Cheating and Scamming
Image from Pixabay
Cheating and Scamming
People have been scamming the system since forever. Going all the way back to my days in junior high school, there were those students who didn’t bother to read the assigned book. Instead, these lazy cheats bought the CliffsNotes edition of the book and wrote their book report from that, often lifting the synopsis verbatim.
Back in the day, sometimes the thief was caught but depending how savvy or diligent the teacher, not always. I suppose if the teacher had a copy of the CliffNotes edition or more than one student had pulled the same stunt, he or she would’ve quickly caught on and handed the culprit an F. Otherwise, probably not.
Over the last ten years or so, publishers have been taking the easy way out to cut costs. They’ve either stopped hiring cover artists or dramatically cut back in their use of them. Instead, they generate their covers in-house, using stock photography. Think about how many mysteries, thrillers, and romantic suspense covers you’ve seen that feature a woman wearing a red coat or dress and running off into the distance, her back turned to you. Often, it’s the very same photograph slapped onto a new background.
When a book breaks out, publishers also glom onto that book’s success with their own versions of the title. Think about all the books with “girl” in the title that came out after the success of Gone Girl.
Not only are publishers doing this, but many authors are now trying to capitalize on the success of other authors by copying the series ideas, style, and even cover art of successful authors and/or books. Dragons are everywhere ever since Game of Thrones, including and especially in multiple middle-grade and YA series.
Once upon a time, writers were told not to follow trends. By the time your book was written and submitted, the trend would be on the downside. All you have to do is look at the proliferation of books in multiple genres that all take place in libraries to know that no longer seems to be true.
Cheating & Scamming
Fast-forward to the present, and we’re all contending with people who use AI to generate novels that are flooding the system. Does Amazon really think that by asking on their upload dashboard if AI was used to create any part of the book or cover that those who have used it will be honest enough to say so? If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Cheating & Scamming
image from Pixabay
Too many people aren’t interested in putting in the work to create original works of art. Big tech is stealing from authors, artists, actors, and musicians to train their AI using our copyrighted works without permission or compensation. They’ve now used AI to generate a “live” actress that an agency is shopping around for roles in TV and movies. And an AI generated country singer and song recently hit #1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart.
For those of us who expend the time and brain cells to write unique books rather than copying the works of others or resorting to AI to do the work for us, it’s depressing and demoralizing. But we continue writing because for most of us, we can’t not write. (Excuse the double-negative!)
New technologies play a role in the plot of Embroidered Lies and Alibis, the fifteenth book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series, (currently available for preorder and releasing Feb. 10th).
Many ethical questions are being raised about the use of AI and the people who are profiting from it. What are your thoughts? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free audiobook download of any of the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or the Empty Nest Mysteries.
A Stitch in Time Could Save a Life…
When Anastasia’s mother Flora is offered a free spa vacation from Jeremy Dugan, a man connected to her distant past, Anastasia and husband Zack suspect ulterior motives. After all, too-good-to-be-true often spells trouble. Their suspicions are confirmed when the FBI swoops in to apprehend Dugan. However, Dugan isn’t who he claimed to be, and his arrest raises more questions than answers.
The Feds link Dugan to a string of cons targeting elderly single women across the country, but his seemingly airtight alibi leaves investigators stumped. Then, shortly after his release on bail, he’s kidnapped. A certain segment of New Jersey’s population is known for delivering deadly messages, and the FBI believes Dugan received one of them.
Meanwhile, bodies begin showing up in the newly created public garden across the street from Anastasia and Zack’s home. With two baffling crimes, no clear suspects, scant evidence, and every possible motive unraveling, both the FBI and local law enforcement are once again picking Anastasia’s brain. This time, though, her involvement is far from reluctant. Will she stitch together enough clues before she or someone she loves becomes the killer’s next victim?
Craft project included.
Buy Links: Amazon Nook Kobo Apple Books
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USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com. Sign up for her newsletter to receive an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.
You make some excellent points in your blog. I also like the fact that your new book incorporates new technologies. Looking forward to its formal release.
Thanks, Debra!
