If you are an editor or ghostwriter, you need to protect yourself. AI-generated text from your clients creates both risks and extra work for you. You are within your rights to refuse any such material altogether. However, if you do deal with it, you must protect yourself. Below are some clauses I recommend including in…
Newsletter 152. Old people’s message to their successors in the workplace, plus the Authors Guild gets prescriptive about AI, mathematicians face up to their limits, three people to follow, and three books to read. Young vs. old I’m old. I was once young. I remember what it was like to be young in the workplace,…
We are human beings, not training data. We are not raw material for the AI slop machine. We create. We write, we speak, we think, we publish. Our creativity is central to who we are. It is not free fuel for your models. We alone control what we create. We can do with it as…
Grammarly has a fascinating new feature. It will make editorial suggestions in the persona of famous individuals. Regrettably, they didn’t get any of these individuals’ permission to hijack their names and slap them onto editorial suggestions. The result has been a huge backlash including legal action. The best writeup that reveals the absurdity of this…
People think developmental editing is about improving words. It’s not. It’s about feelings. I’m sure that sounds like it makes no sense. But it’s actually the most important thing an editor does, and no machine can do it. How a developmental editor works I start my developmental edit on your manuscript by reading it. As…
I did it again. I joined a collaborative writing project in a controversial space with a bunch of volunteer collaborators who are also writers and editors. It’s sort of like having a colonoscopy with a whole bunch of other people looking on, critiquing what they see, and making “helpful” suggestions. Ew. What was I thinking?…
It’s natural to use technology tools to make writing more efficient. Nobody is suggesting going back to typewriters and Wite-Out or looking up spellings in a paper dictionary. But now that we have AI, it’s tempting to outsource large amounts of the work in nonfiction writing to AI tools. This is a mistake for several…
Newsletter 134. AI is overtaxing experts, and we’re all going to pay. Plus, the irrationally of the bestseller list, what books sold in 2025, three people to follow, three books to read, and one coach to rule them all. AI and the expert’s burden. A friend, who is a fellow ghostwriter and editor, recently came…
Newsletter 133. Even in neutral spaces, ICE is generating outrage. Plus, is Anthropic planning to mutilate and devour your book, the world’s worst Crocs/Lego crossover, three people to follow, three books to read, and a virtual author coach. Could social media overpower a masked police force Eighteen years ago, Charlene Li and I published an…