Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog

I have been giving this matter some serious thought over the past few weeks. Though I have put writing books on the back burner for now, I still like to keep up-to-date on what’s happening in the world of writing. With AI becoming more and more popular, this is going to lead to the debate over whether or not authors should use AI to do the job of writing books for them. When I say “write books”, I mean typing in a sentence or two and then letting AI write an entire scene around it. (An author does enough of these, AI will essentially write the book.) Even if the author tweaks things, it’s still not a story the author is writing.

My primary concern over using AI to write the story (and even in creating the story) stems from how AI is getting the material. AI is not a creative entity. It needs to take material from already published books. I realize AI is not going to take these books word-for-word when it throws out a few paragraphs, but the raw material from other books is still there. This has the potential of leading to copyright lawsuits. What happens when an author with enough money finds out that someone has been using AI to write a book that is “way too similar” to theirs? Sure, I haven’t heard of this being a problem yet, but authors using AI to help them write their books is still new. We don’t know what ramifications could pop up down the road, and I see no reason to take the chance.

In my opinion, authors are much better off writing everything in their story. I can see using AI for help with the minor stuff, but this is stuff we could do during a brainstorming session with other people. For example, AI would be okay if you’re looking for a synonym or antonym for a word. Or AI could work to help with a plot point you’re struggling with. Say, you get stuck, and you’re trying to decide what would happen if a character did X or Y. You could run the scenario through the AI program to help guide you on the best course. (Just as you could talk the scenario over with another person who could give you ideas.) Simple tasks like this should be okay because it doesn’t involve actually writing the story out.

(This is where I ramble…) The main barrier I can see to authors writing their own stuff is the possibility of burnout. If you’re making your living primarily from publishing books, then you need to keep getting books out to stay solvent. This puts a lot of stress on the author. My books have always been my source of income. I never cared to get into making covers or editing because I’ve heard way too many horror stories of the way cover artists and editors got treated by authors who should have known better than to treat these people like crap. (Please treat cover artists and editors well.) There are other ways authors make additional income (kickstarter, workshops, podcasting to name a few), but all I ever wanted to do was write. I am awful at marketing. I guess there is the possibility of hiring an assistant, but would you believe I was quoted, “$30 an hour” with NO possibility of seeing their references? If I’m going to spend $30/hr, I want to know what other authors these assistants worked for. How do I know if these authors benefited from their assistance or not if I don’t know who these authors are? For all I know, these assistants are doing a lousy job and getting paid handsomely for it. (…end rambling.)

I doubt I’m the only author who relies mainly on their writing income to keep money coming in. I have always written my own stuff. I did not hire out ghostwriters, but that was a personal preference. I went into writing because I loved my characters and their stories. If I were to put my name on something I didn’t write, I wouldn’t feel a connection to the book, and it’s the connection to the book that makes it so much fun to go back and reread it. I primarily wrote books I wanted to read. Back in 2006-2007, I searched high and low for a romance author who wrote stories I specially wanted to read but couldn’t find any except for Carolyn Davidson, and she was only one author. I wanted more books. So I wrote them myself. I am a horrible business person because this writing thing is not “business” to me.

I understand for a lot of authors, this is a business. Even if this is a business, I would advise you to not use AI to write the stories. Be careful with using ghostwriters, too. You don’t want to use a ghostwriter who uses AI, nor do you want a ghostwriter who plagiarizes other authors. Vet these ghostwriters. I don’t know how to vet them, but research on how to do it and then do it. We are in the wild west of AI. I can see authors struggling with burnout (like me) and choosing to rely on AI in order to put books out there. I have been in groups where authors celebrate all of the “words” AI helped them “write” that day. While this is exciting on the surface, it has its share of risks.

I think the best thing an author can do is write the book yourself. If you want to hand over the marketing to an assistant to help clear out time for you to write, that $30/hr is way better spent than using AI to get “words” in the story for you. If you can manage it, look for additional sources of income to help supplement your writing income. I have decided to take time off from writing while I recoup from burnout, but not everyone has the ability to choose the path I did. Whatever you do, it’s best to buffer yourself from any problems AI could generate for you down the road.

Also…let’s not forget the emotional (non-business) angle of this equation. I would think that your readers are reading your books because of “you”. There is only one you on the entire planet. You have your own creative spark that brings that special something to your books that your readers love. AI can never replace that spark. No ghostwriter can replace it. I have read ghostwritten books, and they are not as good as the authors’ work. Maybe they sell better, but the quality just isn’t the same. It’s better to write less books with the “need to read it again” factor than to write something that’s only read once.

