The Manuscript Was “Genius.” Then Suspected AI Use Made It Unpublishable
Editorial image generated by the author. What the collapse of a multimillion-dollar publishing deal reveals about authorship, artistic value and the price placed on a recognisable human process. A manuscript does not often lose millions of dollars in value without changing a word. Jerry Falade’s debut crime novel, Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body , reportedly attracted a fourteen-way auction in the United States and an offer exceeding $2 million from Minotaur, an imprint of Macmillan. Several six-figure bids were also reported in Britain. Editors had read the novel, discussed it internally and decided that it was not merely publishable but unusually valuable. Then Falade’s agents withdrew the manuscript. According to the agents’ explanation , an editor had raised concerns about possible artificial-intelligence involvement, and the agency concluded that it could no longer authenticate how the manuscript had developed from its origins to the version being offered to publ...