Someone asked me (and others) if they should use AI for a book cover. As you know, I’m an active AI artist, hardly the hand-art fire eater who scorches it the way Michelangelo scorned oil paints. I still immediately said “No”. Or rather, “in short, no. But rather if you want them to be good it’s going to take a lot more effort than you think.”

If you just do basic prompting, the “pull to the middle” effect of AI means the result is going to look like stereotypical AI Slop. Because it is. Or if you want a more generous interpretation, it’ll look like you used a pre-arranged template. Because a default AI generation is essentially that. In other words, rather than using its power to move past cheap stock covers, AI frequently continues the trend.

Now sometimes you need cheap quick disposable filler, and I’m not arguing against it there. Nor am I suggesting any one right way to do it. But AI or not, if you want to stand out, you still have to work for it.