Update on... the future (literally) (Patreon)

I'm sorry if this post comes across as a complete rant. 

The world is changing... rapidly. I don't know where you all work, but if you work in tech, or online at all, I'm sure that you've noticed things changing. One year ago, I was paying 250/month for 1mbps satellite internet. Now, I have a Starlink dish that gives me over 100mbps for half the cost. That alone has turned my world into something much different! 

But the real monster that has snuck up on 2023 is AI. A year ago, I remember playing around with it for fun, getting ridiculous images. Now, it can suddenly produce images that are almost indistinguishable from the art of professional artists... and it's getting noticeably better by the day. You may have already read my last post on AI... While my feelings towards it haven't changed, my fears certainly have changed.

Last week, two different authors in my close group (I won't say who for personal reasons, so please don't message and ask) announced privately to the group that they will be using AI now to write their content. 

I thought that this was insane, and then I was shown the technology. It's frightening, and maybe you've already seen it. 

One author, who is close to me, produced 5 non-fiction novels in 3 days using it... and I'm not sure the average person would be able to tell it wasn't written by a human hand. This isn't the weird gibberish that these programs were spitting out six months ago. 

In just one week, another author (who will also remain unnamed) produced six novels, and now her new pen name is ranking in the top 100 in its category (a non-fiction cat). 

In the span of three months, you've probably noticed an uptick in 'comics' being posted on the trans romance and erotica charts--all AI produced. Now, it's not just one author; there are THREE different authors on the charts. I did the counting yesterday: 24% of the top 100 is AI-generated, double the number from three weeks ago. 

Today, another close friend of mine admitted to me that, in order to survive in this market, they will start using AI writing software to make their books longer, to generate a higher page count (Kindle pays authors based on pages read by readers). I'm not upset with my friend at all.

I'm upset with the game. Publishing has always been fiercely competitive, since I started in 2013. It's especially cruel to new authors who weren't lucky enough to break in early like me. I feel bad for newcomers like Lilly Lustwood who write seven days a week, doing everything right, but just can't gain any traction, while the market is flooded with AI content. 

I always said that I was blessed with the unique superpower of being extremely prolific, writing 8,000 words per day (about triple what Stephen King wrote in his prime), every day, for over a decade now. I've always been good at writing... fast. Maybe it's a good skill, maybe it's not... but at least it's something relatively unique to me. Well, not so much anymore. One author told me that they managed to write 60,000 words in a single day with help from AI. A certain comic creator is putting out 2 books each week in the trans romance category. 

And even if my books magically stay near the top of the charts, I'm still taking a hit...

Kindle Unlimited has a set monthly 'pot'. The money in the pot is divided between authors based on how many pages are read that month. It's a good system for someone who is very prolific... but what if everyone is prolific? What if I'm suddenly writing less than a quarter of what the other authors are writing?

This all seemed to have happened within the span of two months. Where will we be in another two months? 

Even now, I'm feeling tense all over, knowing that these words that I'm writing should be inside of some new book. I feel like I can't waste a spare minute, trying to keep up with this new AI wave. 

And then I start to wonder if I'm being stubborn, choosing to die on this hill, clutching my morals. Maybe I need to quit being so stubborn and against progress. 

Is it really progress? 

I used to have a 200 day publishing buffer: books that were written and not yet published, waiting in a queue, giving me a bit of breathing room. Now, that buffer had dwindled to less than a quarter of what it once was. It now takes me 6-8 days to write a story with a word-count that can compete with the market. If I manage to take no days off whatsoever, I'll catch my publishing buffer by the end of the year. 

On Tuesday, I worked for fourteen straight hours, writing 12,000 words. Still, somehow, it doesn't seem like enough. 

Like I said... this is more of a rant than anything else. I'm at a bit of a crossroads, trying to figure out where to go next from here. Thank you for listening :)