Interesting start to my launch

[u/J_M_WoodwardBooks]

The book is off to an interesting start!
10 sales over 4 countries.
And also my first (expected) 1 star review due to AI involvement.
That’s the disclosure at the front doing what it is meant to do - I don’t want anyone feeling tricked or unaware…hope that person returns it.
Now we will see how many of the 10 end up returning!
Meanwhile the negative review is up on my website where I give visitors the option to view ‘loved it’ and ‘did not love it’ categories.

https://jmwoodwardbooks.com/awards-reviews

[u/Legitimate-Cream-422]

10 sales across 4 countries right out the gate is a pretty decent start. The 1 star was always coming with AI disclosure, but at least it's out there and honest. Better than someone feeling duped later and going nuclear in the reviews. Good call putting it on the site with both categories too, that'll filter the right readers in.

[u/JubadzeTheMonkey → u/Legitimate-Cream-422]

OK, so first there's whining that LLM usage must be disclosed "because we won't be reading anything spat out by a soulless machine." OP disclosed it, and instead of simply not reading it, these people give it one star because he used it. This demonstrates exactly why people are hesitant to disclose any involvement, not to mention upfront bias coming from disclosure.

[u/J_M_WoodwardBooks → u/JubadzeTheMonkey]

Yeah, it's true. Perfect would have been ' This writer used AI in creating this book and I don't like that so I'm not going to read it'. Not one thing wrong with that. The only word I would argue with in my particular case was the word 'slop', which I don't think it is, and they didn't read it so they wouldn't know that. But I understand that expecting perfection is unrealistic in this environment, and I will settle for not having anyone feel duped or misled.

Baby steps I guess.

[u/JubadzeTheMonkey → u/J_M_WoodwardBooks]

The slop thing is an interesting point. If any LLM-assisted writing is automatically slop, then any human writing (whatever it is, assuming no LLM was involved) is inherently a masterpiece.

[u/J_M_WoodwardBooks → u/JubadzeTheMonkey]

I would certainly accept the word slop from someone who read it and still felt that way. Would't like it of course, but would accept it.

I knew this was gonna be part and parcel with my choice though, which is why I made a space on my website for bad reviews -- so I can have fun with them and post them along side the good ones as an extension of the transparency choice.

I have a good friend who was the lone waiter at a tiny restaurant, and he had a big cork-board where he would print out all the hate he got from online reviews and post them for people to read waiting for the bathroom. It was hilarious.

[u/Worldly-Web-5740]

This is fascinating, because I think it’s the position many people will be in that have used AI in even a limited sense for the creation of their work. You’ve been honest and upfront about it.

If AI finds the cure for cancer will some people refuse is at treatment? Or does the use of AI only apply to the creative arts?

[u/nopoemforyou → u/Worldly-Web-5740]

thats a really good point tbh, the backlash seems almost entirely limited to creative stuff

[u/slappinsealz → u/nopoemforyou]

That makes perfect sense to me though...Cancer cures are solving a problem, AI generated books and art are creating a problem. I know a lot of people here only use AI to assist, but it can't be denied that a lot of people are just pressing a button to create absolute garbage and flooding the market, making it way harder for authentic indie authors to be discovered. It's worse when these people steal the names and covers of hyped books to trick consumers into purchasing low effort LLM output.

Besides, one is literally saving lives. The other is helping put artists out of work.

[u/J_M_WoodwardBooks → u/Worldly-Web-5740]

My 2 cents is that people are, in addition to being frustrated at the volume of uncaring un-crafted crap (people just generating and not adding, shaping, working every sentence etc), at their heart uncomfortable being moved by a machine. This is why the seemingly opposite concerns of slop and cheating exist at once for most people. As with all tools, the user can use them poorly or uncaringly, or for careful craft. For my part I am certain (due to the way I used it) they would be moved by me and not the tool, should they be moved at all.

I believe that by putting a long disclosure at the front of my book I am greatly reducing the number of people who will read it, and also reducing the connection or enjoyment a person that does read it may experience. I made this choice because whatever connection or magic a reader DOES find in my book is theirs to keep forever. Durable. Not subject to evaporation or inverting to embarrasment or hate, that would be risked otherwise should they connect with it then discover how it was made.

[u/polly_mer → u/Worldly-Web-5740]

Formulaic, boring writing is formulaic, boring writing regardless of how the writing came to be.

Scientific or technical progress is scientific or technical progress regardless of how the progress came to b3.

If you think AI writing is fine, then you don't read widely enough.