Hachette's imprint Orbit recently pulled the horror novel Shy Girl by Mia Ballard from its planned US and UK release after The New York Times brought AI-generation allegations to the publisher, originating from a mid-2025 Reddit post that flagged repetitive patterns often associated with AI-generated prose: nearly every noun paired with an adjective, actions described through similes, descriptions arriving in threes. Concerns spread across BookTok, Instagram, and YouTube before The Times investigated. Ballard denies personally using AI, saying an acquaintance she hired to work on the book's original, self-published version incorporated AI tools without her full knowledge. Hachette has said only that it conducted a "thorough and lengthy review" and remains committed to "protecting original creative expression." No conclusive evidence has been made public either way.

I want to sit with a question underneath this story that I don't think gets asked enough: what's actually the difference between an author using AI as an editing tool because a professional edit isn't financially within reach, and an author having AI generate the book itself? Right now, the industry treats those as the same red flag, but they aren't the same act.

The Line That Actually Exists

A real, defensible distinction exists, and it's the same one the US Copyright Office draws. AI-generated expression on its own isn't copyrightable, but a human's creative choices are, even when AI assists at some point in the process. A tool that flags pacing problems, overused words, or structural issues doesn't write a single sentence of the book. The author still makes every word choice. That's assistive use. A tool that generates whole paragraphs, scenes, or plot beats means the author didn't write the sentences on the page, even if the author directed the prompt. That's substitutive use. One keeps a human as the author of the expression. The other doesn't. From the outside, both can produce prose with the same statistical fingerprints, repetitive sentence structures, certain overused words, which is exactly why detection tools and Reddit-level scrutiny can't reliably tell them apart. But the acts themselves aren't the same just because they can look similar on the page.

Why the Industry Reacts the Way It Does

Once a manuscript's authorship becomes publicly contested, a publisher cares less about proving what happened and more about limiting its own exposure. Pulling a deal before release, even without conclusive proof, is the lower-risk move: it avoids putting out a book under active public suspicion and avoids the deeper legal question of whether the publisher can even secure clean, enforceable rights over content that may not be fully copyrightable. That's a business decision made under uncertainty, not a verdict on what the author actually did.

Where This Lands Hardest

Here's the part that doesn't get said enough. The entire framework around "undisclosed AI use" as a red flag assumes the real alternative is always a human professional the author could otherwise afford. For most indie authors, that assumption is false. A full developmental edit on an 80,000-word novel runs around $2,400. Line editing adds roughly $3,200 more. A professionally narrated audiobook runs $100-$250 per finished hour, putting a standard novel at $600-$1,500 or more, before any mastering. Audible has become the dominant place readers listen to books, which makes audio a real competitive necessity now, not a bonus, but a brand-new author with a small or nonexistent fan base simply doesn't have the sales volume to justify, or the income to front, a human narrator's rate.

So the actual choice most indie authors are making isn't "AI assistance versus a human professional." It's "AI-assisted editing or AI narration versus an unedited manuscript or no audiobook at all." Treating all AI involvement as a single, undifferentiated warning sign, rather than separating assistive use from wholesale generation, penalizes exactly the authors with the fewest alternatives to begin with. A traditionally published author with a six-figure advance and a publisher-funded support team was never choosing between AI and nothing. An indie author very often is.

What I Keep Coming Back To

None of this settles whether any specific accusation is true, including this one. But the standard currently being applied wasn't built with this distinction in mind, and until it is, the authors most likely to get caught in the blast radius of a vague AI panic aren't the ones using AI to replace their own writing. They're the ones using it because the alternative, the human expert every warranty clause silently expects, was never truly accessible.

Sources:
- Reported via The New York Times, relayed through multiple outlets covering the Shy Girl cancellation
- Authors Guild, Model Trade Book Contract (Representations and Warranties; Generative AI Rights and Model Publishing Contract Clauses): https://go.authorsguild.org/contract_sections/14 and https://go.authorsguild.org/contract_sections/36
- Miblart, "How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book in 2026": https://miblart.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-self-publish-book/
- Authors Republic, "Your Audiobook Production Budget": https://authorsrepublic.com/learn/blog/64/your-audiobook-production-budget

I’m so excited to finally share my YA thriller, The Beautiful People, with you.

This one follows Hailey Warn, a girl from the wrong side of Theron, Arkansas, who’s spent over a year living a double life. By day, she’s invisible, eating lunch alone under flickering cafeteria lights, dating a boy from the gated side of town who won’t hold her hand in daylight. By night, she’s Greer, the anonymous voice behind a true-crime podcast with 200,000 followers, asking the whole town what they've stopped asking out loud: What really happened to Brooklyn Stevens?

Then, Kennedy Roundtrie, Brooklyn’s best friend, messages Greer with something she’s kept quiet for two years. She agrees to meet. By Monday morning, Kennedy is gone too, found in the same spot they found Brooklyn.

Now, Hailey has to live with the fact that she’s the reason Kennedy died. And the person responsible is a boy she’s kissed.

I’m keeping this description light on purpose. Like I say in my author’s note, I left out the specific plot details, so the mystery stays intact for you. This book digs into class divides, identity, and how far a small-town secret will go to protect itself, wrapped in a mystery I’ve long wanted to tell.

A heads-up before you dive in: The Beautiful People contains strong language, violence, death, bullying, and unhealthy relationships. Please read at your own pace and pause whenever you need to.

I can’t wait for you to meet Hailey and to find out who’s really behind the message that started it all.

The Beautiful People is available now on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HNHP8DNJ

AI in publishing tends to get discussed as a threat, to quality, to jobs, to the slush pile. Less discussed is what it’s actually doing for the author at the opposite end of the budget spectrum from a traditionally published bestseller. Here’s a look at the real numbers behind that gap, and where AI tools are showing up to narrow it.

The Gap, in Dollars

Traditional publishing advances vary enormously by author profile. Debut authors typically see $5,000-$15,000. Established authors land $50,000-$100,000 or more. Highly anticipated titles can reach six or seven figures. That advance usually comes with a baseline marketing push from the publisher, and bigger names are the ones who can also afford to pay for more on top of it: independent publicists run $1,000-$10,000 or more, and launch events add another $500-$2,000-plus.

An indie author with no advance and no publisher backing covers all of that themselves, out of pocket, before a single copy sells. A full developmental edit on an 80,000-word novel runs around $2,400. Line editing adds roughly $3,200. Copyediting is about $1,600, and proofreading another $1,600 on top of that, if all four passes are hired out separately. A professional cover, whether pre-made or custom-illustrated, costs anywhere from $150 to $700 or more. Formatting adds $0-$200 depending on the route. Marketing, from paid ads to BookBub promotions to an author website, can run $0 to $10,000 depending on how far an author pushes it.

Add it up, and a no-name author doing everything the traditionally-recommended way, before touching marketing, is looking at several thousand dollars minimum, with no advance to offset it and no guarantee of recouping any of it.

Where AI Tools Are Showing Up

This is the gap AI tools have been built directly into. A McIlroy study on AI startups in book publishing found that roughly 70% of them target authors specifically, not publishers, a signal that self-publishing is where this technology sees its biggest opening.