Yes, the money is nice, but it’s not a guarantee. My writing income has dropped so much over the years that it won’t be long before my family will actually start getting tax refunds again. At first, I panicked over the continual dropping of my writing income, but now I’ve come to accept it. And guess what? I still have those books I spent those years writing, and I love these books. I enjoy them as much as I did when I wrote them. I don’t regret writing them. I chose to write for passion, and it paid off. It didn’t just pay off for me. There are some readers who let me know how much they enjoy them, too, and that’s the icing on the cake that very few authors think about. When you are writing the story, you are crafting something you love. That love shows up in the work. That love can’t be replaced. So write your own books. In the end, it’s worth it.

I’ll be in Bellevue, Nebraska this Saturday to help my good friend, Janet Syas Nitsick, to sell her books. This is a picture of Janet and the table we were sitting at during the last craft show we went to in Gretna, Nebraska. It was taken last month.

We have a lot of fun at this craft shows, and it’s some thing I look forward to going to. Though I personally do not sell my books at these shows, it’s so fun to meet people. Quite a few people come looking for Janet, and they ask her if she has any new books out. The good news is she will have a new book by the time we have the next craft show we’re going to in April. But for the time being, if anybody wants to come to just say hi, we would both be thrilled to see you.

If you happen to be in the Bellevue area and would like to try out another local author, we will have a fantasy series available. This series is written by Krystine Kercher, and we met her shortly after I moved back to Nebraska. She dropped off the books with us last weekend, and she signed them. So, if you love fantasy, I recommend you check these out. If you are unable to come by to check out the paperbacks, she does have these books available as ebooks. You can check out the link here. She described the series to me, it sounds interesting, but I have to wait until they are in audiobook form before I can read them.

I just finished listening to Janet’s latest book, The Librarian’s Secret, and it was really good. The hero and heroine are so sweet together. The secret that the hero’s father was hiding surprised me because I didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it was, but I’m glad that Janet took it in the direction she did because the story came together so beautifully with it. In addition to the secret, Janet used other characters in the story to demonstrate that though we are imperfect, we can find grace and forgiveness with the Lord Jesus Christ. I wasn’t sure how Janet was going to make the secret work with a plot, but she did an outstanding job. I highly recommend this book if you haven’t read it yet. It is a sweet Christian romance. I was sorry when it ended. She now has all of her romances available on the Apple Store and audiobook form. I am trying to get her set up on Google Play so she can have e-book and audiobooks over there, too. I think both Apple and Google Play do a really good job of creating digitally narrated books. They both have their different styles, but once you’re in the story, you don’t even think about how the book is being read to you; you only think about the story itself. I know people keep saying digital narration isn’t worth it, but for people who struggle with reading things, digital narration, has opened up a new world to them, which is why I’m a big supporter of this technology. For someone used to listening to human narrators, the digital narration is a bit jarring, but if you continue to listen to it, you really do get used to it.

Anyway, if you’re inclined and able to come to the Saint Matthews craft show on Saturday, please stop by our booth and say hi. Though I don’t have any books on hand, I would be thrilled to sign a piece of paper so that you can have my autograph, I will be the one in T-shirt and jeans sitting next to Janet who will be in a beautiful dress with a nice hat. Just ask if I’m Ruth, and I’ll know that you read this blood post, and we can chat for a while.

Here is the address and times for the craft show:

Saint Matthew Church, 12210 S. 36th Street, Bellevue, NE 68123

Saturday (Nov 11, 2023) 9am-3pm

There is a $1 admission fee, which I can refund for you since you’re coming to see me and Janet and to possibly check out Janet’s and Krystine’s books.

The Earl’s Jilted Bride and Worth the Risk will be out next year

Things have gone to a crawl with the edits. I am relying more on other people to do the edits for me at this point, thanks to my eyes. Both of these books are still in edits:

I am going around the other people’s schedules. They have lives of their own, and the fact that they’re willing to help me out is greatly appreciated. In the past, I did have an editor or two look over my books, along with a couple of beta readers. But the issue with my eyes have just forced my hand. I used to give the book a thorough read through. I can’t physically do that anymore. I have to hand over the reins to others on the entire editing side of things.

So I don’t know when these two books will be out, but I’m planning on them coming out next year.

My eyes are just not able to do the work anymore & it’s been nice to walk away from writing

I was able to go in and modify a scene this morning in Worth the Risk to eliminate a cliffhanger I had put in. Just in case I can’t do another book in this series, I am going to close up any cliffhangers remaining.

After one hour on the computer, I started getting the gritty feeling in my left eye. That’s a sign that my eyes are not liking the strain I’m putting them under. For almost a month, I have been off the computer except for checking my online bank account and doing my bookkeeping for the accountant, and my eyes felt wonderful. I didn’t need drops. They weren’t watering up anymore. I felt normal again.

