Embracing the independent and DIY approach to publishing

The DIY approach to publishing is about the most human thing an author can do in the age of AI and in a sanitized traditional publishing landscape.

These days, there’s nothing more human than the good old DIY approach. And that doesn’t limit itself to publishing, as I’ve become a major fan of indie singers/songwriters who do the same.

During the last few months in my dreaded day job, I saw what it was like to be just a writer while someone else edited, formatted, picked a photo for, and published my work.

The result? An article with my name on it. I didn’t fully recognize the writing style, the headline, the featured image, or even the larger blocks of text.

At the end of the day, it was tough to call it my work, and I felt like a cog in the machine.

When it comes to self-publishing fiction, it made me embrace the DIY method even more. Now, the reader knows that the writing, editing, and formatting came from me. Heck, many of my graphics are also mine.

Book covers are the only things I outsource because I’m hopeless at making them. But every single cover you see at The Rebel Lore Vault matches my final vision, and I never once asked permission to have them designed the way that they are.

The DIY approach in the age of automation and specialization is sacred

There are two common denominators I see plaguing the world today—AI garbage that doesn’t even remotely sound human, and content produced by a team instead of a single entity.

You know I’m not opposed to AI and fully believe in using it for the heavy lifting. But to put things into a gym perspective, if you lift heavy weights every time you step into the iron church, you’re going to develop a round, one-dimensional physique.

The same goes for AI generation. When you don’t humanize and make it your own, it shows. If I generated this article, I’d have passages that look like this:

Short, choppy sentences—monotone voice. Bland. Uninspiring. Dull. AI generation doesn’t just sound inhuman—AI generation lulls readers to sleep.

You can take that same passage and say something like:

AI generation is full of short, choppy sentences, a monotone voice, and the dullest content you’ll ever see. It sounds completely inhuman and it’ll put readers to sleep.

Seriously, we’re living in a world where people are too lazy to even look at what they generated using ChatGPT or whatever app they’re on.

But AI isn’t the only thing draining the humanity out of modern content.

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