My wife and I wrote a series of children's books. The premise was based off of short stories that we told our children at bedtime. The text is written, but I am looking for ideas on how to go about illustrating a series of short books (8-10 pages per book). What are your favorite AI platforms and where would you point me? Is distribution through Amazon the best path forward?

You may look at freelance hiring of an illustrator.

Tim Philbeck said:

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My wife and I wrote a series of children's books. The premise was based off of short stories that we told our children at bedtime. The text is written, but I am looking for ideas on how to go about illustrating a series of short books (8-10 pages per book). What are your favorite AI platforms and where would you point me? Is distribution through Amazon the best path forward?

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You won't be able to copyright any images in a book that have been generated via AI. Your best bet is to hire an illustrator.

As far as distribution goes, what's your overall goal? If it's just to say you've written and published a book, Amazon print on demand is fine. If you want to actually make money or see it as a source of income, it's very unlikely that will happen (especially with picture books).

What if ai generates it and then an illustrator tweaks it to make it their own? Id assume you would be able to copyright that.

I mean hell as soon as I scribbled my name on it, I feel it becomes mine in that case, change or no change.

Sea Speed said:

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What if ai generates it and then an illustrator tweaks it to make it their own? Id assume you would be able to copyright that.

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Was it your own AI algorithm that generated it?

If not, I would assume you cannot copyright anything it creates or use it for commercial purposes per the TOS.

Sea Speed said:

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What if ai generates it and then an illustrator tweaks it to make it their own? Id assume you would be able to copyright that.

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Probably not. A big case came down early this year where a person did that using mid journey and the copyright was cancelled.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/us-copyright-office-withdraws-copyright-for-ai-generated-comic-artwork/

Really interesting.

I guess it stems from the AI not knowing that the image it created and/or its parts are now copy-protected so it may keep producing it?

Additionally, it's not your work of art (I get all that); but who do you "sue" if AI recreates an image.

Seems like AI should be used to take words and create a baseline image. Take that to an illustrator and say here are my 3 main characters. AI has done a decent job on initial images but there are definitely some glitches. My goal would be to get a book illustrated and sell it. Heck maybe the best thing to do in this day and age is to create an audio book, create the "album art" for that particular story (single image that tells a story) and tell the story.

OnlyForNow said:

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Really interesting.

I guess it stems from the AI not knowing that the image it created and/or its parts are now copy-protected so it may keep producing it?

Additionally, it's not your work of art (I get all that); but who do you "sue" if AI recreates an image.

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Thats the big question. There are some pending cases in which the AI engine has been sued but it's anyones guess how those will turn out.

Its a big topic in my industry right now (publishing) and its still so new, people aren't really sure what is going to happen.

Its weird because on the one hand, training AI on other people's works may be considered fair use while at the same time, any product made from it would not be copyrightable.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/92783-authors-join-the-brewing-legal-battle-over-ai.html

Tim Philbeck said:

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Seems like AI should be used to take words and create a baseline image. Take that to an illustrator and say here are my 3 main characters. AI has done a decent job on initial images but there are definitely some glitches. My goal would be to get a book illustrated and sell it. Heck maybe the best thing to do in this day and age is to create an audio book, create the "album art" for that particular story (single image that tells a story) and tell the story.

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Just a little food for thought.



Picture books are really difficult to write. It's hard to tell an entire story in 150 words or less and even more difficult to do it well.

-A lot (and I mean a lot) of people try to break into publishing by writing a picture book. They underestimate it and think it will be easier since it's short. As such the self publishing market is flooded with 1000s upon 1000s of picture books. AI has made this even worse (more on that in a bit)

-As mentioned before, AI generated images (and stories) cannot be copyrighted. Even if your book becomes an huge success, someone could take all the images and make their own stories with little to no repercussions

-AI has made the self published children's book market a mess. Generally speaking AI is not good a writing stories. Several grifters have emerged promising high returns and success by using AI to write children's books. They basically churn out straight garbage of stories and images in the hopes that some people will get duped into buying it.


