By Jane Sullivan
Publication Date: 2026-04-15 06:00:00
It had to happen sooner or later. A publisher withdrew a novel because the author relied heavily on AI, but no one at the publisher discovered the bot.
Shy girla “Femgore” horror novel by Mia Ballard, was originally self-published and had many enthusiastic readers. Then Hachette released it in the UK. It was planned to be released in the US, but was canceled after it was revealed that up to 78 percent of the text was AI-generated. The book has since been published in the UK. Ballard has denied using AI for writing Shy girlbut she told it The New York Times that someone she had asked to edit the book had used it.
AI is becoming increasingly difficult to detect and nervous publishers have been expecting a debacle like this for years.