A few specific ways that shows up:

• Editing support. ChatGPT and Sudowrite are rated among the strongest tools for writing and editing feedback, at a fraction of professional per-word rates, roughly $20/month for ChatGPT’s paid tier, $19-25/month for Sudowrite. Separately, manuscript-analysis tools like Marlowe give authors pacing and prose feedback (overused words, structural issues) without generating text, positioned as a complement to, not a replacement for, a human editor, and as a far cheaper first pass for authors who can’t yet afford one.

• Marketing and copy. ChatGPT is named a top tool for marketing copy, SEO metadata, headlines, and keyword research, the kind of work that would otherwise mean hiring a copywriter or a marketing consultant.

• Image and cover support. Several tools can generate cover concepts or image prompts, giving authors a lower-cost way to prototype cover ideas before, or instead of, hiring a designer.

• Audiobook narration. This is one of the starkest gaps in the lineup. Professional human narration is typically priced per finished hour, generally $100-$250, and a standard 56,000-word novel runs about six finished hours. That puts a human-narrated audiobook at roughly $600-$1,500 before any studio or mastering costs, with full production sometimes reaching $7,000. AI narration tools price by subscription instead: ElevenLabs’ plans run from about $22 to $330 a month, working out to roughly $10-$13 per audio hour depending on the tier. Inkitt has built its own AI-narrated audiobook tool directly into its platform, letting any author turn a published story into an audiobook, chapter by chapter, by choosing a voice for the narrator and each character, paid for through a credit system rather than a per-project rate. None of this is a quality verdict; industry voices still note that AI narration doesn’t yet match the emotional range of a trained human performer for fiction. But it does mean an audiobook edition is financially possible for authors for whom it simply wasn’t before.

• Discovery and reach. Platforms including Wattpad and Inkitt already use AI-driven recommendation systems, which some in the industry hope will put indie titles in front of readers on more equal footing with traditionally published books, rather than relying purely on marketing spend to get noticed.

The Caveat Worth Naming

None of the sourcing on this suggests AI is a straightforward replacement for professional editing, design, or narration, and the people building these tools say so themselves. The throughline across commentary is that AI works best as a complement to human judgment, not a substitute for it, lowering the floor an author has to clear rather than raising the ceiling on quality by itself. Traditional publishing’s own margins and sales have been described as declining or stagnant, while self-publishing income has been growing, helped along by exactly these lower-cost production options.

What that means in practice probably looks different for every author. Some will use AI tools to get a manuscript polish-ready before ever paying a human editor. Others will use them to handle marketing copy so a smaller budget can go toward a professional cover instead. The point isn’t that AI closes the entire gap between a six-figure advance and an author working with a few hundred dollars. It’s that the gap is smaller than it used to be, and that’s worth sitting with on its own.

Sources:
- Miblart, “How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book in 2026”: https://miblart.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-self-publish-book/
- Ghostwriting Solution, “How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Book Traditionally?”: https://ghostwritingsolution.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-publish-a-book-traditionally/
- ALLi Self-Publishing Advice, “The AI Revolution: What It Means for Indie Authors”: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/ai-revolution/
- ScribeCount, “AI Platforms Compared for Indie Authors”: https://scribecount.com/author-resource/artificial-intelligence/indie-author-ai-tool-comparison
- Authors Republic, “Your Audiobook Production Budget”: https://authorsrepublic.com/learn/blog/64/your-audiobook-production-budget
- ElevenReader, “Pricing for AI Audiobooks”: https://elevenreader.io/blog/pricing-for-ai-audiobooks
- Inkitt Help Center, “Inkitt Audiobooks”: https://inkitt.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/37697793410962-Inkitt-Audiobooks

An indie author’s confession about coffee, plot twists, and the mystery of how some writers get so much done.

Can we talk about Freida McFadden for a minute?

Because she’s officially my favorite author right now, and I have one very important question.

HOW DOES THIS WOMAN WRITE SO MANY BOOKS?!

I’m convinced she has 36 hours in her day. Possibly 48. I’m still investigating.

Meanwhile, I spent 45 minutes deciding whether one of my characters should answer the phone or let it ring.

Forty-five minutes.

Over a phone call.

Then I needed coffee. ☕

Next, I went back to reread the scene.

Following that, I decided the phone call could be skipped.

Subsequently, I modified the entire plot.

And somewhere during all of this, Freida probably came up with another twist that nobody will see coming. 😂

As a reader, I absolutely love her books. There’s something wonderful about opening a thriller, telling yourself you’ll read one chapter, and suddenly realizing it’s midnight and you’ve accomplished absolutely nothing on your to-do list.

As an author, though?

I HAVE QUESTIONS.

How does she keep track of everything? How does she come up with those twists? And most importantly...

Freida, what’s in your coffee?!

Because mine is clearly not working hard enough. 🤣

Of course, that’s part of what I love about writing. Every author has a different process. Some seem to have entire novels mapped out before they begin. Others spend an afternoon negotiating with fictional people who refuse to cooperate.

I’ll let you guess which category I fall into.

So here’s my question for you:

Who’s the one author you absolutely cannot stop reading right now?

And if you’re a writer, please tell me you’ve also spent an unreasonable amount of time debating something as simple as a ringing phone.

I could use the reassurance.

Until next time, happy reading, happy writing, and may your coffee be stronger than your plot problems.

🖤 KL Adams

Oath of Ashes reveal

An obsession. A dangerous attraction. And the uncomfortable question of how far love can go before it becomes something else.

Some vows burn forever.

Today, I’m introducing you to Oath of Ashes, my newest adult psychological dark romance, and I want to tell you a little about the story behind the title.

Because this isn’t simply a romance about a dangerous man falling for a woman.

It’s about control. Secrets. The things we inherit from our families. The choices we make when desire and self-preservation begin pulling us in opposite directions.

And, perhaps most importantly, it’s about what happens when the person who makes you feel safest might also be the person you should fear.

Meet Kieran Graves

Kieran isn’t your traditional romantic hero.

He’s controlled. Calculating. Accustomed to getting what he wants.

He doesn’t need to raise his voice to make people listen, and he doesn’t wear his emotions where the world can see them.

But beneath that restraint is something far less manageable.

Obsession.

Kieran isn’t the kind of man who falls in love easily. When his attention settles on someone, it doesn’t simply disappear.

That doesn’t make him a good man.

It makes him an interesting one to write about.

And that’s an important distinction.

Dark romance allows us to explore characters who make morally questionable choices without asking readers to approve of those choices in real life.

Kieran is one of those characters.

And Then There’s Penelope

Penelope isn’t simply a woman waiting to be rescued.

She has her own fears, desires, decisions, and boundaries.

Her story is about more than being wanted by a dangerous man. It’s about navigating a world where appearances can be deceiving, power changes relationships, and attraction doesn’t always arrive wrapped in something safe.

What draws me to their dynamic is the psychological tension.

The uncertainty.

The moments when wanting someone and trusting them become two entirely different questions.

Why I Wrote This as a Psychological Dark Romance

I’ve always been interested in the darker corners of human behavior.

Not necessarily monsters hiding in the shadows, but ordinary-looking people who carry extraordinary secrets.

People who justify their actions.

People who believe they’re protecting someone when they’re really trying to control them.

People who mistake possession for devotion.

