Leng posted:
My novel, In Sekhmet's Shadow, is in the running this year. 
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Aug 31, 2023 03:49
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:Are there any discords or Facebook groups or the like where LitRPG authors hang out? Sooo many. For Authors, discord's big. Silver Pen, litRPG Forum, Progression/litRPG Fantasy, Progression Fantasy, Guild of Progression Fantasy Authors, my discord. "also what're the best introductions to the genre? if I want to read 3-5 to understand it, where do I begin?" The biggest names in the genre, by earnings, look something like this: He Who Fights With Monsters The Primal Hunter Defiance of the Fall Azarinth Healer* Dissonance The Wandering Inn** Beneath the Dragoneye Moons*** The Land**** Dungeon Crawler Carl Cradle***** The Legend of Randidily Ghosthound Delve Salvos * - Former best earner, one of the earliest in the genre ** - We will miss you if you start. 12M words already, and the author just casually dropped another 80k word 'chapter' *** - Self promo warning, this is my own story **** - one of the earliest litRPGs, recent installments have had... issues. It's on the list because I'm trying to be neutral *****- not technically a litRPG, but pretty close. Also famous, huge, and worth mentioning
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Aug 31, 2023 08:11
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Selkie Myth posted:Sooo many. For Authors, discord's big. Silver Pen, litRPG Forum, Progression/litRPG Fantasy, Progression Fantasy, Guild of Progression Fantasy Authors, my discord. Can I get an invite to your discord?
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Aug 31, 2023 14:02
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Hi guys, my wfie used to dabble in writing short-form erotica some years ago (like 10 years ago maybe now jeez), and was thinking about getting back into it, but I wasn't sure how accurate the OP is still since it was last updated in 2016, so I had some questions: If she isn't looking to start out writing like novel or novella length things, in the past the sweet spot for sort of "let's just get a bunch of stories out whether they're bad or not and hope someone pays some small amount for them" was like 3000 words and charging $3 and you'd get 70% of it, is that still sort of the same area you're shooting for? I think in the past she had also published on a bunch of different sites like AllRomance eBooks, smashwords, etc., are those still generally the places we would look to put stuff? I am going to slowly go through the thread and try to catch up but those were a couple things she wanted me to ask Thanks!
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Aug 31, 2023 18:16
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Anybody had a book in Amazon Prime Reading before? Amazon offered me a spot for the first in a series for a 3-month period, September through December. As far as I can tell it's sort of like another Kindle Unlimited subscription with the difference that the author only gets paid in exposure...? It's a moot point since I've accepted it anyway, on the reasoning that any publicity for book 1 of a series is good publicity, just curious if anyone else has experience with it.
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Sep 1, 2023 00:33
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Also, congrats Selkie on making a rather mind-boggling amount of money! Have you/will you quit your day job? I'm a write-what-I-want-to-write author who makes maybe 1k a month, but I treat it as a monetised hobby and don't write when I don't feel like writing. (For example, I've put out one book since the start of the pandemic.) I've been toying with the idea of researching and reading a different genre and trying to crank some output under a second pen name, while keeping my original pen name for my passion projects. The genre I had in mind was romance, but now I'm wondering if that's a general fighting the last war, and the lucrative genre of the 2020s is going to be LitRPG.
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Sep 1, 2023 00:40
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freebooter posted:Anybody had a book in Amazon Prime Reading before? Amazon offered me a spot for the first in a series for a 3-month period, September through December. I did a number of years ago, also on a first in series, and, yeah your reasoning is right on the mark. Also congrats!
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Sep 1, 2023 03:34
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Stefan Prodan posted:Hi guys, my wfie used to dabble in writing short-form erotica some years ago (like 10 years ago maybe now jeez), and was thinking about getting back into it, but I wasn't sure how accurate the OP is still since it was last updated in 2016, so I had some questions: Not my genre so take this with a massive dose of salt but:
freebooter posted:I've been toying with the idea of researching and reading a different genre and trying to crank some output under a second pen name, while keeping my original pen name for my passion projects. The genre I had in mind was romance, but now I'm wondering if that's a general fighting the last war, and the lucrative genre of the 2020s is going to be LitRPG. If you don't want to do the game design aspect of LitRPG and the numbers, write progression fantasy. It's LitRPG adjacent and you can do very well just targeting the Cradle crowd who finished binging all 12 Cradle books and want more Cradle, noting that Cradle is both progression fantasy and a Westernized cultivation novel.
