South African author publishes 371 books in about 20 months using AI, claims annual income over one million US dollars

South African Woman Writer Publishes 371 Books in About 20 Months Using AI, Sparking Controversy; Claims Annual Income Exceeding One Million US Dollars

2026-10-27 17:31 IT Home - Wen Zhou

IT Home, October 27 news: South African woman writer Coral Hart (pen name Coral Hart) has published 371 books in about 20 months with the help of AI, with cumulative sales exceeding one million copies. By her own estimate, her income since 2026 alone has already exceeded one million US dollars (IT Home note: at current exchange rates, approximately 6.684 million yuan).

According to an Agence France-Presse report on October 23, Hart, now in her 40s, has 14 years of experience in the publishing industry. Before she began experimenting with AI creation in February 2025, she had already independently written dozens of works. After that, she spent about three months familiarizing herself with different AI models and established a writing workflow. Among the 371 works she has published, most are novels created based on market research and aimed at specific reader groups, with romance and love stories accounting for a considerable proportion. She also revealed that one of her novels once entered the top 100 of Amazon's bestseller list.

Hart said she does not simply input a single instruction into AI and directly publish the generated content as a finished product. She first determines the story concept, character settings, narrative style and chapter outline, and then generates a first draft through a customized AI workflow. After the first draft is completed, she also uses AI to carry out multiple rounds of plot and structure adjustments, checking issues such as story logic, character development and plot continuity, and finally hands it over to human proofreaders to check and revise any remaining traces of AI writing.

Hart said different AI models each have their own characteristics, and tools need to be selected according to specific tasks. She believes that if one simply asks a model to write a book directly, it is often difficult to obtain a qualified work. Only by first establishing a complete story framework and then gradually improving it through prompts and multiple rounds of editing can creative efficiency be improved and the quality of the finished manuscript be controlled.

However, Hart's creative approach has been criticized by some traditional writers and readers. Some critics call such content "AI slop," arguing that large-scale production of AI-assisted works may lower the content quality standards of the publishing industry and intensify market competition.

Hart responded that whether a work is welcomed by readers should be judged by actual sales performance. She said that readers are willing to buy and continue reading the relevant works, which shows that these contents meet part of market demand.

Facing outside questions, Hart said she has 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 face up to the changes brought by AI technology. She believes that AI is a tool for improving creative efficiency, and the relevant technology will not disappear because some writers oppose it.

It is worth mentioning that Hart has recently also launched a training business, teaching relevant techniques to hundreds of authors, and is preparing to launch software for AI writers called Authorythm. The related business covers areas such as the writing process, content editing and publishing operations.