Maybe it’s the burnout talking at this point, but I have enjoyed not writing anything for the past couple of months. I didn’t realize how bad the burnout was until I stopped making myself go to the computer. The eyes forced my hand on stopping with the writing, but the break has felt like a lot of pressure has been lifted from my shoulders. I still have story ideas. I just don’t want to write them. At least not now. I don’t know if I will ever want to write them. I would rather just let the stories play out in my head at this point.

I’m not sure what to make of all of this. In writing circles, it’s all about writing and publishing and promotion. If you aren’t writing all the time, you’re not a “real” writer. If you’re not producing books to sell, then you aren’t a “smart business-minded” writer. If you’re not making money, you’re not worth listening to because you don’t know what you’re talking about. And it’s like once you do establish your “brand”, you’re expected to do this for the rest of your life. It feels like you can’t quit because if you do, you are either a failure or you’re letting people down. I’ve been struggling with a lot of guilt over the fact that I don’t want to write anymore. At least, I don’t want to write right now. I don’t know if that will change or not. A part of it’s scary. And I don’t know what to do.

So I guess I’m taking a pause. I will let those books go through edits because they’re done, and I want them out there to complete the Marriage by Obligation Series. But I have decided to stop working on any other books, at least for the time being as I allow myself to decompress from the past decade where I did little else but write all the time. I started writing these romances back in 2008. It’s 2023. I realize that “real” and “serious” writers never quit, but if I am not considered a “real” or “serious” writer after getting over 100 written and published across the total amount of books I’ve done, then I will never be a “real” or “serious” writer. I’m exhausted, so I’m going to walk away from writing indefinitely.

I’m not going to worry about Bookfunnel

The main perk of Bookfunnel seems to be the ARCs, the newsletter swaps, and the part where you give away a book to have someone sign up for your email list. Since I have no plans to publish books beyond The Earl’s Jilted Bride and Worth the Risk, I see no value in being on Bookfunnel. I am going to close my account with them. I can’t do social media and do the newsletter swaps with other writers. My eyes won’t let me on the computer to do that. I have no intention (at least right now) of continuing my “writer business”, so there will be no more emails to send out to readers and no need to worry about ARCs. I was under the impression that Bookfunnel let you sell your books over there, but all Bookfunnel really does is let you do a link to a store you already have elsewhere (like Payhip). I’m done wasting my time on places that don’t do me any good.

I recently signed up to be on BookFunnel, but I am not sure what to do with it. There’s so much, and I’m feeling overwhelmed. For those who like my books and use BookFunnel, what do you go there for?

When I look at this poll on my computer, I can’t see the options. When I look at it on my iPhone, I can see it. In case you can’t see the options, where they are:

1. ARCs (Advanced Review Copies)
2. To view the books offered in the group promos with a variety of authors
3. To find new books to BUY at other retailers (this would be paid books, not free ones)
4. To see samples or chapters of an author’s book
5. To sign up on an author’s email list (so you get a free book in exchange for signing up on their list)

The button in the lower right side says “submit”.

I assume this is an issue only I am dealing with, but just in case, I typed all of those out. Just click the one button that best describes you. Then click the submit button.

You can leave a comment instead if you wish.

Today’s post has been dictated with a microphone I have on my computer. So please be understanding if there are errors that pop up in this post.

For the past month, I have been having a conversation with another author keeps asking me about whether or not audiobooks are worth it.I thought I would address this question in this blog post today for any authors who may be reading this. When deciding, whether or not to create audiobooks, it all boils down to one simple question: how important is it for you to get your books out in a format that is easy for people to listen to? (Note: I mean “listen” to. There are people who can only listen to books. They can’t physically read them.)

Not everybody is able to physically read a book. I am one such person. If I spend more than 20 minutes, reading anything, my eyes will give me a lot of grief. I get a headache. My eyes water up. My vision gets fuzzy for a minute. It’s not a comfortable experience, which is why I stopped reading unless I had to. There are other people like me out there in this world who exist, but they aren’t the majority of people out there. If you think to yourself, “There’s no point in making audiobooks, if I can’t make money off of it,” then that’s a fair argument for not creating audiobooks. I won’t pretend that money doesn’t matter. It does matter.

But, to play devil’s advocate, let me ask you this: how much money do you make off of ebooks? How much money do you make off of paperbacks? If you’re not making a living doing this with ebooks and paperbacks, why do you keep making them?

