Source: Simon Owens's Media Newsletter
Major publishers are killing book deals based on unverified concerns about AI usage in the writing process, creating a chilling effect that punishes authors for minor tool experimentation. The gatekeeping has shifted from quality to method: what matters now is how the work was made, not what it is. This stance is unsustainable as AI becomes embedded in creative workflows and grows harder to detect or definitively rule out in a manuscript.