No Ache, No Story: AI and Today's Publishers Are Producing the Same Cowardly Fiction

<![CDATA[In February 2026, the New York Times profiled "Coral Hart," the pseudonym of a former Harlequin author (so used to writing to a formula) who used Google’s AI Claude to write and publish more than 200 romance novels in a single year under 21 pen names, earning six figures and selling roughly 50,000 copies. The books were polished, formulaic, and profitable. They were also, by Hart's own admission and reader feedback, emotionally flat: no slow-burn tension, no ache of longing, no soul. Claude could mimic structure and prose, but it could not feel or express the feeling of betrayal.]]>