AI on IndieFiction

We neither require nor forbid the use of AI tools by authors. We cannot reliably tell AI-written work from human-written work, so we do not label either. What we use AI for ourselves is listed at the bottom of this page.

Almost everything on IndieFiction is created by its authors: the books, their descriptions, the short stories, the author bios, and the answers on Ask. We publish it; we do not write it.

We do not encourage the use of AI in fiction, and we do not disapprove of it. How a book or story gets written is a matter between an author and their readers, and authors disagree with each other about this in good faith. We are a shelf, not a referee.

What does not change, whatever tools an author uses: every author answers for what they publish here.The ownership warranty on short stories, the accuracy of a book listing, and our content rules apply to all work equally, however it was made. “An AI wrote it” is not a defence to any of them.

We do not have the ability to identify AI-generated writing, and we do not pretend to. AI detectors are unreliable in both directions: they miss generated text, and they accuse real writers falsely. A false accusation harms an author in a way we are not willing to risk.

So you will not see “AI-free” badges or “AI-generated” warnings on IndieFiction, because we cannot stand behind either.

Whether to read a short story, or to buy a book from an author's retailer, is a judgement we leave with you. Read the sample, read the description, look at the author's page. If something on the site strikes you as misleading, report it and a person will look.

In the interest of the same honesty we ask of authors:

• We use AI to help create marketing content for our social media accounts (Instagram and Threads). What we post about a book quotes the author's own description; AI helps with the framing around it.
• We use AI to help build and maintain the site itself. Parts of IndieFiction's code, automation and testing are written with AI assistance, directed and reviewed by us. The decisions about what the site does, and the rules it holds people to, are made by a person.
• The publishing guides are written by us, not generated. They exist because a person ran into these problems and wrote down what worked.

Questions about any of this: hello@indiefiction.com.