So, this AI spam submission thing is only going to get worse.

(H/T: @RobinDLaws) I don’t know if The Verge has worked its way through the implications of the AI submissions problem yet. Right now, editors can detect AI-generated works of fiction, and they’re rejecting them out of hand*. Their problem? Well, let me put it another way: they’re teaching the AI how to successfully fool the editors. It will likely take some time, but the ultimate goal here is not to write the Great American Science Fiction story: it’s to come up with something that can get past the gatekeepers. That is a much more achievable goal.

It will happen. It probably hasn’t happened yet, but we’re still in the middle of the process. Worse of everyone concerned, it’s a process that will probably end up destroying the entire concept of the speculative fiction magazine — because once AI-generated text gets sophisticated enough to mimic C+ work reliably, why not just buy your own copy of the program, and have it churn out cookie-cutter content that’s specialized for you?

Continue reading So, this AI spam submission thing is only going to get worse.

Spent the morning resubmitting things for publication.

Takes longer than you’d think.  Trying to balance finding new markets with submitting new things to markets that have already rejected something of yours is likewise a little tricky. You don’t want to give up on one particular market, but you don’t want to get into a cycle where you get your stories serially (heh) rejected by each of three or four publishers in turn.  Also, you know, there are all those submissions guidelines that you have to read: I mention this because I suspect that a lot of people don’t read submissions guidelines, and they probably should.

Still, productive enough work, in its way. Not overly creative, but productive. Also emotionally fraught, but you need to scar tissue yourself about that sort of thing. Life ain’t fair, and neither is the publishing industry.