Note: Indie Author Magazine, Indie Author Training, and our other sister sites maintain a neutral stance on artificial intelligence. In our coverage, we seek to provide an objective, informative take on the technology, and we encourage authors to make decisions about whether to use AI platforms based on their personal values and what’s best for their business.
Earlier this month, Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) founder Orna Ross published "The detection wars: AI is publishing's 'wicked problem'" on ALLi's Substack and the Self-Publishing Advice Center. In it, she looked at the run of AI scandals that has shaken publishing this year and at AI detection tools that put a percentage score on whether writing is "human-made."
She argued that a detector score is a probability from a pattern-matching tool, not proof. Writers are being accused, canceled, and harassed on that basis, often without any due process. Rather than more policing, she argues, the industry needs to embrace honesty, accountability, and respect for fellow authors.
Readers in the comments called the article "a calm voice in the storm" and "a voice of reason in these trying times." One author noted that it is always writers who end up facing "the torches and pitchforks," much as early ebook authors once did. Another, who uses AI to help with spelling, grammar, and tense, explained why they disclose their use of the tools openly on their profile: "It's my work, my sites, my scenes, my story."
Why So Many Authors Stay Quiet
ALLi's AI survey, which drew more than 1,200 member responses and 430 written comments, may show why authors responded to Ross’s article so positively.
Only 10 percent of respondents have a formal AI policy on their website. A third plan to write one, but the majority, 58 percent, have none and aren't sure why they would need one.
Comments suggest the reason for this hesitation is usually caution rather than concealment. Where disclosure can invite hostility, many authors have decided that saying nothing is safest. Among the group who use AI most, the biggest single worry about choosing to disclose AI use was the reaction of other authors, with many in the comments asking for advice on disclosing use of the tools honestly without facing backlash.
But silence has a cost. When you say nothing, others fill the gap with assumptions. A short, clear policy allows authors to set the terms, including when their position is not to use generative AI at all.
What Authors Should Do
An AI policy is an honest statement explaining how you work to your readers, potential collaborators, and other creatives. It also allows you to reflect on your opinions on AI and set clear expectations around your use of AI in your business.
ALLi's free guide, Writing Your AI Policy, explains where ALLi stands and includes a sample policy you can adapt in your own words, or you can explore writing your own with the following tips.
Step 1: Find Your Position
ALLi's AI policy uses three broad positions to help authors think through where they stand. They're starting points, and many authors sit between two. Your position may also change over time as your business and audience grow and as technology evolves.
- AI-minimal: AI minimalists don't use generative AI in their writing or publishing, or they use only the basic AI built into standard software, such as spell check. These authors made up the largest group in ALLi’s survey: 48 percent of respondents labeled themselves as “AI minimal.” If you take an AI-minimal stance, ask yourself: Which everyday tools you use already contain AI? And what do you want to say about your work being used to train AI?
- AI-assisted: AI-assisted authors use AI at specific stages of publishing, such as research, brainstorming, editing, or business tasks, but they generally avoid using AI to generate the prose of their books. In ALLi’s survey, 24 percent used AI for select writing and publishing tasks, and a further 16 percent used it only on the publishing side, for things like market research, design, and data. With this stance, consider which tasks you use AI for, and where you draw the line between using AI tools and relying on human creators. Do your covers, audiobooks, or translations involve AI?
- AI-integrated: Just 5 percent of authors who responded to ALLi’s survey use AI across several parts of their creative and publishing process, including generating text. If you consider yourself one of these authors, ask how you will direct, revise, and take responsibility for what AI produces. Consider also how a model that integrates AI heavily may be received by audiences in certain genres. What will you tell readers, and where?
What matters is not which position you choose. In the survey, 6 percent of authors reported they were still deciding their stance on AI, which is a perfectly honest place to be. It's that you make a conscious choice, take responsibility for what you publish, are honest about how you work, and respect authors who choose differently.
Step 2: Keep Your Drafts
Whatever your position, keep a record of how your books come into being. Drafts, notebooks, version histories, and even AI chats, if you use them, are your best evidence of authorship if your work is ever questioned. Most writing software and cloud services offer some form of version history, so it's worth checking what yours keeps and switching it on.
Step 3: Say It Your Way
Once you know where you stand on AI, write it on your author website, where you can direct readers to go for more information. Keep it short: Most readers want a clear answer, not an essay.
- Put it in your own words. A sample policy is a starting point, but yours should sound like you. Rewrite whichever policy you choose to match your voice and projects.
- Make it easy to find. If posting on your website, give your statement its own page on your author website. Then, add a link in your footer or About page, so readers can find it easily.
- Tell the people you work with. Share your policy with your editor, cover designer, narrator, and any other creative collaborators, and be sure to ask about their own use of AI to ensure their work fits your policy.
- Date it and review it. At least once a year, reread your policy and update it as needed whenever your practice or a retailer's rules change.
Your policy is meant to instill trust in your audience and others who work with you, so extend the same respect to others. Don't run a fellow author's work through a detector and announce the number or openly comment on a specific author’s AI policy. No score is the whole truth, and no one is helped by public accusations.
For more on using AI ethically and practically, see ALLi's AI for Authors guidelines.
Working It Out Together
AI tools, retailer rules and the law are all changing fast, and ALLi is no exception to the advice above. We've now committed to reviewing our own AI policy at least twice a year, and in practice we've already been updating it more often than that.
That's the point of the exercise. A good AI policy isn't a final verdict. It's an honest statement of how you work today, and one you should be willing to revisit as things change.
With AI, as with any technology, you don't need to have every answer about how you’ll use it in the future. You just need to be clear and honest with your readers about where you stand right now.
The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) is a global membership association for self-publishing authors. A non-profit, our mission is ethics and excellence in self-publishing. Everyone on our team is a working indie author and we offer advice and advocacy for self-publishing authors within the literary, publishing and creative industries around the world. Learn more at www.allianceindependentauthors.org.