Dark romance gives me room to explore those contradictions.

And Oath of Ashes lives in that uncomfortable space between attraction and danger.

This is a fictional exploration of obsession, power, desire, and morally complicated relationships—not a blueprint for a healthy relationship.

There’s Something Bigger Behind This Story

Oath of Ashes is also part of a larger fictional world I’m building.

Family legacies, secrets, loyalties, and choices don’t always end with one generation.

Sometimes the consequences belong to the people who come afterward.

But here’s what matters: You can read Oath of Ashes as a complete standalone romance.

You don’t need to read another book first or learn an entire family history to understand Kieran and Penelope’s story.

There are connections for readers who enjoy discovering them, but this story belongs to its own characters.

Is This Book for You?

If you enjoy:

• Morally gray, obsessive male leads

• Psychological tension and dangerous secrets

• Complicated relationships and power dynamics

• Romantic suspense with darker emotional stakes

• Characters who challenge your expectations of heroes and villains

Then Oath of Ashes might be your next read.

It is written for adult dark-romance readers. Expect morally complicated behavior and darker subject matter. Please consider your own reading preferences and boundaries.

Oath of Ashes Is Available Now

After the writing, the revisions, the characters who refused to leave my head, and all the work that goes into bringing a novel into the world, I finally get to say:

OATH OF ASHES IS OUT NOW.

Available on Kindle, paperback, and hardcover.

Read Oath of Ashes on Amazon

And I have a question for you.

When you’re reading dark romance, what fascinates you more: the dangerous man himself, or the woman who refuses to be intimidated by him?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Until next time,

KL Adams 🖤

Some vows burn forever.

On October 17 and 18, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) hosts SelfPubCon26, its annual Self-Publishing Advice Conference. It’s online, free to register for, and built around a single question: where is indie publishing heading, and what’s working right now? Here’s a plain breakdown of what’s planned, who’s speaking, and how the weekend is structured.

The Basics

Theme: “The Future of Self-Publishing: What’s Working Now & What’s Next.”

Dates: The conference weekend is October 17-18. A live orientation and networking meet-and-greet runs Friday, October 16. An optional Indie Author Lab workshop follows on October 19.

Cost: Registering for the weekend is free. Free access closes before the October 19 workshop. ALLi members get access to the full conference archive in replay, and a separate access pass is available for non-members who want the archive (around 100-plus hours of sessions from past conferences, according to ALLi’s conference manager) plus the workshop.

Format: ALLi moved from a 24-hour marathon to a two-day format last year. Conference manager Kayleigh Brindley says the goal is for attendees to dip in and out without staying up all night, and every session is available in replay.

The Keynote

Jane Friedman opens the conference with a look at current opportunities and business models for authors, including bookstores, subscriptions, and direct-to-reader sales. Brindley describes Friedman as one of publishing’s most respected analysts, and her newsletter, The Bottom Line, is a regular source of industry coverage.

Sessions Across Key Topics

AI, across the whole spectrum. The program is designed with three kinds of attendees in mind: those who avoid AI, those who use it as an assistant, and those who’ve integrated it into their work. The conference isn’t telling anyone to use it or skip it. Nicholas Kotar leads a session on writing for humans in an age of AI and algorithms, while Chelle Honiker covers running an AI-assisted publishing business, focusing on which admin and business tasks are possible while keeping things human.

Marketing. ALLi’s YouTube hosts Ross and Tayo present a session built around ALLi’s guidebook Sell More Books, tracing the indie author’s marketing journey. Penny Sansevieri covers local marketing, which Brindley says is emerging as a significant trend despite being long considered small-scale. ALLi Director Orna Ross presents on the new rules of reader reach, including creativity, community building, and direct selling.

Crowdfunding. Oriana Leckert, head of publishing at Kickstarter, leads a panel on reader-powered publishing, covering new platform tools and campaign trends. Brindley notes that some authors now launch on Kickstarter before anywhere else.

European markets. Michail from PublishMe, an ALLi partner, covers patterns, pitfalls, and practical strategies for entering the German, French, Spanish, and Italian markets.

Building a team. Gatekeeper Press’s Luis Javier and award-winning author Grace Sammon look at industry data on authors who hire help, working through each stage of the author journey from minimal budgets to choosing between building a team and buying a package.

Networking

Because online conferences can feel isolating, this year adds networking breaks. Friday’s orientation opens a moderated text-chat space, framed as the pub the night before a conference. On day one, a networking and goal-setting session runs thirty minutes before the keynote, where attendees can share goals and find accountability partners. Similar breaks are scheduled between sessions. There are also more live sessions than in previous years, with live chat for questions.

The Prize Draw

Everyone who registers is automatically entered. According to Brindley, prizes totaled over $4,000 at the time of the interview and were still growing. The grand prize, a Kobo Clara Colour eReader, is donated by Kobo Writing Life. Other prizes from ALLi partner members include manuscript editorial assessments, new websites, publishing credits, and an audiobook production and distribution package from Canopy Audiobooks, along with service discounts, courses, and awards entries. Winners are announced in late October.

The Indie Author Lab Workshop

On October 19, ALLi members and access-pass holders can join an interactive workshop with Orna Ross, designed to turn conference takeaways into an action plan for their publishing business. It builds on the first Indie Author Lab, held in March alongside the London Book Fair, where attendees asked for more guidance working through the accompanying workbook. A further Indie Author Lab is planned for Author Nation in Las Vegas in November.

Sponsors

Kindle Direct Publishing is a Platinum Sponsor, and IngramSpark is a Gold Sponsor. Gatekeeper Press is a Silver Sponsor, and Damonza Design, Bowker, and Kobo Writing Life are also thanked as supporters.

How to Register

Registration is at selfpublishingadviceconference.com. It takes an email address and a password. The full agenda was expected to be released ahead of the event, so session times may be posted by the time you read this.

Sources:

- ALLi, “SelfPubCon26 – The Future of Self-Publishing: What’s Working Now & What’s Next” (event page), selfpublishingadvice.org/events/selfpubcon26-the-future-of-self-publishing-whats-working-now-whats-next/

- Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast, “SelfPubCon26 Looks at What’s Working Now and What’s Next,” Howard Lovy with Kayleigh Brindley (September 30, 2026), selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-selfpubcon26/

- ALLi, “SelfPubCon 2026,” selfpublishingadvice.org/selfpubcon2026/

- ALLi, “Why Sponsor the Self-Publishing Advice Conference?” selfpublishingadvice.org/why-sponsor/

I wasn’t going to say anything yet.

Seriously.

I was going to keep this one quiet a little longer.

But it’s October. The nights are getting darker. Halloween is creeping closer.

And apparently, I’m terrible at keeping secrets.

Because something new has been taking shape behind the scenes.

Something darker.

A new woman has walked into my head, and she isn’t anything like the women I’ve been writing lately.

And then there’s him.

Nope.

I’m not giving you his name.

I’m not telling you hers, either.

I’m definitely not telling you what he did.

But I will tell you this:

There are secrets in this story that should stay buried.

There are choices that can’t be undone.

And there’s a man who might make you question exactly how morally gray you’re willing to go.

You know how this works.

The worse the decision...

the more I want to write it.

For now, that’s all you’re getting. 😈

No title.

