No, You Don't "Need" AI To Make Your Book Into A Reality

I recently talked about generative AI in Writing Is About The Process, Not The Output, but given that this bubble is rapidly heading toward a burst, I felt there was something important that needed to be mentioned to end off the year 2025. Because I am consistently seeing people who are crying about the fact that they need AI to make their books into a reality because they can't afford to buy cover art, they can't afford to pay an editor, they can't afford this, they can't afford that, and that criticizing them for using AI when they're poor is just gatekeeping and classism.

I am here to tell you all, as a fellow poor, you do not actually need AI. In fact, the use of AI is making your book worse, it's cheapening your work, and it's turning the audience against you. Because if you couldn't be bothered to write a story, then people are going to ask why they should be bothered to read it?

Seriously, you are only hurting yourself with this.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

You Can't Shake The Devil's Hand And Claim You're Joking

To be clear, here, generative AI (stuff like ChatGPT and its ilk) are not tools. They aren't a fun little prompt someone made to give you a story idea, or a character name. They aren't search engines that can reliably bring you facts. They are digital parrots that are trying to guess what it is you want them to say, and they're vomiting up all their stolen work because they want to make you happy.

So, right off the bat, you did not create the things these engines made. In this situation, you are a factory owner that's stealing labor from others, and claiming it's yours because you're the one who gave the order. That's not how creation works. If you didn't do the work, then you don't get to claim the credit for it. Simple as.

Secondly, and this is an even bigger concern, generative AI steals your skills and makes you dumber. Whether it's this study in Psychology Today, or this study in Tech.Co, the use of generative AI weakens the connection in your brain, wrecks your ability to think critically, and it degrades your skills. So even if there was some genuine need to use it (which there isn't), you're harming yourself by indulging in it. And the longer you use it, the worse the poison is going to eat into you, and the harder the road back to recovery is going to be for you. That's just the facts.

With those two important points addressed, though, I'd like to get to that last one. Because you can absolutely afford the things it takes to make your book into a sleek, marketable finished product. The question is whether or not you're willing to actually put in the work to make it happen, and to do it with the sweat of your own brow instead of just pushing a button and skipping ahead to the end.

Take this cover, for example.

For those who don't know, this is the cover for my self-published fantasy novel Crier's Knife. The art I used is Standing Stones, and it cost me a grand total of $5 to use. And I wrote this novel years ago. I've never had to pay that fee again, or do anything else to cover that cost. It was a minimal investment. And if you go to websites like Pixabay or Morguefile you can find images there that are completely free to use for your book cover.

More importantly, though, the cover doesn't look like AI slop, and the image is credited to J.H Illustrations, so anyone who wants to sling the accusation can look and check for themselves.

But what about editors? Those have to be more expensive than art, right? Yes, they usually are. You're looking at something like a few hundred dollars at minimum for an editor to look at your book. However, as with cover art, there are ways around this. You could:

- Find an editor who has a special going on (common around the holidays).

- Ask friends that you trust and have related expertise (other authors, English teachers, etc.).

- Ask in an online writer's group for community assistance (not perfect, but often helpful).

Anything someone says they need AI for has a non-AI solution that is better for you as a creator, and better for your book. You can get free or cheap art, you can get discounted or volunteer editing services, you can find step-by-step instructions for how to format your book once the manuscript is ready, and in a lot of cases you can just ask podcasters or YouTubers to do audio renditions of your book (you'll likely need to offer them some kind of royalty cut, but you can make it happen).

There are resources and tools available that can actually help you get stuck into the process, understand what it takes to make your book better, and to make it a product of your own work and effort. Some of them will cost money, but there are always ways you can bring it down to a reasonable amount. Because if you find someone charging you thousands of dollars for cover art or editing services, you need to know that is either a scam, or you are paying for top-shelf services that are not going to be worth it for you as an indie writer.

Most importantly, using these other resources builds up your knowledge, your skill, and your abilities to turn your ideas into finished books. They help you engage with the process of making art that is really yours, and that you can be proud of.

