Discussion

• @Haste@mastodon.social @Haste@mastodon.social on mastodon

  “But here's what does rankle me: garbage books getting uploaded to Amazon where my name is credited as the author... Whoever's doing this is obviously preying on writers who trust my name and think I've actually written these books.  I have not.  Most likely they've been generate…

• @tylerking.bsky.social Tyler King on bluesky

  Jfc.  If AI-gen books weren't bad enough, now scammers are uploading illegitimate books to Amazon/Goodreads with a recognizable author's name on them in the hopes of skimming a few bucks from unsuspecting readers. https://janefriedman.com/...  [embedded post]

• @jenhoward.bsky.social Jen Howard on bluesky

  A sneaky peril for authors on Amazon and Goodreads: fraudulent books (likely AI-authored) being passed off as theirs. @janefriedman.bsky.social reports on her experience. https://janefriedman.com/...

• @edsermark.bsky.social @edsermark.bsky.social on bluesky

  “As of today, there are about half a dozen books being sold on Amazon, with my name on them, that I did not write or publish.  Some huckster generated them using AI.”  —  Amazon refused to remove them.  —  https://janefriedman.com/...

• @jasonsanford.bsky.social Jason Sanford on bluesky

  Must-read post by @janefriedman.bsky.social about a disturbing new publishing trend.  Essentially Amazon is allowing scammers to upload books under the names of well known and trusted authors, as has happened to Friedman. https://janefriedman.com/...

• @janefriedman Jane Friedman on x

  As of today, there are about half a dozen books being sold on Amazon, with my name on them, that I did not write or publish. Some huckster generated them using AI. This promises to be a serious problem for the book publishing world. https://janefriedman.com/...

• @nina_metz Nina Metz on x

  “We desperately need guardrails on this landslide of misattribution and misinformation. Amazon and Goodreads, I beg you to create a way to verify authorship, or for authors to easily block fraudulent books credited to them. Do it now, do it quickly” https://janefriedman.com/...

• @lexlanham Alexandra J. Roberts on x

  remember when I tweeted like a month ago do we still have lanham act false over-attribution claims after dastar? seems important & guess we'll find out soon seems like a fit on facts like these, & not a copyright runaround...

• @lisadubbels Lisa Braun Dubbels on x

  Maybe Amazon needs to enact a verification layer to ensure that books being uploaded to their platform are written by who they say they are. There's a whole reputation mgmt component of impersonation & fraud that's become my job to police and it sucks. https://janefriedman.com/..…

• @authorsguild @authorsguild on x

  THIS: “We desperately need guardrails on this landslide of misattribution and misinformation. Amazon and Goodreads, I beg you to create a way to verify authorship, or for authors to easily block fraudulent books credited to them.” https://janefriedman.com/...

• @charlotteashley Charlotte Ashley on x

  Read this important piece from Jane Friedman today. Remembered that there has been a fake Charlotte Ashley pulping out farmed books for years. It was funny at the time, but now I really, hope none of the agents I have been querying looked me up. 😬 https://janefriedman.com/...

• @otisframpton Otis Frampton on x

  The AI fraudsters aren't just impersonating artists. They're impersonating authors, too. Unbelievable.

• r/books r on reddit

  I Would Rather See My Books Get Pirated Than This (Or: Why Goodreads and Amazon Are Becoming Dumpster Fires)

• @pronounced_ing Celeste Ng on x

  I count 20 @StephenKing books, 20 @jodipicoult books, plus books by tons of other contemporary writers (@legroff, Madeline Miller, Angie Thomas... just search and they're pretty much in there). Did any of these authors/publishers consent to this use of their work?

• @maureenjohnson Maureen Johnson on x

  I join the chain of those who did not consent to this. [image]

• @benji_smith Benji Smith on x

  I took down the prosecraft website. I'm sorry, everyone. https://blog.shaxpir.com/...

• @kaylaancrum @kaylaancrum on x

  Watching weird tech people get seduced by mega corp boldness into believing the lie that all art is “content” and like “content” produced by novices, is unprotected and available for use has been very 😃 This guy is about to get sued by all ten of the largest publishers at once.

• @zachrosewriter @zachrosewriter on x

  How DARE you, @benji_smith I demand you take my book off your site immediately. I do not consent to this, and never did. And I know my publisher never would [image]

• @lindaholmes @lindaholmes on x

  @pronounced_ing ... Mine's in there, and I definitely didn't.

• @bibliogato Katherine Locke on x

  He took the website down but that doesn't account for the theft and the database he fed our books into. Publishers and authors need to be aggressive and not let this go. Guys like this will just let the fury die down and quietly restart.

• @pronounced_ing Celeste Ng on x

  Speaking of which, this might be of interest to writers out there (and anyone else concerned about AI being trained on writing by humans, without consent): https://authorsguild.org/...

• @pronounced_ing Celeste Ng on x

  I'm not worried about AI writing being *better* than works by actual humans. But I *am* worried about companies (wrongly) thinking they can replace human writers with AI. And companies should DEFINITELY not be able to train AI on other people's work w/o consent or compensation.

• @harikunzru Hari Kunzru on x

  This company Prosecraft appears to have stolen a lot of books, trained an AI, and are now offering a service based on that data https://blog.shaxpir.com/...

• @pronounced_ing Celeste Ng on x

  Adding insult to injury, the site doing the “analysis” doesn't seem to understand what passive voice is, and arbitrarily assigns each word a “vividness” score, and then scores the book's “vividness” on that.