Flood of AI-Generated Submissions 'Final Straw' for Small 22-Year-Old Publisher

https://www.404media.co/bards-and-sages-closing-ai-generated-writing/

A small publisher for speculative fiction and roleplaying games is shuttering after 22 years, and the “final straw,” its founder said, is an influx of AI-generated submissions.

In a notice posted to the site, founder Julie Ann Dawson wrote that effective March 6, she was winding down operations to focus on her health and “day job” that’s separate from the press. “All of these issues impacted my decision. However, I also have to confess to what may have been the final straws. AI...and authors behaving badly,” she wrote.

Dawson founded Bards and Sages in 2002 as a place to publish her own supplemental content for tabletop role-playing games like Pathfinder. It expanded over the years into anthologies, novels, short story collections and a quarterly magazine.

“The AI problem is a time problem. If I was not dealing with a host of other issues, I'd fight through the AI either until the phase passes or the AI Bros gave up on bothering me. But with everything else, I just don't have the time,” Dawson told me. “The number of submissions have just flooded the inbox. And I don't have hours a day to deal with it. As an example, I haven't checked my business email in the last week. My submission inbox...despite the fact that we are no longer accepting submissions...has 30 emails in it.”

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  "url": "https://www.404media.co/bards-and-sages-closing-ai-generated-writing/",
  "title": "Flood of AI-Generated Submissions ‘Final Straw’ for Small 22-Year-Old Publisher",
  "description": "A small publisher for speculative fiction and roleplaying games is shuttering after 22 years, and the “final straw,” its founder said, is an influx of AI-generated submissions.In a notice posted to the site,...",
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  "author": "@samleecole",
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