u/BookGirlBoston

I'm a Self-published author, which I know isn't what this sub is for but I need advice from trad published authors and industry professionals that might have more experience with bookstore events

A bookstore I'm visiting next weekend created an ad for the event using AI and it has my face AI pasted on a body that's not mine. I'm a very anti AI author and very pro bookstore. I don't want of offend the bookstore but I really don't love that my face and my book are in an obvious AI ad. Would it be horrible to ask them to remove it?

It's out of state (but near where my mom lives) so it's also a family visit but I really don't want to be that person to throw a fit but I also don't want me and my book associated with AI.

How would you approach this?

Edit: thanks for all the advice. The ad is gone and I sent some alternative materials, including a Canva post and a link to the post for the bookstore to play with. It's all fine and the event is still on..

I wrote this up as a traditional publishing failure but figured it was maybe a success story here.

In 2024, I wrote and published my first book. The entire time I was writing, editing, and getting this book ready for publication, I knew that I was going to self-publish. I truly expected this to be a little “Throw it up on Amazon and try to forget about it.” Things got a little bit bigger the more I learned about self-publishing but ultimately, this book was about as small as small could be.

March 2025, I self-published my second book, Again, I knew this was going to be self-published but I had gotten much better at self-publishing. I started with a much better cover, even better bookstore marketing, and it was going okay.

I got a ton of requests on NetGalley (which I do very cheaply through a co-op), I booked a few podcasts just by emailing, and I had placement in over 60 bookstores, having sold over 200 copies via Ingramspark to stores by release day, just by emailing and filling out bookstore forms for pretty much every bookstore listed on bookshop.org. But ultimately, the book fizzled quickly. Pages read on KU bottomed out after just a few weeks, I was rejected from events (literally two in the same day)

May 2025 I was tagged in a story by a bookstore, my book, had been featured in the New York Times book review. I had known Olivia Waite from the NYT had requested an ARC, but I made myself forget that had happened. Surely, nothing would come of it. I was a no name, tiny self-pubbed author on their second book.

In Summer of 2025, I wrote my next book, edited, polished, edited. I sold audio rights for my second book and have now an incredible audiobook. I re-emailed my bookstore list and expanded my bookstore distribution by a handful of stores and sold another 150 books via Ingramspark. Pages read skyrocketed. I even got Barnes and Nobel to buy five copies for five different NYC locations. I was on a high, I felt like a real author in a way I never had before. Surely, my life as an author was about to change in a big way. If I was ever going to have success at querying, it was now or never.

Fall of 2025- I started to query by next books. I had spent hours and hours on various parts of the internet work shopping my query letter, learning the process and getting ready to query. At first, things looked up. I got a handful of requests for fulls and partials in the first few weeks and I went heavy on querying. That’s what all the advice says, if things are working then keep going, so I did. And then rejection. A lot of rejection, and then suddenly, pretty much everything had dried up. I had exhausted pretty much every agent plus some I didn’t even fit. My mental health was taking a nose dive, the high from the summer stripped away. I thought that I actually had a chance to push through the slush pile. I didn’t. Most people fail at querying. I had gotten cocky, I didn’t have a chance at traditional publishing.

March 2026- I self-published my third book. As of April 2026, I have sold just about 200 copies to bookstores via ingram, pages on Kindle Unlimited have bottomed out. My second book didn’t sell enough audio copies, so I don’t have a contract for my third book for audio for audio.

But…I have done amazing indie bookstore events. I was able to sign copies of my third book on the main floor of Bookcon. I have a few events I am headed to in the next few years.

Looking back…I realize that traditional publishing is nice, if you can get it, but increasingly it is not attainable. I don’t think it is attainable for me. If I had queried my first book, I would either still be querying (That book or another, I’m not sure) or I would have given up. While I am never a “Just Self Publish Person” I do think self-publishing is right for me. I am fortunate to be able to self-fund based on my day job, I have an advanced degree in business (It’s essentially an MBA) and I have excel skills for days.

I’m not against Trad publishing if a legitimate trad contract were to appear at of thin air, without having to endure querying and submission, I would be interested, but that’s highly unlikely.

So, that’s how I failed at trad publishing and sort of succeeded at self publishing.

[PUBQ]Help: a bookstore created an Instagram of me, with my face and book using AI. I'm a very an anti-AI author.

Help: a bookstore created an Instagram of me, with my face and book using AI. I'm a very an anti-AI author.