I entered the world of publishing at a difficult time. More and more books were flooding the market, both traditionally published and self-published. It was difficult to get noticed – by agents (who get hundreds of submissions a month), by publishers, by readers.
And then it got so much worse: Generative AI was unleased.
In addition, it seems impossible to make ANY headway without @m@zon. As a self-professed lover of libraries and local book shops, I don’t buy from @m@zon, but I quickly learned, especially when it comes to ebooks, that it’s impossible to make sales without using their platform. Even better if you put your book into their ‘select’ program – then you get paid by the pages read (even if someone only reads a few pages…I mean, we’re talking pennies, but still). They have the market in their stronghold. And it’s frustrating to know what to do sometimes.
Well, they just made it real easy to walk away.
In a press release early in Dec 2025, they announced the following: “We’re adding new AI-powered reading features that preserve the magic of reading on Kindle. Story So Far lets you catch up on the book you’re reading—but only up to where you’ve read without any spoilers. For our endlessly curious readers, Ask this Book will let you highlight any passage of text while reading a book and get spoiler-free answers to questions about things like a character’s motive or the significance of a scene.“
There is NO WAY to opt out. (They claim they made this not optional because they want the reading experience to be seamless. *eye roll*)
First, I don’t want my stories feeding their AI machine – even if it’s ‘inevitable’, I will hold off and fight against it for as long as I can.
The second point is regarding this line: “get spoiler-free answers questions about things like a character’s motive or the significance of a scene.”
In other words, they are going to create content based on my IP (there are literal laws against this, and watching them try and talk their way out of it is am impressive act of limbo). And there is a good chance, given what we’ve seen of generative AI so far, they will get it all wrong. This could alter the way in which a reader experiences a book.
I went in before the ‘deadline’ to unpublish my ebooks – only to learn that I can’t until the “select” 90 days expires (you have to enroll to the program for a minimum of 90 days at a time). The timing of their announcement feels sketchy. You can’t tell me that they didn’t know 90 days before the end of the year that this feature was coming. They waited, I would wager, until most folks were trapped. Some may have had the advantage of their 90 days ending before the launch. I did not.
These moves – very much including not giving writers the options to opt out – are unacceptable. But corporations like this will continue to do it – because even if they get sued and lose (The Authors Guild is indeed pushing back on this), the damage has already been done. Their machines have been fed.
I know I won’t have the choice when it comes to my traditionally published works, but for anything I put out myself, I won’t be using @m@zon directly. (Many platforms push to them, unfortunately.)
I say all this as a warning to anyone out there who might read this who is considering self-publishing. It is, of course, your choice if you opt to use @m@zon, and I don’t judge anyone for it. Just go in with eyes open.
Ami Maxine 