Home

Writer & Story Coach

Tag: artificial intelligence

Open post
A woman’s face partially obscured by projected streams of binary code in blue and green.

Canada is Backing Human Authors

Recently, Canada changed their rules regarding their ISBNs. For the foreseeable future, Canadian ISBNs are restricted to human-generated content. The original version of the policy explicitly said that you may not use AI to generate the text, create the artwork, or translate the book. This has changed, but it is clear that ISBN Canada does not support AI-generated works at the expense of human creators.

In my opinion, this is fantastic news for authors, graphic designers, audiobook narrators, and translators. We are now seeing a government recognizing that there is a problem (that is negatively impacting on the industry as a whole), and they are telling publishers to sort their shit out.

Even though policing is going to be an issue, I hope other countries follow suit.

Stick around and I'll explain why I support this move by the Canadian government and what I hope this means for the publishing industry.

Read More

Open post
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.

Read More

Open post

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.

Read More

Open post

To AI covers or not to AI covers? What a loaded question.

It's something that has been on my mind for a variety of reasons lately.

Is it acceptable to use an AI cover on a human-generated book or not?

Many of us will likely have an instinctive answer that will go one way or the other, but the question is not clear-cut.

First, we have AI-generative tools being embedded in photoshopping programs, making it difficult for graphic designers to avoid AI when designing our book covers. Then we have book awards saying that books will be discounted from consideration if any component of the book was AI-generated, including the cover, even though the competition is for the content; and the cover is technically not part of the content, especially when you consider that the change of a book cover does not require a new ISBN to be issued for that book.

And let's not forget any ethical concerns that might arise.

Cost is often a factor here. Though there is no guarantee that an AI-generated cover would be cheaper than a human-created one.

But putting all of this aside, it is still a valid question. Is it okay for a human-generated book to use an AI-generated cover?

In today's post, I want to explore the consequences of such an action, addressing questions that some self-publishing authors might have regarding AI covers.

Read More

Open post
Dark digital image of a Guy Fawkes mask overlaid with computer code, symbolizing hacking and cyber threats.

Ding, ding, ding. We have an AI scammer!

The number of scams is on the rise. Systems like ChatGPT have made it super-easy for the charlatans to craft the perfect emails.

Scrape this website here of that information. Scrape that bit too. Oh, and get ChatGPT to run its own high-powered search. And tell the system to craft the perfect email that will suck the unsuspecting doop in.

As many of us start to see more and more of these emails, we’re starting to see patterns that seem to be the Hallmark of scams. But, it’s getting harder and harder to spot the scams. And for a freelance editor (and writing coach) such as myself, what might look like a scam on the first inspection (as it’s an email that follows the telltale signs of an AI scam), the email might indeed be a prospective client that I need to start courting.

In today’s post, we’re going to look at the tactics that scammers are now using. I’ll even attempt to provide tips on how to identify the AI scams for what they are (though the AI scammers are quickly evolving and they are wisening up to their own failings.)

Read More

Posts navigation

1 2 3
Scroll to top