I wonder how a prompt could wind up in the final product; this may indicate that the author lacks more than just writing skills; "slopdash" seems a relevant neologism.
> as book 1 of this series released 1/24/25, book 2 on 3/13/25, and book 3 on 3/23/25
That is indeed suspicious, but it is also bad business. Book-reading is uncommon in the US, so it makes no sense to release a book series that frequently; many readers take a long time to read through a single book; it's more entertaining to spread releases out.
> which leads into my paranoid theory that a percentage of readers are just skim reading
That may explain some of the appetite to buy three books in ~3 months. I'm not saying that's fast (I could read a 300-page novel in a day or two, without skimming), but it may be fast if you don't skim, you are working >40 hours/week, and you have a family to take care of. I wonder how much of the book industry is propped up by skimmers.
> The internet at large is also facing an existential threat in the shape of an AI slop tsunami.
That's a bit much; AI slop is a problem, but it isn't a tsunami-level event. It remains unclear if any managers have successfuly replaced any employees 100% with AI; somebody has to write the prompts, and it isn't the managers, who have neither the time nor, in most cases, the understanding of the jobs purported to be replaceable.
For people who like trendy things, AI slop is a problem, because AI is actually good at churning out trendy things, because trendy things are usually slop. But even for trendy slop, AI isn't a tsunami; trends will ebb-and-flow with or without AI.
> as book 1 of this series released 1/24/25, book 2 on 3/13/25, and book 3 on 3/23/25
That is indeed suspicious, but it is also bad business. Book-reading is uncommon in the US, so it makes no sense to release a book series that frequently; many readers take a long time to read through a single book; it's more entertaining to spread releases out.
> which leads into my paranoid theory that a percentage of readers are just skim reading
That may explain some of the appetite to buy three books in ~3 months. I'm not saying that's fast (I could read a 300-page novel in a day or two, without skimming), but it may be fast if you don't skim, you are working >40 hours/week, and you have a family to take care of. I wonder how much of the book industry is propped up by skimmers.
> The internet at large is also facing an existential threat in the shape of an AI slop tsunami.
That's a bit much; AI slop is a problem, but it isn't a tsunami-level event. It remains unclear if any managers have successfuly replaced any employees 100% with AI; somebody has to write the prompts, and it isn't the managers, who have neither the time nor, in most cases, the understanding of the jobs purported to be replaceable.
For people who like trendy things, AI slop is a problem, because AI is actually good at churning out trendy things, because trendy things are usually slop. But even for trendy slop, AI isn't a tsunami; trends will ebb-and-flow with or without AI.