Author: Judy L Mohr

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Woman in purple shirt covering their face at the center of a red target, surrounded by pointing fingers.

The AI Witch Hunts Have Started

Authors losing contracts. Editors being sued. Contests coming into disrepute. And all this pales in comparison to the slander and accusations that are flying in every which direction.

I'm seeing an increasing number of posts from self-publishing authors now afraid of being accused of using AI to write their stories. Some of these posts are in response to random comments about covers that they've just had commissioned, suggesting that the author was scammed by someone using AI in the design. Other posts are because the author favors punctuation that has now become a "tell-tale sign" of whether someone is using AI or not—like a writer not using AI is not capable of producing anything that might be grammatically correct. And let's not forget the authors who are being accused of using AI to pump it out at a rapid rate, just because they're publishing six books a year. Yet, I personally know Harlequin Romance writers who are contracted to do just that—write at least six books a year.

Unfortunately, when the lynch mob gets an idea stuck in their heads, there's nothing that anyone can do to prove otherwise.

The mob says it's so, so the mob must be right. Right?

WRONG!

Yet, it doesn't take away the fear.

Emotions are running high, and those with the pitch forks are ready to pounce. And many authors are now scared… and all because of the AI mess that has landed at our feet.

It's time to put a little perspective into this and right-size the situation.

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A Call to “Disarm” AI from Pope Leo XIV

On May 25, 2026, Pope Leo XIV made history by giving a summary statement of his first encyclical letter at an in-person event at the Vatican. And the title of his encyclical letter:

On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence

During his speech, he spoke about how we needed to "disarm" AI. But when he said this, he wasn't talking about running in fear of the technology or dismantling it. He was saying that all of us need to take a level of responsibility to ensure that the technology doesn't strip away our humanity or the human experience.

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How To Assess the Quality of Editorial Feedback

Feedback from external eyes is a vital part of the process for any writer working towards publication. It doesn't matter if you are new to writing or have been writing for decades with multiple publications to your name. Any writer on the road to publication will get feedback about their writing at some point during a book's life cycle.

It might be from critique partners, beta readers, editors, or friends. Those external eyes help us to see what is really on the page.

Let's face reality here: What we thought was on the page might not actually be there. We know our stories so well that what we thought was obvious might be confusing to another person who doesn't know what is inside our heads. They won't see things the way we do. But until we get that vital external feedback, we have no idea if something reads how we imagined it.

While I have written about how to handle feedback before, in today's post, I want to address editorial feedback specifically. I'm talking about the feedback that comes back from editors, either freelance editors that we've hired or editors assigned to our books by the publishing house. While it is still feedback, because it comes from a source that is seen as authoritative, it does carry a different feel.

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When Do You Become An Author?

The debate about whether a person is an author or a writer seems to come up frequently. And it is often in the context of whether a person has the right to call themselves an author or a writer.

It seems like a silly argument to be having, but when the self-doubt monster is involved, those words carry significance.

In today’s post, I want to explore the subtle differences between what it means to be a writer vs an author. And I want to explore when a person makes the transition from one to the other.

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