It always disgusts me, watching people complaining about one thing and then when the solution comes up, complaining about that too. A while  back, Dungeons & Discourse made a video about some of the big online RPG sellers taking action against AI-written content. She pointed out that there was a lot of really bad human-written crap up there already, and I pointed out that I’d been suggesting for years that Amazon institute a reading fee for every single book uploaded to the site. A human reader makes sure it isn’t a scam, of which there are plenty, and that it meets minimum quality standards.

Imagine my surprise when people didn’t like that either.

On the one hand, they hate the idea of bad AI-written material, but they also hate the idea of bad human-written material, but they also oppose any kind of standards to ensure that it’s worthwhile in the first place.

These people are idiots.

You either want quality, which requires standards, or you want utter chaos, which is what we have right now. You know, that thing that you are complaining about?

AI won’t change anything. AI is going to be crap, until it is not. A lot of humans are already crap. Do you want to get rid of the crap or not? This is where we need to recognize some differences.

It is one thing to write as a hobby, to do it because you love it and simply want to get it out there. I’m entirely fine with that. However, once you put it on a retail sales site, especially someone else’s retail sales site, you have passed the level of “I really just like to write” and are now a business. Businesses exist to make money and that means that the company whose services you are using, they have a right to expect that any products uploaded to their site, they are intended to make a profit. That’s how they survive, after all. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about Amazon or DriveThruRPG, both of them have expenses that need to be covered and they do that by collecting a percentage of sold products. If the products on their sites aren’t selling, then they have no reason to want those products around.

Yet a lot of people don’t understand that, or don’t care. They figure these sites exist to coddle anyone who wants to put their crap out there, whether it sells or not. That is factually untrue. In fact, putting inferior products out there, no matter who produces them, that gets in the way of other products that have a better chance to sell to the public at large.

It’s why I have always recommended that Amazon, specifically, put a $20 fee on every single book that is uploaded to the site. It is to be used for a real person to at least spot-check through the book and see if it meets minimal quality standards. It will get rid of the scams. It will get rid of people uploading Wikipedia pages as content. It will get rid of the crap. It will increase customer experience, which is what Amazon is primarily concerned with. If customers have a good shopping experience, they tend to buy more, which is what Amazon is after. It’s win-win for everyone. Less crap means an easier time finding what you want to buy. It means that the people who are putting in the effort to make a quality product, they will probably sell more. They will make more money and create more quality products. It makes life better for us all!

Sadly, that doesn’t make some people happy. They have no clue or care about the business aspects that are inherent in selling retail, they just want people to be happy.

Happiness doesn’t remotely matter though. It’s why selling retail is a business proposition, not a personal one. You need to learn to set your personal feelings aside and produce for the market. If you just want to write crap, feel free, there are plenty of places out there that let you upload for free and anyone who wants to read it is welcome to. Those aren’t going to make you any money though because making money is an entirely different animal.

These people are just dumb.

Oh, they complained, some people might not make $20 on their books! Sorry, if you are not confident that you are going to make a $20 profit over the entire run of your book, then you have no business uploading it to a retail sales site in the first place. Remember, we’re trying to keep people who are not serious about it from doing it. Your fee-fees don’t matter.

Oh, others say, I don’t want anyone telling me what I’m allowed to publish! Sorry, but it’s their site. They are allowing you to sell, with the presumption that you are actually going to sell something. That means you are aware of the marketplace and are  doing something likely to attract buyers. If not, then again, you don’t belong there. Go find a free site. Mostly, quality means you can spell and have decent grammar, that you aren’t using illegal art or contents, etc. You have to be serious about this. If not, take a hike.