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Sep 1, 2023 05:42
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freebooter posted:Anybody had a book in Amazon Prime Reading before? Amazon offered me a spot for the first in a series for a 3-month period, September through December. Lots of experience with it. I haven't seen any huge change in my numbers, but little changes get lost in the noise. I do think there's no such thing as bad publicity. I got laid off before I started writing XD. And it took off well enough + family situation that I didn't need to go back. Romance is still the big seller. Don't try to write 'for the money' IMO. Write what you love. If you're EH on litRPG and don't bother reading and understanding it, I doubt you'll enjoy writing it, or writing something people would like
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Sep 1, 2023 07:22
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Hmmm, OK. Well, the book in question is currently sitting at #67,700 in the Kindle store and #73 in vampire horror, so I'll circle back in a couple of weeks and see if it made any bump in ranking.Selkie Myth posted:Romance is still the big seller. That's the thing - I know I'd find writing romance to be well outside my wheelhouse, but LitRPG actually seems like the kind of thing I might enjoy. I wrote a fair bit of fantasy in the first place as a teenager, just ended up drifting to sci-fi/horror at university and stayed in that niche when I started publishing. It's all a bit of a pipe dream anyway though, I have two day jobs as it is!
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Sep 1, 2023 08:25
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Selkie Myth posted:Don't try to write 'for the money' IMO. Write what you love. If you're EH on litRPG and don't bother reading and understanding it, I doubt you'll enjoy writing it, or writing something people would like Yeah, I came here to basically post this.
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Sep 1, 2023 08:27
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:Yeah, I came here to basically post this. Agreed. Writing thrillers and mystery books wasn't my first choice, but I happened to fall in with lots of successful people who do write that genre, and they offered me help, so that's where I went when I started out. Not that I dislike the genre (I love interwar noir books, and their immediate children), but reading LitRPGs and researching the genre has been like finally finding that group of friends you just click with, ya know? I think there's something to that, and I hope it shows through in the stuff I'm putting together now.
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Sep 1, 2023 15:36
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:Writing thrillers and mystery books wasn't my first choice, but I happened to fall in with lots of successful people who do write that genre, and they offered me help. how do I fall in with these successful mystery and thriller writers?
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Sep 1, 2023 16:44
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Post on kboards circa 2014! But seriously, just hanging out in online places where you can get to know other authors helps you network, and from there, you never know what opportunities might pop up. Over the years I have become friends with many different authors in many different genres, simply because I like them as people. And, really, I don't know what the future holds, but being helpful and nice to people has always seemed to come back to me in unexpected ways. e: An Example of being helpful I've been taking notes on LitRPG books, paying attention to common tropes, settings, character archetypes, plot structure, etc etc. I found out yesterday that an author friend of mine is doing the same thing, so I've been sending him some of the research I've done and picking his brain for what he's seen which opens up dialogue between us and makes the work feel a lot less lonely and daunting for both of us, I think. People appreciate that kind of stuff, especially in an industry like this where the rules are not clear, best practices are extremely murky, and the farther up you go, the more guarded and competitive some people can be. Maybe we'll cross promo our books later, maybe not! Who knows? I'm not saying you should immediately blast any and every passerby with "helpful" tidbits, but being social with other authors, hanging out online around them, and being open with your methods and business practices can really go a long way toward opening doors that may help you in the future. Or may not! Sometimes its nice to talk to people who have also read the latest uber-online indie author gossip and poke fun at the weirdos out there. KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Sep 1, 2023 |
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Sep 1, 2023 16:58
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:Are there any discords or Facebook groups or the like where LitRPG authors hang out? We generally have discord groups. At least all the ones I have met are on some of those.
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Sep 1, 2023 22:43
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LitRPG is like, um, the elder scrolls, where the MC levels up and gains loot like +10 boots of kickass, all which you can and should stack, and stuff? Oh I played Morrowind to Skyrim forever, a perfectly balanced games with no exploits, TY Todd. I had no idea such a thing existed in books form. That's crazy, or I'm old. Good for Selkie for making a dollar out of it.
