World’s largest AI/writing survey; publishing notes from Shanghai; AI brand backlash: Newsletter 26 August 2026

Newsletter 165. Return of the biggest survey of writers’ AI attitudes, including a chance to participate. Plus, the courage to stop a bully, the breadth of professional networks, three people to follow and three books to read.

Writers, it’s time tell us how you feel about AI

AI-powered large language models have made the biggest impact on how people write since the debut of word processors. We’re still in the midst of this change, and writers’ experience and attitudes are not just diverse, but rapidly shifting.

When I was an analyst, I learned one thing above all others. If you have data, you can gain insight. If you have no data, you’re just an opinionated blowhard. And when it comes to AI, the blowhards are everywhere.

So, if you are a writer or editor, I call on you — in fact, I beg you — to spend 15 minutes and be counted. We desperately need real data about writers.

In 2025, when my sponsor Gotham Ghostwriters and I asked writers and editors to tell us how they used AI and how they felt about it, an astounding 1,481 of you responded. This robust response enabled us not just to evaluate writing professionals’ attitudes about AI, but to examine the behavior of subgroups like copy writers, book authors, ghostwriters, and editors. We shared the report about our findings for free to everyone. It remains the largest comprehensive study ever published of AI and the Writing Profession.

As valuable as that analysis was, it is certainly now obsolete. The AI tools have vastly improved in just a year, writers’ awareness of them has certainly increased, and writers are now dealing with new challenges like clients supplying AI-generated source material.

So we’re conducting the survey again. Because we retained many of the same questions, we will be able to measure how attitudes have shifted. And we’ve added a few questions about phenomena and tools have emerged in the last year.

If you want the future discussion to include actual facts about the use of and attitudes about AI in writing, take 15 minutes and answer a few simple questions. All responses are confidential; we will publish only aggregated statistics. And I promise to once again create and freely share a detailed report about the findings, and to offer a free Webinar about what we find.

The survey link is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AIWPbern

Who should take this?

• Writers of all kinds, including content marketing writers, copy writers, speechwriters, thought leadership writers, and technical writers
• Authors, journalists, and ghostwriters
• Editors, including developmental and copy editors
• Writing coaches, teachers, and students
• Anyone who spends at least 10 hours per week on writing and editing

Our goal is to reach 2,000 respondents this year, making this once again the most comprehensive study to be published on AI and the Writing Profession. That means we need to hear your voice.

One more thing. Last year, hundreds of people responded to my plea to take the survey. Gotham Ghostwriters, my sponsor, also sent a suggestion to participate to their large mailing list. They generated more responses than I did. But my followers — the people reading this — are obviously more active and intelligent than the average writer. So click that link — and share it with your friends — and let’s prove just how enthusiastic and informed my followers are. This year, I want to generate more respondents than they do, and I ask for your help.

I look forward to hearing about your experience.

News for writers and others who think

Sabrina Sun reports from the Shanghai book fair how Asian publishers no longer stop at books and have expanded the breadth of their product offerings.

Mary Shea, PhD mapped the spread of the alumni network of Forrester Research, our former employer. Between alumni and their immediate contacts, it reaches over 100,000 people. Her company meerkat.ai is doing the same for lots of other employers’ networks. I love content, but connections are even more powerful. (I can trace about three-fourths of my freelance work to fellow alumni and their contacts; I’m editing two of their books right now.)

Scott Monty reveals how every in every bullying campaign that’s thwarted, there’s one courageous person or organization that says, “No more.” A timely insight for a world that’s increasingly full of powerful bullies.

Pete Blackshaw writes about the AI backlash now spreading through the brand world. People don’t like reading or viewing slop, and they’re penalizing brands that use it.

Three people to follow

Jon McGreevy, insightful B2B copywriter

Joe Rando, studying and promoting solopreneur success

Erin Brockovich, yes, that Erin Brockovich, saving the world from polluted water.

Three books to read

Murder Your Darlings: And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser by Roy Peter Clark (Little Brown Spark, 2021). A compendium of insights writers share with other writers.

Master Lists for Writers: Gold Edition by Bryn Donovan (Griffin House, 2025). More writing advice, compiled into mind-blowing lists.

Beautiful Particulars: How AI’s Attention to the Smallest of Differences Is Reshaping Our Biggest Ideas by David Weinberger (MIT Press, 2026). Tech’s deepest thinker applies his insights to AI and our worldview.