Lean Publishing Tip of the Day: How to Look Like a Human Online in the Age of AI (for Self-Published Authors)
With the proliferation of both good and bad uses of AI, it's very important to many readers that they can know they're thinking about buying books written by a real person, when they're thinking about buying books you've written and self-published on platforms like Leanpub, Amazon KDP, or elsewhere.
One challenged faced by self-published authors in the age of AI is basically just coming across as a real human online.
With the proliferation of both good and bad uses of AI, it's very important to many readers that they can know they're thinking about buying books written by a real person, when they're thinking about buying books you've written and self-published on platforms like Leanpub, Amazon KDP, or elsewhere.
In this post, and the accompanying recorded Lean Publishing Tip of the Day Livestream, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks about how you can help reassure people that you're a person too, and how you can avoid the innocent pitfalls some self-publishing authors are inadvertently making when it comes to AI use.
Generally Avoid AI-Looking Book Covers
AI tools are great for brainstorming and coming up with book cover ideas, but you generally want to avoid having your cover look "too AI" in the end.
Now, people who already know you or trust you might not care too much about this, and there are plenty of people who have no problem with AI book covers in general.
But for anyone who doesn't already know you're real, an AI-looking book cover can cause them to immediately click away from wherever they've found your book online: it's just not worth the risk they'd be buying [AI slop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop) (that's a technical term, by the way).
Post Regularly on Social Media and Follow Other People
A classic feature of an AI author is a brand-new social media profile with like one follower.
One of the main ways a reader can validate your identity as a real person is to see that you have a significant number of followers on social media platforms, and that you post regularly about a specific topic, or a coherent set of topics (like books and writing).
Personally Interact with People Online
It's not enough to just post things online. You also need to interact with people - liking and subscribing and following and replying, post questions or feedback in livestream Q&As, things like that.
Of course the bots can do this too, but it's pretty easy to spot a real person by the pattern of their activity. DMing people and even doing calls with them is a great way to establish yourself as a real presence.
Go Live
"Going live" is a really good way to show you're real. Whether it's on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube or wherever, doing live video streams is a great way to connect with people.
But "going live" doesn't just mean online. Meeting people in person and doing public talks - like good old-fashioned book launch events - is a great way to introduce yourself to people and build an audience, and improve your profile.
Accept the Neverending Nature the Challenge
AI technology is just going to keep getting better at emulating human behavior online, and as a self-published author, there is simply no tactical or conceptual destination you can arrive at where the problem of proving you're real will just be solved.
It's just a part of our lives now, and keeping up with it is going to be as ordinary and everyday a part of being a self-published author as say ebooks or ecommerce are now.
If you find that depressing, in a way the good news is that, when it comes to the matter of online activity, genuine human interaction is actually more important now than it ever has been.
Clips from the Livestream
