devour as much information as I can on this subject, time permitting, and if you asked me the same question I would definitely say ‘A little bit’ without fail. 

It’s a subject that’s fast moving, ever changing and it’s super hard to keep up with it. Even with what are this week’s new developments. Actually on this point, one thing I like doing is following @rowancheung on twitter because he does a neat little weekly round up of that week’s developments. And then if something piques my interest I investigate more. He’s worth a follow, for sure.

I’ve also got a couple of friends that I take for lunch as well that are actually experts in this field and try to pick their brains about the subject, and ask questions which usually result in disdainful pitying looks. 

I feel daft, but I’m learning. I think you have to allow yourself to feel daft to learn.

I guess people like to say they know more than they actually do. I’ve always been in ‘the wise man is the man that knows what he does not know’ camp. 

Does that make me wise? Yes it does. 

Just not about AI.

Anyway let’s crack on …

How do you generally feel about AI?

I think it’s someone good – 45.5%

I somewhat think it’s a negative thing – 28.4%

It’s amazing, I love it – 13.6%

I’m utterly neutral – 11.4%

I loath it with every fibre of my being – 1.1%

This also surprised me. Only thirty percent of you really don’t like it. Fair enough. And then the other seventy percent don’t mind or like it. To be honest I thought that this would be more fifty-fifty. Or even have these numbers flipped. 70% hate, 30% fine.

For all the noise out there on social media and in self publishing blogs about the subject I thought that would have translated into more hate. I guess angry people scream the loudest, and everyone else just quietly gets on with it.

How do you feel about how informative I’ve been with all this AI stuff coming through? And be honest, I try not to get offended.

You’ve been brilliantly open and informative about it – 78.4%

You’ve given some information, three stars, try harder – 18.1%

I think you’ve been somewhat confusing or disingenuous – 3.4%

Thanks. And I will try harder. I mean this survey and my thoughts is a good start, right? RIGHT? But yeah, moving forward I might start talking about other AI writing related topics as well, not just what affects me with the book covers.

How fearful as a writer are you about AI replacing you?

Just a bit, it’s going to be a bumpy ride, but it’ll be fine – 38.6%

Not at all, I can’t see it replacing my unique voice – 30.7%

Somewhat, I think Amazon will be flooded with content – 28.4%

Very scared, I think I’m going to be completely screwed – 2.3%

Firstly, I love these answers, because they’re very positive and I would say they’re probably about right. It’s going to be somewhat of a bumpy ride. Lots of missteps will happen. 

I think there will be a certain flooding of content on Amazon but they seem like they’re already on top of that. So personally I wouldn’t worry too unduly about that. I mean it’s a crowded market place even if people are just writing all those books without AI. I’m sure you all know that.

But what I’m going to say is that people connect with people. It’s always been that way and always will be that way. If you have a book that connects with people, it always rises. I’ve seen that time and time again with the books that I’ve done book covers for. 

And further to that, actually the authors that I’ve seen that happen with are generally more personable with me, so I assume they are with their readers / fans.

It’s always been about human connection, always will be.

Write books that connect. And make sure you connect with your readers. Oh, and connect with your book cover designer. 

Or anyone else that can help you, for that matter.

People.

How do you see AI lasting?

It’s here to stay, so I better get used to it – 79.5%

No idea, I can’t guess – 13.6%

There’s some hype but it’s probably a fad – 6.8%

It seems wrong so will probably be outlawed – 0%

It’s a flash in the pan because it’s no good – 0%

Not much to say about this apart from the fact that it’s nice to know that most of my authors are rather pragmatic and secondly, what? I couldn’t tempt any of you with ‘flash in the pan’ and ‘it will be outlawed’. Not a single author thought either of these things would happen! This is rather telling.

You might have heard of some famous books being used to train AI models but do you think any of your own data is being used to train AI models (such as photos you take, books you upload, social media posts, and other general data you leave behind on the internet)?

