Lisa here, with an updated version of a post I wrote 6 years ago about the publishing world and its relationship with ever-evolving and “improving” tech. GRWM (Get Ready with Me) and see How it Started/ How It’s Going …
Greetings, Dear Readers! Thank you for opening this post, because I know you have many choices in your feed or inbox. Many, MANY choices. Maybe, like me, you’ve been furiously toggling between nonstop “important” emails, price-increase announcements, breaking news headlines, relentless ads for questionable products, fundraising pleas, and videos of cute pets with physics-defying abilities.
I don’t even open those gushing emails from Louise Penny and Emily Henry and Jim Patterson anymore. Even though they’re DYING to discuss my next book. Or the London and New York Book Clubs, who just discovered the Irish Bed & Breakfast Mysteries. Sad, really, but who has time to deal with all these accolades and opportunities?
(OLD POST):
Because my dad was a devoted employee of the IBM Corporation for 40 years, you’d think I might have had a jump on the whole computer thing as a kid. I’m sure that’s what he hoped, anyway. But by the time I hit my teens, when computers were still large enough to fill entire rooms, even my dad had to admit that my career path was headed in an opposite, far less lucrative direction.
In the late 70s, before Take Our Daughters to Work Day, I got to visit my dad’s office. Walking through a series of doors that opened like the ones that greeted Maxwell Smart was cool (and mildly unsettling), but I knew right away I’d entered a very different world. The office was filled with men in suits, white shirts and black rimmed glasses and secretaries who looked like they’d stepped out of Mad Men. A few younger, male employees in the advertising department wore blue shirts and aviators, with their hair just a tad below their ears, but they were definitely in the minority. Apparently the dress code hadn’t changed much from when my dad started his career in the 40s selling typewriters. (Here’s a pic of the wives, too, just for fun.)
I met with a lot of people that day. They were all very polite, and told me there were great opportunities coming up for women in the computer field. Or maybe I could go into sales or become Personnel Director like my dad. But one of my “interviewers” (I was still in high school) was different. The editor-in-chief of Think magazine (“Think” was the corporate tagline), his office was lined with books. “Your dad tells me you’re a writer,” he said, taking a puff on his pipe. Then he pulled a book out of his drawer and pushed it across his desk to me. “You’ll need this,” he said. “Good luck.” I still have the book. A classic:
I didn’t actually interact with any computers in college, other than the odd game of Treasure Hunt (1982). To do so, I would have had to take Computer Science 101. It was offered by the math department, so I didn’t bother reading the catalog description. I did, however, keep my roommates company during their all-nighters in the computer lab, as they created and trashed endless punch cards and literally prayed their programming would finally work.
After I graduated and started working in publishing, I found myself facing a familiar logo on a daily basis: IBM, courtesy of my Selectric typewriter. All was well, until we assistants on Editorial Row had our precious typewriters removed, and replaced with the ugly, chunky beige machines we were told would make our jobs a breeze–once we got used to them.
It took a while, with a lot of computer switches (publishers can never decide: to Mac or not to Mac?) and manuals and training classes on the relentless march toward Desktop Publishing. None of us editors really understood that concept, until we received the news: We were going to edit directly on our screens. Bye-bye paper, they told us. Sayanora, blue pencils for editors and red for copyeditors and green for proofreaders and All. Those. Sticky. Notes.
Unfortunately, the early programs allowed us to work on only a paragraph or so at a time. It was a disaster. Some editors tried hard to embrace the new technology. Others complained. Some quit. A few cried. They couldn’t edit that way, they said. It didn’t feel the same. The mystified suits threw up their hands. “Creatives,” they muttered. But a new line was added to the budget: Freelancers to input authors’ mss.—with our edits—into the computer. Then those pages were printed out, and the copyeditors went to work. The sticky notes remained (so much fun to photocopy).
Soon after, a new drive began toward digital books. The publisher I worked for was developing its own e-reader. We editors got to test out an early prototype one weekend, because they wanted the opinion of diehard readers. Early Monday morning, a development person knocked on my office door. “So, what did you think?” he asked eagerly. I told him (politely) that I hated it. And it didn’t work in sunlight. Apparently the other editors agreed, because the developers went back to the drawing board—and then abandoned the idea altogether.
(OLD CONCLUSION):
Eventually, we all embraced—or learned to live with—the Dread Technology. Cut to the present (Note from Lisa: this was 2020): I am the author of an e-book mystery series. I’m a proud blogger here at Chicks on the Case. I enjoy interacting with readers and fellow writers on social media and take classes and attend conferences virtually. And I own an online business where I edit clients’ mss. solely on-screen, through the miracle of Track Changes.
How did this happen? I’m not really sure. Yeah, some days I want to throw my laptop against the wall. But that would be a mistake, I think.
Daddy, if you and my old bosses could see me now.
NEW CONCLUSION (Also the Comments question!):
Authors, so where do you think we are we headed as we motor the ever-winding publishing road? Have AI bots moved from the backseat, where they incessantly whined “Are we there yet”?, to the passenger seat where they offered uninvited and not-so-helpful directions, to the actual driver’s seat?
Readers, how do you feel about AI-written (or highly assisted) books? Do you feel you can tell the difference? Is there any hope for human authors, or with AI driving are we headed off a cliff like Thelma and Louise?
LISA Q. MATHEWS is a regular contributor to Chicks on the Case and the author of the Irish B&B Mysteries, the Ladies Smythe & Westin series, short mystery fiction, and many kids’ books. Visit her website and sign up for her newsletter at lisaqmathews.com.
