AI Writing Controversy: Nigerian Author Jerry Falade Loses $2m

Nigerian author Jerry Falade has lost a reported $2 million publishing deal for his debut crime novel, Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body, after questions emerged over whether artificial intelligence (AI) was used in its writing or editing.

The novel, which reportedly secured an offer worth more than $2 million from Minotaur, an imprint of Macmillan US, was withdrawn from sale by Falade’s literary agents despite attracting widespread interest from publishers. In the United Kingdom, the manuscript had also received several six-figure offers during a competitive acquisition process.

In an email to publishers, Falade’s agents said they could no longer verify how the manuscript evolved from its original concept to its final form.

Jerry Falade produced an incredible manuscript that dazzled the top publishing professionals around the world. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to authenticate how the manuscript fully evolved from origin to completion,” the agents said.

They explained that, while they had previously discussed AI use with the author and accepted his assurance that no AI tools were used in writing or editing the manuscript, they could no longer substantiate that claim.

Falade’s US agent, Marc Gerald of Europa Content, said he was impressed by the manuscript when he first read it in June and initially chose not to use AI-detection software because the author’s explanation appeared “clear and credible.”

However, Gerald said the agency severed ties with Falade following a meeting on July 29 after “aspects of his story changed,” adding that the decision was based on the agency’s need to have “total faith” in its authors.

Despite the setback, Gerald praised the novel, describing it as “genius” regardless of how it was drafted.

Falade has strongly denied using AI and accused the publishing industry of racial bias in its handling of the controversy.

In a statement, he argued that three Black authors had seen major publishing deals disrupted this year over AI suspicions, while white authors who openly acknowledged using AI had not faced similar consequences.

“There seems to be a troubling assumption that when a Black writer produces work that attracts significant attention, the work could not possibly be their own,” he said.

The author also criticised the reliability of AI-detection software, describing it as prone to false positives, and questioned why numerous publishing professionals, including editors and acquisitions teams, had failed to detect any alleged AI-generated content before the manuscript attracted multimillion-dollar offers.

The controversy comes as the global publishing industry continues to grapple with the growing influence of artificial intelligence on creative writing and the challenge of verifying manuscript originality.