Delilah Waan

My rough drafts are 100% human written. At this stage in the writing process, I am focused on nailing characters and their emotional arcs rather than descriptive details. Much of my writing at this stage will have ‘XXX’ placeholders.

I do not use AI to generate concepts/ideas for characters, plots, world building, or any other elements in the narrative structure (at the story, chapter, or scene level) or the prose (i.e. at the paragraph and sentence level).

My alpha readers are other human authors in my writing group who provide me with structural feedback on my alpha drafts.

(Structural feedback consists of high level feedback on whether the overall story is working in terms of the characters and their arcs, plot lines, and the alignment of story promises and the progress towards the payoff on those promises.)

I do not use AI to identify, assess, or determine the necessary structural/developmental revisions to my books.

My settings are 100% human created and developed.

I do not use AI to perform research on world building elements or to fill out any ‘XXX’ placeholders.

My beta readers are other humans who provide me with overall reader reactions to my beta drafts.

(Reader reactions consist of high level emotional reactions to the beta drafts at the line, chapter, act, and overall book level.)

I do not use AI to identify, assess, or determine the necessary further structural/developmental revisions to my books.

Line editing consists of revisions at the paragraph and sentence level for paragraph and sentence structure, word choice (including repetitious word choice), flow, etc.

I do not use AI for line editing.

While I primarily refer to the Chicago Manual of Style and dictionaries for grammar and spell check, I do make use of Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Hemingway App as a secondary check to flag potential grammar and spelling errors I may have missed.

I manually investigate all flagged issues from these tools to determine whether or not they are correctly flagged before deciding whether or not I will accept any suggestions from these tools.

Proofreading consists of identifying errors in formatting (e.g. margins, line breaks, section breaks) and prose (e.g. missing/doubled/transposed letters/words/punctuation marks).

I read the final, typeset manuscript backwards to identify any proofing errors. I do not use AI tools for proofreading.

I aim for zero proofreading errors; however, as with any highly manual process, there is a chance that some errors may slip through. If you have identified something that you believe is an error, you can report it for investigation via my website.

Retail covers and dust jackets

My cover designer is the team at Damonza. You can find their terms and conditions here, their discussion on the legal and ethical use of AI in book cover design here and their generative AI image policy statement on their website here. (The policy was initially released on 10 June 2023.) The book covers for Petition and Supplicant consists of stock images licensed from Shutterstock and Daz3D render 3D models for the character and the ship. The Petition cover was created in January 2022, with the ebook design finalized in April 2022, the paperback in May 2022, and the hardcover case laminate cover and dust jacket in June 2022, all prior to the widespread public release of generative AI tools and therefore free of AI to the best of my knowledge. The book cover for Supplicant was originally available as a premade cover and subsequently modified to include the same 3D character model used on the Petition cover in December 2022, with overpainting by human artist, Erin Kelso. Damonza has confirmed that no AI images were used in the creation of these book covers.

Going forward, I will be requesting that no generative AI images are used in the creation and design of my retail book covers. (Damonza provides a specific opt-out checkbox in their new order forms.)

Petition and Supplicant special edition dust jackets and hardcover case art

The exclusive dust jacket art is digitally painted by Rosemary Fung and the under-the-jacket foil-stamped case art (also featured on the retail hardcover case) is drawn by K.E. Rosero.

I do not use generative AI to produce character, concept, or interior artwork.

The map illustrations of the Ngutoccai continent and the city of Ennuost Yrg in Petition are digitally hand-drawn by me in Procreate. The map illustration in Supplicant is digitally painted by Charis Loke.

My blurbs are 100% human written by me.

All marketing copywriting on my author website and my social media is 100% human written by me.

I manually research and identify keywords for my books using Publisher Rocket and Amazon’s auto-suggested searches.

I do not currently use paid advertising for my books.

I use Canva, Photopea, and GIMP to create promotional graphics for my website, social media, and author newsletter.

Damonza grants me a license for the use of the cover art for marketing materials. Refer above for the use of AI in my book covers.

Both Canva and Photopea have integrated generative AI into its service; I do not use these functions to create promotional graphics. I generally use my own cover art and photography and/or screenshots as much as possible, though I do also make use of stock images, text elements, and/or filters in Canva.

While I do my best to avoid the use of generative AI images in my promotional graphics, I cannot guarantee that my promotional graphics are free of AI for the following reasons:

Canva sources its stock imagery from Pexels and Pixabay. Pexels allows anyone to contribute to their repositories and does not appear to require labeling. Pixabay allows the uploading of content created with generative AI technologies with labeling, however the onus is on the uploader to ensure the labeling is accurate and complete. While I check the source of any graphics I use in Canva (and I generally endeavor to use images with an upload date prior to 2022), I may inadvertently use something that has been created using generative AI due to inaccurate labeling by the original uploader.

I may also, from time to time, participate in promotions organized by other authors and members of the self-published fantasy community which will require the use of promotional graphics that may be partially or wholly created using generative AI without my knowledge or the knowledge of the organizer.

I do not engage in “newsletter swaps” with other authors; the books mentioned and discussed in the “What I’ve Been Reading” section in my newsletters consists wholly of books I choose from my TBR and that I have actually read, with opinions being entirely my own.

From time to time, I receive cross-promotion requests from other authors for their books and/or Kickstarter campaigns and/or other initiatives. As a general rule, I decline these requests unless I believe said books/Kickstarter campaigns/other initiatives will be of genuine interest to my readers. I do my best to vet any qualifying requests for use of generative AI. My vetting process consists of looking at the author’s website, Kickstarter page (where applicable), social media, and copyright pages in published books for an unambiguous statement on the use of AI in their publishing business and clear crediting of art to human artists. (If unclear from these sources, I will directly ask the author regarding their knowledge of and stance on the use of generative AI.) Occasionally, if I suspect use of generative AI, I may go further to also look at the artist’s portfolio, website, and social media for evidence of a consistent art style developed over time, or use a reverse image search, to determine whether the art has likely come from a source that uses generative AI.

For the reasons set out in this statement, I will not knowingly promote any book, Kickstarter campaign, or initiative that makes use of generative AI.