I Deep Dreamed Myself

[psychotick]

Hi guys,

Ok, odd thing (and some thoughts). I just took an old photo of myself and gave it the Deep Dream treatment (ie made an AI version). And I have to say that the new me is a vast improvement on the old one! Younger, thinner and apparently a little bit like a cover model! It's not even me, really. Just a barbie type version.

But my question is this. Given that attractive people sell more etc what would be the effect of using this new me image as my author photo? Would it persuade more people to buy my books? Thoughts? And would it be some sort of fraud?

Also just as an aside, you should all try this for yourselves just for fun. On whatever AI you prefer.

 

[Baldanders]

A-a-ah, I think this thing just proposed me to change my gender...

 

[Baldanders]

Oh, okay, if you add "male model" than it's much closer:

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

But just think if that was your author pic - you could attract an entirely different reader group!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Baldanders]

About your question. Yes, I think it's kinda fraud. Cosmetics and photo staging are one thing, but reshaping yourself with an AI seems too much. Imagine you met your reader somewhere, they hold a book, see a photo there and see you in real life. I'm, for example, pretty far from the generated image, I would be confused.

As for a photo, it depends significantly on what you write. If you're neurophysiologist or a psychotherapist, yes, a photo makes sense, as you're talking to the reader from the position of yourself, and the reader will, most likely, remember you pretty well. Your photo will also allow the reader to understand better with whom exactly they're holding the dialog - it's a better connection.

However, if you're writing fiction books, the reader is concentrated on your heroes. Everyone remembers Tom Hardy as Mad Max, but how many people know the director or the writer of the movie? That's the sad truth about creators - most of the readers are not interested in us personally. With this in mind, I'd say it's unlikely author's photo will help much.

I personally use AI only to generate covers (and it seems fair, as AI simply imagines what you wrote - the reader will do the same):

I think if a cover is bright and not too complex, then you'll get attention. Posting things on the internet, I noticed that a complex cover doesn't attract much attention usually, especially, if it's somewhere between other complex covers. Here is an example - with this (indie game) cover I've got 6 times more likes in a Facebook topic:

than with this:

Because in a long list of coverages the user's brain will understand a road welcome-sign much faster than a complex scene. The first idea is quite straight, while the second - well... try to understand what it all supposed to mean. People usually, just don't want to spend time, trying to get it, especially, if they don't have exact preferences and are just searching for something that'll catch them.

So, yeah, I think for covers and images inside the book an AI is good. But for an author's photo, and basically the photo itself seem questionable to me. People don't care about us, authors, much

Also, it should be noted that too exaggerated photos may make people think the author is interested in self-admiration and popularity much more than in storytelling. It can give negative effect in advance, even before opening the book. People, you know, prefer to judge too soon.

 

[Baldanders]

you could attract an entirely different reader group!

Yes, but it's unlikely they are interested in what I write. One of the first rules of trading is not to try to sell to everyone, but to find those, who will buy. Jordan Belfort (the Wolf of Wall Street) describes it pretty good in his books - instead of wasting time for those, who will not buy, you better spend time finding those, who's already interested and sustains request for your product. I'm not much of a trader (and I'm not a professional writer really, just a hobby), but seems fair to me, and should allow gain audience faster.

 

[Rufus Coppertop]

I won't be having photos of myself anywhere on my book covers.
I cannot think of anything more irrelevant to the story than a photo of me.