Coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, the year 2020 saw an incredible surge in web-based activity. BookTok, being one of many online entities that benefited from no one being able to go out and âtouch grass”, likewise saw a rise in viewership. For those who make the personal decision not to be chronically online, âBookTokâ is a subgenre of TikTok that focuses specifically on discussing, recommending, and reviewing books. However, many authors have also gotten to launch their careers on the platform. The New York Times bestselling novels Lightlark and Powerless both rose to popularity thanks to the overwhelming support that the authors generated on the app. While the supportive and uplifting nature of BookTok can create a wonderful sense of community, the space is not without its flaws.
Where some may see the opportunity to become a bestselling author as a dream come true, others see instant dollar signs. What better way to get rich quickly? The cash incentives are just enticing enough for everyone to want a piece of the action.
However, while some authors may take months or even years to write and edit a book, AI can generate one in a couple of minutes. Just last year, so many people were peddling their AI-generated books on Amazon that it flooded the website, displacing authors that put their own thought into what they created. Amazonâs response was making crackdowns on how many books authors could release on kindle per day. The new self-publishing maximum was set to three, which still seems considerably high when you take into account all the effort that usually needs to go into writing a book.Â
One of the major concerns with AI dominating artistic industries is that it eliminates human competition by using human work. AI models feed and learn from existing data, so a lot of writers have to fear that someone may be feeding their work into an algorithm without their consent. Right now, it may seem easy to tell apart what is and isnât AI-generated, but in the future, that might not be the case. Not being able to tell what is the work of artificial intelligence and what is the work of humans is something that is already happening.
Some scammers online do generate books from the ground up, but other authors use them to generate ideas and shape their stories. Itâs difficult to accurately gauge who is and isnât using it because if the author doesnât blatantly admit it, it can be hard to tell. Some authors of TikTok are even known to stand in support of it. Victoria Aveyard, author of the bestselling series Red Queen, has taken to TikTok in the past to state that âUsing GenAI to come up with characters, plots, and story ideas isnât writing. Itâs theft. Using GenAI doesnât make you a writer. It makes you a thief.â However, with loose laws concerning the validity of AI writing, there isnât much that can be done.Â
When looking into buying books, we should be careful to make sure that they arenât the product of AI. Buying artificially generated books can be harmful to authors who care about their craft. Whether it is the entire book, the cover, or the idea for the story, we should make the conscious decision not to buy. Looking at the table labeled âBookTokâ in the bookstore, itâs better to think twice.Â