The Cyborg Author

I'm still proud of my first novel, Glitches of Gods.

Readers called it mind-blowing, mind-bending, and of pretty decent quality.

The problem is that it took me too long, and the process itself was far too expensive. I estimate around 4,000 hours of work spread out over four years, and I spent thousands of euros on development editors, copy editors, book designers, marketing specialists, and promotional campaigns.

The result of all that?

A net *loss* in both time and money invested. (If you want to get rich, you shouldn't be writing novels. That's for sure.)

Nevertheless, on and off, I've been thinking about continuing my side-career as a novelist. Positive feedback certainly motivates me to publish more. And I love storytelling. But the sheer effort and investment of personal time and money have been holding me back. (That, and that earning a living was higher on my list of priorities these past few years. Last time I checked, nobody saw hobbyist novelist as a brilliant career move.)

Anyway, fast forward two or three years, and things have changed.

First, I now have a great daytime job that has solved the problem of earning a living for the foreseeable future. (I'm not feeling guilty anymore about spending my free time on hobbies with a rather bleak ROI profile.)

Second, there's a new technology on the market that can help me address the time sink and money problem: artificial intelligence. (I did not use AI for my first novel, except in the final editing stage for fixing issues with grammar and style.)

Now, before my readers and fellow writers bring out their torches and pitchforks, let me emphasize my stance on AI: I'm skeptical but optimistic about what AI can offer humanity. I've written about that plenty of times on The Solo Chief. For novelists, I see the same: there are drawbacks and benefits to using AI in the writing process.

I know there are plenty of "writers" out there now using AI to churn out one worthless book after another. And I know there are others who are reluctant to touch AI even with a ten-foot pole and instead prefer to stick to their quills and parchment paper, maybe even clay tablets.

I don't belong to either camp.

I want AIs to support me as a writer and novelist and help me improve as an author: write even higher-quality novels, in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the price. Write stories ten times better, ten times faster, and ten times cheaper.

I'm here to see if I can do that, and I will share with you what I learned.

Jurgen