A.I. Deems Author Names Worth Stealing
The fear among authors for the past couple of years has been that A.I. would steal their books.
What they failed to anticipate was A.I. stealing their identities.
Earlier this summer, paranormal romance author Tamra Westberry received what should have been welcome news. Another writer had recommended her latest novel, Project Erebus, after seeing it in a roundup of new releases.
There was only one problem: Westberry did not write a novel called Project Erebus. Yet there it was on Amazon, attached to the profile for her pen name, Tara West.
What was more, the book reused character names from her previous fiction. Its cover resembled those of her real books. Someone had even produced German, French, Italian, and Spanish translations.
Readers who were none the wiser bought it. Some even left reviews. And an author who had spent years building a readership suddenly found a book she never wrote associated with her name.
Thriller author Noelle W. Ihli recently fell victim to an even more brazen version of this scam. Her novel The Last to Drown had a counterfeit paperback attached to the Amazon listing for the real book. It carried the same title and an almost identical cover.
Readers ordering what they thought was Ihli’s novel instead got the forgery, which cost $5 more than the genuine paperback.
When confused readers contacted Ihil, she filed an IP claim with Amazon, who to their credit removed the fake book.
Other writers have reported A.I.-generated books appearing directly on their author pages. Some imitate their style and genre. Others don’t even bother.
One romance author’s page got infested with six fake children’s books about cartoon animals.
Read the full post on Substack.
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