On March 19th, 2026, Hachette US (a major publisher) announced that it would be cancelling the publication of Shy Girl by a popular horror author, Mia Ballard. At first, this story didn’t grab my attention, until I realized it was cancelled over alleged use of Artificial Intelligence, and, to my horror (no pun intended), I recognized the cover as a book I had had on my TBR (to be read) list! All of the lit girls have been talking about this book. There are some book influencers whose recommendations or TBRs I pull from without question. I was shocked to have made the connection between the creative “weird girl lit” rec I had been seeing months prior and this suddenly outcast novel. What happened?
In short, Mia Ballard is the self-published author of Sugar, which gained her some acclaim from literary horror fans. Ballard has claimed to be passionate about writing stories pertaining to feminine rage, and this is clear in the subject matter of Sugar and Shy Girl. She self-published Shy Girl in February of 2025, and Hachette UK traditionally published it in November of 2025. It was set to come out in North America this spring. Now, all bets are off.
Allegations about AI use were stirring amongst some of those who had already read it before the book actually got canceled…now it’s all seemingly confirmed. Ballard has tried to explain that she handed the book off to be edited by a friend, who must have used the AI. Even then, I wonder if it’s an acceptable standard to not read the final copy of your manuscript after changes are made by someone else, before submitting for publication.
I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around all of this. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but to me, writing is one of the most human things you can do. It doesn’t feel fair that there are people getting publishing deals with work that a robot threw together. While other people are shocked by this news, I think my gut reaction is to be angry. Whether or not that’s fair of me, I’m not yet sure. I do have my own hat in the ring here, after all. I don’t want to be competing for book deals with people who aren’t actually working as hard as I am. The humanities and the art world are places that I personally feel have zero space for Artificial Intelligence. I know that I’m not alone in that sentiment.
This all does make me consider, too, what the publishing world is going to start to look like, even for writers and editors who aren’t using AI. In an industry that used to be very firm in trusting its writers and clients (to tell their best stories and do honest work), what does it look like when some writers (successful writers) start to go against the grain? You can already start to see the effects of AI in education, beyond the destruction of literacy and critical thinking skills, too. Teachers are afraid every student is using AI. They are running every assignment through “AI checkers,” but if you were to do that yourself (run your work through a bunch of them), they would all come back with different answers. The em dash is no longer safe to use, nor is putting examples in sets of three, among other things. What if I liked the em dash? Sad face emoji.
Carrying all of this AI allegation terror into the writing and publishing world is kind of scary, I have to admit. Will it turn into a witch hunt of sorts? How do we know the difference between bad human writing and good AI writing? In Ballard’s case, something must have been confirmed behind the scenes for her book to get pulled, but the allegations had begun in the reader space well before that. How do we tell whose writing is real and whose is not?
While I do think consequences are important for people passing AI-generated works as their own, especially in the literary world, I do hope we are able to find and maintain a balance between being cautious and pointing fingers. For now, I encourage everyone to create, create, create. Your words and art are very important, and the world needs more human-made stuff. Creating is powerful! Your brain is powerful!