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Sep 1, 2023 23:14
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Can I get some feedback on this blurb?Blurb for Power Armor for Poltergeists! posted:When Kristian Vinther decided to do his postdoc in a robotics lab in future Copenhagen, he did not expect the doctor in charge to be building Power Armor for Poltergeists! Edit: And here is the cover. Just arrived five minutes after I made post. Feedback is welcome here too!  This is a 35$ premium cover from https://getcovers.com. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Sep 3, 2023 |
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Sep 3, 2023 17:37
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SimonChris posted:Can I get some feedback on this blurb? Typo right off the bat: What is "A" Kristian Vinther? Edit: My Opinion, get others. As a standard blurb, it's not good. As a blurb selling you on the idea of Power Armor for Poltergeists, and preparing you for the hilarity that ensues, it works. I think overall, this blurb is best supported by the crazy title you have, rather than its prose. Lot of cool ideas "Wars will be fought by your dead grandma encased in chrome and steel". However the third sentence has no foundation, as the reader has no idea what Business is booming. ((f Spirits can talk through Ouija boards, can't they already connect with people?) and already we are talking about a world when we don't care about the character, nor about the supporting characters, and we don't care about the world. After that, we raise some vague threats and say our character has to make a decision (What decision? What's at stake? What can our character even do!?!?!) that will effect cliche items and effect vague ideas.
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Sep 3, 2023 17:56
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Leng posted:Not my genre so take this with a massive dose of salt but: Thanks!
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Sep 3, 2023 18:14
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DropTheAnvil posted:Edit: My Opinion, get others. Thank you. I've fixed the typo and removed "business is booming" as well as the final sentence, which was just a bunch of cliches. However, I am still not sure how to make people care about the world and characters in a 150-word blurb. I've tried looking at some other goon book blurbs, but they also seem to mostly include vague statements about how protagonist must deal with problem. Does anyone have any advice?
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Sep 4, 2023 11:36
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SimonChris posted:Thank you. I've fixed the typo and removed "business is booming" as well as the final sentence, which was just a bunch of cliches. My go-to for blurbs: In (SETTING) a (PROTAGONIST) has a (PROBLEM) (caused by an ANTAGONIST) and (faces CONFLICT) as they try to (achieve a GOAL).
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Sep 4, 2023 13:12
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Libbie hawker had a good blurb explainer on YouTube. I haven't seen it in years, but let me find it... E: I can't find it. However! I always set my blurbs at that transition between Act 1 and Act 2 when the main character has just been pushed out of their comfortable, familiar life and is now faced with the bigger problem they must solve, then I close with the stakes. What happens if the MC fails? Embarrassment? Death? Losing their front tooth? So, paragraph 1 is introducing the MC, what they want, who they are, etc. Paragraph 2 is when the MC learns of the main problem, and any unexpected complications (sometimes this takes 2 paragraphs to get right). Paragraph 3 is the stakes - what does the MC gain/lose if they succeed/fail. In mysteries and thrillers, this is almost always "the MC dies" which is kinda boring, but ya gotta give the people what they want. Here's an example from one of my books quote:Cready Marsen wants two things in life: South Florida Sunshine and a mountain of money. Living on his forty-seven foot trawler at Dinner Key Marina gets him sunshine, and his work as a private investigator brings in cash, but it requires every bit of Cready’s skill, guts, and questionable morals. In my example, you learn a little about Cready (and get a sense for the genre/setting) in paragraph 1. Paragraph 2 is all about the Act 1 -> Act 2 transition, where Cready is faced with his problem. Paragraph 3 is purely about stakes. e2: re-reading your blurb, you seem to follow this, generally. I think the problem lies more in language choice and sentence structure, and things could be a bit snappier. I'd suggest cutting it down to three paragraphs, and, specifically, getting rid of paragraph 2 as much as you possibly can. KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Sep 4, 2023 |
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Sep 4, 2023 17:45
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Stefan Prodan posted:Hi guys, my wfie used to dabble in writing short-form erotica some years ago (like 10 years ago maybe now jeez), and was thinking about getting back into it, but I wasn't sure how accurate the OP is still since it was last updated in 2016, so I had some questions: Tell her to go to /r/eroticawriters and their official Discord (in the sidebar).
