Busted!

Book publisher Hachette picked up a self-published novel called Shy Girl and released it under their imprint, first in the UK, and next planned to release it in the USA. Later, suspicions arose that the novel may have been written, in whole or in part, by an artificial intelligence chatbot.

This comes from the New York Times in an article titled, A.I. Is Writing Fiction. Publishers Are Unprepared, which appeared on March 19, 2026, written by Alexandra Alter.

Apparently, Shy Girl is the first commercial novel to be cancelled over A.I. writing concerns. The Times wrote: “Its cancellation is a sign that A.I. writing is not only appearing in cheap self-published e-books that are flooding Amazon but is seeping into even traditionally published fiction.”

The article described A.I.-written novels as “slop.” Publishers are reticent to talk about A.I.

“It’s like with plagiarism — you’re at the mercy of the author,” said Morgan Entrekin, publisher of Grove Atlantic. “We have to have confidence in our partners.”

Detecting A.I. writing without the assistance of dedicated software requires an editor with a sharp eye for word usage and pacing. That applies also to just sections of the book.

“…an editor at a major publishing house, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the editorial process is private, questioned a writer about why some passages in his latest book were so flat and bland. The author acknowledged that he had used A.I. for revisions.”

The article stated there have been a lot of near misses, meaning A.I.-written manuscripts that nearly survived editorial review. My guess is that intercepting this kind of writing is a Sisyphean task, and is ultimately fruitless. Additionally, I expect publishers to routinely use A.I. detection software to scan all submissions.

The challenge for writers, then, is: avoid A.I. writing for any manuscript. Don’t even use it for partial rewriting. Just do the work yourself. Preserve your reputation, which is unlikely to be damaged by using A.I. to simply outline your story.