Writers With Wrinkles
Writers With Wrinkles
Beth McMullen and Lisa Schmid
AI Stole Our Books. Now We're the Suspects
41 minutes Posted Aug 26, 2026 at 8:00 am.
Welcome Back & Why This Episode Took So Long
Two AI Problems: AI as an Author vs. What AI Companies Are Doing to Books
Inside the Book-Buying, Book-Destroying AI Pipeline
New Publishing Guidelines on AI — and the "Witch Hunt" Warning
Why Beth Refuses to Prove She's Not "The Robot"
The Nudge Theory Trap: Recycling, Plastic & Misplaced Blame
The Double Standard: Why Some Authors Get a Pass on AI
Amazon, Kindle, and the Flood of AI "Slop"
Proving You're Human: Em Dashes, Typos & Multiple Drafts
How AI Slop Makes It Harder for New Writers to Break Through
Finding Your Joy Again in Writing
Homework Before You Self-Publish: Amazon Metadata & Discoverability
Fun Story: Sniffing Out an AI-Generated Scam Invite
Ask Your Publisher for Support — and What's Coming Next
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Show notes
AI companies are shredding rare books to train their models—and now authors are the ones being told to prove they didn't use AI to write their own. Beth and Lisa unpack the double standard rocking publishing right now. From a debut novelist's multi million dollar book deal getting pulled over AI suspicion, to writers being told to reinsert typos and kill their em dashes just to "prove" they're human, the burden of proof has landed on exactly the wrong people. Beth and Lisa dig into who gets a...