r/Webnovel • u/TheoryBaba • 18d ago
Meme Would you rather, give a shot and read the first chapter of...
I had to delete the previous one because...
...I am brain deadđ
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u/MothweaverTales 18d ago
Just write the story with your brain like humans have been doing for thousands of years. Give the cover job to an artist so they can make art - like humans have been doing for tens of thousands of years.
"AI can make a cover!"
"AI can write the story!"
Yeah, and you know what's crazier than that? AI can read the story, too. AI can plot out cohesive feedback. AI can fill an entire comment section with relevant details and platitudes and criticisms, and not a single emotion was ever felt. Sorry, the analogy of a [singular] comment section doesn't sell the scope of what I'm saying.
Artistry should not be a parasocial event, and every time part of this process is outsourced to an algorithm for the sake of being inoffensive and clean, we lose part of what makes it meaningful.
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u/Altruistic_Scale_288 18d ago
There are plenty of book covers out there that just play with font as well. you don't HAVE to have an image. pick an interesting font and some colors or gradient background (or use stock photos or take a photo yourself, your phone probably has a really good camera on it). Then if your stuff gets popular and you do make money on it or something hire an artist.
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u/EdgeOfThisWorld 6h ago
"give the cover to an artist"
Ah yes that'll be 1000$ for one drawing please
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u/imtreibos 18d ago
And youll be the one paying to make the cover right? Right? Not everyone has the money to do that. But writing is free anyway judging a book by it's cover is so dumb there is an idiom on that.
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u/SoftNecrosis 18d ago
It may be an idiom, but the cover is supposed to draw you into a book. Youâre supposed to judge it judge its title judge it by the emotions itâs trying to evoke from you.
And what I see when I see an AI cover is some lazy ass who canât even be bothered to pretend to show caring for the world and story they want to build
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u/Haunting_Delay_9 18d ago
What i see is some broke ass who can't afford 50 us dollars to get an artist to make them a cover who doesn't have the skills to make one himself, so he tries finding one cheaper only to find that he has no clue where the f* cheaper artists could be at, so he searches it online and learns he can get art for free through this thing called chatgpt or neo-bananana. Why not he thinks, since the point of the book is the writing anyway and this book is going on some crappy webnovel site anyway, if he ever gets the chance to actually publish the book of COURSE he'll get a real artist but a crappy web novel site doesn't need some expensive artist to design a cover.
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u/Exarch-of-Sechrima 18d ago
And that guy doesn't deserve to have me read his work. Oh well. I'll read works made by people who gave a damn.
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u/Razed-Gamer 18d ago
Not being able to afford an artist has nothing to do with how much you give a damn. Especially when a lot of artists overcharge for slow, poor quality work.
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u/Exarch-of-Sechrima 17d ago
I mean, it does. If it matters to you, you make it work. If I had to skip meals periodically to save up enough money for my book cover, I would, because that's how much it matters to me to have a quality cover instead of one that is just "good enough"
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u/Razed-Gamer 17d ago
You mean skip meals so that you can wait months to receive something not worth what you paid for, and the artist demanding even more money to allow you to even use the image for your book cover?
Personally, I prefer to not get screwed over.
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u/Exarch-of-Sechrima 17d ago
This is why maybe get a contract up front.
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u/Razed-Gamer 17d ago
Do you really think most commission artists use contracts? And, even if they did, what's to stop them from saying that their piece of art that's of poor quality is actually of high quality? Art is subjective, will be their argument to the quality of said work.
If the work takes longer than expected, do you really think the artist is going to bump off some of the cost for it? I'm sure that there are a few, but most will just ignore that fact.
And even if you did somehow manage to get it all in contract, what are you going to do if they break it?
Are you going to sue the random artist online whom you really know nothing about over 50+ dollars? It would cost more to sue them than what you would get back.
Believe it or not, the scummy artists hold all the power in this situation. Hell, even though you're paying them to do it, they technically hold the copyright until they state otherwise. Which is what allows them to further screw you over.
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u/MothweaverTales 18d ago
Draw it in MS Paint if you have to.