Hi Everyone, we’re having a bit of trouble with comment posting today–and we’re on it! Testing…1-2-3…Ah, technology!
Working!
Yay!
How nice of that pipe-smoking editor! I’ve had many jobs over the years, one as a systems engineer (computer programmer), my favorite until our jobs went to India. But now, writing mysteries is my favorite. And AI is trying to take that job away. My opinion is that AI should be unplugged. Just unplug it.
I’m not sure where we’re headed, but I think AI is definitely creeping toward the driver’s seat. Luckily, I feel like many publishers/editors value human writing. But I definitely know of other industries that are really embracing AI advancements.
Yes! I’m all for actual, productive efficiencies and advancements (esp in fields such as medicine), but for creativity? Brr.
As a writer, I think AI is in the passenger seat, constantly telling us how to drive. I ignore it.
As a reader, I don’t want anything to do with it. A couple years ago I read several books where the emotions were so shallow, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were written by AI. But who knows if it was AI, or lazy writing by a real person.
I agree, Mary! I’m hoping that people, especially kids, don’t get too accustomed to that emotionless AI writing that shows up in so many articles (and “educational” materials) now, too.
Having spent a chunk of my working life as a developer and analyst, I am not anti-technology. I believe it has a place, but it is definitely not the end-all, be-all solution to everything business leaders seem to think it is! It is simply one more tool in our bag of tricks. AI is just the latest (and admittedly scariest) addition. I think there are uses for it. Let it do the drudge work that is part of every industry, but it should not ever be in the driver’s seat. At best, it can sit in the passenger seat and advise. No final decision-maker. It simply does not have the conscience, nor the accountability required for that role.
As for reading a book written by AI, I don’t know if I would recognize it as that or not. I can only hope I would and I really don’t want to read a book that has to be missing that special element that only a person can bring. I so appreciate the creative imagination and soul that comes only from a living, breathing human being. That is the only way to infuse life into a character and that is what makes the book live for me as a reader.
The AI is a lot like me as a kid, trying to push the buttons or twist the knobs on my mom’s dashboard as she drove. I also really, really wanted to flick the high beams on and off. It did not go well for me.
One of the many things that disturbs me is that books some authors insist they’ve written are being challenged as AGI generated. I believe that casts a shadow of suspicion over all of us. Depressing.
Absolutely, Patricia! Doubly scary and depressing indeed.
I value human writing as well. The little bit of AI writing I’ve seen has been weak. But maybe that explains some of the trends in writing I’m seeing? People using AI for help but not making it better?
Excellent point, Mark. Maybe because it’s AI, some authors feel that any changes are “correct” or “better.”
I never have AI find me but I do find it might listen to me at times and suggest things which is kind of creepy.
Eek, listening!
I tried using an online editor that I didn’t realize was AI-assisted, and you would not believe how BAD the suggestions were! That is almost a whole blog post in itself. It made me feel like our writing job are safe for now, but it’s had such a huge toll on books With millions of AI-written books being dumped into Amazon, it’s harder than ever to avoid getting buried in the slop.
As a (human) editor, I’ve gotten a lot of mss. recently from clients who’ve run their final drafts through various programs for a last look before sending to me. The checks used to be mainly for typos, missing/repeated words, grammar-type stuff–basically proofing, which was great. But apparently there have been a LOT of recent AI changes in some of these sites/programs, with scary results.
Lisa – Reading your post made me feel like I had traveled back in Sherman and Peabody’s Wayback Machine, which, by the way, I learned is a real thing these days. Who knew?
My journey into computers started about the same time as yours, although mine was courtesy of Sears, when the EEOC went after them for discriminatory hiring. Suddenly their inhouse computer training program hired a lot of women – including me. I totally understand the constant change in technology. It’s always a learning curve – many times very steep. But meeting my fellow new employees who became my lifetime friends has been the best gift.
But on to AI. Yes, the world is always changing. I think of the candle making industry in the 1880’s and the impact of electricity coming on the scene. Which turned out to be a good thing after all.
So for now, I’m going along with having AI in the passenger’s seat. Yes, it can simplify tasks. But I am wary of the results if we hand AI the steering wheel and assume the outcome is always right because it’s AI. Not smart.
I’m also very concerned that the AI-slop of books is growing like an out of control beast. I don’t use AI and don’t plan to. Not sure how to tackle the AI issue. But this blog is a great start.
Thank you, Debbie! Yes, we absolutely must have been on the same emerging tech track, in different fields. Also, I have always been grateful for the generation of publishing women just before mine that worked so hard and stood their ground for gender equity in publishing. So many wonderful role models. In another 6 years (maybe a lot sooner?) I’ll update this blog again! I am hopeful that the AI situation for authors and publishers will smooth into a (seatbelted) passenger situation (for, say, finding/reaching readers, keeping track of sky-high royalties, book distro, etc., rather than creating that…slop. Ugh.
I missed this yesterday. Since my day-job is in medical software, I see a lot of good that AI can do there. So yay.
But for creation? I’m skeptical. Even my day-job writing, which is not nearly as creative as fiction, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. And it turns out that a lot of these companies that went all-in on AI have found out a) it’s expensive and b) it’s not the magic-bullet solution.
For me, it’s in the passenger seat. All of this makes me think of the advent of eBooks when everybody feared physical books would become a thing of the past. Yeah, how’d that work out?
What a cool story–love epic moment of the book being pushed across the desk to the future writer! And the description of the office is amazing. 🙂