I’d never heard of Mia Ballard until yesterday when a New York Times headline caught my eye. Apparently, she self-published a feminist horror novel in February 2025 titled Shy Girl about, well, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Hachette, one of the Big 5 publishers, snatched it up for traditional publication. But according to the Times, it canceled its imminent US release amid accusations that it was written with the help of generative artificial intelligence.

I’ve not read the book. Nor will I. I recommend you watch the YouTube video above for a thorough breakdown by Frankie’s Shelf, who I would never want to review one of my books, not because I used AI to create them (I didn’t), but DAMN is he vicious! I recommend Ballard not watch this video.

“This controversy has changed my life in many ways and my mental health is at an all time low and my name is ruined for something I didn’t even personally do,” Ballard told the Times. She took no responsibility, blaming an unnamed person she had hired to edit her manuscript.

I don’t believe her. If you’ve ever hired an editor to review a manuscript you’ve labored over for months, you will re-read the manuscript once it’s returned to you. You don’t simply take the editor’s word for it. If you love your manuscript, you essentially know it inside and out. You’ve read and revised it countless times. You would spot any changes almost immediately. So, sorry, Mia. Your explanation doesn’t wash.

Hachette bears a lot of the blame for the kerfuffle getting this far. I have no idea if Ballard has an agent, but he or she has some ‘splainin’ to do, too. We assume that agents and Big 5 editors are these godlike gatekeepers who wouldn’t dare let substandard writing and incoherent stories hit bookstore shelves. They’re human, like everyone else, and make mistakes. Still, this disheartens those of us in the query trenches and with works out on submission who get passed over, knowing that Shy Girl passed for quality and numerous worthy, original, well-written works didn’t. Hey, that’s publishing for you.

My questions:

If Ballard is agented, did the agent read the entire book (the way an agent is supposed to)? I’d love to know what the agent enjoyed about the writing.

Did Hachette perform any due diligence? If a publishing house is going to extend a contract to a writer and offer an advance, which I’m assuming happened here, at least one editor must have read the manuscript. A copy editor, too. So, this manuscript, which has been picked apart online for months for subpar, repetitive, and at times nonsensical writing, met agent/editor approval at the highest levels and was already published in the United Kingdom, with the US date in April scuttled. Makes you wonder what the professional class didn’t see that the rest of the hoi polloi did.

Will accusations of AI use impugn innocent writers? Most likely. My understanding is that AI-detection software exists, but sometimes flags non-AI writing as suspect. Also, how is an author supposed to prove he or she didn’t use AI to escape the Scarlet Letters? (See what I did there?)

What is considered fair AI use? Spell-check existed long before what we consider AI today. That’s absolutely AI. What about grammar checks? AI again. Is that forbidden? If so, every writer on the planet might as well use a typewriter and have physical dictionaries nearby. And who makes the rules? Publishing houses probably need to specify what cannot be done. If the grammar checker slightly rewrites a sentence for clarity, and not substance, is this cause to pass on a manuscript?

We’re entering a murky period for publishing. (And other artforms, of course.) Most agents ask writers who query them whether AI was used to create the submitted work, and every writer worth his/her salt will mark No. But not everyone’s honest.

I assume someone writes a book to express creativity and knowledge, both in fiction and nonfiction. Relying on a program that generates what you want it to, and passing it off as your own, no more makes you a writer than heating up a Digiorno pizza makes you a chef. It’s easy to spot a Digiorno pizza by taste. As AI technology advances, it will become more difficult to spot its use and prove it.

Maybe publishers can include in their contracts that AI use (as they define it) is verboten, and that discovery of its use after publication would give the publisher specified legal options to pursue against the writer.

Whatever the case, Mia Ballard’s career likely ended as a trad-pubbed writer. Going fully independent appears to be her only route for the foreseeable future. If she’s truly creative and works on her craft, there’s nothing saying she can’t put out a quality product. And I hope she does.

But her claim that she didn’t know AI was used to perfect Shy Girl doesn’t pass any logical test, as every true writer will confirm.