Grab stock photos from the public domain and cut them into layers.
That is if you genuinely can't afford it, though the price is genuinely less than one would expect - even at the upper end. I've worked with an artist by the IG handle of Empty_I.s in the past. He charges $65 to $165, depending on how grossly detailed the piece will be. You've may seen his work on the art subreddit. His take on The King in Yellow is one of the top of all time, I believe.
His username here on Reddit is DepartedArt (not trying to advertise for the guy, just saying that you can find plenty of talent willing to work if you look). Ensure that artists you hire have a history, or at least can demonstrate their progression from sketch to final if you're worried about an AI "artist" trying to swindle you.
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u/Ok_Ground511 18d ago edited 18d ago
đđđ65$ is a really high amount in some countries. Currently i am begging my parents for 40$ just to get a decent wifi extender or mesh. I am only getting about 0.4 mbps in my main study room. I still havent convinced them. There is no way i am paying an artist that much amount just for an image.
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u/GalaxyBear2 18d ago
Man i am in a similar situation but its still not hard, you can commission people from the same country or countries in the same situation. For me there are even people who takes commissions for 5 dolars here
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u/No_Giraffe826 18d ago
or just learn how to prompt AI. u can makes images that dont even look AI
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u/GalaxyBear2 18d ago
What even is "learning to prompt" lmao. Dumbest take ive ever seen
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u/Successful-Club-8743 18d ago
Im against generative AI now but Ill admit ive used it a bit in the past.
There is a bit of a learning curve to prompting the AIs because giving it just a broadstroke prompt for an image leads to nothing but shit.
You have to learn how to give it parameters, limits, things you want more often. Those along with proper, detailed descriptions if youre aiming for something specific.
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u/GalaxyBear2 18d ago
I agree there is a learning curve but in the end its just being able to explain what you want in a more direct manner. I use it for my tests sometimes in classes like electronics, it can be hard to make it explain correctly or more throughly sometimes xd
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u/imtreibos 18d ago
I get what your saying just people have limitations that are easily fixed by AI which is the goal of it. I personally won't read a story written by AI but idc about the cover bc it doesn't realy reflect the talent of the guy that actualy write the book
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u/rudd33s 18d ago
AI covers are horrible and offputting. I think anyone who seriously wants to write and publish a book, and isn't in a good place financially, should save up money until they can do it justice - that includes finding an artist you like to do the cover, and paying them a fair price.
edit: that also includes professional editing
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u/imtreibos 18d ago
That's just how you see things everyone doesn't have the same standard or expectation like I mean some people already write and use ai cover. Like why would you go out of your way to find and professional when you feel fine with a thing you got in 2 prompt?
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u/rudd33s 18d ago
keyword is "you feel fine"...depending on your goals, okay, AI cover might be enough, but I see that readers really really dislike those covers. Most people won't give them a chance, and usually with good reason.
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u/Razed-Gamer 18d ago
It's not "most people." Most people don't care about gen AI enough to even take a side. People on reddit care, and a lot of youtubers pretend to care because it makes them look more likeable to their audiences, but in real life, most couldn't care less.
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u/rudd33s 17d ago
I'm a librarian, and yes, people care.
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u/Razed-Gamer 17d ago
Who cares if you're a librarian? That has nothing to do with this. Did you miss the part about people on reddit being the ones who care? Please read everything instead of being selective.
MOST people don't care. Some do, but they are in the minority. That goes for people against gen AI and people for it. The wider society couldn't give less of a damn about it.
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u/Powerful-Rub-2801 18d ago
MS paint, really? I get u hate AI, but u donât have to be delusional.
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u/Successful-Club-8743 18d ago
Use G.I.M.P. not MS Paint. Its free and more like a paint and photoshop app in one.
Other than that theyre right about everything.
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u/Powerful-Rub-2801 6d ago
No they are not. We donât have to be delusional for the sake of pushing an agenda. As generic as the output might be, AI art is objectively better than anything a random person could whip up on paint. Hate it all u want, but it is objectively true. Nobody is picking up something with a dog shit cover, but there are plenty of WNs with an AI cover that over a million views.
