You might as well have asked if I plagiarized or used a ghostwriter!

At first, I was sensitive to blunt questions about “AI.” Then I realized that some implementations of spellcheck are using LLMs. So, crusading against “AI writing tools” would be hypocritical.

Prudent use of AI levels the playing field between amateurs like me and traditionally published authors. However, relying too much on AI undermines the creative process and hinders a writer’s development.

Chapter 29 of Framed, called “The Puppeteer Part II,” addresses how generative AI has supercharged the “dead internet theory” and the practice of “karma farming.” I’m not rehashing that today. I’ve written a blog post about the role that AI played in the creation of Framed: A Villain’s Perspective on Social Media.

tl;dr: I’m probably the lowest-tech technology writer that you know.

👨🏻‍💻 Version 1.0.2 of Framed has been released!

This afternoon, v1.0.2 of Framed was approved and released in paperback and on Kindle. If you have the eBook, it should download automatically. If you have the older version of the paperback and want to upgrade, email me and I’ll send you the new version free of charge.

This new version contained three additional chapters. No, just kidding.

The focus for this revision was images. The book contained about fifteen pictures. about half of them looked really crappy in print. About three of them contained text that was illegible. Also, some pictures were so awkwardly large that they were causing large gaps in the text. I downsized most of them.

v1.0.2 Release Notes:

1. Replaced every image with a higher quality version using a different compression algorithm (HEIC/F).

2. Downsized about five pictures, resulting in a reduction of 4 pages to 336 pages in print! Resized the cover image to compensate for this.

3. Misc fixes related to errant newlines, capitalization, and not having italicized The Charlotte Observer.

If you find an issue in the book, reach out! You can help make Framed better.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you’ve read the book and liked it, why not leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads?

Framed had a fantastic weekend of sales, but now I’m hiring people to help with advertising, promotion, and press. They’re all saying the same thing: my book doesn’t have enough reviews.

I’m not willing to pay for reviews like some of my competitors. Those days are behind me.

Leave a review for Framed. Stop me from returning to the dark side.

🚨 Misprint Alert: Wide Distribution on IngramSpark will be enabled…soon

I’ve had a few people tell me that they don’t want to buy the book until it is listed on a storefront other than Amazon’s.

Whether you’re boycotting Amazon for a week or a lifetime, there’s no doubting the risk of trusting one publisher to handle everything. If my Amazon account got banned, that would majorly disrupt the distribution of my book. Before I learned that there were readers out there who avoided Amazon, I was preparing to launch on IngramSpark.

Publishing the paperback through IngramSpark will allow me to distribute it to retailers such as Barnes & Noble at wholesale prices. Unfortunately, every aspect of the process—review, proofing, printing, even setting prices—is clunkier than Amazon’s process.

In short, I ended up with proof copies with the tip of the arrow button on the front cover being cut off. I’m submitting the new design tonight for v1.0.2, and am dreading that this might cost me $25 and take several additional days to approve before I can order a new proof copy.

Don’t worry, IngramSpark distribution will be enabled soon!

Enjoy your weekend, and, if you’re tired of waiting, allow me to tempt the holdouts: