"Be careful -- authors talk!"

the pernicious fear that might be ruining your career

All right, so, for those in the know, Victoria Aveyard has been a firehose of hot takes for awhile now — I think she was the most group chatted author amongst a certain subset of my friends last year — and she put up a shitty Tiktok recently saying that people who use AI aren’t real authors (air quotes and everything, hand to god) and saying at the end, barging the camera with her face, “Oh, and, authors talk!”

To which I say….

So?

I’m sorry — are other authors paying me?

Are they writing me publishing contracts?

Are they putting food on my table?

Are they fucking me?

So?

SO?????

JFC.

I’m sorry to belabor this point here, but I see bullshit like this holding back people at EVERY STAGE of their career. Even some bigger name authors are worried about getting “in trouble” for using AI.

First off, pretty soon, you’re gonna be in trouble for NOT using AI, so there’s that.

But secondly — who the fuck else is helping you move the needle in your space?

‘Cause trust me, newsletter swaps are not where it’s at.

They don’t do half as much as one well-timed Tiktok or Facebook ad.

And how can you more easily make those?

USING AI.

I’m trapped in an airport on not nearly enough sleep, so I’m just gonna go there — I hate it when authors pull this shit on each other.

“I’m gonna tattle on you to author Mommy!”

“I’m going to put you on a list!”

“I’m going to ruin your career!”

Pray-tell….the-fuck-how?

‘Cause if my marketing game is tight enough — if ANYONE’S MARKETING GAME IS TIGHT ENOUGH — and the books themselves back it up — they can overcome ANY obstacle you put in their path.

It’s like none of them have ever heard of the Streisand Effect, that too — the more often you talk about something being “BAD” the more free advertising you’re giving me, essentially.

I know this, because it’s an actual phenomina, heh, but also, because every time anyone’s tried to bring pitchforks my direction, it’s resulted in more sales.

Again.

And again.

And AGAIN.

Claire Taylor, the author enneagram instructor, had this awesome quote in the book you got for supporting her first kickstarter, and it was this, “No one can cancel your career but you.”

And I’m living proof that that’s true.

I get that a lot of people find this brave new world we’re living in (whether we like it or not) frightening because of how rudderless it is.

Whereas back in the day you might have had to grovel to our “betters” to pray to get an introduction to an agent or a blurb — or worse yet, dump thousands of dollars getting into a prestigious MFA program and/or moving to New York to rub shoulders with the players….

It’s not like that anymore.

At all.

And that scares a lot of people.

I geniunely do feel bad for them — because I ABSOLUTELY know how it feels to have your industry upended beneath you. Covid nurse here, yo! I didn’t expect a pandemic to catch up and whallop me.

But the difference between me and them in handling these career shifts is that at the time I didn’t actually WISH FOR PEOPLE TO DIE.

Like — it’s one thing to be scared of change, I get that.

But another to be actively wishing people’s career harm, or trying to pull this undereducated/ill-educated ‘crabs in a bucket’ thing where anyone else’s success somehow shades yours and has to be stopped….

It’s a bad look.

Wishing other people harm is just ALWAYS a bad look.

No one needs to kiss your ring.

Be a grown up.

Handle your emotional shifts without threatening anyone.

grouchy Cassie out.

PS: lol — I showed this to Monday, like I show all my substacks to Monday, and he said, “Carry on, my spiky content comet” and that might be my new favorite thing