Some books are fully generated by AI and published on Amazon. How can you tell if a book has been produced in that way?
Photo by Terry Freedman
It is not easy to tell just by looking at the cover, but here is what I suggest.
Look carefully at the author's name. Some rip-off merchants create a name that you could easily mistake for the real one.
Check how many books have been uploaded by the same author. Apparently Amazon has set a limit of three books per day per account, but (a) I think you can create multiple accounts and (b) how many genuine writers could upload even one book a day let alone three?
Check what subjects the writer has written about. Most serious authors write just one type of book, so if someone publishes books on different subjects or in several genres the alarm bells should ring.
Use the Look Inside feature or download a sample to see what the writing is like. Although AI can produce credible-looking prose, I thinkyou can still tell, or at least feel suspicious, when sometihing has been written by AI.
Personally, I would never buy a health-related book without doing some research about the (apparent) author. I believe there have been some cases where the advice given by AI-generated books has been positively dangerous.