Using generative AI? All that does is atrophy the muscles you should be building, worsen your product, and turn off the public in a big way. It hurts you, and your book, and you should stay far, far away from it.

Remember what they said about the One Ring? It doesn't matter how pure your motives, or how incorruptible you think your intentions are. It's going to eat away anything inside of you until you're a hollow little goblin, unable to think for yourself. No one wants that for you as a creator, but more importantly, no one wants to read books that come from that poisoned process.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

How, Exactly, Do You THINK Authors Make Money?

There is a strange event that keeps recurring like I'm stuck in some digital version of Groundhog Day. In short, I'll be online giving an update on my current releases, or sharing around something I've made, and there will without fail be someone leaping into the comments who will say something along the lines of, "I'm not here to support your lifestyle! If you aren't making enough money, then go get a real job!"

And I'm not even mad... I'm just honestly confused. So while the title is a bit of a rhetorical question, I do genuinely find myself wondering how it is the general public thinks creators make money if this is the way they act toward us?

Seriously... I am befuddled by this behavior.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!

All Right, Let Me Break It Down One More Time

I cannot stress this enough, and even though I feel like I've gotten up on this stump before, apparently the people who need to hear this message haven't come across it yet. But the public, the audience, are what make creators money! You can write 100 novels, or make 1,000 YouTube videos, or put together 10 whole seasons of a podcast, but if you don't have an audience propping you up and helping you actually get consumed, seen, listened to, or read, then you may as well have been blowing raspberries and picking your nose for all that's going to actually get you paid.

I made a whole video about this a while back, in fact, over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel.

All right, let me back up a second to explain something that a lot of folks don't seem to understand. People who write books or blogs? People who create roleplaying games? People who make YouTube videos, or any other kind of art? We don't get paid for that! Unless the artist in-question is a staff member for a company who is paying them to create things (a rather rare position overall), or the person is working on a commission or as a ghostwriter, we do not get paid for making the things we make. We are making things, and then trying to sell them so we can turn a profit off the finished story, game, video, etc. we have made for people to enjoy.

When I wrote my novel Marked Territory about my hardboiled Maine Coon solving mysteries in New York City, I didn't get paid for writing that book. I did not receive an advance from my publisher (that's not really a thing anyone does except at the highest levels). If I expect that book to make me money, I need people to buy copies of it. When I wrote the 13 supplements in my 100 Kinfolk Bundle for Werewolf: The Apocalypse, I wasn't paid for that. I do, however, get 30% of the earnings on every sale those supplements make. I don't get paid for writing articles on Vocal, like my RPG character concept The Cult Born. I do, however, earn a certain amount of money based on how many reads all of those articles get from the audience.

And I feel like a lot of people out there just don't get this on a fundamental level.

When you see an author, or an illustrator, or a YouTuber talking about the stuff they've done, or asking folks who like their work to buy copies, or support them on a crowdfunding site, it's not that we aren't making enough money from our publishers and we need the audience to supplement our incomes. It's that our audience IS the source of our incomes! Whether you're buying copies of our books, or watching videos that have ads on them, or pledging to give us $5 a month so we can keep our bills paid, you out there, the people consuming our content, are where the money comes from.

You Aren't Supplementing Creators... You Are The Main Source

This is a point I feel people really need to internalize, because it's important for this to be understood. Creators can't just go to companies and apply for jobs, because we don't get hired to work for direct pay like that. And the few positions like that which do exist are highly competitive. A lot of us may pick up some freelance work, or we may get signed to short-term projects, but at the end of the day our success is directly laid at your feet... the audience.

You decide if we live or die in a very literal sense.

Which is why your cheers matter so damn much.

Again, you are not required to spend your time or money supporting creators whose work you aren't interested in, or which you don't like. But if you see creators out there posting links to their work, telling people about their Patreon, asking for folks to like, follow, subscribe, etc., understand that this is the way creators get paid. We don't get paid when we finish a piece unless we've got a contract with someone for it, and for a lot of us we depend on our crowdfunding audience, and our royalties (whether that's from book sales, merch sales, or from people's eyes on our articles and videos).