Perhaps, and this is just a thought, the main objection to creating audiobooks could stem from the fact that Amazon is not allowing digitally narrated books on their site. When it comes down to it, I think a lot of authors are still obsessed with Amazon. I think authors decide that if they can’t do something on Amazon, then it’s not worth doing at all. Personally, I think it’s just a matter of time before Amazon will set up a program like Google play has where you can upload your file and get a converted into an audiobook using digital narration. At this point in time, I expect a lot of authors to jump on this. But for now, the question really is whether or not you think having your books an audio form on a platform that is not Amazon is worth it. And a lot of authors will say, “No it’s not worth it.”

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know what I think about Amazon. This is one company that has treated authors like crap. Ever since 2011, I have had problems with Amazon. I have had more problems with Amazon than I have had with any other retailer. That is why I never go into Kindle Unlimited. I have stayed wide this entire time, and I will continue to do so. Even if I end up, making no money at all on my books, I will not jump in the Kindle Unlimited. I will not be under the thumb of a company who has the power to destroy my entire author career. The safest bet is to be wide, to be in as many retailers as you can. If something does happen on Amazon, you have other places where your readers can find you. You don’t have to start from scratch and hope you can build a platform on those other retailers. It’s easier to just do it from the beginning, even if the money isn’t as great.

Google Play, and Apple are offering readers like me, who struggle with reading a book, the option to listen to them. Authors do not have to be exclusive to Amazon, to do a human narrated book where the author hast to split the royalties with a narrator. When Amazon does this, Amazon also puts the price tag on the book. And these books can be expensive compared to e-books. With Google Play, I get to set my own price. Since this is done with digital narration, I don’t have to pay an aerator to do this, and to be honest, I could not afford to pay an aerator, because I no longer make the kind of money that would allow me to do that. The only way I can get my books into audio form. These days is to have a retailer like Google, let me do it for free on their platform. Google takes a cut of the sale when I sell an audiobook and I get the rest. I use draft a digital to get my books and the audio form on apple. Draft 2 Digital takes a cut, and Apple takes a cut, I get the rest. In this case, I suggest a price, and I do suggest a price or I have the e-books for that, but Apple and Draft 2 Digital price it a bit higher. I have no control over that. It’s a small price difference from Google Play, but it’s still cheaper than what you would find on Amazon. I’m not making big bucks over there, but it’s more important to me that I am able to listen to my own books because I cannot longer physically read them. I got into this writing gig so I could read my own stuff. I wasn’t thinking of sales. I am my own customer. The decisions I make about my books, or whether or not, I get benefit from it as a reader.

But your reason for writing may be different from mine, and if it is, then you have to decide whether or not making audiobooks is worth it to you. If it’s not, don’t do it. But please do not ask people like me, who have trouble reading, to read your books, because we can’t physically do it.

On my laptop is a feature that allows me to dictate what I’m saying. This is on the laptop which I bought in February of this year. On the F5 key is a microphone, and when I hit this microphone, I am able to speak the words you are reading right now in the sport post. As you can see from the previous sentence, this is not perfect. I did not say sport post. I said blog post. Obviously, clarity and how I speak plays a role in this.

Well, I don’t expect this feature to be perfect, I am left wondering how much of this is a viable option when I am dictating a story using my word program. For example, I did not start the last sentence with the last word “well”. I started it with the word “while”. “Well” and “while” sound similar. Words like this will make it harder to know what I was really saying. Sure, the fact that these words came at the beginning of a sentence, makes it easier to decipher what I was trying to say, but there will be times where these inconsistencies occur in the middle of a sentence. That can change the whole meaning of a sentence. I am not sure I can even go back and reread what I spoke in order to clean up these messages. Messes such as the one that just occurred at the beginning of the sentence and at the end of the last sentence. I did not say “messages”. I said “messes”, and I had to physically type “messes” in because no matter how many times I said, the correct word, the program did not understand it. These are the kind of errors that makes dictation a huge pain in the butt.

Other errors likely to occur will be incorrect spelling of a word. The English language has some words that have the same sound, but based on their meaning, they will have different ways of spelling them. While this program does a good job of picking out most of these, nothing is perfect, and this could end up being a nightmare for someone who reads through this and tries to clean it up to edit it in order to get it ready for publication. Let’s say, I mean the word “discrete”. But I meant DISCREET, not the word that just came up in the last sentence. Granted, I have been known to make this mistake while typing, but those mistakes would be few, and far between because most the time I will get the right spelling for the word.

