A BEAUTIFUL MAGIC THAT WILL NEVER BE SEEN
Greetings and Blessings, and welcome to Nuzo’s Nightmare Zone. My second instalment in this ongoing series about the journey of my upcoming book, WHERE THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER, is one I think might resonate with many writers. Even as I write this blog, I’m still in grieving for the wonderful magic that briefly came into my life, which alas, will now never be seen or enjoyed by anyone— Never! Ever ☹
So, let me relay this sad event that recently blighted a bit of my joyous publishing journey, just in case there might be some of you who are as clueless as me and who might hopefully benefit from this experience. Call it naivety, ignorance or plain stupidity, but to me, the whole AI debacle has always been about me protecting my work as a writer from the marauding and grasping claws of artificial intelligence. I had a tunnel vision about this. It was all about saving my writing, other writers’ writings and the writing community as a whole from this new evil that would debase our creativity with something puerile, sterile and soulless.
Our creativity! These were the two words I failed to pay enough attention to when I commissioned a promotional video for my upcoming book, “Where the Dead Brides Gather”. We all know that as writers we have to do everything in our power to support our publishers’ marketing with our own promotion efforts, no matter how small. So, not being active on social media save on Twitter (I have a Bluesky and Instagram account I don’t use), I decided to do what I do best, using some of the tactics I used in my self-publishing days—mainly, hiring professionals to help me bring my story to a wider audience.
With this in mind, I proceeded to commission a promotional video of WHERE THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER. I planned to use this tool to razzle-dazzle readers into buying the book and helping me hit my first target of 50,000 sales in its first month of release—Remember that deal I made with my ancestors to give me 50,000 sales at the minimum, that #NUZO50000 goal? 😊 So, this book video was going to be the first of the various strategies I planned to hit my readers with to achieve my humble target.
But in the process, I discovered something about myself and about that great deceiver we call AI. I came across the Biblical “snake of Eden”, that lying Satan who asked Jesus to worship him in exchange for world dominion, and the lying Kaa in the Jungle Book film who asked Mowgli to trust in him. Yes; I discovered to my eternal shame that AI can have the enticing, deceiving and manipulative nature of all these fiends I mentioned and if one is not careful, they can fall victim to the malignant corruption of this all-devouring evil. I now believe that the root of all evil is greed.
So, on a lovely spring evening a couple of weeks ago, my video producer finally dropped the long-anticipated video in my mailbox. It had taken us quite a while to come up with a great concept with numerous magic-brain conversations between us, as well as sharing of several cross sections of the book. I was insistent that the producer used solely my written text to avoid any chances of AI encroaching on our work. After all, I wrote the book on my special writing laptop of 15 years which has survived everything thrown at it to date. While other newer and snazzy laptops have since made their home on my writing desk, my old faithful Toshiba remains my best friend to date. I believe it is as possessed as my stories and I live in fear that the characters and their spirits will abandon me if it ever damages beyond repair or I stupidly use another sterile, sleek and fancy laptop to tell their stories. Long live my Toshiba laptop😊
So, here I was on this wonderful evening, quivering with excitement as I prepared to finally watch the outcome of our collaborative work on this promotional book video. I clicked on the link and the video started to play. OMG! The first video clip totally blew my mind! The creepy gathering of a horde of ethereal ghost brides gliding closer and closer till I felt they would pop out of the screen had me gasping in awe. Soon, more terrifying visions followed as a voice narrated snapshots of text, gradually creating a scene of such chilling terror that I felt I had miraculously morphed into Steven Spielberg and Jordan Peele overnight. Wow! Wow! Wow! I was in Zanadu as I replayed the video over and over until I memorised every tiny amazing detail. I couldn’t wait to share it with my publisher and get their consent to start promotion. With a click of my button, I sent the attachment email and then waited for their thrill and approval—Surely, nobody can resist this incredible video, this unbelievable magic!
I was right. Just like my family and friends who saw the video first, my editor thought it was awesome; the publicity guys also thought it was brilliant. I was floating in bliss until the next message hit my mailbox— Nuzo, could you get your video producer to confirm that this video has no AI- generated footage?
HUH???
I stared at my screen, totally stumped—What do they mean by AI-generated footage? Surely, they can easily see that all the TEXTS are from my book? Are they referring to the video images? But those are not written works. They’re just license-free images and videos to use in creating the video. How do they expect me to create something this magical only to toss it away because of images I’m not even sure has any business with AI?