No character names.

No cover reveal.

Just this:

A new dark romance is coming.

And something tells me you’re going to have opinions about this one.

🖤

— KL Adams

There’s a kind of man Jade Bellerose knows how to handle.

Controlling.

Dangerous.

The kind who mistakes possession for love.

She built an underground network to help women escape them.

New names. New phones. New lives. By the time a husband realizes his wife is gone, Jade has made her impossible to find.

Then Oscar starts watching her.

At first, Jade thinks he wants information.

Names.

Secrets.

The women she’s helped disappear.

She’s wrong.

Oscar wants access.

To her secrets. Her life. Her.

And that creates the problem at the center of Reckless Obsession that I love writing:

Jade has spent years teaching women how to escape dangerous men.

Now she may have to escape one herself.

Except Oscar isn’t chasing her because he wants to destroy what she’s built.

He’s chasing her because somewhere between watching Jade and trying to understand her, interest became fixation.

Fixation became possession.

And Oscar stopped pretending he intended to let her go.

“You don’t get to keep me.”

He smiled.

“Keep telling yourself that.”

🖤 RECKLESS OBSESSION
A dark romance by KL Adams

Obsession. Dangerous secrets. Psychological tension. A fiercely independent heroine. And a morally gray man who has a very different definition of protection.

Read it FREE now on Inkitt.

https://www.inkitt.com/stories/1903071

I’ve been reworking one of my older stories into something darker, sharper, and much more obsessive.

And Chapter One is officially live.

HIS COLLATERAL

Ezra Wittmore loses everything in a single day.

Her family’s fortune.
Her home.
Her future.

Rome Jordan makes sure of it.

For ten years, Rome has been waiting for the Wittmore name to fall. When it finally does, he doesn’t just take the company.

He takes the estate.

The family heirlooms.

The things her father loved most.

And then Ezra realizes something worse.

Rome didn’t show up at the auction to see what he could buy.

He already knew exactly what he wanted.

Including her.

This version is darker than the original concept and is built specifically as a serialized dark romance, with shorter chapters, sharper cliffhangers, an obsessive billionaire MMC, revenge, forced proximity, family secrets, and a contract that will become a very dangerous problem for both of them.

Chapter One begins with Ezra watching her entire life get auctioned off piece by piece.

Then Rome Jordan walks into the room.

And everything changes.

If you like:

Dark romance
Obsessive / possessive MMCs
Billionaire revenge
Forced proximity
Enemies-to-lovers tension
Morally gray men
Contracts with very bad consequences
Family secrets
Cliffhanger chapters

…this one might be for you.

Read Chapter One here:

https://www.wattpad.com/1661181244-his-collateral-chapter-1-ezra

And yes.

Rome is already a problem.

Chapter One of Unholy Obsession is officially live on Wattpad. 🖤

This is my newest dark romance, and it leans into everything I love most about the genre: obsession, danger, secrets, psychological tension, morally gray characters, and attraction that feels more like a warning than a promise.

Jade Bellerose helps women disappear.

She built a hidden network to get abused wives out, erase the trail behind them, and give them a chance to become someone new.

Then one of the women she failed comes back to haunt her.

And Oscar enters the picture.

Controlled. Deliberate. Dangerous.

He knows more than he should.

Jade knows better than to trust him.

But obsession has a way of changing the rules.

If you like dark romance, morally gray men, psychological suspense, crime, dangerous secrets, and obsessive tension, this one is for you.

Chapter One is out now on Wattpad.

Read here:
https://www.wattpad.com/1660769873-unholy-obsession-chapter-1-jade/page/7

Some obsessions don’t let go.

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while.

Writing it. Reworking it. Making it darker. Making him worse.

And now I’m finally ready to introduce Unholy Obsession, the first book in The Unholy Series, now on Inkitt.

This story started under a completely different title, but the deeper I got into Jade and Oscar’s world, the more obvious it became that this book was never really about ghosts.

It was about obsession.

The kind that watches.

The kind that waits.

The kind that learns your routines, gets inside your home, and leaves behind proof that you were never imagining the feeling of being watched.

Meet Jade Bellerose

Jade has built her life around helping women disappear.

Not metaphorically.

New identities. New cities. New lives.

She helps abused wives escape the men who refuse to let them go, then erases the trail behind them.

She knows what predators look like.

She knows how to hide from dangerous men.

She knows how to make people vanish.

Then Oscar Torres finds her.

Meet Oscar Torres

Former FBI.

Private investigator.

Hunter.

Oscar is hired to find a missing woman Jade helped disappear.

At first, Jade is simply part of the investigation.

A lead.

A problem.

Someone standing between him and the woman he was paid to find.

That changes quickly.

Because Oscar doesn’t just want answers from Jade.

He wants to understand her.

Then watch her.

Then push her.

Then get close enough to see what she does when she realizes the monster in the dark isn’t imaginary.

And Oscar has one very serious problem:

He doesn’t actually want Jade to remain prey.

He wants her to hunt him back.

What to Expect

Unholy Obsession is a dark stalker romance with romantic suspense and psychological thriller elements.

Expect an obsessive and possessive MMC, a sarcastic FMC who refuses to stay helpless, masked-man energy, stalking, cat-and-mouse games, hunter-versus-hunter tension, morally gray characters, dark humor, fear and primal-play themes, psychological manipulation, and a romance that was never going to be healthy.

Oscar Torres is not a hero.

Jade Bellerose is not waiting to be rescued.

And neither of them understands yet how dangerous obsession becomes when it starts running both ways.

Welcome to The Unholy Series

Book One: Unholy Obsession

If you like dark romance with stalking, obsession, psychological tension, morally gray men, dangerous women, and relationships that should probably come with several warning labels...

This one is for you.

Read Unholy Obsession on Inkitt:
https://www.inkitt.com/stories/1903071?utm_source=shared_web

Come meet Oscar and Jade.

Just don’t expect either of them to behave.

— KL Adams

I spend a lot of time writing about books.

Apparently, that wasn’t enough.

Somewhere between dark romance, morally gray men, and my ongoing belief that black roses and chains qualify as perfectly reasonable décor, KL Atelier Co. began to become something real.

And the first collection is OBSESSION.

I didn’t want generic “bookish merch.” I wanted pieces that felt like they could exist inside the kind of dark romance I love to read and write.

Black satin. Antique gold. Blood-red roses. Chains. Locks. Lace. Hands caught somewhere between desire and possession.

Dark without becoming Halloween.

Romantic without becoming pretty.

And absolutely no interest in behaving itself.

The newest addition is the OBSESSION digital wall art, designed for dark-romance reading rooms, bedrooms, offices, book nooks—or anywhere else that could use a little more darkness.

It’s a high-resolution digital download, which means you can print it yourself in the size that works for your space and choose the frame that fits your aesthetic.

And OBSESSION isn’t stopping at the wall.

I’ve also been creating mugs, totes, desk mats, apparel, and other pieces around the same visual world.

This is essentially what happens when you give a dark-romance author access to a design studio.

I regret nothing.

