Victoria Aveyard’s eyes avoid the camera when she slams her large white binder on the table, weighed down with a 1,000-page draft of her latest work in progress. The stack is heavy, made clear by her audible sigh as she splits the thick manuscript in half. Fueled with Cherry Lime Poppi and a bowl of grapes, she purposefully jots notes on the pages with every quick camera cut. Aveyard, the New York Times bestselling young adult fantasy author of the Red Queen series, doesn't say a single word in the video, but her captions on the screen speak volumes. “Using GenAI to write a book doesn’t make you a writer, it makes you a thief,” reads one.
“Don’t use generative-AI to make tropey, regurgitated romantasy sludge that you can then launder through the self-publishing industry in order to backdoor your way into a traditional publishing deal,” Aveyard tells her over 460,000 followers on TikTok in another video posted on May 27. “Authors talk.” Both TikToks garnered over 350,000 views.
Criticism and warnings of Gen-AI authors snagging coveted deals are flooding both Threads and TikTok, with writers and readers sometimes flinging around accusations when they suspect someone is using AI as part of their creative process. Now, Aveyard and other prolific authors are not only calling out people who use AI to write, they’re also posting livestreams and time-lapses of their writing processes to defend themselves against such complaints.
“The r/WritingWithAI subreddit has over 40,000 subscribers and growing. It’s a very depressing thought, to know we may very soon be the minority,” Aveyard tells WIRED. “I don’t think my voice will move the needle much or convince anyone already using generative AI to stop, but I needed to voice my anger with the circumstances.”
The publishing market is expected to grow by $18.9 million between now and 2029, according to market research firm Technavio, partially due to an influx of self-published authors. But with scammy rewrites and digitally fabricated authors entering the market, artificial intelligence has made searching for human-made content more difficult, causing independent authors to combat what some are calling an AI-generated “witch hunt.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to conceptualize the scope and scale of work that goes into writing a book, and showing a physical manuscript really helps that hit home,” Aveyard says when asked about the inspiration behind her 1,000-page editing video. She is a strong critic of AI in publishing, calling it theft of creative intellectual property. “I post regularly on my platforms, and I’m always looking for content that catches the eye as well as emphasizes my work. And getting to emphasize my position on generative AI? An added benefit.” (Aveyard never names any specific indie authors using generative-AI to secure a traditional publishing deal.)
“Do I think authors should post ‘proof’? Not necessarily,” says indie author Ashley Godschild. “Would I like to see more authors post their process and make it clear it's without AI? Yes. Because I think we need to be loud and clear that it's not welcome in this industry.”