Somebody Erased My Vote on Vellum

Vellum Automation was optional. One day of outrage later, it’s gone for every author who wanted it.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Perhaps I’m feeling emboldened to write this today because I woke up in the blue state of Texas, but I’m real damn mad today. Spittin’ mad.

A reminder before I get going: although I own Indie Author Magazine, Indie Author Training, and (yes, technically) Wide for the Win, these are my own thoughts and opinions. My team works really hard to keep everything unbiased, including our coverage of AI. Those resources exist to inform, educate, and provide community, and they’ll keep doing exactly that.

Now then.

As most of y’all know, I’ve embraced the opportunity of AI. It runs my business, full stop. The list of things my AI agent doesn’t handle is shorter than the list it does.

I’ve always opened my talks, webinars, and presentations on AI with a call for civility and curiosity. Eyes on your own paper. No biting, hitting, or spitting. Kindergarten rules, you might say. I’ve always said I respect each author’s choices, and that everyone gets to navigate their own business decisions. I was trying to bring some levity so we could have a reasonable discussion. There’s some parable in there about Red and Blue America, but I’ll just carry on with my point.

I’ve been gentle parenting. And now as a pissed-off GenXer, I can say that shit ain’t working. So let me be clear about where I stand:

Not liking AI is a perfectly valid choice, and anyone can choose not to use it. Nobody gets to live in a world where it doesn’t exist, though.

And nobody has the right to bully, harass, or threaten companies into removing OPTIONS that other paying customers want to use.

Other people don’t have to like my choices or how I run my business. I don’t care. What anyone thinks of me is none of my business.

Until someone else is paying my monthly American Express bill, it’s nobody else’s business whether I use QuickBooks instead of an accountant. Or Canva instead of a paid designer. Or a fleet of AI robots to run my business, make my coffee, and start my robot oven for dinner. (Which mine do.)

Authors don’t owe strangers on the internet disclosure or explanations about how they run their businesses. I certainly don’t. I also don’t owe anything to those I consider friends and colleagues.

And I’m tired of sitting back and watching good companies take the slings and arrows. Last year, from the Author Nation stage, I joked, “Stay off Threads, man. It’s crazy over there.” Before I’d even sat back down, I’d been tagged on Threads, and it spiraled from there.

Social media is not real life. It’s toxic and gross. It’s also 100% AI now: the ragebait, the misinformation, the algorithm.

Let me clear: the place where all the bitching and moaning is taking place is AI. And the phone you’re using it on is driven by AI. It’s like claiming to be vegan, carrying a PETA sign, while wearing a fur coat. It’s the hypocrisy for me.

What was done to Vellum this week, and the witch hunts of other authors just trying to make a go of it in this industry, is shameful. What I’ve seen on Threads done to good people makes me want to shut it all down. Thankfully, I know this (very) vocal minority will move on to the next outrage topic.

AI is here to stay. It is.

Which brings me back to Texas. This week, millions of Texans walked into voting booths and made a choice. Most of my Austin neighbors woke up thrilled this morning, and some woke up miserable. Every one of them got the same ballot and the same freedom to fill it out however they saw fit. Nobody got to reach into the next booth and grab someone else’s pen.

Our industry works the same way. Authors vote with their wallets, their workflows, and the tools they choose. If a company’s AI features aren’t for you, skip them, or take your business somewhere else. That’s your vote, and it counts. Harassing a company until it pulls an option the rest of us chose to pay for is grabbing someone else’s pen.

And just like here in my great state of Texas, the grown-up move after the votes are counted is to get back to work. I’m hoping the industry leaders and companies won’t capitulate to those throwing tantrums, and keep pressing on with innovation, and that the rest of us let them.

Write your books. Delight your readers. Run your race. Make your choices.

Stay out of mine.