🖤 OBSESSION is available now in my shop.

https://ko-fi.com/s/7d5a3ec03e

Or for more:

https://klatelierco.etsy.com

— KL Adams

For most of the last decade, "self-published" has meant "sold through Amazon." That's shifting. A growing number of indie authors are building a second, parallel sales channel: their own storefront, selling directly to readers without a retailer in between. Here's what that actually looks like: the numbers behind the trend, and why it's working for the authors it's working for.

What "Direct Sales" Actually Means

Direct-to-consumer, or direct-to-reader, selling means an author sells books directly from their own website or a dedicated storefront, rather than only through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other retailers. Tools like Shopify, WooCommerce, Payhip, Gumroad, and BookBaby's Bookshop platform have made this technically achievable, with no need for an ecommerce background. According to ScribeCount's guide to the space, authors handle their own order fulfillment either by shipping print copies themselves or outsourcing to a service like ShipBob or Printify, while digital delivery tools like BookFunnel handle the ebook side, including reader-facing tech support.

How Many Authors Are Actually Doing This

The numbers, drawn from separate 2025 and 2026 surveys, put actual weight behind the trend rather than leaving it as anecdote. Roughly 30% of indie authors report currently selling direct, with another 30% saying they plan to start within the next year, according to data cited by both MIBLART and ManuscriptReport. Adoption isn't even across income levels, though. Lower-earning authors, those making under $250 a year from writing, rarely sell direct, sticking with third-party platforms for their simplicity and built-in traffic. Mid-income authors, in the $251 to $2,500 range, are the ones actively experimenting with tools like Shopify or BookFunnel. Higher-earning authors, those making $10,000 or more, use a blended strategy, leveraging both direct sales and retailers simultaneously rather than choosing one only.

Why It's Working: The Core Economic Argument

The most consistently cited reason authors move toward direct sales is what retailers don't give back: reader data. A 1106 Design piece on the trend put it plainly: retailers offer reach, but they keep your most valuable asset, customer data, for themselves. Selling direct means capturing readers' email addresses, which authors can then use to build ongoing relationships rather than one-time transactions.

The royalty math backs this up, too. BookBaby offers royalties of up to 50% through its direct storefront, compared to the considerably smaller cut most retail platforms pay per sale. ScribeCount's analysis found that authors report direct sales now account for anywhere from 30% to 70% of total income, a range that's reportedly been climbing.

What Authors Are Actually Selling That Readers Can't Get Elsewhere

A recurring theme across multiple sources is that a direct storefront works best when it offers something genuinely unavailable through retail. The Books Central's trends roundup lists what that tends to look like in practice: signed bookplates, special editions with alternate covers, early access for loyal readers, bundle deals priced better than buying titles individually, and occasionally merchandise built around a book's world, tote bags, candles, that sort of thing. The underlying logic, per that piece, is that readers who love a book want to live in it a little longer, and a direct store is where an author can actually offer that.

Real Examples of the Model Working

BookBaby's own case studies offer concrete numbers. One indie romance author launched her debut novel only through BookBaby Bookshop, ran a two-week coupon promotion to her email list alongside a small, locally targeted Facebook ad campaign, and generated over 200 sales in the first week, all of which were trackable through the platform's built-in analytics. That online buzz was enough for a local bookstore owner to take notice, order wholesale copies, and host a sold-out in-person signing, with direct sales driving traditional retail interest, rather than the reverse. A separate case involved a self-published business author who built a targeted promotion around his industry's annual conference, resulting in sales tracked across more than 20 states and a meaningful increase in email subscribers.

It's Rarely All-or-Nothing

Almost none of the sourcing on this trend frames direct sales as a replacement for Amazon or other retailers. The Books Central's roundup describes the typical setup among authors doing well as a combination: Amazon KDP for ebooks and paperbacks because of its sheer traffic, wide distributors like Draft2Digital or Smashwords to reach other retailers, and a direct storefront through Payhip or Shopify layered on top specifically for the higher margins and reader relationships it enables. BookBaby's own framing echoes this, describing 2026's strongest strategies as ones that combine Amazon's marketplace reach with direct-to-reader sales rather than choosing one over the other.

Worth Knowing Before Jumping In

ManuscriptReport's guide includes a caveat worth sitting with: direct sales genuinely isn't the right first step for every author, and jumping in before there's an audience to sell to can mean a lot of setup work for very little return. Success in this model depends heavily on already having, or actively building, a way to reach readers directly — an email list, a social following, some existing channel — since a direct storefront doesn't come with built-in discovery traffic the way a retailer does. That's consistently echoed across sources: the storefront is the delivery mechanism, not the thing that generates interest in the first place.

Sources:
- Indie Author Magazine, Issue #58, "Building Your Author Business Your Own Way"
- 1106 Design (Substack), "Beyond the Algorithm: How Indie Authors Can Build a Direct-to-Consumer Sales Ecosystem in 2026"
- The Creative Penn, "2026 Trends And Predictions For Indie Authors And The Book Publishing Industry with Joanna Penn"
- MIBLART, "11 Self-publishing Trends in 2026 You Can't Miss"
- BookBaby, "Owning Your Readers: The Future of Book Selling in 2026 & Beyond"
- BookBaby (PRWeb), "BookBaby Bookshop Redefines Author Success in 2026"
- ScribeCount, "How Indie Authors Sell Direct to Readers"
- The Books Central, "Self-Publishing Trends 2026: What Indie Authors Need to Know"
- ManuscriptReport, "How to Sell Books Direct to Readers: The Complete 2026 Guide"

It's different hearing "watch out for publishing scams" as a general alert. The real impact becomes clear when you read the documented cases by the Authors Guild of how it affects real people. Two cases are worth sitting with, not because they're rare, but because of exactly how far each one went before the author realized what was happening.

The Fake Hachette Employee

Someone claiming to work for Hachette Book Group, one of the world's largest publishers, contacted a self-published author. The scammer informed her that a literary agent had forwarded a copy of her book and that Hachette showed interest. There was one problem the author apparently didn't catch in the moment: she didn't actually have an agent. Having no agent meant her manuscript couldn't have been shared with anyone.

She carried on regardless and ultimately paid the scammer more than $14,000 in charges described as fees for "printing" and additional publishing costs. She discovered the fraud only when she flew from California to New York to meet her supposed Hachette contact in person at Hachette's actual office. When she arrived, no one there had ever heard of her, her book, or any of the employees she'd been corresponding with by name.

The $150,000 Fake Agent

The second case escalated even further. Someone who claimed to be a senior literary agent at PageTurner Press and Media contacted an older writer. The scammer told him that Basic Books, a real and well-known publisher, was interested in acquiring his manuscript.

According to the Authors Guild, public warnings about PageTurner Press and Media were already circulating online by the time this happened. The author made a series of payments anyway to move the publishing process forward. His last payment alone was $150,000. At that moment, a person claiming to be an editorial director at Basic Books called to "confirm" the agreement, probably a second scammer enlisted to make the fraud seem more believable and secure the last payment.

The Pattern Underneath Both Cases

What connects these two cases isn't just the dollar amount; it's the mechanism. In legitimate publishing, money flows from the publisher to the author, not the other way around. Any request for the author to pay fees, whether framed as printing costs, processing fees, or anything else, in exchange for a publishing deal is a fundamental reversal of how real publishing contracts work.

