A Publisher Pulled a Book for Suspected A.I. Use. I Got My Hands on a Copy. What I Found Was Revealing.
https://slate.com/culture/2026/03/shy-girl-mia-ballard-novel-a-i-book-horror-reddit-hachette-canceled.html
Dylan Garity, a freelance editor based in Brooklyn who has edited more than 500 books, agreed that it’s not about individual tells: “It’s 100 things stacked on top of each other. And it’s less even about taking it down into those individual 100 things, and more about an overall feeling that you get upon reading it. That sounds kind of vague, and not back-up-able, but it is most of what we have to go on.”
That's it exactly. If you know what ChatGPT looks like, it really does scream at you. Even if you can't "prove" it through, like, five simple steps or whatever. Also, I don't like this:
“Quality control has collapsed,” said another editor. John Baker, a literary agent at Bell Lomax Moreton, said that editors are seeing their jobs transform more and more into project management, and that while publishing houses make good profits, “the last thing they spend it on is more staff. Everyone working well beyond capacity is the norm.”
https://slate.com/culture/2026/03/shy-girl-mia-ballard-novel-a-i-book-horror-reddit-hachette-canceled.html
Dylan Garity, a freelance editor based in Brooklyn who has edited more than 500 books, agreed that it’s not about individual tells: “It’s 100 things stacked on top of each other. And it’s less even about taking it down into those individual 100 things, and more about an overall feeling that you get upon reading it. That sounds kind of vague, and not back-up-able, but it is most of what we have to go on.”
That's it exactly. If you know what ChatGPT looks like, it really does scream at you. Even if you can't "prove" it through, like, five simple steps or whatever. Also, I don't like this:
“Quality control has collapsed,” said another editor. John Baker, a literary agent at Bell Lomax Moreton, said that editors are seeing their jobs transform more and more into project management, and that while publishing houses make good profits, “the last thing they spend it on is more staff. Everyone working well beyond capacity is the norm.”