# Book deal up in the air due to alleged AI use by author

**URL:** <https://tw.forumosa.com/t/book-deal-up-in-the-air-due-to-alleged-ai-use-by-author/258917>\
**Category:** Arts & Entertainment\
**Created:** [August 4, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/book-deal-up-in-the-air-due-to-alleged-ai-use-by-author/258917 "2026-08-04T18:05:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bojack](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/bojack/32/11772_2.png) [@bojack](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/bojack)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/book-deal-up-in-the-air-due-to-alleged-ai-use-by-author/258917/1 "2026-08-04T18:05:31Z")

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Is this cancellation a first?

> Fourteen publishers had bid on the U.S. rights for Falade’s crime novel, “Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body,” and he ultimately signed a two-book deal with Macmillan’s Minotaur Books imprint worth more than $2 million. HarperCollins Publishers landed the U.K. rights.
> 
> Soon after the deals closed, Falade’s agent at Europa Content notified the publishers in a letter that he could no longer support the book after concerns were raised about the author’s possible AI use.
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> In an interview, Falade said he only used AI for research, “and not for writing the book itself.” **He relied on a tool that let him run an open-source AI model on his own device** , to query details like what chemical someone might use to dissolve a human body or to check the more American-ized version of the word “wardrobe,” he said. (Falade completed his undergraduate degree in Nigeria.)
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> The local-device tool doesn’t maintain or share extensive query histories. Falade said he used that approach because the gruesome subject matter of the questions he was asking might raise red flags if they were tracked more widely.
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> Falade said none of the editors he met with during the book-sale process asked about AI usage. He also said he hadn’t consented to having his manuscript run through AI detection software and found it “very suspicious” that much of the coverage of his situation has focused on the growing capabilities of that software. He said he has retained legal counsel.

[https://www.wsj.com/business/media/author-whose-2-million-book-deal-was-derailed-by-ai-concerns-says-hes-innocent-c9f4c91b?mod=hp\_lead\_pos5](https://www.wsj.com/business/media/author-whose-2-million-book-deal-was-derailed-by-ai-concerns-says-hes-innocent-c9f4c91b?mod=hp_lead_pos5)