Way back in the 20th century, authors would mail out book copies to newspaper columnist journalists or magazine journalists in hope of getting a favorable review. And they would complain about the cost of postage and how long they had to wait to see if they got reviewed or not.

Even though we had functional email from the early 90's it was not really fully implemented as a marketing vehicle or solid alternative to snail-mail until the 2000's. Even then, it was the advent of social media platforms that really cemented digital communications.

Getting reviewed has become a real dilemma for writers of every stripe. Discovery (on the internet) is haphazard at best and the numbers of viewers is just too damn low for any traction. Enter the new breed of "pay-me-first-and-I'll write-whatever-you-want" entrepreneurs.

Today, someone emailed me an AI-generated review for one of my books, after the "entrepreneur" received a free digital copy from me. They literally fed my book into AI, which spat out a review. If they have it setup properly they don't even have to be there, or even touch a keyboard - its all 100% automated. My work, hours and hours of labor back by years of experience, has just been hijacked by an algorithm in the hopes that real people will actually read and buy my books. 

Do I succumb to commercial reality or hold out for the sake of artistic integrity?
Is paying $50 for a review worth the $15 of sales the review generates?

I will not be the last writer to ask these questions.