They probably are, yes and it makes me angry they’re using my data without my permission – 28.4%

Maybe they’re not, but I’m unsure – 20.5%

They probably are, yes, I don’t care – 21.6%

I don’t think they’re using my data to train AI – 20.5%

No idea, don’t care, if they’re using my data to train AI – 9.1%

This, to me, is probably the most interesting question of all out of all the questions I asked. And you’re not going to like my thoughts on this subject. But I’m going to be honest with you all.

The only people that answered correctly or truthfully were those that said. “They probably are, yes, I don’t care.” or “No idea, don’t care”. 

Let me explain why.

Firstly, a lot of people left comments on the section at the end of the survey expressing notions of AI models being trained on data where people haven’t consented and that it was a violation. My thoughts on these answers tie into that.

Do you know yourself what you have consented to already? Do you actually read the terms of service on all the things you use online? I mean really dig down into what you’re consenting to that corporation doing with your data. I would say 99.99% of people just simply click on ‘agree’. 

And the bitter truth is ‘consent’ is exactly what you’re doing when you click ‘fine, I agree’.

As creative you might post your works of art on KDP, DeviantArt, Spotify, or wherever, but also you’re generally consenting for them to use that data in whatever way they want to use it. It’s the price of putting your creations out there. Data is just too valuable to them for them not to have access to it. Or to sell on. 

I think a lot of this gets mixed up in notions of copyright and privacy. But from a real legal standpoint, consenting to place your data on their websites does mean you’re giving up certain rights. It’s what the social media websites have been doing for years with your posts about what you had for your dinner or photos of your cat doing a funny pose. Using your data to train AI models.

My rule has always been: if you don’t want to give them access to your data don’t put it online.

I’ve judiciously avoided putting photos of myself online, or letting people take photographs of me and tag me. I don’t put any social media stuff up there either. I simply don’t like the thought. I’ve always operated with the principle that your data will be used. 

It’s sort of interesting with multimodal AI models that are coming along (multimodal means like text, audio, pictures, video, etc all at once). One thing I thought was this. What if there was an AI app on your phone where you held up your camera at someone and simply said to it: tell me about this person. And it summarised you, and everything you’ve left behind online. How would you feel about that? 

Is that possible now with today’s AI technology? Of course, there will be somewhere working on that project. 

I think a lot of the regulations that governments will be working on might be to do with things like this. Because that idea creeps me out. But at the same time most people have given over that level of data.

But at the same time, it would come up with a blank if you stuck that camera in my face and asked it about me. Because I’ve not given over enough data.

Yes there is a photo of me on my website but it’s out of date and doesn’t really look like me for a reason, even though it is me.

I can’t remember what the figure is but each individual in the western world generates GigaBytes of data every day, TeraBytes every year! 

Do you think all these services are hosting and processing all that data for free? Nope, they’re doing that because it has value to them. And that value is not just for selling adverts, because they’ve always known that data was more valuable for machine learning (which is what AI used to be called). It’s always been the case. Google was working on these sorts of projects 15 or 20 years ago.

So with all that said let me ask you a hypothetical question: if you knew Amazon was handing over all your book data for training to AnthropicAI (which they invested billions in the other week), would you take your book off Amazon? Or would you accept that as a cost of doing business with them? Where else could you take it to sell?

Are they doing this? I have no idea and I’m not going to speculate. 

But the question I always ask is: would it make business sense to do that? I always assume that corporations are acting with shareholder value in mind. Nothing more.

I say this because it’s sort of interesting to think in these terms.

I think that a lot of authors, because Amazon has been good for self-publishing, have positive feelings about that corporation. But I think they’re as bad as Spotify. And if you know the history of how Spotify came about and how they operate you’d know that’s bad!

Monopolies have you over a barrel when it comes to your data. That’s just a pragmatic fact.

Personally, I’d love for there to be some viable alternative to KDP for authors. Like there is with Spotify, which is Bandcamp, who properly compensates musicians and doesn’t use that data in nefarious ways. 