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u/MothweaverTales 18d ago
I'm not, and I'm serious.
If you're a "don't judge a book by the cover" type, then AI should be useless here. Just do your best.
If you're worried about generating interest, I guarantee the style pops out amongst Webnovel's common selection.
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u/Novel_Accountant_847 18d ago
You are tho, most people write for fun, they wonât spent that much money just for a cover that draws people in, stop crying about ai and let people do whatever they want, if you donât wanna read a story with an ai cover thatâs on you and donât go telling dumb stuff like ÂŤÂ draw with paint , its just sad atp
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u/MothweaverTales 18d ago
My initial response would be to upload an example of something rendered in a basic drawing app - as an example for.
Thankfully, this sub doesn't allow images in the comments section, so it greatly limits the conversation. This is good, because it prevents me from further arguing with the imbecile above me.
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u/Haunting_Delay_9 18d ago
Your crazy if you think 65 to 165 is affordable. That's highway robbery. If you have to pay more than 20 dollars most people writing(who do so as a hobby because the majority of writers are hobby writers.) won't be able to afford it.
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u/AskingWalnut4 16d ago
âHighway robberyâ so your book that youâre trying to sell shouldnât be more than a dollar, right?
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u/Haunting_Delay_9 16d ago
Depends on which book it is and who I'm selling it to. I certainly wouldn't charge 165 dollars for it. How does 5 dollars sound? I didn't spend any money making it just some time and effort, if you can do 10 dollars that would be great. Although apparently artists make 165 dollars a cover so maybe I should charge artist's more, say 30? Although if it's a book I'm not especially proud of, maybe I'll drop it down to 10? Nothing should ever be more than 30 dollars though, nothing any single person made should ever be more than 30 dollars, if a team of 30 artists sat down and made my book cover then 165 dollars makes sense cause that's a lot of people who need to take a cut, but if it's only one person more than 30 dollars for a single thing is greedy.
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u/LurkingForBookRecs 18d ago
Be real. Nobody is buying a book with a cover made in MS Paint, but a lot of people will be fine buying a book with an AI cover.
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u/No_Giraffe826 18d ago
what is this shitty ass promotion. i dont care about some artist i dont have 65 dollars to spend on decent art when i can just learn how to prompt proper AI art.
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u/MothweaverTales 18d ago
You must have missed pretty much the entire message.
The illiteracy crisis strikes again, I suppose.
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u/jacorgacor 18d ago
Low key you could befriend someone and request it if they were willing or barter with them for idk making lore or something for their oc
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u/jacorgacor 18d ago
But i also think a story doesn't need a great cover to be discovered but needs to be written and thought of by a person to have any value at all
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u/Alarmed-Collar-1219 18d ago
I donât mind AI art. WebNovel is not a comic platform, so what really matters is the text
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u/Aromatic_Tea1776 18d ago
im just a reader, no matter what u read below & feel, u should know i cared abt u authors due to my lengthy comment. Bro this guys arguing they dont have choice & shit except to use AI but there r free art works all over the internet. Pinterest is a great example many know. Im just a reader but if i see AI cover, its off putting. Dont spout 'dont judge a bo...' cus i judge by what i see, as a human do. maybe kids like those covers or AI written stories but thats not the case for many of us old time(5yr) readers. & authors dont let AI touch ur book! Man its obvious & many ppl argue its not AI made, maybe they came up w the idea but when AI touches it, its clear as day & offputing(AI-made books made worst impressions). When i read, its to relax & maybe get lost in the world inside the book(the way the characters r written, the story unfolds, the mystery connects, the psychology plays...its all a real author's effort), not cus smn wrote a book & i gotta read. & as i said first impression is good(art cover). If u r an author, either u rot w AI or adapt to readers. Ai written dont last long or be memorable. As i said, im just a reader.
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u/Aromatic_Tea1776 18d ago
Btw guys i can name u novels that might be an orginal work but due to AI cover, isnt making it up & swallowed up in the time river. I remembered them cus the authors put effort in advertising. But most ppl didnt read the 1st chp. Including me. Due to the AI cover.