While the technology is impressive, it cannot compensate for every mistake. Someone has to go over the words to read them. I cannot just speak the book and have it ready for an editor. I would have to have someone come in and clean it up. That would take considerable time. The way I figure it, it will take anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour to do one chapter. I cannot expect anyone to do this amount of work for free. I don’t think my eyes can tolerate doing this work without substantial breaks and time. I just got through editing, the Earls jilted bride, and my eyes needed a break for well over a week after that. The longer the book, the more intense edits are. It gets even more complicated when you have to look at punctuation, because even though I speak the punctuation as I’m saying it, it doesn’t always come out correctly.

The average cost of an assistant is $15 an hour. Sometimes it’s more if the assistant has more experience. I figured that it would cost me anywhere between $350-$500 to pay someone to go through and clean up the Dictation on my book. That is in addition to the other expenses that go into publishing a book. One of the most frustrating things writers have to deal with is this idea that it’s so easy to write a book, and because it’s so easy, the book should be free. I don’t mind offering a free book from time to time. I have quite a few books that are permanently free. But I, like other writers out there, cannot offer every single book free. In order to keep writing and publishing books, writers have to make more on the book then it cost to produce the book. And right there in the last sentence, the “then” should have been “than”. Yet another error that has to be compensated for when someone is reading over what I dictate.

To get back to my point, however, this idea that authors are greedy for asking for money for their work is tiresome. We do a lot of work when we write our books and get them ready for publication. It takes time and effort to produce a story that people will enjoy. Books don’t magically pop up out of nowhere. There is a lot of work people never see that goes into making a book. The love of storytelling is what propels us to do this, but we can get burned out because this is not an easy job to be in. For one, it doesn’t pay very much for most writers. I know there is a lot of bragging from the six-figure authors, but keep in mind that most authors are not making that. Most authors aren’t even making enough to pay their bills. The worst part is that it seems that no matter how much we do to create a professional product, we can’t please everybody. There’s always someone out there, who will have a complaint, and no matter what the complaint is, the customers always say this right, so the writer is left to just suck it up. And on top of that, you have to worry about people, stealing your work, and publishing it as if it’s their own. So no, it is not wrong for us to ask to be paid for book. In order to be able to afford producing a book, we have to make the money. In order to have a viable business, we have to make a profit. In short, I don’t think I can afford an assistant to go over all of my chapters in the book that I dictate. The cost is too great. I am not making the kind of money I used to make.

And this brings me, in a roundabout way, to my point of this entire post. My eyes just may not be able to handle this. I have been off the computer for three days now. My eyes have felt like normal. I had a headache around my eye, but I think that stem more from stress than eyestrain. I have a lot going on in my personal life. It’s not necessarily bad, but I do pretty much run around from sun up to sundown every day, and that’s not even time on the computer. During the course of dictating this post, I have made an effort to clean up some of the errors the dictation is making. I guess at the moment, when I feel fine, but I have had some interruptions along the way, so I have been on the computer for a total of two hours on and off. If writing is like this with a Dictation software I just don’t know if I’m up for this. It’s more than dry eye. It’s eye strain. I have seen the ophthalmologist and optometrist. There is nothing structurally wrong with my eyes. I have the narrow tear ducks, and my eyes don’t produce enough oil, which is why I’m having dry; however, I really do believe all of the years I sat in front of a computer screen hour after hour, day, after day, month, after month, without any sufficient breaks, has contributed to the condition I am currently in. This is something that I don’t think most people will see in writing groups.

In writing groups, authors are encouraged to do whatever it takes to get those words on the page. There are books about writing 5000 words in a day. Sometimes are books about writing your first draft in a week. I think that is horrible advice. By advice to writers, is it take care of your eyes. Maybe you’ll be fine. Maybe you can’t go for a long period of time and not be affected the way I have been, but if I could go back in time, I would have told myself to slow down and to take those breaks. Have a feeling that my future self would tell my current self to take those walks, to spend the time cooking meals that are high in nutrients instead of taking a shortcut and getting prepackaged, pre-processed foods. I do not want to end up on medication, and I don’t want to end up going to a doctors office all the time. I am currently in good shape except for my eyes. My priority is going to be my health. My second priority is going to be my family and my friends. My kids are on the cusp of adulthood where they will start moving out. I want to spend as much time with them as I can while they are still here. I am lucky that I have friends in that I can spend time with. And, so let’s not leave him out, my husband needs some time and attention too. He and I have been married for 23 years, and we still date. I think that’s important. I don’t only love reading and writing about romance, but I have been very lucky to have the kind of marriage that I like to portray in my books. Relationships need to be nurtured, just like our health.

I am going to end a post here. I did my best to edit the errors I found, except for the ones that I wanted to point out. I will say that I was going back quite a few times to correct things so that people could understand what I was saying. However, I am sure there are errors that I missed along the way.