The publishing industry is in an uproar this month as agents and editors alike confront a mysterious new literary talent: artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
The ruckus began when first-time author Jerry Falade, whose crime novel \u201cCall Me, I\u2019ll Hide the Body\u201d reportedly drew a massive $2.4 million publishing deal in a fierce 14-way auction, was suddenly dropped by both his publisher and his agent<\/a> over suspicions he\u2019d used AI to write the book.<\/p>\n Falade denied the charge and cried anti-black discrimination.<\/p>\n But the incident should force us all to confront a far more interesting question than Is this racist?<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to ask ourselves: What is literary creativity \u2014 and to what extent do we actually care whether humans write the books we read?<\/p>\n Falade gestured at this question in his self-defense<\/a>.<\/p>\n His manuscript, he complained, had \u201cpassed through first readers, second readers, editors and acquisitions teams at numerous publishing houses . . . It is difficult to believe that every one of those experienced professionals would have failed to notice\u201d any telltale signs of AI.<\/p>\n Precisely.<\/p>\n Falade\u2019s agents \u2014 highly respected players in both the US and the UK \u2014 even now call his rejected book \u201can incredible manuscript that dazzled us.\u201d<\/p>\n Minotaur, the imprint that won the right to publish it, is a power player in the crime and thriller space.<\/p>\n If consumer AI has now become powerful enough to create manuscripts that industry leaders believe to be potential major sources of serious revenue, why not lean into it?\u00a0<\/p>\n The people who jumped at Falade\u2019s book have years of demonstrated business acumen behind them; there\u2019s no reason to doubt their instincts on its bestselling potential, whatever its provenance.\u00a0<\/p>\n I write what is called \u201cliterary fiction,\u201d a genre as much as horror or romantasy (while rarely selling as well as books like Stephen King\u2019s \u201cCarrie\u201d or Katee Roberts\u2019 \u201cThe Dragon\u2019s Bride\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n Other \u201cliterary\u201d authors have already won public plaudits for AI-assisted work \u2014 though they\u2019ve been upfront about its use: Stephen Marche wrote his novella \u201cDeath of an Author\u201d in \u201ccollaboration,\u201d as he put it, with AI tools, and downtown-lit darling Sheila Heti has published a series of ongoing interactions with her AI interlocutor Alice.\u00a0<\/p>\n