This morning I had a message from someone who has been writing womag type stories for years and is thinking of putting them into a collection to sell on Amazon. One of her reasons is she feels AI stories are taking over, and she'll find it even harder to get them published, so may as well try herself. As I've produced lots of such books myself, she wondered if I had any tips. Well yes. The first is, don't expect high sales. Secondly, it's not for everyone – and most definitely not something you 'should' do unless you actually want to. Thirdly, here's how I did it.
This post isn't just for her – it's for all of us wondering whether AI will make our human creativity worthless, and what we can do with our existing stories and any we may write in the future. What do you think? Are their still readers for short stories written by humans, and if so, how do we reach them?
Please note – I only know of one womag market using AI to 'create' stories. As far as I know, the other publishers have not decided to take this route, and still do value human creativity, and those who use it to produce content for them.
A bit of good news: only a bit, but hey. I am still on the case of how to work out if stories have been reprinted. If you search for BOWW, there are outlets which sell them (2? maybe) If you click on one of those, it generates several covers. The other, however, gives you a preview... Don't hold your breath, not all of them give the contents page, but some of them do. Which is how I know Maisie has a story in this month's. 🙂
ReplyDeleteNothing to report on the writing front other than awaiting an answer from Crowvus submissions (end July, memoir) and a couple for WM which I put a lot of effort into. Au revoir et merci, Patsy.
Putting together an e- collection of stories is a good idea, but you need to have an awful lot of IT knowledge and expertise- and even then, there's no guarantee of high sales. I tend to sub to mine stories online fiction projects. There's no fee but at least it's online somewhere and you never know, people may read them! I have no news to report.
ReplyDeleteWhat a comprehensive guide, Patsy, together with all the pros and cons, that anyone thinking of publishing on Amazon may not have been aware of.
ReplyDeleteIf A1 is being used to generate stories to cut costs then showing support for your favourite magazines, (ie those still accepting stories written by humans) may help them to keep going, and, if you can, buy them regularly or take out a subscription for yourself (offers often available) or as a present for someone else.
Dee
Just a note- could AI take your self published book to help train it's fiction writing, without your permission or knowledge? I've heard of this happening. Sorry about the typos earlier. I meant to say that I sub my stories to online, no fee, fiction projects. There are also competitions and ongoing story publications, such as Scribble.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Marguerite, for your tip about BOWW. I can find it on Magazines Direct and Newsstand websites, but I'm failing to find a contents page on either of those - your technological expertise must be ahead of mine there. Thanks to Sharon on this blog, I managed to ascertain that my story 'Gearing Up' had been reprinted in Woman's Weekly Living Summer Special. I wonder if they've reprinted the same story in BOWW too. I know the fiction editors are very busy, but it would be great if they could let us know!
ReplyDeleteAh, I just did a search on BOWW issue 71 (Current) and it's Pocket Mags: Bag Lady. I was leaving it to see if you could test it out for me. As I've said before, I exclusively use a laptop for this type of thing. You are having a good run at the moment! :)
DeleteThanks again, Marguerite. Found it! And managed to get to contents list too. Well worth knowing about, as I suspect quite a few of us will have missed reprints.
DeleteEnjoy your trip, Patsy. I envy you the croissants!
ReplyDeleteShocking that a magazine is now openly using AI generated stories, although I suppose that at least now they say they are we can avoid buying it. I feel for their writers.
Alyson
Regarding Fiction “Fakes”, the new mag from Bauer: They say the stories are only “human assisted”. Unfortunately it’s clear after a read that they’re edited by very talentless people who haven’t altered AI enough to lose the AI feel — no voice, no consistent tone, stories without earned endings, etc. Not saying the mag was ever a literary tome, but this is definitely a clear signal that their working model is now: our readers are thick and any old cheap trash will do.
ReplyDeleteFrance sounds lovely, enjoy Patsy & thanks for sharing your publishing on amazon experience. My only news is a potential acceptance (gone to next level) this week from TPF for a traditional Christmas story submitted recently so happy with that.
ReplyDeleteWell, I can remember when people said the stories were rubbish and tacky when Norah left and Alice took over.
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit of an insult to the writers who had their work accepted under Alice.
I thought the staff had written these 10 stories, with AI assistance. There are 20 in, by human writers.
It doesn't matter what we think, anyway.
If that's what baeur has decided to do, then that's their decision.
Boycotting the mag, when there are proper writer stories in it, won't achieve anything. They've said they will contact the writers when they need stories.
We don't know if there's a September issue yet. Nothing has been announced. Wel done to all with positive news.
If enough people boycott the mag so that circulation drops steeply, it might prevent other mags from following them down the AI route.
ReplyDeleteBon voyage, Patsy.
ReplyDeleteNothing to report, but lovely to read some good news in the blog.
HB