Both scams also leaned heavily on borrowed legitimacy: real publisher names, real imprints, and, in the second case, a second fake person brought in specifically to corroborate the first scammer's story and add pressure at the time of the last payment. That layering, one scammer confirming another's claims, is a recognizable tactic across many kinds of fraud, not just publishing scams specifically.

Why These Cases Matter

Both authors were, without a doubt, diligent enough to eventually uncover the fraud, one by traveling across the country to confirm it personally, the other only after incurring substantial financial loss. That's part of what makes these cases worth reading in detail rather than just hearing about in the abstract: the scams weren't sloppy, and the authors weren't naïve. They were targeted deliberately, using real company names and a believable sequence of events, which is exactly what makes this kind of fraud so persistently effective.

Source:
- The Authors Guild, "Avoiding Publishing Scams"

There's a particular kind of gut-punch the Authors Guild has been documenting for a while now: an author releases a book they've spent years on, checks Amazon the next day to see how it's doing, and finds a fake "summary" or "companion guide" sitting right below their own listing, something they never wrote and never approved.

According to the Authors Guild, it's become a near-universal pattern. Every new high-profile book now seems to get at least one scam book attached to it within a couple of days of release.

What This Actually Looks Like

Authors Guild Foundation president Marie Arana found this out firsthand. Her book LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority came out in February. The day after its release, she checked Amazon and found a listing directly beneath her own: "A Summary of LatinoLand," a "book" she had nothing to do with.

She's far from the only one. Author Lisa Sun discovered fake workbooks attached to her book Gravitas just days after it released, workbooks neither she nor her publisher had written or authorized. A friend had already bought one, thinking it was hers. Broadcast journalist Kara Swisher found AI-generated biographies of herself appearing on Amazon shortly after her book Burn Book came out, complete with covers designed to look like companion material. Publishing industry writer Jane Friedman, who's written three actual books, found six more bearing her name on Amazon that she'd never written, describing them as exactly the kind of generic, vague writing she'd expect from an AI tool.

Why It's Gotten Worse

This type of scam isn't new. Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, has said publicly that scam books on Amazon have been a problem for years. What's changed is the cost and speed of producing them. Scammers used to need to pay human ghostwriters, often overseas, to churn out these fake summaries and companion guides. Generative AI has made that essentially free and nearly instant, meaning a scam listing can go up within hours of a real book's release rather than days or weeks.

The Authors Guild has also flagged a related version of the same problem: AI tools trained to emulate a specific author's style being used to generate entirely fabricated books and sell them under that author's real name, not summaries of an existing book, but new fake titles attributed to a writer who had no part in creating them.

What Amazon Has Done, and Where It Falls Short

Amazon has stated it responds to takedown requests once a scam listing is reported, and the company began requiring KDP authors to disclose in advance if their work includes AI-generated material. That disclosure, however, isn't shown to shoppers browsing the site, only used internally by Amazon.

The core problem, according to the Authors Guild's reporting, is the gap between when a scam book goes up, gets detected, and actually comes down. Bad actors are exploiting that window, and because a fake "summary" isn't always a clean-cut copyright violation the way a full pirated copy would be, these scams don't always trigger the same enforcement path as more traditional piracy.

Why This Matters Beyond the Individual Author

Authors Guild director of advocacy Umair Kazi has noted that these scam books don't just siphon off a few confused sales, they can crowd out legitimate books in Amazon's category charts entirely, making genuine, human-authored work harder for readers to actually find. The Authors Guild has been pushing for stronger labeling requirements around AI-generated text as part of its broader advocacy work on this issue.

If You're an Author With a Release Coming Up

Checking your own book's listing page in the days immediately after release, specifically the "customers also bought" and related-title sections, seems to be the most consistent way authors are catching these before they spread. Amazon's copyright and content-violation reporting tools remain the primary path for getting a confirmed scam listing taken down once you've spotted one.

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Sources:

- The Authors Guild, "AI Is Driving a New Surge of Sham 'Books' on Amazon"

- The Authors Guild, "Publishing Scam Alerts"

- NPR, "Authors push back on the growing number of AI 'scam' books on Amazon"

- TODAY.com, "Savannah's book became part of a copycat scam. How to spot AI-generated, or fake, books online"

- CBC News, coverage of AI-generated books on Amazon

“Indie author” used to describe a method. You self-published, full stop, rather than going the traditional route through an agent and a publishing house. That definition is loosening. A growing thread in indie publishing coverage right now points to something different: authors who move between publishing methods project by project, rather than committing to one lane for an entire career.

What “Hybrid” Actually Looks Like

The shape of it varies from author to author, but a few patterns recur. An author might self-publish an entire series through KDP, keeping full rights, full control, and the larger royalty share that comes with it. That same author might sign a traditional deal for a different project, one where a publisher’s distribution network, marketing budget, or editorial support genuinely fits what that particular book needs. Layered on top of both, the same author might run a podcast, a YouTube channel, or serialized fiction on a platform like Substack or Wattpad, content that isn’t really a “book” in the traditional sense, but still lives under the same author brand.

None of these pieces are treated as more legitimate than the others. They’re simply different tools being used for different jobs.

The Shift From Method to Mindset

What’s interesting about this trend isn’t the individual tactics; authors mixing self-publishing and traditional deals isn’t new on its own. It’s the reframing of what “indie” even means. Rather than describing a specific publishing method, it’s increasingly used to describe a mindset centered on autonomy, an author staying in control of the overall direction of their career, even when a given project runs through a system, like traditional publishing, that the author doesn’t fully control.

Under that mindset, the question an author asks about a new project shifts. It’s less “am I a self-published author, or a traditionally published one” and more “which method actually serves this specific book, at this specific point in my career.” A debut in a crowded genre might benefit from a traditional publisher’s shelf presence. A niche, genre-blending project a traditional publisher might pass on could thrive as a self-published project, tested directly with the readers who actually want it.

Why This Only Recently Became Realistic

A big part of why this shift is happening now, rather than a decade ago, is how much more accessible each individual tool has become. Producing a professional audiobook, running a podcast, building an email list, managing multi-platform distribution — these used to require either a publisher’s infrastructure or a level of technical skill and budget most solo authors didn’t have. As each of those pieces has gotten cheaper and more accessible on its own, stitching them together into a hybrid career has become genuinely realistic in a way it wasn’t before.

A Caution Worth Noting

Accessibility isn’t the same as automatic success. One point that comes up consistently in coverage of this shift: just because publishing has become as simple as pressing a button doesn’t mean every project should be rushed out that way. The authors building sustainable hybrid careers are generally the ones still investing in craft, quality, and genuine reader connection, regardless of which specific method they’re using for any given book, rather than treating any single path as a shortcut around that work.

The Common Thread

Across every version of this trend, the throughline is the same: authors today are increasingly running what amounts to a publishing house of one, choosing traditional, self-published, hybrid, or something else entirely, on a project-by-project basis, with control over the overall shape of their career as the real constant underneath all of it.

Sources:
Indie Author Magazine, “How Indie Authors Are Redefining Publishing and Building Sustainable Self-Publishing Businesses”

Direct-to-reader sales have been a growing trend in indie publishing for a while now, but the setup has always come with a real cost: building a website, integrating an e-commerce platform, handling payment processors, shipping, and sales tax. On August 18, Lulu introduced its new Direct Buy Button to address that friction point head-on.

