This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
When I worked at B&N way back in the day the policy was to sell any book that was legal to sell, though many would have to be ordered. In that regard, as long as AI slop is legal to sell I don't have any particular problem with a store selling it.
I wouldn't buy it, of course. It's bound to be wretched.
So this is how society crumbles. Not with a nuclear explosion. Not with war. But instead with brain crippling stupidity. This is the world we live in now. Book stores filled with romance novels about Romeo and Julie. Where the author writes a bit about biting the thumb, but it goes in a very literal, violent and bloody direction that's supposed to be romantic.
Never thought I'd live to see the day where smart people AVOID reading books!
Honestly, I hope they do. It'd be funny to see the sales figures. I don't care how much anyone likes AI, but nobody wants to read AI novels.
Can confirm. I use AI quite a bit, including writing stories where I have editorial control (that's a dumb decision, she does the other thing!). The best AIs might be able to manage one short passable chapter, but it's going to be shot quality without massive amounts of hand holding and rewriting.
It can be entertaining in a choose your own adventure sense where each page really only needs to be barely coherent and minimally cohesive with the other pages. I sure as hell wouldn't pay $25 for an AI-penned book.
Now I'm going to not go in that store twice as hard. 👍
Fine, just as long as they contain all of it in an "AI Slop" section.
I back AI CEOs. Can't do much worse.
Why would I pay money to purchase a book when I could just have Copilot gen me one up at home?
There are different levels of AI books, and websites like BN and Amazon ask on their submission what specifically was done by or assisted by AI to get a read on what authors are doing. Full AI written based on a bunch of prompts gets garbage, I agree there, and it's also the easy route so the market is being flooded, especially the low effort ones, since that's far easier to do than actual prose from AI. But AI can also have a subtle aid to an actual writer. I realize some people are dead set on zero AI, period, and I understand the reasons. It sucks we've gotten to this point where some incredible things can be done, and yet so much as been ruined by that progress too, when it could have been done better and more honestly.
As someone who has a few books on Amazon and BN, I've used AI for a bit of behind the scenes for artwork, then taking that in Gimp for the final product. The books were done mainly to see if I could put them together and was fun to do. The hard part is actually selling any, it's a nightmare for the same reason, oversaturation.
I will say that BN's website sucks big time. I thought Amazon's was flaky but figured it out, but I'm surprised I ever got books onto BN as much as it hangs, and I haven't been able to get onto my account in a while to even see how the books are doing there, but I doubt I've sold any because I haven't seen evidence, and I question who goes there now to buy a book.
Fix your website!
Oh, and they also just raised the minimum print price to like $14.99, so no cheap books, and if you have a low cost book there, no one is going to buy it now for those prices. Brilliant.
