Automating income… ?
Clarkesworld got hit early because they are always* open and pay well.
— Craig Shackleton (he/him) (@ShackletonCI) February 20, 2023
Neil noticed early because he is so on top of his submission pile.
There are probably other publishers seeing this who haven't gone public.
It's not about being a writer, it's about automating income.
For context: Clarkesworld Magazine, one of the best-regarded short fiction outlets for science fiction and fantasy, closed submissions Monday due to a flood of bot-generated spam.
I’m not as confident about the last line as OP, but it sure seems plausible. If it’s correct, though… maybe it’s self-correcting?
Email spam works because you can email 100,000 people for basically free and actually monetize a tiny fraction of them. That’s not going to work for short fiction — there’s not enough journals, not enough money, and editors are smart people with strong tastes. The kind of premium mediocre prose that bots are sucking from the thick part of the distribution isn’t going to cut the mustard nearly often enough.
Definitely not saying the destructive potential people are observing isn’t there; it is. But would-be fiction spammers may soon find it isn’t worth the effort, however small the effort:
I can just see the AI becoming sentient and saying "you wasted HOW much money to build me and I got EIGHT CENTS A WORD?"
— Will Frank (@scifantasy) February 21, 2023
If the destruction of short fiction markets is actually the objective rather than a blindingly self-evident flaw in the income-automation plan, though, that may be harder to stop.
Currently reading: RORSCHACH, by Tom King. This might be the best thing he’s written; I should see if I can write something about it.
If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.
