Let's Talk AI (Respectfully) · P2P Author Business Harbor

Let's Talk AI (Respectfully)

So as you can imagine with our ongoing AI survey, I have talked to a lot of people (even before that) about AI. And there seem to be two primary reactions: enthusiasm, or fear, although my theory is that those are simply the loudest voices, and most people fall somewhere in between. But let's talk about a few things that might fall on both sides:

AI is not a savior, or the devil. It is certainly not the answer to some of the woes of publishing, and may even create new ones (at least temporarily). But in and of itself it is a tool, and tools do not do bad things without evil people to wield them. AI has the potential to do good or bad things, and how that happens is the choice of the user.

Digital Privacy and AI. Look, digital privacy has been a myth online for years, and we need to dispel a few things. First, if you use any modern tech, from cell phones to social media in any form, and most email services, and certainly if you own and run a website, have an email list of readers, or use most other tech, your privacy is already compromised to a certain extent, and maybe a great extent. As a public figure, like an author, your image, your name, and at least some information about you is easily found in a Google Search.

Because to build the audience and platform you need to sell books, you have to be discoverable. Discoverability is the biggest obstacle most authors face when it comes to marketing. (even though people are more likely to know your name than your face). You can choose, to some extent, how visible you are, but it is extremely challenging to remain invisible and build an author career at the same time.

AI is not making that better. It makes it worse, and people constantly give their images to AI to do fun things like put on make up, or make me into an action figure, or try different hairstyles. AI is being used at airports to verify your face and identity. Most people use their face to unlock their phones.

This is hard when we see AI in so many things in so many places, and in almost every app we use. Here's the truth: if you are online, you are likely using AI, like it or not. In some places you can turn AI features off, in others it is part of the price of using an app.

For example, if you use a Kindle now, you are using AI. AI features are built into not only the device, but the app itself. Facebook, Gmail, Amazon, many Apple products, Android phones, most computers made in the last 7 years or so, every social media platform, nearly every writing software and Microsoft App now, and more all include AI use and AI features. There are very few exceptions. (There is an extremely popular writing software that claims to never use AI, but their website was clearly built using Claude, don't get me started).

So what do you do? How do you avoid AI use entirely? Well, it is like when the internet became a thing and we could sell ebooks at all. You manage what you can, find your level of safety and adoption that you are comfortable with, and make your choices based on your own standards. While no one can choose for you, there are some instances where "If you use this program, AI is a part of it" choices. in that case, like many book retailers, the choice can be to not use them at all, and make your career much, much harder.

For example, at the start of the "self publishing gold rush" there were effectively three companies, and three retailers that offered the best options to authors. Smashwords, Amazon, and Apple (for a while there, Apple was much better than Amazon, but that is a long story for later). Many authors chose not to use one or the other of these platforms for very good reasons.

But Amazon won out, even though authors did not love them (even then) because they had one thing we all needed: an audience, and this new device that made reading ebooks easy. Even today, at least in the US market, Amazon commands 60-70% of ebook sales. and their Kindle Unlimited program, while controversial, provides the most reliable audience for some genres.

When authors pull their books from Amazon because of their use of AI, they potentially lose 70% of their income from books. It's not that authors should not pull books on principle, but it is important to know that there are financial consequences, the number of authors doing this is not yet great enough to impact Amazon and their income from books at all, and the only people it really hurts are those authors.

So what do we do? It's a good question. There are options. Many authors are ditching retailers as much as possible, and building their own micro-communities, attracting readers who also hate those retailers, and encouraging direct sales. That is certainly one approach, and for some quite an effective one.

But what are you doing? Riding out the Amazon and retailer AI craziness? Direct sales? Or do you have other ideas for maintaining your author career while avoiding AI as much as possible?

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Let's Talk AI (Respectfully)