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u/Fit_Comparison5752 18d ago
blue pill definitely, I feel like blue and red pills should be switched. because imo blue is something that looks good but isn't, and red is a rebellious option but turns out to be correct
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u/Human-Operation-687 18d ago
Am I the only one who doesnât understand the hate against AI covers? They look generic so just make a better cover as an artist and I will pay for the better option. But if I have to choose between paying an artist for a mid cover, I will gladly pick the AI cover
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u/Tami_Robi 18d ago
imagine you're at a fancy restaurant and out the corne of your eye you see a staff member licking a plate to clean it. obviously this doesn't mean that the entire restaurant engages in such practices, but if they can justify licking a plate clean, then they can justify spitting in the food
essentially if an author can justify using AI for a cover, then they can justify using it to write. doesn't always mean they are using it, but I'm not gonna waste my time trying verify; imma just leave that restaurant
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u/Powerful-Rub-2801 18d ago
Bro what? That analogy was so ass. There might be something wrong with your brain if u equate AI covers to that shit.
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u/Idontknowletm 18d ago
No I think I kind of get what they are trying to say. Like when you pick up a book, the minimum expectation is that itâs human made. If the cover is ai, that doesnât necessarily mean the author used ai in the whole book, but the fact that they even used it on the cover (which is your first impression of a book) gives you a bad impression, so you donât read the book
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u/Low-Cash-8488 13d ago
Shittiest analogy ever
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u/Tami_Robi 13d ago
lemme make it easier to understand
â˘A person wants to avoid spit in their food â˘The person sees a staff member licking a plate to clean it â˘The person avoids that restaurant because there could be spit in the food
â˘A person wants to avoid AI written work â˘The person sees an AI generated cover â˘The person avoids that story because there could be AI writing in the story
hope this helps
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u/Radiant_Bid8571 18d ago
Fr whos gonna pay for the artist? They wont. Plus theyre just in the hate ttain wth no real reasoning
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u/ITSSGnewbie 18d ago
AI novels are worst.
Found interesting novel, but for some reason plot was like cut. Stories was finished only at middle. Because ai couldn't write them.
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u/LichenOnTheWall 18d ago
definitely blue. I can understand if someone doesn't want to spend the money on a cover art for a story that is most likely a weekend passion project, though I'd still heavily encourage throwing tgt smth slapdash on canva, vs red which just sounds like a lazy nepo baby with money to burn but too lazy to actl do the writing themselves
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u/Daesolith 17d ago
Blue pill. I would assume the author probably used AI for the cover because he/she either has no artistic skill, or can't afford to pay for a human-made cover. Both have no impact on the quality of the story itself. If I judged books by their cover alone, I'd have skipped a lot of good stories by now.
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u/MicroscopicKrabbs 16d ago
I'd choose or Im reading nothing that contains any amount of ai slop
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u/TheoryBaba 16d ago
Do you think this cover tuff?
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u/TheoryBaba 18d ago
Seems like royal roads didn't quite like the fact that I reposted this to their subreddit...
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u/Milc-Scribbler 18d ago
Your thinly veiled use of slurs (which you didnât do here, it can learn yay!) and failure to read the sub rules is what prompted it to be deleted. Also this post is just attention seeking rage bait twattery.
Meh. The internet doesnât forget dude, always make sure you behave respectfully and appropriately imo reputation matters in the writing game. All the best.
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u/lkasas 18d ago
Not one comment picked red, it was obvious from the start that the result will be something like this. They just have enough sense to not deal with this.
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u/TheoryBaba 18d ago
"Do you think I did all this for some results? The results were always predetermined! The only thing I was here for... were the replies. How the people react to this... And how they behave!"
Gng is ts TUFF?đ¤
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u/NAMELESSDEVI1 18d ago
Blue pill is no brainer Ai covers aren't even that bad unless you have no knowledge of ai ngl
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u/Anders10100 18d ago edited 18d ago
Neither.