-If you really want to make money in picture books, the best way is still traditional publishing. Its hard though especially if you aren't an established author. My wife is a successful author in YA, middle grade, and adult romance and her first picture book is coming out this fall (she's been in the business for a decade).


-If you want to say you're a published author and sell a few copies, there is nothing wrong with using Amazon print on demand. I'd say expect your family and some friends to buy a copy but not much else. I think you will happier with the results if you hire an illustrator though instead of using AI.


If you want an longer read on some of the effects of AI in children's books, Robert Evans has a good long form article
https://shatterzone.substack.com/p/ai-is-coming-for-your-children

Please don't use AI.

You also open yourself to get sued in the future by an artist or artists who thinks that the AI used their art as in input to copy their style, and I imagine the odds of that happening approach 100% as any book you would write finds more success.

Immediately what I thought when I read op

Lawsuits galore if the book finds any success

Here's another article that touches on the side hustle grift of AI written books. The money is in getting people to buy your instructions, not really the AI books themselves.


https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/culture/23827325/publishing-ai-scams-large-language-models

New ruling regarding AI generated art. A federal judge rules strictly AI generated art isn't eligible for copyright

https://mashable.com/article/ai-art-copyright-debate

Tim Philbeck said:

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My wife and I wrote a series of children's books. The premise was based off of short stories that we told our children at bedtime. The text is written, but I am looking for ideas on how to go about illustrating a series of short books (8-10 pages per book). What are your favorite AI platforms and where would you point me? Is distribution through Amazon the best path forward?

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If you're writing a horror book a la Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, AI is definitely the way to go! Stable Diffusion and Nightcafe won't let you down if it's "WTF" you're after. Just look up Supercomposite's Loab series.

In seriousness, though, I have to say, AI probably won't give you good results if you're trying to make illustrations for a children's book. You should probably commission a human to do the illustrations- unless, again, it's a horror book for children

powerbelly said:

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Please don't use AI.

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AI is a blast to play around with. I mean I'm not making any money off of it but you can do fantastical things with AI. For example, you could generate pictures of Victorian gentlemen shopping at Circuit City...


Or make my username check out...


Or make a character from a FPS game sing a song.



The list goes on and on. AI isn't evil, no matter how many people say it is.

In my case, I'm making a series of skits involving the TF2 characters in a sci-fi adventure where they're fighting off aliens and saving the world from technology supremacist robots. Think Mann Vs Machine + Invasion, but the robots are much higher tech and the whole world is at stake.

AI, like any technology, has a good and a bad side. The question is, will you use it for good? Or for evil?
Will you allow the nefarious actors to sully the reputation of AI? Or will you push forward and make fun, silly things?

Those all look like ***** It has nothing to do with ai being evil.

1. Those look awful
2. They steal from the work of others
3. Without new information to train on, AI starts to collapse on itself. When you feed AI other AI works instead human created works, the results start to get worse after about the 4th round.

If you want to actually create a book or story, pay someone to do the artwork or do it yourself. You aren't going to be able to copyright it otherwise.


If you want to make money

nai06 said:

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1. Those look awful
2. They steal from the work of others
3. Without new information to train on, AI starts to collapse on itself. When you feed AI other AI works instead human created works, the results start to get worse after about the 4th round.

If you want to actually create a book or story, pay someone to do the artwork or do it yourself. You aren't going to be able to copyright it otherwise.


If you want to make money

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You're right- for the money thing. AI is absolutely abysmal if you're trying to make money off of it. But if you're just screwing around, it's a decent way to kill an afternoon. Hell, most of the humor comes from how awful the pictures look! Look what DALLE thinks Heavy from TF2 looks like lmao

"Tlendlson Tentarre Doumty 2912e" coupled with this gray guy in a cowboy hat is just weirdly funny to me. It's absolutely NOT "Heavy from TF2 giving a TED talk" like I asked it for but I have a very absurdist sense of humor so my thought was "That looks like dog crap, but it's way funnier than what I asked for"

Idk about "stealing from others" but that's something you could argue about for days, and it's not a debate I really wanna have honestly.

Just like a woman, you gotta know how to talk to it.
"When Pigs Fly"