The Real Threat to Indie Authors Isn’t AI

Any author who’s actually seen what AI models produce when attempting to write fiction and is still worried about being replaced is worrying about the wrong threat.

(Or they’re a spectacularly mediocre author, but I digress…)

And before you say “market saturation,” hold that thought. Because it’s moot. The market is already saturated by content mills churning out books written by mediocre cut-rate ghostwriters. More unmitigated garbage isn’t going make things worse. KDP alone is pushing what, 2,000+ new titles per day? The saturation point was crossed years ago. You can’t browse your way through that noise. Discovery is already broken. AI isn’t going to make it worse.

The real threat is content mills with six-figure advertising budgets and established brands dominating the market. That’s what authors should be pissed about, not Skynet writing LitRPG reverse haram slop.

What makes these content mills genuinely dangerous in a way AI slop isn’t is they have the operational infrastructure to be good enough at scale. They’re not trying to create literature. They’re running a manufacturing operation. And because the bar for “acceptable” in commercial fiction is pretty low—readers will forgive a lot if the core promise of the genre is delivered—they can absolutely dominate shelf space and ad visibility.

They’ve solved the discovery problem by essentially buying their way past it. Someone browsing Amazon for “paranormal romance” or “military science fiction” sees their books because they’ve got the ad spend to be everywhere. A genuinely better book from an unknown author?

Invisible.

That’s who indie authors should be rallying against. Because the REAL threat to indie authors isn’t about being outwritten. It’s about being out-marketed by entrenched infrastructure. And I’m not talking about TradPub. I’m talking about “small” indie presses.

But for some reason no one in indie spaces ever acknowledges this. Or seems to even be aware of it.

And I’m not sure why.