First things first. I’ve made 75 queries, with 18 rejections and one withdrawn because the query had passed the agent’s consideration window. That’s a 24% rejection rate do far. I have several I’m monitoring. They are currently closed to submissions. When they come open, I’ll submit.
What I wanted to write about today is AI. Or SI, if I was subject to the Executive Order signed by the President. The writing industry has a definite position on using AI to create stories. Let me start by unequivocally stating, “My creative works are not created by AI. I’ve have created all aspects of my stories.”
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal to an Appeals Court ruling, in Thaler v. Permutter. Thaler created art via AI, then attempted to copyright it, and was denied by the U.S. Copyright Office. A D.C. District Court judge ruled that the “Copyright Office acted properly in denying copyright for a work absent any human involvement.” (https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/supreme-court-denies-artificial-intelligence-authorship-claim-for-artwork-copyright) A three-judge appeals panel upheld the District Court ruling. By denying the ruling, SCOTUS agreed that AI-created art could not be copyrighted, absent any human involvement.
I understand why AI makes literary agents, and publishing houses, nervous. They make their money being able to sell copyrighted material. If the material can’t be copyrighted, they can’t make money. They’ve used this SCOTUS ruling to explain their views on AI.
Many of the agents I query have started asking about AI in their online processes. Here’s where I start to have issues of my own. As I said above, I do not create any portion of my story with AI. That being said, Microsoft Word uses an AI spell- and grammar-checker. I use Grammarly, an AI spell- and grammar-checker. I use Muse to track my queries, find new ones that fit my specific criteria (Fantasy, epic, high, Christian themes). Does all that ‘create’ my story?
I say, “Nay.”
I submit my writings to critique by other writers on the QTCritique website. I have received excellent feedback that has allowed me to strenghten both of my novels, FKotL, and FKotL: Migration. If I get representation, do any of those writers get a cut of my profits, because they were part of the editorial process? What if AI was used in the editorial process? In QTCritique, I have to wait on someone to read my submission, critique it, then submit it. Meanwhile, I’m writing additional chapters, then have to go back and review previous chapters.
AI can speed that process. Identifying ‘bloat’, ‘info-dumping’, ‘adverb-misuse’, and other issues can be identified near-instantaneously. I can then correct my ongoing issues and move on. I do not allow AI to enter information into my writing, regardless of the type of correction. If spellcheck flags a word, I correct it, the same with grammar. My Word document metadata shows how often I’ve revised my document and when. Sometimes, in dialogue, characters use bad grammar and spelling, so just allowing AI to carte blanche make changes wouldn’t work anyway.
Further clouding the issue are ghost writers. Authors who take someone else’s ideas and put them into a coherent, written format, often without attribution. I’m not saying they shouldn’t. Not everyone can write, and there are excellent stories out there that need to be told.
I struggle with an industry that lives with that, but has issues with AI. I get it. Ghost writers are human, AI isn’t, and I would never put forth AI created writing as my own. But there is an element of hypocrisy to this.
I also wonder how much literary agents and publisher houses use AI. There are AI checkers that are used to check for AI writing. College professors use them all the time. After some time spent in this space, I’ve become aware of the way AI phrases sentences that differ from human creators. But not all writing flagged as AI were created by AI. Yet agents and Publishing Houses use AI to identify AI. Again, there is an element of hypocrisy to this. I’ve heard of writers asking that AI not be use to evaluate their work. It’s a crazy world.
We’re still in the nascent stages of the use of AI in creating works of art. As with all other new ideas, we need to process this with logic and reason, not emotion.
What are your thoughts?
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