Why Producing More Books Quickly Isn’t the Salvation Writers Think It Is
I’m used to doing a lot fast. That’s just the nature of having significant everyday responsibilities and pursuing multiple creative projects. It’s taught me to trust my instincts as a I work and “just do the da*n thing.”
But sometimes, speed isn’t our friend.
AI means AI slop, but also some OK-ish books
The loudest bullhorn message in favor of AI in the writing industry is that the ability to produce content faster means writers can create more work that drives more income. This isn’t entirely untrue — multiple books do mean you have multiple potential revenue streams.
Still, many writers lament AI’s pesky quality problem — when profit is the only incentive, people can and do generate AI slop. Consider, for example, Jason Cherubini, who detailed his experience creating and publishing a 8,500 word text with ChatGPT strictly for testing purposes in a whopping 3 hours and 23 minutes, including Amazon KDP navigation time. Peruse YouTube and you’ll find a slew of videos about how to produce sell low-content, AI generated texts, most of which crow about the money the creator’s personally been able to make.
But plenty of people are willing to do a little due diligence and at least go over what the AI gives them, too. Maybe it’s not Shakespeare, but it’s not total dung, either.
This can seem like a happy medium — OK-ish content that lets writers earn more.
The governing dynamics of the reader’s brain
The blind spot most people have is this: Even when a human takes the time to improve the quality of an AI draft, the consistent use of AI for production dramatically increases the number of titles available. Even when the content is passable, readers have more to wade through. Writers essentially create more noise for themselves and each other, worsening the discovery problem.
I want readers to have a huge range of books to choose from. But in this situation, reducing the rate of publication benefits the reader, reducing decision fatigue and increasing the likelihood of an actual book sale.
We’ve been treating AI as a way to make the sky the limit and finally make writing financially viable. But technology cannot erase the fact that the human mind eventually gets overwhelmed by options. This biological limitation will always be a constraint that controls the ideal pace of content production.
It’s the concept, not the amount, that matters
My recommendation regardless of whether you use AI or not is to zoom out. Look at the big picture and understand that, as authors like Harper Lee and Hermon Melville will attest, you don’t need a ton of titles if the core concept of the book is truly innovative and fresh.
What’s the foundational concept you can build your content and brand around? What exactly do you want the infrastructure of all your books to look like — how will they support each other over the long term?
If you’re hitting “publish” just to sustain yourself in the current moment with no real plan for integrating your work together, reconsider your approach, because you’ll forever chase trends rather than creating a distinguishable voice in a stable business model that lasts.
[Transcript summary]
Creators, stop me if you’ve heard this one: “Oh, I can create more content, therefore, more income. It will save me.” I know I’ve heard that once or twice.
I’m Wanda Thibodeaux. I am the sole proprietor of takingdictation.com. The reason why I want to talk to you about AI today is because of this idea of pacing. Now, as I had just mentioned, we have this idea that because AI can spit out content very, very quickly, that that’s going to allow you to generate more income. We also have the idea within that is — that you have to be very careful because there, let’s face it, there’s a lot of AI slop, right?
So, what I want to point out to you is that we have this idea that AI slop is the problem, and that’s certainly true. But the other side of this coin is that if you are continuously putting out more and more more more content, just spin, spin, spin, spin, guess what? If you ever heard of the jam study, it’s basically this study that showed when people are overwhelmed with choices, they don’t choose. So, what you’re basically doing is, even if you can use AI and make the quality good, you’re still flooding people with choices. That’s not good people. Okay?
So, my recommendation is leave AI aside. If you want to use it for maybe, like, getting yourself organized to write the book, okay. That’s fine. But don’t use it to just churn out content, because you think that it’s going to save you with income, because ultimately you are creating more noise for your own work, more noise for competition for other writers. Okay, so I don’t think that necessarily helps us in this industry. I would much rather see us be the Harper Lees of the world. You know, you put out maybe one book, but it’s fantastic. Okay, focus on the impact that that book is going to have, not necessarily how many you’re putting out, because if you know anything about Harper Lee’s story, that book’s still cranking income. Take care. Everybody. Bye.