New Draft2Digital Fees and Delisting

In an effort to combat AI slop, which has unfortunately flooded the indie book market, Draft2Digital has implemented a $12 USD yearly fee for users making under $100 in a year. Unfortunately, as a new author, I fall into this category.

While $12 USD doesn’t seem like much, it’s almost $20 CAD. That’s a lot of money that, as a currently unemployed person, I could be spending on healthy snacks instead. Would I rather give money to a platform or buy a couple of bags of apples? Right now, I’d rather have the apples. Life is expensive right now.

I’m not complaining here. In fact, just a week or two ago, I was wondering why these companies didn’t charge a fee, and fully expected it to happen in the future. Other companies will likely follow suit. I really do hope it helps to combat the AI garbage and isn’t just a cash grab. AI slop flooding the market makes it harder to get noticed as a new indie author. More books equal more competition, and it was already difficult before this.

So what are my next steps?

Well, I had already been mulling over the idea of delisting my books and relaunching the series exclusively on Kindle Unlimited. Not having a solid marketing plan going into this is entirely my fault and a beginner’s mistake, but luckily one that can be rectified. If my books were making a decent sum of money, then paying the ~$20 CAD would be totally worth it.

Right now, paying that much a year for my books to sit there and make no money is a silly economic decision. As a new author with little sales, it’s just not worth it. The good news is that this is a great kick in the pants to start reworking my marketing plan.

I’m disappointed that AI books are a thing. Unfortunately, they’re likely here to stay. Platforms are interested in making money, and if these AI books make money, then they will ultimately allow them. There’s also a good chance that some of these AI book generators (you don’t deserve to be called authors) are making enough to pay the fee and will continue to do so. So what can you do to combat the problem?

Name and shame.

If the book has an AI cover, do not buy it.

Name and shame them, too.

Do I use AI? Well, I run these blog posts through the free version of Grammarly before I post them, because sometimes I misplace my commas. Since it gives you a score out of 100, it makes it a bit of a game to me. I get offended if I don’t get a score above 87%. Can you tell I got high grades in school?

Not all AI is bad. Some AI tools are actually pretty neat. AI-generated books? Not so much.

(This one got an 84/100, but after a few corrections, it gets 96/100. I win.)