South African writer Coral Hart has published nearly 400 books utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) since February 2025, actively defending this controversial practice despite facing widespread criticism and threats, according to reports.
Described with terms like “fraud,” “scoundrel,” and “diabolical” on social media, the 40-year-old author has become a symbol of AI’s encroachment into the publishing industry.
“Technology Won’t Disappear Just Because Some Writers Reject It”
Hart has received tens of thousands of hate messages and numerous death threats; few authors dare to openly discuss AI’s role in writing.
“I chose to be the one who steps forward and says: we need to talk about this,” Hart explained, using a pseudonym for her protection. She insists that this technology “will not disappear just because some writers do not want it.”
Before venturing into AI-assisted writing, Hart spent 14 years in the publishing industry and authored numerous books independently. It took her three months to familiarize herself with AI models and create a framework capable of producing a book.
Currently, she adeptly navigates ChatGPT, renowned for dialogue, Claude, acclaimed for prose, and others, including Grok, which she describes as “totally uninhibited” and ideal for erotic scenes.
Hart warns, “If you only ask ChatGPT or Claude to ‘write me a book’, the result will be catastrophic” because it lacks direction.
Initially, she would draft only a paragraph at a time, requiring two or three prompts. Now, she recalls, “I can produce a first draft in one go.”
Thanks to improvements in AI models, Hart asserts that the quality of the writing has significantly enhanced, with better syntax and sentence structure.
Methodology Behind Her Works
The first draft, which she regards as systematically “weak,” undergoes processing through AI to refine style, ensure narrative continuity, and verify factual coherence. A second draft focuses on stylistic fluidity, followed by a human editor who reviews the content and revises specific passages.
Although one of her novels made it to the top 100 bestsellers on Amazon, most of her 371 titles are niche products developed after thorough market analysis.
Nonetheless, Hart has surpassed one million copies sold according to her estimates, across digital, print, and audio formats, achieving over one million dollars in revenue in just 2026.
She now runs a company that has trained hundreds to utilize her developed method and is preparing to launch a program for writers using AI called Autorythm.
Regarding her own books, Hart only discloses the use of AI when required by the sales platform. “Suddenly, I must reveal my creative process, something that no one has asked for in 16 years,” she notes, publishing under more than ten different pseudonyms.
“My Books Sell”
Frequently criticized for contributing to the proliferation of “AI drivel”—poor-quality content generated by AI in various forms—Hart emphasizes a key criterion in the publishing world.
“My books sell. Readers do not read bad books; they return them,” she states, referencing Amazon’s authorized return policy.
Hart has closely followed the debates surrounding Thélyson Orélien, whose novel was withdrawn from the Goncourt prize selection amid allegations of AI usage, a fact confirmed by his publisher on Wednesday.
She recalls the acclaim from literary critics and high sales prior to the controversy. “If the label of AI makes you hate a book, are you rejecting the work itself or AI?” she concluded.
