Read This: How AI tools are souring relationships between publishers and authors
In a new Wired feature, bestselling authors spoke anonymously about Big Five publishers forcing AI tools into the workflow, leading to hallucinated quotes and other frustrations.
Photo: Xavi Torrent/Getty Images
By now, it’s no secret that some authors, particularly in the romance department, rely heavily on generative AI for their storytelling—but not all novelists agree, and for many, the AI push is driving them further away from publishing houses. In a feature Wired published Wednesday, bestselling authors spoke anonymously (out of fear of retaliation or repercussions) about how publishers’ insistence on using AI is muddying their relationship and pushing them to consider alternative publishing approaches. According to one author, marketing copy included hallucinated quotes (a known issue with AI) from their novel, and when confronted, the publisher “gaslit” them. Others have gotten the sense that publishers are letting AI do the work for them, developing marketing language or making revisions that don’t entirely make sense. “What are authors even doing with traditional publishers anymore if they’re going to outsource everything to a machine?” one author asked. “Why can’t an author do that themselves?”
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