I’m not hopeful. But we can dream.

Sorry for the negativity. The truth is sometimes a bitter pill. But yeah corporations are never ethical. 

And now I think we need to move on from this one, because I could talk about this subject for hours.

Do you use AI tools to write?

I use light editing tools with minimal AI – 53.3% 

I make sure I avoid all AI tools – 25.1% 

I use editing tool, and prompt tools to come up with ideas for my books for characters and storylines (such as Chat-GPT) – 18.2% 

If I could get AI to write my whole book I would – 3.4% 

It’s interesting that around twenty percent are already embracing new AI tools that are available. I would have thought that this would be less. 

But it’s interesting to also note that people understand that AI has been around for a lot longer than just the current hype. Because yes, things like, the Gmail and Google Docs ability to spot grammar mistakes is because of machine learning. In fact, a long long time ago, maybe 15 years ago Google decided to scan all the books on earth for this very reason. I remember authors kicking up a stink then thinking they were going to be a competitor to Amazon, when what they were doing was training AI models. All this stuff has been around for a lot longer than most people think.

Also ‘bravo’ for the three percent of people just wanting AI to write their books. But as we’ve already established, it’s probably not going to happen.

If you could write a whole high-quality book with AI by prompting it with your own imaginative ideas would you?

48.9% Definitely not

30.7% I’d be tempted to look at what it could do

19.3% Yes, but I’d have to stamp my own personality on it

1.1% Yes, that would be ace, I’d just count the cash

Also I really like the fact that so many of you would be tempted to have a look at what it could do. I think some of the 50% that said they wouldn’t be tempted are liars! Come on, you’d just have to have a sneak peek. Surely. Curiosity is at the heart of any creativity and imagination, surely. Or maybe that’s just me.

And I love the bear-faced laziness of one percent of you telling me they’d just sit back and count the cash. That made me smile. So thanks for that. Ha!

If you had to guess, hypothetically, how long do you think it will be before an AI could write a full novel to the same quality as you, given you could give it enough prompting?

22.7% No idea, can’t guess

20.5% Three to five years time

18.5% By next year

17.0% It’ll never be able to. Write as good as me? Pah!

15.9% In two to three years

5.7% Around ten years

Even with all my investigations into this subject I would have to say that I’m completely in the ‘No idea, can’t guess’ camp too. Really, no idea. But what I would say is that the ‘By next year’ people should have nothing to worry about at all. And the around ten years camp is probably closer to the truth. Maybe.

But having said that, I honestly think that people won’t connect as well to these full AI books that are written, simply because AI will never understand the nuance and subtlety of emotion like humans do. 

But I think over the next few years you’ll see a lot more hybrid approaches with AI models like Sudowrite’s Story Engine. And that will only improve.

Which AI tools would you use to help you with your writing whether they exist now, or in the future? You can select more than one.

Because this was a checkbox answer then each answer stands in its own right, as a percentage of the total number of people that answered, I’m going to go through them individually with my thoughts.

79.5% Editing AI Tools

Only 20% of you didn’t want AI editing tools and this makes me happy because I honestly think this is where AI can actually be quite a powerful thing to augment the writing process. It’s something that could be used for you to improve your craft and to spot things that you might have missed.

65.9% Marketing / Advert AI Tools

But this answer sort of depressed me. Two thirds of you think that marketing is the key to success. I guess in a crowded market place you want to be seen. But really, you think this is more important than storylines? Or research? I dunno, maybe it’s just me. But what I’ve seen time and time again is that well-written books eventually get traction. No matter how much marketing you throw at something, if your craft isn’t good enough it’ll never work. I know because I write bad books. Ha! So I know from bitter experience.

40.9% Research Help AI Tools

This sort of tool is actually the thing that appeals to me most about AI, the ability to get answers to research questions distilled pretty quickly. It’s quite interesting, about 10 years ago I spent 18 months researching for a novel I wanted to write which was set in the holocaust. I read about 20-30 books and made extensive notes. It took me forever and I never even wrote the thing. But it would have been nice to have a tool to help me with that, whether I wrote the book or not.