What It Actually Does

The Direct Buy Button is a checkout link or embeddable button an author can create for any print book published through Lulu, with no need to build a storefront, website, or product listing first. Authors can drop it into a newsletter, a social media bio, a Linktree, embed it on an existing website, or turn it into a QR code for in-person use at events, conferences, or signings.

Behind the scenes, Lulu and Stripe handle the payment transaction, and Lulu handles printing, shipping, fulfillment, and applicable taxes. There's no charge to create the button itself.

Why This Matters for Direct Sales Specifically

Direct-to-reader selling has always offered real advantages: the author keeps a larger margin than a retailer's royalty rate typically allows, and, critically, buyers can opt in to marketing at checkout, giving the author access to contact information for people who bought their book. That reader data is something retailers like Amazon simply don't share back with authors.

The trade-off has always been the setup cost, in both time and technical complexity. A tool that removes the need for a full ecommerce build lowers that barrier considerably, particularly for authors who don't have the time, budget, or technical background to manage a Shopify or WooCommerce store on top of everything else running an author business requires.

Worth Knowing Before Using It

A few practical details worth being aware of: every order is subject to a production delay, a safeguard against accidental or hasty purchases, though authors can adjust that window up to twenty-four hours. And for authors who already distribute through IngramSpark, there's a known pitfall in enabling Lulu's global retail distribution for the same titles, as it can create duplicate bookstore listings.

One observation that's circulated in author commentary on the launch is worth flagging plainly: a direct buy button makes it easier for someone to complete a purchase, but it doesn't create demand on its own. The tool assumes an author already has some way of reaching readers — a newsletter, a social following, an existing audience — since sending someone to an unfamiliar personal website to buy a book is a different ask than routing them through a retailer they already trust. For authors with that audience in place, the reduction in friction is real. For authors without one yet, the button doesn't solve that separate piece of the equation.

Where It Fits Alongside Other Lulu Tools

The Direct Buy Button sits alongside Lulu's other direct-sales options: Lulu Direct's drop-shipping integration for authors running a full Shopify, Wix, or WooCommerce store, and the standard Lulu Bookstore listing, which offers an 80% revenue share and requires no separate storefront. The Direct Buy Button is positioned as the lightest-weight of the three, useful for authors who want a direct sales option without committing to a full storefront build.

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Sources:
- Lulu, "Lulu's New Direct Buy Button"
- Indie Author Magazine, "Four Ways Lulu Brings Books Directly to Your Readers"
- Margot Conor, "A Lulu Update"

Every self-published author eventually hits the same fork in the road: stay exclusive to Amazon through KDP Select, or go wide and put your ebook everywhere else too. It comes up constantly in author groups, and, like the McFadden advice debate, the discourse tends to split into camps, each convinced the other is wrong. They're not, really. Here's what each path actually gives you, and what it costs.

What KDP Select Actually Is

KDP Select means your ebook is exclusive to Amazon, in 90-day renewable terms. You can't sell it anywhere else, not on Apple, not on Kobo, not on your own website, for the duration of that term. In exchange, you get access to Kindle Unlimited page-read royalties, Kindle Countdown Deals, Free Promo days, and in some international markets, meaningfully better royalty rates than you'd get outside Select.

For genres with heavy KU readership, romance, fantasy, cozy mystery, and thriller, that trade-off can be substantial. KU page-read income alone can represent 40 to 70% of total royalty income for authors in those genres. It's also worth noting that exclusivity applies only to the ebook. Print and audiobook editions are unaffected either way.

What Going Wide Actually Is

Going wide means distributing the same ebook across Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and others, either by uploading to each platform directly or through an aggregator like Draft2Digital or Smashwords. You lose KU eligibility entirely, but you gain reach into readers who don't shop on Amazon at all, plus something Select doesn't offer: you're not fully dependent on one company's policies, algorithm changes, or royalty rate adjustments for your entire ebook income.

A related third option, direct-to-consumer sales through your own storefront, can be layered on top of going wide (the two combine cleanly), though it can't be combined with Select, since Amazon doesn't allow non-Amazon listings on an exclusive title.

Where Each Option Tends to Make Sense

New authors with no existing audience yet often see real value in starting with Select. The built-in Kindle Unlimited reader base and Amazon's promotional tools can generate early visibility and reviews that a first wide release, with no existing following to draw from, often struggles to get on any platform.

Authors with an established readership, multiple titles, and their own marketing infrastructure — an email list, a social following — tend to weigh going wide more seriously, since they already have ways to drive traffic to other platforms rather than relying entirely on Amazon's internal discovery.

Genre matters too. In heavily read KU categories, exclusivity often earns more than going wide does. In literary fiction, most nonfiction, and children's books, where KU penetration is lower, the math frequently tips the other way.

It's Not a Permanent Decision Either Way

One thing that gets lost in the debate: neither choice locks you in forever. Select is a rolling 90-day enrollment, easy to opt out of at the end of any term. Plenty of authors run Select for a book's early life, then take it wide later once it's built momentum, or do the reverse. It's common enough that many authors describe just running one Select term, then comparing total ebook income against a wide term of the same length, and letting the actual numbers, not the theory, make the call for that specific book.

No Universal Answer, Just a Set of Trade-Offs

Same as the "get it out there" debate: there's no single right path here, and the loudest voices in either camp are usually generalizing from their own genre and audience size rather than describing something universal. What Select buys you is different from what wide buys you, and which one serves a given book depends on where that book's readers actually are, and where you are in building your own audience to reach them directly.

Sources:
- Books.by, "KDP Select vs Going Wide: The Complete Decision Guide"
- AuthorAZ, "Should Indie Authors Use KDP Select?"
- Cambridge Publishing House, "KDP Select vs Wide Distribution 2026"
- Publica.la, "KDP Select vs Wide vs D2C: Decision Framework for Indie Authors 2026"

A video made the rounds recently with a pretty direct title: “I’m an Editor. Please Don’t Take Freida McFadden’s Writing Advice.” It’s a pushback on McFadden’s now-famous stance, the one she’s repeated in interviews and on her own website: stop procrastinating, just write the book, put it out there, and fix what needs fixing later. An editor’s perspective on that advice is worth hearing, especially from someone who’s worked inside traditional publishing and seen what a polished, agent-ready manuscript actually needs to look like.

Equally, I think the conversation is missing a middle option that many indie authors are already using without explicitly naming it.

McFadden’s advice isn’t wrong,
It’s aimed at a different finish line

As an author who has made mistakes since 2009, I can say there’s no perfect way to go about this journey. If you have a book and you want to self-publish it. Do it. That is the advice I get when I hear authors like McFadden tell would-be authors to do it. Jump in. Feel the water. The assumption is that this is the only story the author will ever write. I suppose there is that, like a one-hit wonder. It happens. Freida speaks of her personal experience when she offers advice. After seeing as of today, she has 33 books on the market. I would say she’s earned a seat at the table. If that doesn’t, she’s a New York Times bestselling author. I would say she has earned the right to advise authors.