I quickly contacted my designer who confirmed that indeed, they used AI images to create the video. FUUUCK!!! SHIIIT! I was on lalochezia overdrive! My designer was confused. They didn’t see any problem with their work since no AI texts were used. After all, it’s only for a promotional book video which doesn’t affect any writer. Listening to them, the snake of Eden snuck into my head with its alluring demon’s voice—Nuzo, the designer is absolutely right! Just see how incredible this video is! Imagine never sharing this magic with the world! Simply criminal! What do they mean by AI when it doesn’t impact on any written work as your designer rightly said? This is bull, PC gone crazy! I’m sure nobody will agree with the publicity nitpickers. Just think of all the awesome impact this incredible video will have on your book sales! You just can’t let this video die! By now, I was hearing the video’s voice inside my head wailing, “Don’t let me die, Nuzo! Please don’t let me die!” It tore my heart to shreds.
If you’ve never heard the devil’s voice, then trust me, you don’t want to hear it. It’s the most powerful, magnetic and irresistible voice ever, god’s voice smeared with titillating corruption. But I am blessed. As I always say, I have a horde of powerful ancestors matching before me. So, what will I fear? Who can stand in my path? With a mighty voice, I shrieked, “Get thee behind me, Satan” and instantly banished that evil deceiver to its ancestors’ hell!
Sudden clarity hit me—We are all creators! Writers, artists, musicians, sculptors, video content makers and all other creatives that use their universe-given talents to enrich the world with their IP. AI, with its tempting generated images and videos, is stealing and damaging other creatives’ works, just as it steals those of writers. My tunnel vision only allowed me to see its evil merely as far as it concerned my writing and those of fellow writers. How selfish! How ignorant! How blind! How stupid!
I’ve cursed myself enough since then, even as I’ve mourned that stupendous video that will never now be seen by anyone. As the born-agains would say, my eyes have opened and I have finally seen the light. I have overcome the devil AI and its powerful temptation. A new video is now in the works. It will not be as mesmerising and dazzling as the one that was; nothing can rival that video. But then, as the Christians would say, that’s the beauty and evil of Satan, that road paved of gold that leads to eternal damnation. My Sunday school teacher used to tell us in the days I was a Christian child that we should never attempt to challenge the devil and fight him the way Jesus did. Guy’s way too powerful for our puny strength. Instead, we should turn and run as fast as we can without looking back, just like Lot’s wife was told to do.
Now, I see the truth in his words. I can’t afford to keep seeing the striking beauty of this doomed video without going insane with desire and regret. So now, it has been deleted from my laptop. I know the designer still has a copy but for now, I shall resist requesting one. All that matters is that I don’t have it where I can watch it with tears of anguish. We’re done with each other, the video, the devil, AI and I. Now to focus on a new and hopefully, great AI-free promotion video which I should soon be sharing with you all come the time. Moral of this litle story: BEWARE OF THE CORRUPTIVE MIGHT OF AI!!!
Otherwise, thanks again for sharing my journey with me and hope you learned a thing or two here about the vile plague known as AI when it comes to book video creation. As always, video or no video, I am again claiming that famous sales figure and date—50,000 sold copies of WHERE THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER by 19th November, 2024! I am publicly holding my ancestors and the universe to account. I will keep reminding them and you all about it every fortnight, so that you all support this goal in your own little ways. Like a beggar who has nothing to lose and everything to gain, I’m holding my Oliver Twist bowl and saying, “Please, may I have some more?” Please feed me some soul-food by getting your copy of WHERE THE DEAD BRIDES GATHER in any format.
Again, I’ll be in your eternal debt if you would share this post and my goal with your followers using hashtag #NUZO50000. Please spread the word to your friends and colleagues and even family. Join me in this campaign to hold my ancestors and our universe accountable and maybe if I succeed, it just might encourage you to start holding your own ancestors and our universe equally accountable in your lives. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Finally, Remember, do share you’re your thoughts and introduce your friends to Nuzo’s Nightmare Zone. https://nuzo.substack.com/p/coming-soon
Below are the pre-order links:
1. AFRICA: (Nigeria & South Africa – purchase links soon to follow)
· Jonathan Ball Publishers, South Africa
· Rovingheights Books, Nigeria.
2. ASIA:
· Bookazine (Hong Kong)
· Kino (Thailand/Singapore)
· Sketch (Philippines)
· Periplus (Indonesia)
3. AMAZON UK
4. AMAZON USA
5. PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, CANADA
7. WATERSTONES