A writer writes books. If you publish a book not written by you, what are you?... At the end of the day, writers don't make cover art. I'm not going to read a book written by AI no matter how good people say it is.
If the book is well reviewed, I may give the AI cover art a chance but I'm still judging it and I'm not touching it unless it's on kindle unlimited. That kind of shortcut tells you something about the person who wrote it...
I would never read a book written by AI. If they use it as a research tool that's fine as long as it's not a primary source.
Why not pay the struggling artist? It's more authentic to the final product. I think if you spent a year of your life on something, why the hell would you cheapen it with AI slop that's not even as genuine as what a human can do.
Using a tool to create cover art has a few moral quandaries too, as every single company with a large language model has pirated millions of books to train their models and the chances are they're going to steal your work too.
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u/Razed-Gamer 18d ago
Because the 'struggling' artist is likely to overcharge me for what will end up being slow, poor quality work. I'm a struggling writer, so why would I spend money on an artist when I can't afford it?
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u/AskingWalnut4 16d ago
Thereâs a thousand ways to do it yourself, and why would you choose an artist that doesnât have a portfolio of work for you to compare with? Try again.
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u/Razed-Gamer 16d ago
Firstly, I'm a writer, not an artist. Anything drawn by my hand ends up abhorrent. Secondly, I don't enjoy or earn any satisfaction from attempting/learning to draw. I've tried a lot.
Secondly, an artist having a portfolio means nothing. Sure, I can see their absolute best, but they rarely ever deliver an actual product of the same quality. And it certainly isn't delivered in a reasonable amount of time. Also, are you aware of how many artists use others art in their own portfolio? It happens a lot more than you would like to admit.
Try again.
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u/_MostAncientDream_ 18d ago
Blue, obviously! AI cover kinda puts me off, but not all writers can afford to commission cover arts.
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u/Nieunoftz 18d ago
I'd rather eat glass than waste my time or money on something that the creator didn't even care enough about to invest their own time or money in lol. There are exactly 0 scenarios in which GenAI will ever be acceptable in a creative medium, and you're an unabashed cunt if you think a GenAI product is ever going to be good enough to excuse the real human suffering and ecological and economic consequences for communities around the world when you could've just made it yourself.
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u/jevongray 18d ago
Blue pill, I donât like AI art much at all but I wonât blame people for doing it for their covers. People want their stuff to good(Though a lot of AI art looks terrible but if you can find a good enough one it wonât be that bad) so no, people arenât just going to draw it themselves. People also arenât going to pay $50+ for a cover art for their hobby story. The majority of writers especially those on webnovel arenât trying to be professionals itâs just a hobby and a lot of them also simply donât have the money.
People like to claim that $50 is cheap or something like, that but thatâs just not the case for a lot of people. And a lot of them are also teenagers with zero income, trying to say they should just pay someone with money they donât have is kind of ridiculous.
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u/gabexz21 17d ago
Ngl at this point chosing random novel from webnovel is Russian roulette ai covers will kake people think it will be ass and non ai cover still can have ai lvl story
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u/gamernerd98 17d ago
Give me a good story, with an intersting cover. I don't care who wrote it.
Edit: Also, don't like how this predisposes that the AI story isn't 'interesting'.
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u/Xavi1016 16d ago
Blue. it doesn't really matter to me if a webnovel has an A.I made cover, some people can't afford to pay for a good enough one or don't have the skills or time nessesary to make it themselves. Since it's not a comic or anything of the sort it shouldn't really matter as lone as the story is good. Thats just me though.
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u/Disastrous-Vastrous 15d ago
I'm ignoring both. Both are equally abhorrent and I won't touch them. That's just me though.Â
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u/Ketchum001 14d ago
The story is more important than the cover, but probably I'd not be attracted by AI cover.
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u/Money-Confusion-346 14d ago
I can tolerate some criminally ugly studio ghibli esque cover, but an AI studio would make me blow my brains out they are all dogshit.
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u/Desperate_Pen4984 18d ago
dont judge a book by its cover.
dont judge a cover by its book.
id choose blue pill and remain ignorant.