Publishers have been chasing trends for a long time now, especially in the more commercial, genre space. All those gothic romances that were everywhere in the 1960s and early 70s suddenly gave way to the big fat historical romances in the late 70s and 80s, which later turned into a glut of paranormal romances. The proliferation of fantasy with elves and dwarves after the success of The Lord of the Rings. Even earlier, noir mysteries popped up everywhere after the success of Chandler and Hammet. But I’m with you on the dangers of AI. Reminds me of that old economic principle of how bad money drives out good. I’m afraid that AI Slop is going to make real, original writing less valued. I hate that in the last year or so I’ve started adding a note to all my short story and novel submissions stating that I wrote every word of this work myself and AI had no part in its creation.
That’s the fear, Karen, and it gets worse every day. I’ve updated the copyright page in all my books to let it be known in no uncertain terms that my books should not be used to train AI.
Lois, very well said and SUCH an important blog. Publishers are one thing, but fellow authors scamming each other. Unacceptable.
Thanks, Donnell!
Well-said, Lois! AI is becoming more and more prevalent and powerful, and the consequences are frightening. The country western singer and song are a prime example of technology gone wrong.
Saralyn, I think if we don’t enact laws to curb what people can and can’t do with AI, we’re all doomed. Just because a new technology has the possibility of curing cancer or Alzheimer’s, it shouldn’t be allowed to run amok on the whims of billionaires or take over human creativity.
AI is everywhere. Microsoft sent me a renewal notice for my Office subscription 6 months early so I could get a deal on the Co-pilot edition. I don’t WANT Co-pilot writing my books, or telling me what my mail message says before I open it. As for the cover art, lighthouses are big with cozies! And the newest rage is “A Guide to” also for cozies, apparently. And ACX is now pushing for AI-generated narrators. It’s all very tedious.
Judy, I turned off Copilot wherever I could and told my narrator not to worry. I would never replace her with an AI narrator.
Well said. And so sad that people who puportedly have a passion for helping writers are just about scamming us. Thinking about the vulnerability of writers hoping to connect with readers and contending with the tough business end of their artform, I am especially angered by the mass emails (written–sometimes quite well, I confess– by AI) about how wonderful and underappreciated our books are is . . . cruel. Especially for young writers living on hope to break through.
Unfortunately, a lot of writers just starting out are so desperate that they fall for those emails, TK. I think we’re all much more cynical and jaded at this point. It’s so easy to spot those AI generated love letters because they all say basically the same thing about every book to every author. They don’t even bother to change the number of subscribers they purport to have. It’s aways 2000!
A lot to think about. Using AI to do your creative writing isn’t my cup of tea. However, in other cases, I can understand why someone would use it. My nephew owns a business, and he uses it to write his promo notices. This saves him time so he can focus on what he does best. I am concerned about how AI is being used in unethical ways. I know I sound like someone born in the 1950s, which I was, when I say, “Who can you trust nowadays?”
Kathleen, I can give your nephew a pass if using AI is saving him time in a part of his job he used to do. However, if he laid off the person who was doing his marketing and switched to AI, I have a problem with that. Multiple that by thousands or millions, and before we know it, we’ll have unemployment in this country that will make the Great Depression look like a minor downturn.
And to answer your question at the end, at this point I’m not sure we can trust anyone anymore.
He hasn’t laid anyone off. He even hires people from the Jail to Jobs program.
Well said, Lois! A complicated and growing more and more complicated every day issue. A great tool for some industries but, in my opinion, no place for it in the creative arts.
Brava, Mary Lee You nailed it.
Absolutely, Mary Lee, but read my response to Kathleen.
I agree that there’s a place for AI. It’s here to stay. But that place isn’t in creative arts. There will be readers who simply want and accept cheap, easy entertainment. Hopefully, the cream will rise to the top – original, human-created art.
Cathy, I recall agents at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference telling us that when we were worried about traditional vs. indy publishing. Cream doesn’t always rise to the top, unfortunately. It’s hit or miss and it often curdles!
Catherine, the problem will be how many readers are willing to wade through all the slop to get to the cream. It’s not like books are divided into AI vs. written by humans at Amazon and other sites.