Chapter 49
I’d like to publicly admit that four of my friends and I decided to try and game the publishing industry and use AI to write a cowboy romance to see if we could get it to the top of the charts.
We wanted to see if anyone would call out a book so clearly and exaggeratedly written by AI.
Harper Morgan did, inadvertently but still…
Mai goes on in great detail about what they did to me and the subsequent downfall of the friend group.
What I discovered along this journey was that the romance book community is a strong one.
Under the banner of our fake Tia accounts we had a lot of messages from Bookstagrammers supporting Harper.
And reaching out to Tia too, making sure she felt supported, even though Tia was a figment of our imaginations and a product of AI.
I can only apologise for my own actions.
I’ve done so much damage to Harper, and the romance reader community.
It was supposed to be a prank, a social experiment, to show how easily the publishing industry could be manipulated.
It didn’t take long for the jig to be up, but by then I’d realised not only had I ruined Harper’s life but that I’d also done the wrong thing by so many readers who only wanted to support a debut author.
The reason the book did so well was that the romance community came to together, excited about a new voice.
Even though it wasn’t a new voice. It was AI.
A culmination of voices that aren’t real.
I’m so sorry for all the hurt I’ve caused, and will forever regret my part in it.
Especially involving Harper, who truly loves the book world.
The romance community is strong, and that divide between protecting their authors and protecting their Bookstagrammers isn’t actually a divide at all.
It’s their inherent kindness in making sure that everyone is being heard, being supported and not being bullied.
The only bullies in this situation are us, the gamers who thought we could outsmart a community that is tougher than we imagined.
And so, once more to Harper, I apologise.
Your community is waiting for you, and I hope that I haven’t taken that away from you forever.
Mai Zhōu.