IT Home On October 27, South African author Coral Hart (pen name: Coral Hart) published 371 books in about 20 months using AI, with a total sales volume of over 1 million copies. According to her own estimates, the income since 2026 has already exceeded $1 million (IT Home note: at current exchange rate, this is approximately 6.684 million RMB).
However, this model of using AI to create and commercialize publications in bulk has also sparked controversy. As a result, she received tens of thousands of abusive messages on social platforms and even faced death threats.
According to a report by AFP on October 23, Hart, who is in her 40s, has 14 years of experience in the publishing industry. Before trying AI writing in February 2025, she had independently created dozens of works. Subsequently, it took her about 3 months to get familiar with various AI models and establish a writing process. Of the 371 works she published, most are novels created based on market research and for specific reader groups, with romance genres accounting for a significant proportion. She also revealed that one of her novels has made it onto the top 100 list of bestsellers on Amazon.
Hart said that she did not simply input an instruction into the AI and then publish the generated content as a finished product. First, she would determine the story concept, character settings, narrative style, and chapter outline, and then use a customized AI workflow to generate an initial draft. After the initial draft was completed, she would use the AI to make multiple rounds of plot and structure adjustments, check the story logic, character development, and plot connections, and finally have it reviewed and modified by human proofreaders to remove any remaining AI writing traces.
Hart said that different AI models have their own characteristics, and tools need to be chosen based on specific tasks. She believes that if a model is simply asked to write a book, it is often difficult to produce a satisfactory work. Only by establishing a complete story framework first, and then refining it through prompt words and multiple rounds of editing, can the creation efficiency be improved and the final quality be controlled.
However, Hart’s writing style has been criticized by some traditional writers and readers. Some critics refer to such content as “AI junk,” believing that large-scale production of AI-assisted works could lower the quality standards in the publishing industry and intensify market competition.
Hart responded by saying that whether a work is popular among readers should be determined by actual sales performance. She said that if readers are willing to buy and continue reading the work, it indicates that these contents meet some market demands.
In the face of external doubts, Hart said she received tens of thousands of hate messages and multiple death threats on social platforms. She still chose to make her creative process public, hoping to push the publishing industry to acknowledge the changes brought about by AI technology. She believes that AI is a tool that improves creative efficiency, and related technologies will not disappear just because some writers oppose them.
It is worth mentioning that Hatt has recently started a training business, teaching relevant skills to hundreds of authors, and is preparing to launch the Authorythm software for AI writers. This business covers various aspects such as writing processes, content editing, and publishing operations.