A funny thing happened when I joined a self-publishing Facebook group.
Part of the Real Life collection — practical observations, human behavior, everyday systems, and the realities people often learn the hard way.
I thought I was joining a discussion about books.
Instead, I accidentally wandered into a discussion about religion.
Not the kind involving churches.
The kind involving beliefs.
I made what I thought was a simple post:
I have written three books for Amazon Kindle with the help of ChatGPT. My concept, my ideas, extensive edits, my imagination. I enjoy the process. Not a single book has sold, which I guess is par for the course unless you spend money to promote. Anyone in this group experience similar?
I expected answers about marketing.
Maybe discussions about Amazon algorithms.
Keywords.
Covers.
Book descriptions.
Promotion strategies.
Instead, the conversation immediately became about ChatGPT.
One response said:
Using ChatGPT was your first mistake.
Another:
I don’t have any sympathy for those who use ChatGPT to produce slop.
Then came perhaps my favorite:
Readers aren’t interested in scammers who use generative AI.
Scammers.
That seemed like a strong word for somebody asking why his books weren’t selling.
Nobody had read the books.
Nobody asked what the stories were about.
Nobody asked whether the characters were interesting.
Nobody asked whether the writing was any good.
The verdict had already been reached.
ChatGPT was involved.
Case closed.
“The moment I mentioned ChatGPT, the discussion stopped being about writing and started being about belief.”
Nobody Asked To See The Work
What struck me wasn’t the criticism.
Criticism comes with publishing.
What struck me was that nobody seemed interested in evaluating the actual product.
The criticism was aimed entirely at the process.
Imagine reviewing a meal without tasting it because you don’t approve of the stove.
Or dismissing a photograph because it was taken with a digital camera instead of film.
The discussion wasn’t about quality.
It was about belief.
“Nobody asked if the book was good. They asked if ChatGPT touched it.”
The Calculator Problem
We’ve seen this movie before.
When calculators became common, people worried students would never learn math.
When word processors appeared, some writers claimed computers would ruin writing.
When digital photography arrived, many photographers predicted the death of the craft.
Now the newest villain is artificial intelligence.
Every generation seems to get its own version of the same argument.
The tool changes.
The debate doesn’t.
We’ve seen similar reactions whenever technology changes how people do things. In many ways, AI is simply the latest chapter in The Convenience Trap.
To Be Fair, AI Slop Exists
Let’s acknowledge something important.
The critics are not entirely wrong.
Amazon is full of low-effort AI content.
People generate books in an afternoon.
Upload them without editing.
Throw together a cover.
Write a generic description.
Then wonder why nobody buys them.
That happens.
And readers have every right to be frustrated by it.
But there is a difference between uploading the first thing a machine spits out and using AI as a drafting, brainstorming, and editing partner.
Those are not the same thing.
Technology doesn’t eliminate the need for judgment. As we saw in The AI Trader Challenge, tools can amplify both intelligence and stupidity.
The Hidden Fear
The most interesting response I received wasn’t even the insult.
It was the advice attached to it.
One commenter wrote:
Readers aren’t interested in scammers who use generative AI.
The path to success is the same as it always was: study the market, study the craft of writing, work on your skills until they’re second nature, write a compelling and emotionally engaging book, and position it so that the right audience will find it.
Buried underneath the accusation was actually good advice.
Study the market.
Improve your craft.
Learn how publishing works.
That’s true whether you use AI or not.
But the response also revealed something deeper.
Many people who spent years mastering a difficult skill become uncomfortable when technology lowers the barrier to entry.
That’s a normal human reaction.
It isn’t limited to writing.
It happens in photography.
Music.
Programming.
Art.
Any field where expertise once required years of specialized effort.
When barriers fall, some people celebrate.
Others feel threatened.
Some critics worry that AI lowers standards by making content creation easier. That’s a concern worth discussing, especially in the context of The Low Standards Problem.
The Talent Question
One thing I couldn’t help thinking while reading the comments was this:
Easy for them to say.
Some people are naturally gifted writers.
Some aren’t.
I spent most of my career doing other things.
The stories were there.
The ideas were there.
The curiosity was there.
The writing talent? That’s still a work in progress.
For people like me, AI isn’t replacing imagination.
It’s helping translate imagination into words.
That doesn’t mean the work is effortless.
The ideas still have to come from somewhere.
The characters still have to be created.
The plot still has to make sense.
The editing still has to happen.
The final decisions still belong to the author.
The Reader Doesn’t Care
Here’s the question nobody asked:
If the story is entertaining, does the reader care how it was created?
Most readers judge books the same way they’ve always judged books.
Was it interesting?
Did I enjoy it?
Would I recommend it?
The average reader doesn’t know whether an author used a typewriter, Microsoft Word, Scrivener, dictation software, or ChatGPT.
They only know whether the story worked.
Too often we judge labels instead of results. That’s part of what I explored in Modern Society Has a Depth Problem.
Maybe My Books Aren’t Selling Because…
Maybe my books aren’t selling because they’re terrible.
Maybe the covers need work.
Maybe the descriptions aren’t compelling.
Maybe nobody knows they exist.
Maybe my marketing stinks.
All of those are fair possibilities.
But if we’re going to judge a book, shouldn’t we read it first?
Because the moment I mentioned ChatGPT, the discussion stopped being about writing and started being about belief.
And that’s what made the experience so fascinating.
Not as a publishing lesson.
As a lesson in human nature.
Related Reading
- Use AI Like a Scalpel—Not a Chainsaw
- The Convenience Trap
- Modern Society Has a Depth Problem
- The Low Standards Problem
🚧 Bunker Notice
This post is not about whether ChatGPT is good or bad.
It’s about something far more interesting: what happens when a new tool collides with an old profession.
After mentioning that I used ChatGPT to help write my novels, I received everything from thoughtful advice to accusations of being a scammer. What fascinated me wasn’t the criticism itself—it was how quickly some people reached a conclusion without ever seeing the work.
The discussion stopped being about books and started being about beliefs.
As always, the bunker is less interested in taking sides and more interested in understanding why people think the way they do.
Proceed accordingly. 🍺🪖📚
I’m in that same group and read your question but was astonished at the replies. They are afraid. Afraid of the possibilities of Ai and how a writer who knows how to use it can create a book that outsells their books. I’m 84 years old and have seen many, many changes in our world — in technology as well as in all the other aspects of life. My grandma cooked on a wood stove, got her water from a well with a bucket, and used an outhouse. Look at where we are today. Let me add that reading your post above tells me that you are a good writer who understands the benefits of ai and how to use it to make good writing even better. Keep on writing. I plan to.
As a p.s. Amazon looks at the first 30 days of sales and reviews and determines from that how much to promote you. Make the book free or 99 cents for five days and get friends and family to buy it, read it, and leave a review. Ask them to tell their friends.
Thank you! Yours was one of the few constructive comments I received from that thread.
I have been reading that thread on the KDP page.
I do use AI to help with my books as well. I published my first book on KDP a month ago. The second just went live. 18 sales so far. I am told thats better than expected for AI slop.
I am open in my Author Bio about AI use. But many people are not honest about it.
I just joined the group that this thread was in I am not sure I will be staying
Yes, it was pretty amazing after all the work I put into my books to be told they were slop because I used AI, not to write the book but just to help me with structure. Thank you for your comment.