The Devil’s Bargain: AI and Books

Writing Books and AI. Devil’s Bargain?

I have written scads of books in my time. Collaborating on business books was the most profitable, but also the most difficult. You had to find a way to get the CEO of a big company, Sears, for example, or a big bank, Morgan Stanley, to sit comfortably with you and tell you how they and their businesses became successful.

Then you got stuck in something of a shit sandwich, because on the other side of the contract was a publisher you didn’t know who was paying for the project.

Despite this, it paid a couple of college tuitions and a batch of medical bills and spread my name around in the business world, where it was clear to everyone I simply did not fit.

But there were lessons.

Famous people NEVER pay for their own books. Publishers do that because they want to use their names to sell the books everywhere.

It wasn’t journalism and it wasn’t really biography because nothing about it could be negative in any way. And basically, you were spending a lot of time with subordinates because, in some cases, the CEO’s knew nothing about nuts and bolts of what they were running.

They were just very good at running things.

It worked about five times for me. Then I had medical problems that bumped me out of that market place.

But not out of writing books.

Because I had a brain infection that wrecked most of my skills, my neurologists advised me to get back to writing as soon as I could. It would be therapeutic.

But writing what?

I started with a blog and a promise to myself I would not let opportunities pass. If I got an idea, I wrote about it. President Trump has been a wonderful gift to me because he is such a lying grifter the themes for writing never seem to go away.

It wasn’t enough.

So, I got into writing fiction. My first book was “Mine” and it loosely followed my family’s experiences in the bituminous mines of western Pennsylvania. It took a lot of research and in the end, I published it myself because I had no patience with publishers or agents.

At that time, it cost about $4,000 to self-publish a book.

My second novel, “Operation Bingo,” is a fiction full of robust characters who decide bingo is the solution to the declining finances of the Catholic Church in a declining railroad town.

Also, lots of research on that one.

Third fiction is about 200 pages just now, perhaps 100 more pages to go. I have no idea what I will do with it. It’s science fiction and mystery mixed, all set in an antique barn in central Pennsylvania in the 1960s. It’s called “Bud Lowes’ Barn.”

The history of the battle of Gettysburg is its backdrop.

So, to the point.

I would NEVER consider using artificial intelligence in delivering a book, even though that would be very handy as a tool to create histories.

The other problem with AI in literature is what it will do to the nature of books of all kinds.

Tell a publisher he can craft a book perfectly suited to a marketplace for next to nothing and I suggest a couple of things will happen: Too many books aimed at very specific markets will show up everywhere and book writers will gradually disappear as technology replaces them.

Even big-name stars and business leaders can use AI to write their books, then sell them direcly to the reading public.

There is no handy solution to this problem.

But I know what I am going to do when “Bud Lowes’ Barn” is finished. I’m going to break it into sections and publish it on Substack.

It might be hard to promote it, but God knows there are lots of venues.

Charlie Madigan was a reporter and editor for 40 years for United Press International and The Chicago Tribune. He writes “Lightningwriter”a blog. Find him at Charlesmadigan.com.