38.7% Trailer Video AI Tools

Are trailer videos still a thing? Quite surprised by this answer. I think, in all honesty, I asked this question because I wanted to know if they were still a thing. They are!

33.8% Audiobook Narrator AI Tools

Boom there we go, another set of people handed their P45s (for you non-Brits, that’s the piece of paper you’re given when you’re fired). I guess anything that is a large expense for any author is going to be on the chopping block.

32.7% Book Cover AI Tools (i.e. putting me out of a job, ha!)

Traitors! A third of you are pure Judases. A pox on your name!

Okay, I jest, I’m pragmatic enough to know that I’m not going to last forever as a book cover designer with AI coming along to eat my job. It is what it is. You only have to look at what Amazon announced this week with AI generated product iamges to know where my job is eventually going to end up. I’m not a man that puts his head in the sand.

31.8% General Idea / Writing Prompt AI Tools

I remember right at the start of the Kindle revolution 11-12 years ago there was this massive spate of articles about ‘Writers Block’, it seemed like every single blog I went to, or every single forum post was about this subject. So I guess the whole thing hasn’t really gone away because there is still a third of you who would want tools to inspire with ideas. Fair play. Inspiration is always good.

24.8% Storyline AI Tools

Also this result makes me happy. Over the years when addressing you all, I’ve always used the expression ‘authors’ but it’s not really what I feel about writing at all. I always think the correct expression is ‘Story Teller’. But that’s a bit clunky to use. So the fact that 75% of you don’t need any help with the storyline is good news. Tell those stories.

22.7% Character Development AI Tools

Me, I like people, but I’m awful at writing about them. Developing them, fleshing them out. This tool would be bang at the top of my list after editing tools. I guess you’re all better than me at writing and I should stick to design. Thanks.

5.6% NONE 

And this result somewhat surprised me. Because one third of you said that you felt negatively about AI but you’d still use it if there were tools that helped you. Only five percent are sticking to their guns. I guess that’s human nature though. I don’t like it, but if it’s helpful I’ll use it.

What’s your feeling for Book Covers that have source graphics which have been generated with AI?

If the book covers is good enough I’m not bothered 31.8%

At the moment I’ve avoiding them, let’s see what the future brings 26.1%

I’m neutral 21.6%

I love book covers made with AI because I’m getting something unique 12.5%

I hate hate them and avoid them like the plague 8.8%

This result didn’t really surprise me, because honestly, I had this vision in my head that people were fifty-fifty when it came to whether they liked AI on book covers. What did surprise me though was the fact that a quarter of you are worried about AI covers for some reason. As if at some point Amazon is going to say ‘no’. As you’ve seen earlier, Amazon themselves are now using AI image generation for product adverts. So I hope authors realise that actually what I’ve been saying all along about AI is coming to fruition and really, there won’t be any problems with AI being used on book covers. Because there won’t be.

If you do not want to use book covers that have had any AI work on them, why?

No, I’d use AI, I don’t care 50%

Because I think it’s cheating and unethical 19.3%

Because I think Amazon might ban my book 14.8%

Because I don’t think they look as good as stock image covers 10.2%

I worry other authors or readers might target me for that 5.7%

So yeah my fifty-fifty gut feeling was spot on again here. Gee, I’m good! I love it when I’m right. 

But let’s go through the negative answers because it allows me to go through some of my thoughts on the subject.

The ‘ban my book’ brigade I can understand to a certain extent, because you’ve worked really hard on something for maybe years and then you put all the effort into marketing, get a stack of reviews, and suddenly your book is taken down. It would be super frustrating. I know what it’s like because I had a book up on Amazon that had 50ish reviews and it was handed over to my old publisher and when I tried to get it back I couldn’t and I lost all those reviews. I was livid. 

But let me tell you in no uncertain terms: Amazon will not ban your book for AI. 