If you don't want to support, you don't have to. The ball is in your court. But if you do like that artist, and you want to see more of their work, and you want them to succeed, then you need to understand there isn't some phantom boss our there signing our paychecks. There's just you, and what you choose to do to help support the creators you care about.

And if you want to know exactly how you can make everyone's lives easier, I have the full breakdown for you in Care And Feeding Of Your Creators (5 Steps All Fans Should Take) that provides a bulleted list for you!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.

Don't Over-Revise Your Book (You'll Always Make It Worse)

Normally when I've talked to writers about editing and revision, it's been to remind them that it's necessary. Because sure, writing anything, whether it be a short story, a play, a novel, etc. is hard. And when you've climbed that mountain you just want to lay down and die for a little bit. Which you should absolutely do. However, you need to go back down again. No matter how much you don't want to, and how tired you are, getting to that summit is only part of the journey.

Some of us, though... we take this too far and we just keep editing, and revising, and tinkering because it's not perfect yet. But there comes a point where there's nothing else to be done, and you have to put your knife down, stop cooking, and let the people taste what it is you made.

But what if I changed the opening... again...

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

More Than Three Times and You're Playing With Yourself

There is no hard-and-fast number of editorial sweeps that will guarantee your book is ready to go out to the public. Personally, I have a primary editorial sweep for fixing big problems (filling plot holes, shifting around scenes, smoothing out a mystery, and so on), and then I'll have a secondary sweep to catch all the loose grammar, spelling errors, and so forth. At that point I'll give it to my beta readers, and after I get their feedback I'll do a third sweep to tidy up as much of the housekeeping as I can.

And you know, there are still a couple of mistakes that make it through the process. A spelling error here, a mislabeled piece of dialogue there, but there's rarely more than a handful of them. And maybe I could catch a few of them with one more sweep... but there comes a point where you're blind to your own work. Which is why I highly recommend the services of a professional editor, but that's neither here nor there.

My point is that if you, as a writer, find yourself doing not just more editorial sweeps that I outlined, but significantly more, I would like to direct you to a bit of comedy by the very talented Iliza Shlesinger.

Pay particular attention to the bit where she refers to putting together a makeup look for a night out. There comes a point where it has been refined as good as it's going to get... and every moment past that point where she doesn't stop, it's just going to get worse, and worse, and worse. That is what happens when you over-edit your book.

Again, I wish to stress that editing is an important part of the process. And if you feel you need to take 5, or even 6, passes to clean up a particularly messy book, that's well within the realm of reason. But I have talked with people who've revised longer than the initial drafting process, some of whom have said they're on their 20th revision of their book.

That's not normal. That is not just part of the process. Maybe it's because you're afraid to take that final step, so you're putting off the actual publishing. Maybe you keep getting new hyperfixations and rather than writing a new book you want to put them into your existing book. Maybe you just don't want to let this baby go yet. Whatever is keeping you editing, take a deep breath, and let it go. Because when you keep holding onto it, that's when you start trying to add body glitter to your church outfit, and attempting to fit into those jeans you've had since high school that are never going over your hips again.

You aren't doing yourself any favors. Take a deep breath, let go, and let the book go be a book. You can always write another one!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Writing Books Is Not A Way To Get Rich Quick

So, it's that time of year again. Yes, the time when people drive themselves mad working out scheduling, figuring out what their budgets for gifts are, attempting to resist the urge to eat entire plates of cookies, and to not start a fist fight over the repetitive music... however, there is something else that happens around the holidays/the end of the year.

For some reason people start hyping themselves up to finally take the plunge to become an author.

Now, I want to be as encouraging as I can be. If someone genuinely wants to try their hand at writing a book, I wish them all the luck in the world, because the task is far from easy! However, it isn't just that people start talking about finally writing a book with the new year looming in front of them... it's that they start talking about writing a book that is going to allow them to quit their job, pay off their debts, and live a life of ease.

Because, for some goddamn reason, people in general population seem to think that anyone can write a book and make a killing off of it.

Yeah, I don't know where they got that idea, either.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!

