How AI Is Shattering the Writing World: The Hidden Battle No One Saw Coming
Ever wonder how turning your passion into profit can sometimes feel less like a dream and more like a relentless grind? Monetization promised us freedom—get paid for what you love—but lately, it seems like that same promise is morphing into digital sweatshops, where creativity battles against the cold gears of capitalism. And just when you think it couldn’t get worse, AI steps in—either as a helping hand or a sneaky sidekick making the hustle even more cutthroat. As someone who’s navigated the twists and turns of writing and monetization for years, I find myself wrestling with this paradox every day: how do we keep the internet open and accessible and ensure writers earn their rightful pay? Spoiler alert—it’s a puzzle with no easy fix. But hey, that’s what makes this conversation so darn necessary. Ready to dive into the messy, intriguing world where passion meets profit and AI shakes things up? Let’s unpack this. LEARN MORE
This Just In: Monetization turns passions into sweatshops and AI is making it worse.
If you’ve been following me for a bit, you probably know about the longstanding dichotomy that I live with. It’s so much a part of my ethos that I’ve added it to the “What Influences My Writing” section of my website. The dichotomy is this:
I believe the internet and information should be free and accessible to all, and writers should be paid for their work and time. It seems impossible to have both simultaneously without making the web worse, yet I believe that the future of the web depends on figuring it out.
The problem is that these two things do not work well together. If something is accessible, the creator is generally not getting paid (at least not well). However, if the writer is getting paid well, then their work is typically not accessible to everyone, only those who can afford it. This creates a bigger problem, where the internet’s quality of information depends on your ability to pay.
Today, I want to explore the monetization side of the equation.
More than ever in the history of the world, people can get paid for writing. Job markets aside, hobbyists can make money on Medium or with self-published books on Amazon. While you likely won’t become the next Stephen King (trust me, I know), you can make some money, which is still a fantastic thing!
The problem is that whenever a new distribution channel opens to enable writers to earn money, someone will exploit that system and ruin it for everyone else. Of course, this is how capitalism works in a nutshell. But for today’s argument, we’re just looking at writing online.
If your Medium algorithm looks anything like mine, then it’s filled with people bragging about how much money they make as a writer on Medium. “Just publish four times a day,” they say, or, “I made $1,000 without publishing anything!” Granted, I manage the largest writing-focused publication on the platform, so I might see these articles more than you do. That said, after a decade on Medium, I know a thing or two about monetizing your writing there, and I am very skeptical of every one of these articles. It’s why I banned…
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