AI-generated biographies, summaries and even copycat books tend to offer low-quality writing that makes it easy to flag as AI generated, says Jane Friedman, a writer and publishing industry analyst. She says there’s a generic quality to the writing. “It just feels like a human didn’t write these,” she says. “Humans would — funnily enough — do a better job being bad.”

…But the issue of AI-generated books can harm more than just an author’s sales numbers.

“It’s reputational harm,” Friedman says.

Last year, she wrote a blog post outlining her experience with books about publishing that purported to be by her but that she didn’t write. “Even the most beginning reader would read it and say, ‘This person is not going to give me any helpful information,'” she says. Friedman says that she makes most of her money through paid newsletters and classes she offers and that the books could be seen by potential customers. “And then off they go to find some other better resource.”

Read more:

Limbong, A. (2024, March 13). Authors push back on the growing number of AI ‘scam’ books on Amazon. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1237888126/growing-number-ai-scam-books-amazon