The AI bots have broken Amazon and other tips

Your weekly dose of tools and tips to write faster and grow your storytelling empire.

Happy Tuesday! 👋

This week was fun! I managed to write 4500+ words by setting a daily target and fixed and focused writing time.

The Tweaks

• 1000 Daily Target

• Write at 5:30 AM

• Five days a week

Why this matters: I’m amazed at the results, having struggled with a single chapter a week for months. The fixes seemed so obvious in hindsight.

Expected Awakening: Early signs indicate Editing is the hard part.

Work In Progress

I’ve written four chapters of various roughness.

So switching to editing this week should be enlightening.

• Do I need to tighten up my drafting process?

• Should I spend more time refining the outline?

Weekly Experiment

Continuing with my experiment from July 3rd, I’ll edit all my drafts and schedule them all by the end of the week.

This would instantly create a multi-week buffer for more creative play.

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🎯 Goal

2x weekly output from 1 to 2 chapters (on average).

🤔 Hypothesis

Batching editing and scheduling could double my productivity.

🧪 Experiment

1. Edit all drafts using a streamlined process.

2. Then format and schedule all for Early Access.

📓 Ideal Results

Four scheduled chapters after a two-week cycle.

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Which part of writing is more difficult for you? Drafting or editing?

Three Tooltips

Tools for authors and how to use them.

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1. “The AI bots have broken Amazon”

Big Picture: Subscription models are the future.

• There's been a surge of meaningless AI books populating Amazon's bestseller lists, and denting human author royalties.

• 81% of the top 100 romantic bestsellers are supposedly filled with AI-generated nonsense.

• Go deeper: Sounds like Sci-Fi, but it’s true

Why it matters: it’s becoming clear that subscription models (like Substack) connecting readers with real authors, not bots, are essential.

• If Amazon pays Bestsellers the most, and those are fake AI books, then that affects real writers’ earnings. Amazon also needs stricter content checks.

• Building human connection with your audience is through an ongoing subscription model, stories as a service, the best bet against AI books.

2. You Must Tame the Creative Stallion

Big Picture: In our heads, we have a creative stallion. Sounds good, right?
But this energetic animal can run wild if we give it absolute freedom.

• Creativity thrives with constraints. The blank page has limitless potential and all those possibilities are paralyzing.

• Similarly, Hick’s Law shows the more choices we’re offered, the harder we find it to make a decision.

Add limits to succeed using this The Stallion Harness template by Struthless, and check out his funny video on how to use it.

3. Try The Cognitive Triangle for Real Characters

Big Picture: it’s a tool from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for understanding how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all connected.

Going deeper: Each side represents a different part of us:

• What we think

• How we feel

• What we do

Here’s an example:

1. Thought: I am not good enough to be a writer

2. Feeling: Discouragement, self-doubt

3. Behavior: Not trying at all

In Summary: I think bad, so I feel bad, so I do bad.

• We can use this to show a character on the page that feels more real.

• Showing how identities (thoughts) shape both feelings and actions.

An intriguing and practical concept for my own unbalanced MC.

Dive deeper with examples.

Two Inspiring Quotes

One good turn of phrase deserves another.

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I’ve learned that creativity run amok is the opposite of productivity.

“…a tight brief is how you harness the creative Stallion.”

— David Ogilvy

Credibility is established by what we’ve achieved. Not what we say we can.

“…we judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing,
while others judge us by what we have already done”

— Henry Wadworth Longfellow

One Question — On AI Cloning

The Beatles recently brought back Lennon’s voice to create a new album.

Thank you, Dear Reader

• If this post helped you, please hit the Like button.

• If this could help others, please Share it.

• If this made you think, please Comment, and let’s have a conversation.

Until next week — keep creating.

Zane

Don’t forget to check out

Sujan Sundareswaran

’s

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