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Sep 4, 2023 17:58
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SimonChris posted:However, I am still not sure how to make people care about the world and characters in a 150-word blurb. I've tried looking at some other goon book blurbs, but they also seem to mostly include vague statements about how protagonist must deal with problem. Does anyone have any advice? The blurb is the toughest part of the book to write. If you can, try and get one of your other writer friends to write the blurb. Keep in mind my advice is like any advice, should be held under scrutiny and might be for a particular genre. First off, your title does a great job of generating interest. The first paragraph in your blurb does a great job of continuing that interest. Your blurb posted:When a Kristian Vinther decided to do his postdoc in a robotics lab in future Copenhagen, he did not expect the doctor in charge to be building Power Armor for Poltergeists! However, we don't know what K-dawg wants and why he is doing this. We are missing motivations and wants. Your blurb posted:Now, spirits who once idled away their days sending spooky messages though Ouija boards stalk the streets of the city in gleaming, military-grade power armor equipped with bazookas, booster rockets, roller skates, and any kind of tool known to man. This paragraph is Your blurb posted:Business is booming as people are reunited with their loved ones, but the government is not about to let private enterprise monopolize such useful technology. If the bureaucrats of the welfare state have their way, the wars of the future will be fought by your dead grandma encased in chrome and steel. This paragraph is now telling us about a problem. The government wants to use those Poltergeists in Power Armor. However, there is no foundation here. The reader is left confused as to how this connects to Kristian's story. It's good instinct to introduce a problem that the protagonist must solve, but did you notice how we are talking about the world again? And how Kristian doesn't come up in Paragraph 2 and Paragraph 3? Your blurb posted:As the city burns, Kristian must decide whether his loyalties lie with the doctor, the government, his girlfriend, or the hulking monstrosity that was once his wife. His decision will shape not only the fate of the world but also the nature of death itself. Again you have good instincts to include this bit about Kristian. The Main protagonist comes back into the blurb, and must make a decision. Problem here is the reader has no idea what Kristian's motivations are. The Girlfriend and his wife show up out of the blue, and the consequences of our actions are incredibly vague. Reading this, I think the "Poltergeists in powered armored" took over the blurb. Let it go. Stop mentioning it. Focus on the character. You've already sold me with the title. I want to challenge you to do something. I want you to write the blurb, but don't mention power armor until the very end. I don't think you will use that blurb, but by getting rid of Poltergeists in powered armor, you can focus on the characters, their motivations and the problems they will encounter. DropTheAnvil fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Sep 4, 2023 |
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Sep 4, 2023 18:22
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This is a horrible version of the blurb, kind of focusing on the characters. You can see how I crash out and burn on the third paragraph.A horrible blurb posted:
DropTheAnvil fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Sep 4, 2023 |
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Sep 4, 2023 18:35
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I love how you gave me all that great advice and still can't figure it out yourself  . Man, I expected blurb writing to be harder than I expected, and it is still harder than I expected.
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Sep 4, 2023 19:00
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Blurbs are, by far, the hardest part of any book. It's crazy how much time I've spent revising like, a hundred words, and still, I've never felt totally confident in any blurb I've ever written.
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Sep 4, 2023 19:06
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:Blurbs are, by far, the hardest part of any book. It's crazy how much time I've spent revising like, a hundred words, and still, I've never felt totally confident in any blurb I've ever written. 100% agreed. I can't remember who it was and Google is broken these days but there was an author who said something like "if I could sum up my book in a hundred words, I wouldn't have written a whole book about it."
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Sep 5, 2023 09:38
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SimonChris posted:I love how you gave me all that great advice and still can't figure it out yourself Have you been able to work on a revised blurb yet? Mind posting it?
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Sep 5, 2023 13:41
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:Have you been able to work on a revised blurb yet? Mind posting it? Sure, this is what I have so far: KrunkMcGrunk posted:Copenhagen, the future. When Kristian Vinther started his postdoc in a robotics lab, he didn’t expect the doctor in charge to be building Power Armor for Poltergeists! In return for his help, Kristian will be reunited with his dead wife.
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Sep 5, 2023 14:17
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHBJ7X7W (UK) Well, here it is! I can always update the blurb later if I get more feedback and/or ideas. And here is what the story would look like if it was five times longer and available in hardback:  Neither of those things are the case, but the mockup was part of the 35$ cover package, so I might as well use it. I'm not sure if 2.99$ is too high for 8800 words, but I can always lower it later. I considered 0.99, but then I read this reddit post warning against pricing things that low and claiming that you can totally make money selling shorts for 2.99+. 1.99 would put me only one dollar short of the 70% Amazon royalty rate, which would triple the royalties (70% of 2.99 vs. 35% of 1.99). 2.99 it is, for now. Anyway, it is also on KU where the price makes no difference. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Sep 5, 2023 |
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Sep 5, 2023 16:45
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Updated OP to cross out Damonza recommendation on the basis of their generative AI policies. Thanks for the heads up. Everything else is just as out of date as it was before, and I'm not in the writing game anymore, so if anyone else wants a new OP, please feel free to (generatively, of course  ) add any poo poo you want from my post that isn't multiple generations out of date.Also, looks like the SA self-pub logo from the old thread has a photobucket watermark over it now.  No idea when that happened.quote:I'm not sure if 2.99$ is too high for 8800 words, but I can always lower it later. I considered 0.99, but then I read this reddit post warning against pricing things that low and claiming that you can totally make money selling shorts for 2.99+. 1.99 would put me only one dollar short of the 70% Amazon royalty rate, which would triple the royalties (70% of 2.99 vs. 35% of 1.99). 2.99 it is, for now. Anyway, it is also on KU where the price makes no difference. Don't go lower than $2.99 unless it's promo-pricing. KU is probably still your money-maker unfortunately, but even going down to $0.99, you can't compete with the scammier poo poo on volume / visibility / AI-based writing for shorts. There's no point undercutting what little remains (visibly, I mean) of the legit shorts market to try to compete on an unfair playing field where you can't really win. Sundae fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Sep 7, 2023 |
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Sep 7, 2023 04:48
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Amazon is now asking if books contain AI-generated content during the creation process on KDP. No idea if it'll actually do anything since, ya know, lying exists, but it's nice to think maybe Amazon is concerned about the market being flooded with a mass of AI-produced books.
