Recently, I received a few emails from participants in our just-completed Make Your Book Trailer with AI challenge. All of them focused on one thing–fear of using AI for marketing and getting their careers destroyed by the anti-AI crowd.
I get it. You're probably sensitive and protective about your creative work (I know I am). Your creativity needs a safe space, and the pitchfork-wielding anti-AI crowd feels anything but safe.
But I've learned that letting these haters and bullies win only keeps me from doing the work I was meant to do. So, I wanted to share some alternative perspectives that might help:
1. Readers Just Don’t Care: Most readers still love and buy books marketed with AI-assisted content. The backlash is primarily coming from other authors, not your target audience. Let them stick to their quills and paper. You and I, we don’t have time to waste! The future is here, we are either going to be in it or go extinct. The choice is yours!
2. This has happened before! Several times over in publishing alone, just search through posts in this group by some veterans. Heck, even ebooks used to be considered evil when they were launched. Imagine that!
3. Success Stories: We're seeing more and more authors succeed with AI. For instance, one author recently hit #1 on Amazon using an AI video for promotion.
Practical Considerations
With careful editing, many AI-generated materials (like book trailers) can be indistinguishable from traditionally created content. There is no good tech AI detector. And humans have been known to call old preAI existence content AI (so really they aren’t as good detectors as they think they are)
The key is learning how to use these tools effectively and knowing how to refine the output. For this, you need to know both the do's and don'ts of AI video, as well as visual storytelling. You can't for eg. regurgitate your book blurb as a visual!
To help with this, I’m forming a Creators Club. This will be a group of AI-friendly authors who can help each other spot and eliminate any telltale signs of AI use in their video marketing materials.
Ultimately, we all have to make a choice: either let the anti-AI bullies control us or make our own choices based on what we see coming in the future.
If you're interested in joining our next "Make Your Book Trailer with AI" challenge join the waitlist here and I will let you know about the next one!
If you are curious about the creators club and want to explore if it makes sense for you to join as a founding member comment below, DM me on Facebook or email me.