This has to be one of the funniest AI summaries of my writing that I’ve seen recently. Among other things, it appears that I’m now two people. Does that mean I make twice as much as I thought I was making? If so, I still don’t make a sustainable living. Ain’t that a bitch! 🙂 Oh, sorry. Here’s the summary:
Speaker 1 discusses their struggles with self-publishing and marketing their books, noting that despite having numerous works available, their sales on Amazon are extremely low. They attended a helpful presentation on self-publishing and are trying to improve their situation. They also mention the unpredictability of a writer’s life, including dealing with dystonia, a movement disorder. Speaker 2 emphasizes the importance of hard work over presentation as an author, dismissing the idea of rituals or special tools for writing. They reference a quote from Jack London about not waiting for inspiration but actively seeking it.
So, AI invites the user to a ask a follow up question. So I did. I asked, “What made you think I was two people?” I was genuinely curious.
Here’s the response:
I apologize for any confusion. It seems that there was a misunderstanding. I did not assume that you were two people. The conversation between Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 was provided as context for the question you asked. Is there anything specific you would like to know or discuss?
No further questions. I rest my case.
*****
Hi. Yeah, it’s Sunday. The pollen here is terrible. So if I start coughing or clearing my throat constantly, please excuse me.
Yesterday [Saturday, April 20], I had the pleasure of attending virtually by Zoom, one of the best presentations I have seen yet on self-publishing. It was one of, seriously, I’ll just say it was the best thing I have seen and everything discussed were things I knew about, but learning about them or hearing somebody else talk about them rather, it was a very instructive thing for me and thinking about how to deal with my own situation, which is that my sales, my book sales just stink and I’ve done a very poor job as a marketer recently. But having said that, I just wanted to note that for some reason I’m still getting paid by Amazon. I’m trying to remember when I took my books off of KDP and I have virtually no recollection.
I thought it was the first of the year. I’ll have to go back and look at my blog posts to know for sure. Isn’t that terrible? Anyway, I’m still getting paid by them. I think it’s hilarious because if this is my last payment from them, this would be really funny. It’s $2.06. Okay. I have eight novels, one collection of short stories of my own, plus the two books on film noir and neo-noir, plus the Crime Cafe books. There are two of those. So I have all this stuff out there, but I am making jack shit on Amazon and people worry about their sales on Amazon and it’s like, I don’t know what you’re doing, but you must be doing it better than me. Clearly.
So yeah, you want to know what the real writer’s life is like. This is what it’s like. It’s when you’re in a situation where you thought you were doing great and then suddenly boom, the rug gets pulled out from under you and you have to do it with dystonia. Isn’t that nice? Okay, so that’s this writer’s life and you’ve gotten my authentic statement for the day and oh yeah, that reminds me. There’s always something, right? This whole authenticity thing, it’s like, seriously, okay, you don’t want me to be too authentic? Really? I mean, honest, a little too much authenticity can be a bad thing.
Yet at the same time, I take very unseriously somebody who says, you have to develop—how did she put it?—you have to work on how to “present as an author.” How to present as an author? [in la-dee-da, fancy-schmancy accent] We-e-el, I have to, every time before I write, I go through a ritual, you know. I have a special pen that I use. It’s sparkly and it’s pink and [she laughs and ditches the accent] no, none of that. None that. It’s just sitting down and doing the fucking work. That’s what it comes down to.
Okay. Having settled that, yeah, Jack London. I don’t wait for inspiration. I have to go hunting for it with a club, and I’m getting that quote wrong. It doesn’t matter. Here I am presenting as an author. Yes, thank you very much and have a good day. Be seeing you.
Here’s another photo I took of myself [two days before] yesterday. Saturday, that is.
Shall we have a song? Or two? 🙂
Generational shifts in punditry
Existing media (like traditional book publishing or network TV) will hold on to proven voices for as long as it can, but new media (which now captures far more attention) has no mechanism for that.
If it seems like it’s happening all at once, compared to history, it is.
PS: And it could all stand a good bit of editing.
Plus, there’s a GOODBIDS thing for Swifties.