You Are Very Unlikely To Be The Lottery Winner

Some people might compare writers to Olympians, in that this is a skill you have to have a natural aptitude for, it's something you have to work at, and you have to pour years of your life into honing your craft before you're ready for the big leagues. And while that might be true if the quality of one's writing directly correlated to their book sales (spoiler warning; it doesn't), I find the lottery is a much more fitting example. Anyone, in theory, could win the lottery regardless of who they are or where they are as long as they took the risk and bought a ticket.

However, if you play the lottery, you just have to hand over some cash for your chance to win big. For a book you've got to spend several months to several years actually making it into something that's ready for the market. And while it's true that a book could see steady growth over time, or get a big boost in sales years later, too many people seem to think that as soon as they finish writing the book they're going to get a big, fat check from the royalty fairy.

Let me be blunt. It isn't going to happen. The idea that someone can just sit down at their computer, bang out their first-ever book, and catapult themselves to stardom and money overnight is a fantasy. It's no different than any of the thousands of hopeful screen writers and actors who flock to California, dreaming that they'll meet a producer at the perfect time who will be wowed by the dreamer's talent, and make them a superstar. It's pure, Grade-A, Rags-To-Riches American bullshit.

And if you really are serious about writing a book, you need to understand this, and to look at the actual challenges you're facing.

This is a video that I referenced all the way back in my first post How Much Money Do Writers Really Make?, but there is something that I feel needs to be really brought home to folks who are looking at writing books as a way to make money. Because something people don't seem to grasp, especially when they're just looking to jump into writing books, is how much time everything takes!

So, a brief timeline of stuff for folks who don't know anyone that's an author:

- Writing The Book: This could take you 2 months if you're Robert Louis Stevenson, but it's far more likely that you're looking at between 1 year to 2 years to actually get your manuscript up-to-snuff.

- Publishing The Book: If you go with a traditional publisher, this could take several months, to a year. If you do it yourself this will depend entirely on your personal skill, familiarity, or whether you can pay someone else to do it.

So, if we're extremely generous, we're looking at a 6-month turnaround if you are someone who can blaze through writing your book. For the rest of us, though, let's say you're going to take 2 years or so to get your book market ready and available for purchase.

In that 2 years you have between 1 and 4 lottery tickets. Now ask yourself, what are the chances of you winning the lottery with 1 ticket? 2 tickets? Even as many as 4 tickets? They aren't good, right?

It's the same thing for writing books.

But I was supposed to be a bestseller...?

It's one thing to fantasize about becoming a blockbuster bestseller. We can all indulge in a little escapism from time to time. But the reality is that those are a tiny percentage of books, and when you only count the books written by first timers, the numbers drop even further. A lot of people act like writing a book is a guarantee of income, status, and an easy life, when in reality you can spend 2 years or more on a title and sell a handful of copies to your friends and family. Or to no one.

We like to believe that writing a good book that entertains readers is enough. Unfortunately, it isn't. You need to have a good marketing plan, you need to figure out some way to get the word out about your book, you have to go to shows, do interviews, write blogs, make videos, show up on podcasts... or just be famous. After all, it's why every D-list celebrity is a bestselling author; if at least 10,000 people are curious enough what you have to say, then you can become a New York Times bestseller without breaking too much of a sweat.

Even if you skimmed everything I said above, I'm asking you to please lock in for this closing part.

Writing a book is hard work. It takes skill, dedication, and a lot of time to actually finish this project. But writing the book isn't where the work stops; it's just the beginning. You actually have to sell the book once it's written, and unless you are already famous or have a huge platform (we're talking 100,000+ followers for scale), then you haven't just found a shortcut to Easy Street... you've given yourself a second job as a salesman.

It's all well and good to sit back and imagine... but this is sort of like that whole getting-somebody-a-pet-for-the-holidays thing. That puppy is not a Christmas present, but a 10-year commitment. If you want to be an author, that's all well and good... but you're looking at several years before any wheels start turning.

So keep that in mind before you start drafting your resignation letter, expecting your novel's royalties to pay your bills come February, because it ain't happening, friend.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.