Kickstarter's policy on A.I.; Rediscovering my own work; New movies (I want to stream); New Release—"Shermmies' Planet"
Discover more from READINARY by Ryan M. Williams
Kickstarter's policy on A.I.; Rediscovering my own work; New movies (I want to stream); New Release—"Shermmies' Planet"
My thoughts on reading, writing, art, and whatever else interests me.
A few months back I looked at a publishing campaign on Kickstarter for a fantasy series. I didn’t know the author. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres and takes up a considerable amount of my shelf space in its various guises.
I noticed the artwork as I scrolled through the campaign story, and I saw that nothing credited the artist. No captions, nothing in the FAQ, nothing anywhere indicated who created the art.
I messaged the campaign and asked, “Who is the artist?”
I didn’t get a response. I also didn’t back the campaign.
Weeks later, the creator is back on Kickstarter with a new campaign, and finally answers with the excuse that the ‘message got lost’ and says, “The art is AI generated, and some my own.”
Okay. Why not make that clear up front in the campaign? Whether AI-generated, original work, or commissioned work, why not tell people and credit the work?
I don’t know the answer in that case and it doesn’t matter. I’d lost interest in the creator’s work already. Had it been clear when I first looked at the campaign, would I have backed the project?
No.
Honestly, nope. Not interested. That’s me—not necessarily other potential backers.
If I knew the author’s work, knew that the writing was original work and not something plotted or ‘assisted’ with AI, the presence of AI artwork to enhance the project page might not have mattered much. Maybe.
You could say that’s why they didn’t make it clear on the project page, because it might make people skip backing the project. I doubt many backers care about it one way or the other. I do care and if I find out later that you hid your use of AI in the project—you can definitely forget about me supporting anything by you in the future.
The policy requires creators to be transparent and specific about how they use AI in their projects because when we’re all on the same page about what a project entails, it builds trust and sets the project up for success.
Transparent and specific. That’s the key of the new Kickstarter policy. The campaign process (starting Aug. 29th) requires creators to disclose their use of AI tools “for generating images, text, or any other output.” It asks creators to say how they’re using AI, identifying which parts are wholly original work and which are created using AI. The answers are reviewed when the campaign is reviewed (as is the custom) and the answers show on the campaign page under a new section ‘Use of AI’.
And backers can decide for themselves if it matters or not. I think that’s a fair and reasonable thing to do. If a creator wants to use these tools—own it and accept the fact that some people may not want to back the project. It doesn’t matter at all. Lots of people choose not to back projects for all sorts of reasons. If they don’t share your vision, you didn’t want their support anyway. Trying to misrepresent or hide your use of the tools is the only issue—not using them in the first place.
And yes, I know that it’s hard to escape the use of A.I. in its various guises as companies race to include A.I. in their products. We can choose different products, or decide what tools to use or not use. I’m not too concerned about spell-check, but I’m not interested in using generative A.I. to ‘help me write’. Like GMO in food, the battle is likely to continue over transparency with this new technology and the legal issues around intellectual property and A.I. continue to develop.
Also, none of this is even touching the flood of junk A.I. ‘books’ being pushed to sites like Amazon, including those using author’s names and reputations.
Rediscovering my own work
I’m diving deep into the pages of a previously unpublished novel. There’s a bit of a story about this one, dating back more than ten years ago.
Summer had come to my library. The first summer with me as the manager of this library, one of many in our rural library system. A small-town library with me and 3-4 assistants working at that location. Chances are you’re familiar with the summer library program or summer reading program that often takes place in libraries around the country. Usually each year there’s a theme for the program (see the Collaborative Summer Library Program for examples).
We decided to go with an ocean-focused theme and it was part of my job to plan (with my staff) events and activities for the kids and families. I did storytimes, led craft activities, and worked with presenters.
There was one activity we did with the kids which involved making a die-cut paper crown and they could add die-cuts of various sea creatures to the crown. Simple, colorful, and easy; the kids loved decorating the crowns.
And that simple activity gave me an idea not only for a novel, but a series of novels, about a pair of orphaned brothers, their brilliant uncle, and his amazing creations. Later, after work, I sat down with the idea buzzing in my brain and wrote a couple pages of ideas and concepts down.
Then I started on writing the first book, which became Cabin Boys the first book in my Landlubbers series. It was so much fun writing the book. My idea was for more than the book—I also wanted to do illustrations to include at the start of chapters, and throughout the book. I’d need to improve my skills before I could do that the way I wanted. No problem, I told myself. I’d practice, improve, and bring out the book when I was ready. And in the meantime, I had more books to write, starting with the second in the series, Sea Legs.
I didn’t expect it to take this long. Life and other projects kept pushing it back, but it has always been something I planned to return to when I was ready. Now I’m diving into the depths of this project again. I’ve started back with Cabin Boys, getting the manuscript ready, and I’m finally working on the illustrations. It’s a big project, but it is still so much fun! I can’t wait to share more about it as I make progress in bringing it to life.
New Movies I Want to Stream
I love watching movies, though I rarely go to the theater. I was a fairly early Roku adopter back when we were still getting discs mailed from Netflix, I think the first one we bought was a Roku SD in 2009.
Right now there are a bunch of new movies I want to stream, or have watched recently.
The Flash. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. As much as I like DC, the movies have a deserved reputation of being hit-or-miss. This one isn’t without its flaws (including the issues around its star). It’s fair to say that the effects (like DC movies in general) are also hit-or-miss. I still found it a fun time. Especially with Michael Keaton and Sasha Calle (who deserves a better shot than this movie gave her).
MEG2. What can I say? I loved the first movie. Jason Statham was a lot of fun in this monster flick. Yes, the ‘science’ is ridiculous, but that didn’t stop it from being an enjoyable movie. I’m assuming this is going to be out on Max at some point before the end of the year.
Barbie. Of course. It looks fun and sounds like a fantastic movie. I didn’t set out to pick Warner Bros movies, but I guess I did. It’ll be fun to see this billion-dollar movie when it hits Max.
I’ve got a Letterboxd profile if you want to follow what I’m watching: https://letterboxd.com/ryanwriter/
New Release — Shermmies’ Planet
A short science fiction first contact story.
Bad enough the planet smelled like lemon meringue pie. But for Uplift Agent Holly Kirk, her future hinges on convincing the furry natives to adopt her uplift contract—before her competition beats her to it. Unfortunately, the natives are more interested in dancing!
Work and play collide in this story of first contact.
For the next week you can get “Shermmies’ Planet” for $1.50 off (until 9/5/23)—featuring original cover art I created. A print edition will also been available soon.
We’ve reached the end of this issue of READINARY. If you stuck with it this far—thank you! If you’re interested in showing more support for my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber, or hop over to my shop and pick up copies of my books. If you use the links to pick up the books I share here, I also earn a small affiliate commission (for some of them) at no cost to you.
If you want. No problem if you don’t. I appreciate you reading this issue. I’ll likely be back in a couple weeks with another issue.
Best wishes, always—Ryan
Unless you think there is an issue with using these tools, and in that case, why use them?