ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) filled headlines this year. 2024 is the year of the AI revolution! Graphic designers and artists gasped in horror and dismay. Then writers join in the collective groaning as they saw clients depart for cheap content. Authors and artists organizations grappled with issues of copyright violation in addition to the ready availability of cheap artwork and content.

Strangely enough, I read on LinkedIn that the use of AI actually declined in June.

Despite that, publishers like EA Publishing are “are hiring for both 1) People who will use AI tools to create content as well as 2) People who will work with AI produced content to mold it into a final product.” It’s the drizzle before the deluge of computer-generated content saturates every publishing platform.

Many writers and artists are hearing the bell toll a death knell. I don’t, but I also recognize that various iterations of ChatGPT and its competitors are hear to stay and their ubiquitous use will have far-reaching consequences:

• Payment for content will plunge, especially for entry level and generalist writers. To make money as a writer, you’ll need to be an expert in a specific niche.
• Entry level content writers will be forced to use AI to generate content in sufficient quantities to earn a living. This will lead to burnout.
• Except for those companies and publishers prizing original, well-researched, well-written content and willing to pay for it, the general quality of content will sink to a uniformly low standard.
• The new low standard for quality will train people to expect lesser quality and value content even less.

It’s a pretty dismal prediction for writers. 

Editors may have a somewhat better expectation, as companies will hire them to massage AI-written content into shape and infuse it with enough character and originality to satisfy readers. Editors who don’t normally do this kind of work (which is more properly called book doctoring) may find themselves in higher demand than those who specialize in developmental editing, line editing, or copy editing. Of course, they’ll need to conduct research to ensure that any citations and sources referenced by AI actually exist and are correct.

It was big news not all that long ago that ChatGPT makes stuff up. It lies. It’s up to humans to verify claims made in AI-generated content.

As always, however, there will be readers who prize original content. These are the people who comprehend the value of craftsmanship and hard-earned skill. For these people, there will always be writers like me, writers who do things the old-fashioned way, the hard way. I don’t use AI in writing my stories. What readers get is the product of my imagination, not a machine-generated output of keywords and suggested themes and plot points devoid of all humanity.

When it comes to computers, the old saying “garbage in, garbage out” still holds true. But AI is capable of learning and adapting and improving itself.

​Woe betide the day when it replaces a good storyteller.

I have one more event before taking a break in July: Art on the Hill & Wine Tasting, Too! in Mantua, Ohio. This event is a first for me (and my bestie, Cindra) and will take place on Saturday, July 8, on East Prospect Street. In 2014, this event was named the “Best Arts and Cultural Event in Portage County.”

Who knows what lovely wines I’ll find and buy?

The break in my event schedule was set months ago when my husband planned on traveling to Alaska to visit with our son, Brian. The original plan was for my husband, our son, and our son’s girlfriend to drive back to the lower 48. The plan changed, but I still kept my calendar free.

My son and his girlfriend will be driving back to Ohio—with their two cats. My husband will fly up to Alaska to visit with them for a few days and help them with the final preparations for leaving the nation’s northernmost state. He will fly back home.

Those who don’t know me might inquire as to why I don’t go go Alaska, too. Simply put: logistics. We live on a farm. We have livestock. Someone’s got to stay home to take care of the animals. My husband is usually the one who stays home; this time, he gets to travel and I will stay home.

What will I do with my weekends free of events? I’ll go trail riding, of course! And I’ll work on the next book which will be the third in the Triune Alliance Brides series.

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t published anything since Double Cut came out in March, that’s because I’ve been working on the fifth book in the Twin Moons Saga: Champion of the Twin Moons. 

Have you read the series? Some of my favorite characters pop into the new book: Unseelie King Uberon and Master Enders the Archivist. Champion of the Twin Moons focuses on the oldest son of Enders and Daniellisande, the daughter of Captain Thelan of the Seelie Court’s Royal Guard and his mate, the moon-born Catriona. This book departs from the pattern of previous books, but it all makes wraps up and makes sense in the end.

Like all books in each of my series, Champion of the Twin Moons may be read as a standalone novel. There is no cliffhanger.

The official release for Champion of the Twin Moons is July 19. Pre-order your copy now.

There’s a strange dynamic that occurs when setting prices on handcrafted items or freelance services. Considerations for setting prices include, but are not limited to:

• The cost of materials
• The hourly cost of time
• The level of effort involved
• The level of skill involved
• The level of clientele desired
• The level of clientele available
• Physical location.

Let’s use artwork as an example. My friend and I sell our original painings. In 2022 and unsure of the market, we priced our paintings as follows: $25 for large; $15 for medium; and $10 for small. We added a further incentive: $10 off the entire purchase if the customer buys two or more paintings. (I have to sell two to three times as many books as paintings to earn an amount similar to selling paintings.) Last year we did pretty well overall at various arts and crafts festivals in our local region with our best sales occuring at the Clifton Gorge Arts & Music Festival. We’ll be there again this year.

We sold quite a few paintings overall, although there were some events where we couldn’t sell paintings for those low prices. We joked that, despite the compliments on our artwork, we wouldn’t have been able to sell the paintings if we paid customers to take them, because sometimes it felt like that. We also received advice from several customers that the prices we charged were too low.

So we raised our prices to about half of the advised amount and kept the multi-item discount. Sales plummeted. Of course, we make the same amount of money with fewer paintings sold, but that just results in an overflowing inventory of paintings. We only have so much storage space, you know.

We still get lots of compliments on our work. Sales of small and medium paintings outstrip sales of large canvases.

Both of us are loath to reduce our prices. If we charged for our paintings based on an hourly wage, the prices would be even higher. I’m considering whether to raise the multi-item discount rather than reduce prices. Would that be sufficient incentive?

Perhaps the venues where we’ve been selling aren’t the right places to sell artwork. That’s certainly a possibility and an hypothesis that will be put to the test on July 8 at Art on the Hill in Mantua, Ohio. In neighborhoods where household income trends toward the lower end of the economic spectrum, people are less likely to have the disposable income to spend on artwork. More upscale communities have more more money to spend on luxuries like artwork. That’s not an indictment, just admission of certain realities.

I have noticed that at events where our artwork doesn’t sell well, my books do. That makes bringing and offering both books and paintings a smart decision for me. My friend may have an opposite opinion, as she only sells paintings and an event that proves unprofitable for her isn’t one she’s likely to want to return to, regardless of how well my books sold. Since we generally go together to events, it behooves the both of us to consider our combined commercial outcome when deciding whether to register.