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Happy Monday to those who celebrate! I used to love Mondays since they were the start of my weekend, but not anymore. I’m in the trenches with everyone else today, but I had a good Sunday, so let’s dig in!

Last week I finished listening to my manuscript, and even though with every reading pass I think I’ve caught all the mistakes and typos, there are always more. This time around, the biggest catch I found was “fishman” when I meant “fisherman.” So, even if it’s tedious, it’s an editing step that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to skip. I have my proof, and I’ll be reading that soon. I can’t show you pictures of it since I haven’t done a cover reveal, and because I promise my newsletter/blog subscribers first dibs on stuff like that, I suppose I better stick to it.

Right now I’m re-editing Addicted to Her, and I think I’ll finish that first. It shouldn’t take me too long to edit Wicked Games’ proof, but I always order another to make sure all the changes I make turn out okay. As long as I account for that time and make sure I give any ARC readers a chance to read before publishing, things should be okay. Though, I’m still on the fence on where I’m going to give out ARC copies. The FB ad I ran for the Bookfunnel link for Loss and Damages was just a waste of money and I won’t be doing that again. Yeah, my book ended up on a lot of devices, but I only have fifteen reviews on Amazon and sixteen on Goodreads. So the FB ad, my Goodreads giveaway, and letting my newsletter/blog know ARCs were available did little. I can’t think too much about it or I’ll just get depressed. Let’s move on.

The writing community was buzzing when the New York Times came out with their article about Coral Hart and how she uses AI to pump out romance books under several pen names. This is a gift article from someone on Threads (thank you!) and hopefully you can read it here. You may have to sign up for a free account to access it: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/business/ai-claude-romance-books.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KlA.3vTj.bxV-_SADLJZy.

I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it, being that this blog is about indie publishing news and my experience as an indie romance author. Obviously, there were a lot of feelings when it came out. Not only because she’s using a tool that was created using stolen work, but because honestly, if you don’t sit down and actually write the book that you want to publish, it’s disrespectful to the genre and to our readers. I’ve seen people say, “If you didn’t take the time to write it, why should I take the time to read it?” I think it goes deeper than that, but mostly, I just get confused. Writers write because we actually like it. We love coming up with new worlds, new characters, and new plots. There is nothing better to me than the planning phase of a novel. Towns, characters, their angsty backstories. What do they want? What are the stakes? How are they so damaged they’re afraid to fall in love? If you don’t like writing, if you hate it to the point that you just want to outsource it, then what are you doing? I just don’t get it. No one is forcing you be an author, and let my two dollars a day tell you, it’s not a get rich quick scheme. Far from it.

There’s a misconception online that says quantity equals sales and royalties, but in my experience, that hasn’t been true. Ten books might sell more than one, but you still have to tell readers that those ten books exist. Look at this this way. Throw a rock in the water, and it’s going to sink. Throw a handful of pebbles in the water, and they’re still going to sink. It doesn’t matter how much product you have out there if you don’t constantly–and consistently–market and if you don’t have a core group of fans. And you’ll never get that core group of fans if readers don’t like what you’re writing. I read an interesting Substack article by Johnny B. Truant about the “Artisan Author” and how in this new age of AI and writing books faster and faster and faster, that real quality is going to be what sets you apart. And not only quality, but actually enjoying the writing process.

We used to say that readers don’t care about how the sausage was made, but . . . maybe that’s not true anymore. Maybe they do want to read that snippet you’re proud of the second it left your fingers, or the scene that made you cry that you wrote on your lunch break. Graphic designers and artists are encouraged to show their step-by-step process to prove that they didn’t use AI to create their book covers and character art. Maybe authors will be encouraged to do the same. People who use AI to pump out a book can do that too, but the the thing is, they won’t. They don’t care about the process. They care about the end product, and they won’t waste time sharing a dialogue exchange between two characters that AI just generated.

Will that become the norm? Maybe. If it becomes normal for authors who enjoy the process and take their time to only publish a book or two a year. Right now the trend is still faster, faster, faster, and more, more, more, but not everyone wants to ride on that high-speed train. We’d rather walk and smell the flowers. Johnny has a book about being an “Artisan Author” and you can find it here (this is not an affiliate link and I don’t get anything for recommending his book): https://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Author-Low-Stress-High-Quality-Fan-Focused-ebook/dp/B0DPCV96XZ

Anyway, so yeah, that article about Coral Hart was depressing and sad, but I wouldn’t let it get you down. Even though changes in the publishing industry are slow to take, I really do think that readers are going to value human connection more than ever before. We’re going to see an explosion of people who want to read human-driven content. This blog has suddenly been getting thousands of hits a day and I can only guess that it’s because I write my posts and people can tell I do. I will never use AI to write either my books or my blog posts because being a writer is who I am, not only what I do. So, thank you for being here and reading my snarky thoughts. If you want to read more about Coral Hart and her side business selling AI courses, you can here: https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file/a-romance-writer-is-using-ai-to-pump-out-200-novels-a-year-but-is-it-just-a-new-form-of-an-old-grift/ And Kathleen Schmidt wrote a Substack about it that I found interesting: https://substack.com/home/post/p-187393878

I titled this blog before I wrote all of it, and part of the title was “And Just Learn to do it Yourself Already.” I . . . actually don’t know what I meant by that. I’ve said in the past that if you’re an indie author that it will only serve you well if you can learn as much as you can about the industry and how to publish your own books. Learning to format using Draft2Digital’s formatting software and at least learning the basics of doing a cover with KDP’s cover template, even if you will never format yourself or do your own covers, might get you out of a jam one day. Learning grammar and punctuation and basic self-editing skills can help lower your dependency on an editor, and learning an ad platform so you’re comfortable with things like bids and click-through-rate (CTR) will open up marketing possibilities. Beyond that, I’m not sure what I was thinking or what I wanted that section of my blog post to be about. It might have been something with AI, since Coral Hart and that article was my main topic today, but I really have no clue what direction I was going in.

I don’t think outsourcing every aspect of every publishing step is sustainable long-term, and you really can outsource very single step these days. From editing, to cover design, to writing your blurb, to having someone pull content for TikTok, there’s not one part of the process that you can’t dump on someone else. But, how smart is that? There’s something to be said for learning how to write ad copy or finding the emotional snippets yourself that will hit TikTok just right. You should learn how to write blurbs and three sentence ad copy for book promotions like Fussy Librarian. Why wouldn’t you? It’s your book, it’s your product, and they’re your royalties. And maybe, if Johnny B Truant’s prediction comes true, authors will slow down and want to do those things so when they hold their book in their hands, they can be proud of the process that got them there, not only the end product.

I’m enjoying re-editing my Cedar Hill Duet. I like comparing the writing and how much better I’ve gotten through the years. I’ll be super proud to re-release those books, because I’ve come a long way in the past five years.

Like Johnny, I’m excited to see where the next few years will take us. Let the Coral Harts of the world throw pebbles. I’ll be sitting in the sand listening to “Samantha” read the book that I wrote all by myself, and hopefully, I’ll have some real people who will want to read it too.