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Sep 7, 2023 13:25
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:Amazon is now asking if books contain AI-generated content during the creation process on KDP. No idea if it'll actually do anything since, ya know, lying exists, but it's nice to think maybe Amazon is concerned about the market being flooded with a mass of AI-produced books. They're likely more concerned with the outcome of the USPTO evaluating generative works.
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Sep 7, 2023 13:34
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:Amazon is now asking if books contain AI-generated content during the creation process on KDP. No idea if it'll actually do anything since, ya know, lying exists, but it's nice to think maybe Amazon is concerned about the market being flooded with a mass of AI-produced books. Given they didn't care about the mass flood of paraphrased books back in 2014 or so, I'm guessing they don't give a poo poo apart from it being a "lol you answered yes" sort of question. Maybe some sort of Section 230 thing, where they claim you lied to them so it's not their problem?
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Sep 8, 2023 04:46
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Sundae posted:Given they didn't care about the mass flood of paraphrased books back in 2014 or so, I'm guessing they don't give a poo poo apart from it being a "lol you answered yes" sort of question. Maybe some sort of Section 230 thing, where they claim you lied to them so it's not their problem? I'm thinking it's a CYA clause. If you checked "no" and their AI detection tools determine that to be a lie, Amazon can throw you out on your ear for it. I am not optimistic about Amazon's willingness to actually address a problem, but a zillion AI gobbledy-gook books will probably erode consumer trust and turn their Kindle division into a ghost town, because who in their right mind would want to wade through a sea of nonsense books to actually find something to read? Kindle/Amazon built their empire on showing people what they'd want to buy, and if something seriously threatens that, Amazon would have to do something about it? Wouldn't they? I've even seen them A/B test bringing back Also-Boughts, so I'm hopeful they have a good sense of what a good user experience actually is and what will keep people buying books. KrunkMcGrunk fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 17:02
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:I am not optimistic about Amazon's willingness to actually address a problem, but a zillion AI gobbledy-gook books will probably erode consumer trust and turn their Kindle division into a ghost town, because who in their right mind would want to wade through a sea of nonsense books to actually find something to read? On the other hand, look at how bad their website is for everything else with counterfeit/knockoff versions of regular goods obliterating visibility on the stuff people are actually looking for? I don't know how much they actually care about the physical-sales storefronts or books anymore. (I really have no idea. I'm purely guessing.)
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Sep 8, 2023 21:28
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Sundae posted:Given they didn't care about the mass flood of paraphrased books back in 2014 or so, I'm guessing they don't give a poo poo apart from it being a "lol you answered yes" sort of question. Maybe some sort of Section 230 thing, where they claim you lied to them so it's not their problem? Yes, this is them covering their rear end in case more AI-hallucinated books about mushroom foraging get published and someone eventually gets killed
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Sep 8, 2023 21:42
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Sundae posted:
Oh, I agree entirely. The last few years have been absolute poo poo-show for discoverability through Amazon. Changing also-boughts into a PPC ad spot was a tremendous mistake, and I'm hopeful that the possible return of also-boughts means they've realized this. However, the one thing I've learned through the publishing game is Amazon's next move is inscrutable, and as long as the money faucet stays on, they don't give a gently caress about anything.
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Sep 8, 2023 22:00
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Guys, for YEARS now I've had no one to talk to about how much I HATE the also boughts disappearing  I hate it so much
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Sep 8, 2023 22:22
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