Here’s my reasoning: 

1. They’re asking you if you’ve used AI, don’t you think if they’d wanted to ban books like this they would have already come out and said it rather than just asking. 

2. They’re using AI Image generation themselves, again here you go, see for yourself: Amazon introduces AI Generated Products Images.

3. They’ve come out and said it themselves. Firstly, I talked with someone quite high up in support at Amazon about that and secondly, they’re putting out public statements to that effect (this one is in the Guardian which is a pretty respected newspaper):

Literally from the horse’s mouth.

Amazon, like you, only cares about KDP not being flooded with low quality products. And my covers are not low quality, thank you very much. 

Next, the ‘not as good as stock image’ people. All I’m going to do is leave this here. Tell me which one is the AI cover and which one is the Stock Image one. 

Of course, about a year ago AI images weren’t that great. In fact, I’ll let you into a secret, when I look back at some of my MidJourney v3 book covers that I made I cringe. And cringe hard! Even v4 covers are a bit ropey. The current versions I’m a lot more happy with. But maybe when v6 comes out, I’ll start cringing all over again at v5 images. 

Next, yeah, I’ve seen a few posts about the ‘pitchfork brigade’ out there targeting authors for using AI. Twitter is really the worst for this sort of polemic horridness. I don’t know what makes people do this and I think it’s a bit short sighted and daft. Because such things might come back to bite them in the backside. People in glass houses and all that. 

Because I imagine all these authors that have nothing better to do than to say ‘Down with AI’, and I’m going to target other authors, don’t know what they’ll end up hypocritically using that contains AI models that help them in their writing journey, in one year, in two years, in five years.

“Well I used this, but it’s not the same as those other authors that use AI to do X, Y or Z,” they’ll rationalise to themselves.

Or is it just book covers that count? Yeah, right.

And finally the twenty percent that said ‘it’s cheating and unethical’, firstly, the ethical dimension we’ve somewhat covered earlier to a certain extent with data and consent.

But as a book cover designer I’m really torn somewhat about this ethical dimension. 

Let me explain some of my personal thinking on this subject. 

Firstly, I just want to make the best book covers I can, so if AI allows me to make better covers for my authors, screw the ethics right? I’m doing better work. My larger ethical responsibility is to my authors. If you had a chance to save your own family or save a city of people you don’t know, who would you save? Your family, obviously. Ethics go out the window.

Second, I’m bored of Stock Images, I’ve seen them all before, a hundred times. Dull dull dull. I have the responsibility to myself that I’m having fun doing my job, and AI has been a godsend after ten years of making covers. A new challenge. A fun thing. A thing where I’ve actually been able to imagine cool looking images in my head and actually make them real! Where previously I was hamstrung by what was available with stock images. Selfish I know. James, enjoying himself. Heaven forefend.

So let’s think about who AI Image generation is harming? All those people that spent a lifetime learning a craft and now the AI can actually replicate somewhat they learnt. In some instances it surpasses it. They’re on the scrapheap and to think about what it’s like for those people. What they’re going through is horrid.

It’s something I’ve thought about, do you know why? Because that’s me too. It’s coming for book cover designers. I’m going to go through exactly the same thing. THE. SAME. THING. I’m under no illusions about that. So I can feel for them. But at the same time I’m gonna enjoy book cover designing whilst it lasts, because I do love my job.

And do you want to know how I feel about my demise? Nothing. Simply because it’s an inevitability. Getting angry or being sad about it isn’t going to help. I’m pragmatic. So I need to adapt or die. Things change. We’ll get onto this subject a little later.

And those that think I’m ‘cheating’ by using AI. We’ll chat about that too in a little while. If only.

Do you think readers care if a book cover is made with AI?

No because I don’t think they can tell these days 34.1%

No because they just care about the writing 33.0%

I don’t know but I don’t want to take the risk 13.6%

I don’t know and don’t want to think about it, whatever 10.2%

Yes, and they’ll avoid my book if they thing it’s made with AI 9.1%

This answer was interesting, because I think you’ve probably got it spot on. I think where AI image stuff is as of today, people can’t tell. Maybe 9 months ago. Yep.