She wrote from childhood and kept writing while becoming a physician. Before self-publishing, she tried the traditional route: she queried agents, got rejected, and at one point even landed an agent, but that manuscript never sold. Eventually, she decided she cared more about getting her work into readers’ hands than waiting for a publisher. (The Washington Post)

Other authors have similar stories:

Stephen King: The breakthrough came in 1973, about six years after that first professional story sale. Doubleday accepted Carrie for publication. King had already written several novels that publishers rejected, and Carrie itself almost ended up abandoned—his wife, Tabitha, famously encouraged him to keep working on it after he threw pages away. (The Guardian)

J. K. Rowling: She eventually finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and began trying to get it published. She first needed an agent. Christopher Little agreed to represent her, but then the manuscript went through a long string of publisher rejections. The commonly reported figure is 12 publishers turning it down before Bloomsbury finally accepted it. Rowling herself has said she remembers receiving “a good few” rejections, though she doesn’t recall the exact number. (The Guardian)

Brandon Sanderson: He wrote Elantris around 2000 and submitted it. One publisher rejected it. He sent it elsewhere and then waited roughly 18 months before Tor editor Moshe Feder contacted him in 2003 wanting to buy it. The publication process took another couple of years, and Elantris finally came out in 2005. (Brandon Sanderson’s Bio)

Colleen Hoover: She self-published Slammed in January 2012. At first, it got very little attention. Then she started doing giveaways, reaching out directly to book bloggers, posting teasers, and interacting with readers on Goodreads. By late April, Goodreads’ recommendation system began surfacing the book more heavily. (PW Select)

These authors tell us the path to discovery is not a formula laid out as A + edits + repeat + B + insert your ritual = success. If it were that easy, everyone who desired it would do it. It’s different for everyone. And that makes it exciting. When you think about reading, and how easy it is to pass up a good book for a show or sports clip, it is amazing that it still exists as a pastime. If you have a book, you deserve to see how it would go. Maybe you are the next bestseller. Or maybe it does no more but collect dust. Either way, it takes courage to put your work out there.

The Platforms Built for Exactly This

Inkitt, Wattpad, Ream, a personal blog — these all let an author post work in progress, chapter by chapter, in front of real readers while it’s still being shaped. You receive reactions, observe what resonates and what doesn’t, revise based on real reader feedback rather than guessing alone, and the work remains unlocked as a permanent, reviewable, for-sale product. That’s “getting it out there” in the exact spirit McFadden means: stop hiding it, stop waiting for imaginary perfection, but it’s not the same thing as skipping editing altogether.

By the time a story that’s been tested this way moves to self-publishing, it’s already been through a real revision process, just a different one than a traditional developmental edit. Beta readers on a platform, chapter comments, the pattern of where readers drop off or come back for more — that’s genuine editorial information, even if it doesn’t come with a manuscript letter attached.

There’s No One-Size-Fits-All Here

That’s really the heart of it for me. An editor coming from traditional publishing is likely to set the bar at the traditional publishing level, because that’s the system she knows and has worked within. McFadden’s advice reflects a different, now equally legitimate path, one where the barrier to entry is lower, and the room to learn in public is much bigger than it used to be.

Neither is wrong. They’re answering different questions. If your goal is a Big Five deal, the editor’s caution is sound advice for that specific goal. If your goal is building a readership and a body of work on your own terms, McFadden’s push to stop waiting and start putting your writing in front of people, whether that’s a finished self-published book or a serialized chapter on Wattpad, is exactly the permission a lot of new writers need to actually start.

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https://kladams.author-pages.com/

Some romance scams rely on emotional manipulation alone. Increasingly, they’re being backed up with something that looks like hard proof: a screenshot of a bank account with millions of dollars in it.

Federal prosecutors in Oregon recently charged Daejon Labrayae Love and an accomplice with wire fraud conspiracy, alleging Love spent over four years posing online as a wealthy NFL player to defraud more than two dozen women of over $1.3 million. According to court documents, Love used apps such as Fake Bank Account Pro, tools that let anyone generate convincing screenshots of bank and investment account balances, to show victims fabricated proof of wealth, including a claimed balance of over $30 million. These are allegations at this stage, and the case is still working through the courts, but the mechanism behind it is already well documented and worth understanding regardless of how any individual case resolves.

Apps like this exist in a strange legal gray area. Marketed openly on app stores as tools for pranks, planning surprises, or social media content, they let a user type in any name, any bank logo, and any dollar figure, then generate a screenshot that looks, at a glance, exactly like a real banking app. There’s nothing illegal about the app itself; screenshots aren’t real financial documents, and plenty of people download them for harmless reasons. The fraud isn’t in the software. It’s in how a bad actor chooses to use it, as a fabricated credential to make an online relationship, or an investment pitch, look real.

That’s what makes this particular trend worth a dedicated warning, separate from general romance-scam advice. Most people already know, at least in theory, not to send money to someone they’ve never met in person. What a fake bank balance screenshot does is bypass that instinct entirely. It doesn’t ask you to trust a stranger’s word. It shows you evidence, and evidence is exactly the thing we’re trained to trust more than a claim.

A few concrete things worth knowing, whether you’re dating online, evaluating a potential business partner, or simply someone who wants to recognize this pattern when you see it:

A screenshot is not verification. Any dollar figure, any account name, any bank logo shown in an image can be fabricated in seconds with tools built for exactly that purpose. Legitimate proof of funds comes through verified channels, a bank’s own secure portal, a notarized document, or a direct, verifiable third-party confirmation, not a photo sent over text or dating-app chat.

Urgency and secrecy paired with claims of wealth is a specific combination worth treating as a red flag on its own. In cases like this one, prosecutors describe romantic relationships built specifically to create emotional trust, followed by investment opportunities that only a trusted partner would supposedly be offered. That structure, romance first, financial opportunity second, is common enough to have its own name, and it works precisely because it doesn’t feel like a pitch. It feels like being let in.

If someone you’ve met online claims significant wealth, a reverse image search on their photos, a search of their claimed employer or team affiliation, and simply asking whether they’ll do a video call are all low-effort steps that a genuine person will have no issue with, and that a fabricated persona often can’t survive.

For businesses in the fintech, dating-platform, or financial-services space, this trend points to a specific product gap worth watching: identity and asset verification tools built for peer-to-peer contexts, not just institutional ones. Platforms that can offer users a way to verify a claimed financial credential through an actual bank connection, rather than trusting an uploaded image, are closing exactly the gap that apps like Fake Bank Account Pro are built to exploit.

The technology enabling this kind of deception is trivial to access and getting easier to use convincingly every year. The defense against it isn’t more suspicion of every person you meet online. It’s a habit of separating a claim from actual proof, and knowing that a screenshot, however convincing, has never once been the same thing as a fact.

Sources:

• KRON4, “Man who posed as SF 49er to scam women tricked AI, Google, court docs say”

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Oregon / DOJ, “Man Posing as San Francisco 49er Charged with Defrauding Over Two Dozen Women Out of More than $1.3 Million”

• NBC News, “Man posed as San Francisco 49er to defraud women of $1.3 million in multistate romance scheme, feds say”

Klynn is an AI business educator and commentator covering artificial intelligence trends, enterprise AI adoption, and the business implications of generative AI. Published daily on Medium and Substack, Klynn helps professionals and entrepreneurs understand how AI is transforming industries worldwide. Follow Klynn for daily AI business insights.