Artificial Intelligence in the Self-Publishing World

It is not just frustrating for self-publishers, but also for designers as well.


I have been an illustrator since 2014 and a cover designer since 2018 and all 55+ book projects I worked on with authors, all of them insisted No-AI. That already told me how frustrating it got many years ago. Today is even worse.

I myself do not use generative AI in my work. AI apps like Claude, ChatGPT, Mistral or Perplexity I use for brainstorming, text inspiration or hashtags for social media. Only once a client wanted me to implement parts of his generated content into his cover and I did so in my own way with the tools I use like paint-overs( brushes, mixer brushes, clone tool, smudge), texture bashing, photo bashing, image manipulation techniques and such in programs like Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Krita etc.

And I do not see an issue when authors and clients use AI for finding ideas or generating images used as inspiration and reference. Sometimes it is hard to describe what you want to have on the cover.

I think what is happening at this time is also a massive shift of trust into distrust, because at the rate how easy it is to deceive people with AI, that genuine designers and artists get choked so much by the flood of AI slop. And I don't know how many people probably declined me, because everyone is so fed up, that everything is dubbed AI these days, when they cannot imagine how an image was made.

It became like a reflex to say, like back in the day, when people said: "oh that must have been photo-shopped!" And it is no wonder it got to this point.

On my website I even have to do a little disclaimer at my FAQ section, that I cannot fully rule out that third party assets I use for map making are made with or in part with AI. Even though I am very careful to scan for any anomalies in graphics.

Oh man, as I said in the beginning. I feel you and the frustration! :(