Also, there are probably a hundred commissions out there which I’ve designed, over the last six to nine months, using AI for source material. And they’re wildly popular or at least have hundreds, if not thousands of positive reviews. 

And I’ve not had one single author come back to me and say: this book cover, readers are accusing me of using AI. Not one.

Readers don’t care.

Well they do, they care that you’ve written something that connects with them, and they care that the book cover has caught their eye and imagination enough to investigate.

Which do you think it takes me longer to make? A book cover with A.I. or Stock Images?

Stock Images 19.3%

AI Images 14.8%

Same about of time 29.5%

No Idea 36.4%

Kudos to the third of you that said ‘no idea’. But I’ll tell you something, in all honesty I would say that AI covers take longer to make. Usually 2-3 times as long to make. Because you generate so much dross to get to something usable. And that’s not taking into account all the time I’ve spent playing and experimenting with MidJourney to really understand how it works.

The assumption is that AI is somewhat magical, super fast and comes up with that perfect idea that you have in your head every time. If only. Anyone that’s played around with AI image generation will know what I’m talking about.

So the answer is: more time but better results. And results is what I’m about. 

If there was a cheap AI tool in the future that you could chat to about your book, or even feed your book into, and it could come up with your perfect idea for a cover would you use it? And don’t worry about offending me, I’m quite pragmatic about being replaced at some point. And this might be helpful for me to reframe my own work.

Maybe, or at least I would see what it could do 44.3%

No definitely not, because my idea for a book cover might not be the right idea to catch potential reader’s eyes. It’s an art in its own right. I’ll never leave you, James. EVER! 33.0%

Yes, but I’d want a second opinion in a consultancy capacity from someone else that knows what they’re talking about, i.e. you! 15.9%

Yes definitely, because it would make my life easier 6.8%

I love people’s honesty to this question. Only a third of you would stick by me for your book covers. To be honest with you all, this is what I would have guessed as well. If there was the perfect tool out there then I’m down to a third of my work which is probably not going to be financially viable for me. Better start thinking of some Plan B’s. Don’t worry, I am. Some second jobs, I’ll never stop designing for that third that still wants me.

How do you feel about my latest AI pre-made cover offerings?

They’ve been great, I’ve just not found ones that fit my book 75%

I would have loved more stock image pre-made covers 25%

Interesting, I would have thought it might have been more 50-50. But yeah that gives me something useful to go on in terms of doing more Stock Image pre-made book covers. 25 out of every 100. Cool. On it.

Hypothetically, if you were getting a commission from me would you want me to use AI?

Maybe, if we can’t find the right stock images 44.3%

Yes, definitely because I really want original work 31.8%

Definitely not, stock images only 23.9%

This is a brilliant answer. And it’s actually a truer answer than you probably guess, or at least from my experience. Which is, 80% of you do want AI on a commission.

For all the 50-50 of authors liking and hating AI, when it comes down to it, it’s needs must.

I actually chat to 3 or 4 other book cover designers behind the scenes. I’ve never seen them as competition and more like contemporaries. And it allows us to share our ideas and findings. A bit of support for one another.

And everyone has said the same thing as I’ve found, 80% of the time authors are happy to use AI when it comes to commissions. 

So when you think about all those new books coming out with great covers, probably 80% of them have AI elements somewhere on there. And I bet you couldn’t pick those book covers out. Unless they’re really badly designed.

Behind the scenes AI has already taken over, helping us designers, probably without you knowing.

You pour your heart and soul into your books and likewise I pour my heart and soul into making book covers, but how do you honestly feel about me using AI?

Positively, because I trust you to make good work 36.4%

No Bothered 31.8%

Slightly negatively 27.3%

Very Negatively 4.5%

And still, there is a lot of negativity about AI. I don’t like the idea that people feel negatively about me. I guess you can’t please everyone, all the time. And honestly at the start of this post, I think I’ve cleared out a lot of the haters from my mailing list because I have been so informative about this topic. I guess I’ve picked my lane. Try to inform. 

