How to Avoid Books Written by AI

ByBecky Wade
13 Comments

I really appreciate AI for some things! For example, search engines are phenomenally helpful these days.

However, since “generative AI” writing tools like ChatGPT and Claude became available, the number of independently-published ebooks has tripled.

A New York Times article stated that Coral Hart published more than 200 books in one year. The New York Post reported that Tim Boucher used AI to publish 97 mini-novels in a year. Each one took him 3-8 hours to create.

Now AI copycat books are being generated following the publication of successful books. For example, this legitimate novel was published earlier this year . . . .

It gained traction, and in less than 10 days, as many as 13 copycat books were published.

Which begs the question . . . .

How to avoid books written by AI?

Here are my tips!

  • Continue reading authors you know. (But not at the exclusion of new-to-you authors, since supporting legitimate new authors is very important, too. See final point.)
  • Continue reading publishers you know
  • Continue reading books recommended by friends you trust
  • When searching for a popular book, double check the title and the author’s name, so you don’t accidentally buy a copycat
  • Do a little sleuthing into authors you’re completely unfamiliar with…
    • Check their social media to verify that the author is a person
    • Check to see if they have an author website (most credible authors do, but not all)
    • Check to see how many books they’ve released recently (a number of releases above what a human could generate, for example 100 in a year) is concerning)

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Becky makes her home in Dallas, Texas with her husband and three children. She absolutely loves writing funny, heartwarming, and inspirational contemporary Christian romance.

13 Comments

  1. I already do the things you mentioned! I know there were some (even before AI) that churned out books and kept all of their prices at 99 cents for every book!! They also don’t have “real” pictures of themselves, and the covers all have the same fonts for the titles and the authors. I’ve gotten to where I look for them on FaceBook, and if they don’t have authors that I know are real as friends, it makes me question them, and if they don’t have websites. Another “clue” is if they have no author information or an author page on the Zon.

  2. Thanks for this advice. As AI becomes more in use, it is important to be informed. My granddaughter is entering her second year of college this week. I have been hearing that colleges are being encouraged to teach students to use AI, and that bothers me. My granddaughter is an excellent writer, and although I don’t know if her college will be involved in this approach, I worry if it is.

  3. AI generated digital works of all types infuriate me. I unknowingly purchased an entire Christmas album earlier this year from a “Christian artist” that turned out to be AI. I felt very deceived.

    1. I’m sorry that happened, Rhonda. My goal for this post was to provide info that might help readers avoid what happened to you–purchasing a product believed to be human-generated, then realizing it’s AI.

  4. I thank you for this information. I just don’t understand AI very well and your information is helpful.

  6. I can’t help but feel sorry for “real” writers who are just starting out. Of course, even before there was AI, there were knock-off books created by knock-off writers (using the term writers loosely) that readers did well to avoid. But I also know amazing writers who write for many hours a day and publish a lot of books, but they don’t come anywhere close to 200 in a year. It’s taken me 45 years to reach 99 books!

  8. I just copied part of your email with your good advice. I put the copyrght with your name. Hope that was okay.

  9. Thank you for bringing this to our attention! I wasn’t aware that this was happening, but I’ll definitely be doing more research before purchasing a book in the future. I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this, and I truly appreciate you making others aware of the issue.

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