And finally just for a bit of fun. How long do you think AI takes over my job and GoOnWrite? Just as a guess. Just for laughs. Don’t worry.

Never, because I’ll always come to you for advice 39.8%

Two to three years 19.6%

Five to ten years 19.3%

Three to three years 18.2%

Within one year 3.2%

I love the fact that 40% of you want to stick with me. Makes me feel happy. 

I guess it would be fun to know what my guess would be, right? How long it will take for something to make ace covers. Well, here goes, 3.2% of you are probably right. I would say at some point 2024 there will probably be pretty good AI tools for book covers. And that’s me on the scrap heap! Hey, don’t write off so fast, please.

I’m going to temper this fact with a few things that you might find interesting. 

Firstly, when it comes to commissions roughly about 50% of the time authors come to me and have no idea what they want on the cover, they haven’t got the foggiest, and it’s up to me to come up with the concept. 25% of the time they have a bad idea and I have to persuade them that they’re barking up the wrong tree, and we explore some different concepts. And 25% of the time they have a good idea and we do it. So that’s a whopping 75% of the time I need to come up with the concepts. AI is never going to be able to do that, or at least nothing human and imaginative.

Secondly, when it comes to pre-made book covers, you’d be surprised the amount of the time and author will spot one and it’ll be the basis of a brand new writing project for them. Because the cover inspired them. I know this because they tell me all the time. And it makes me happy. Likewise, AI isn’t going to be able to be that kernel of imagination I provide. Or at least, I like to think so.

So I don’t think it’s all bad news for me. But there is a big uncertainty about it.

If I get replaced by the robots, what job should I do as a Plan B? Yet again it’s a bit of fun. Come on, they can’t all be serious questions.

Get back to your own writing 45.5%

Open a chicked wing kiosk in Barcelona 20.5%

Start a new tech start-up with friends 13.6%

Start a Youtube / Twitch channel talking about your life 6.8%

Got back to painting portraits on commission 2.3%

This was a bit of a joke question at the end, but like any good joke there is a modicum of truth in there. I’m very much getting the feeling that I have to come up with some sort of Plan B because I think my work will somewhat be halved in a few years time. So I might be doing two jobs.

Firstly, authors worry about AI taking over their writing, but then most of you want me to do more writing. That made me giggle. I don’t think that will keep the wolves from my door. I honestly think the ‘Chicken Wing’ business is more of a goer. If I was a millionaire man of leisure I’d definitely do the chicken wing business because I’ve scoped that one out. It seems profitable. And I’m amazing at making chicken wings and dips. It’s something I’ve perfected over a lifetime.

I think doing some sort of tech start-up with friends is the most likely course of action, but I think maybe it would be to do with AI and writing. And you’ve already given me the answers to what tools you want the most. Ha! Sneaky that. Because I actually love this field, it’s full of lovely people. 

And a few other suggestions people gave me …

“Teaching others how to use AI in the best way; consulting on designs and probably still some creating on your own while stubborn people catch up.”

“Editing ai stock images. I mean are they really ever going to fix the tweaked hands and lazy eyes” – they have already done that!

“Sidewalk artist and busker”

And my two personal favourites …

“Join the US Space Force and become a Saucer pilot.”

“Call Centre – cleaning and servicing the AI-bots answering the calls.”

And maybe that’s all my future has in store, cleaning AI-bots for 14 hours a day, whilst dealing with a dwindling client-base, in the evenings. Ha!

But until that happens I’m going to keep on keeping up with all this AI stuff and keep informing you all of my thoughts and what’s happening.

And until then I will remain,

Definitely, a human you can call …

James,

GoOnWrite.com

Posted by humblenations on October 27, 2023

https://humblenations.wordpress.com/2023/10/27/what-authors-really-think-of-ai/