Showing posts with label false AI attribution reporting self-publishing Blurb Ingram_Spark. Show all posts

Monday, 14 September 2026

Appealing false AI attribution for the self-published novel- ALIEN : Broken Covenants

Authors beware- Original content creators have minimal recourse when self-publishing platforms falsely flag their novels for “using artificial intelligence".

Authors can face serious obstacles when their self-published books become withdrawn from international retail due to false allegations of artificial intelligence (AI) being used in its creation. Simultaneously, there may be reasons that are concealed, since authors do not receive any specifics on what the identified breaches are. Nor is there any transparency in the appeal process. Authors are not alerted upfront that their original content may enjoy no due process or recourse in response to false accusations of AI use. If their ISBN listing is withdrawn, the ISBN may be lost, plus there is no third-party, such as a publishing ombudsman, that one can appeal to for support. By contrast, genuine authors should merit transparent reporting and a fair appeal process as their online publishers’ clients. Such protection seems necessary given that AI’s identification of false positives is not uncommon.

I have shared the case below as it may strongly resonate with other authors’ experiences of false AI bans. It follows my appeal's success against a false flag by AI following the first edition of Create With Cape Town's ALIEN : Broken Covenants becoming automatically withdrawn from online retail. While I eventually found a way to successfully appeal this, the long-wait prompted the creative collaborators to rather submit a second edition:

Broken Covenants' softcopy gets removed from online retail

Create With Cape Town’s fan-fiction novel, ALIEN : Broken Covenants was pulled by Ingram Spark from international distribution via online retailers in June, 2026. Previously listed by Blurb under the ISBN 9798349827167 internationally (via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc) and locally (takealot, etc.), this book’s softcopy is now unavailable. Its delisting followed Ingram Spark identifying AI's use in preparing some the book’s content. As per themessage I received from Blurb Distribution Services: "Your book has not been accepted for global distribution, as it has been identified as containing content generated using artificial intelligence or mass-produced processes. Please note that this goes against section 11.1 (vii) of our Terms & Conditions: https://www.blurb.com/terms. Books containing AI-generated content will no longer be accepted into Ingram distribution. Moreover, future violations may result in your Blurb account closure.” (email- 5 June, 2026)

An in-depth reply to Blurb Distribution Services

I replied to this ticket: "Hello, (Blurb Distribution Services). This book is an original work of fan fiction that was published in June, 2025, and distributed via IngramSpark shortly afterwards. My company Create With Cape Town (CWCT) commissioned the author Robert Walcott to write it in December 2023, with Rupert Dolby supplying visual inspiration via concept illustrations he began work on from 2022.

This book was resubmitted after two missing sentences were spotted by Robert Walcott, but IngramSpark served Blurb with a Catalog Integrity Notice on the 5th of June. This was surprising as none of the book’s prior content had been changed since its original submission.

None of us have used AI in the course of plotting, writing or designing this novel. It is a wholly original production of fan fiction by our team. Robert Walcot writes; ‘The book’s text and each chapter’s plot were created solely by me. AI was not used in any capacity during the creation and development of this book. To me, the creative process is a sacred covenant between myself (storyteller) and the reader. Therefore, I take great pride in the knowledge that my authorial voice cannot be replicated by AI. Thank you for your attention.’ And Rupert Dolby states; ‘As the illustrator and visual designer of Broken Covenants, I can assure you that none of the artwork is AI generated. The illustrations have been developed by myself over a period of years. This work is not AI generated from a few key words to a final image in one step. To prove this I am happy to supply initial rough sketches and then the multiple iterations of each illustration to show development.’

I can also confirm that I have not used AI in plotting this fan fiction work. It is intended to provide an original, speculative narrative for Sir Ridley Scott’s incomplete ALIEN movie prequel. The third film in this trilogy was never made. We are currently working on a follow-up book that will involve original world-building by sharing David 8’s development of a synth civilisation and a completely new one, a First Civilisation of bio-mechanoids.

I hereby supply two images as proof that our original project has been worked on for a few years:

1) CWCT first Contracted Robert (redacted) in December 2023. He worked at lengthy intervals, which should suggest that he has not used AI to speed up his work.

(screenshot redacted)

2) Studio Dolby began working on illustrations for CWCT from November, 2021. These were intended to flesh out CWCT's world-building for a synthetic civilisation in ALIEN, serving as inspiration for Robert. Attached is an example of how Rupert built up an illustration for Chapter 11. He followed the same process for all other chapters.

Studio Dolby manual illustration process

Should more proof be needed, I can meet with BDS online for sharing similarly salient material from my work desk that will confirm our project is entirely the product of human creativity (e.g. creative briefs, written documents, illustrated source). We did not use AI in producing ALIEN : Broken Covenants, and any finding to the contrary is a false positive by IngramSpark distribution.

In terms of “mass-produced processes”, I cannot find what this means in Blurb’s contract, nor via searching its website? Should this relate to fan fiction produced in relation to major franchises, our work does not infringe on the copyright of the franchise owner. The trademark and copyright attorney, Roy Taberer, read the book and confirmed that it falls under fair use as an original work. Furthermore, the book features a legal disclaimer regarding this. CWCT has not received any complaints from the franchise-holder, such as take-down requests.

On the contrary, there is positive feedback from fans, who were disappointed that ALIEN Covenant’s trilogy was never completed.

I trust that the information here is sufficient to argue for our novel’s reinstatement?

Thanks for any assistance in resolving this unfair decision."

Advised to resubmit our book

In response to this lengthy submission, Blurb requested that our novel should be revised to remove any AI content, then resubmitted for review by IngramSpark. Blurb did not supply any specifics for why the novel received this notice and was withdrawn. Consequently, a CATCH 22 situation emerged. Robert, Rupert and I knew that its content was not generated by AI. So, resubmitting the same book to Blurb unchanged would almost certainly lead to Ingenta's false flagging of AI content simply reoccurring! Alternatively, we three could attempt to guess the least original illustrations and text, then modify them. However, if these guesses proved unsuccessful, this would be a wasted effort, as we would be no wiser with Blurb and IngramSpark’s opaque processes.

After tactfully flagging this, I asked Blurb Distribution Services for a contact at IngramSpark to query this false flag and/or make an appeal, but no contact was provided. While I offered to address any clearly identified, legitimate concerns, no genuine ones were.

Registering on IngramSpark and submitting an appeal

IngramSpark is the service Blurb uses to allocate ISBN numbers via Bowker, which enables books to be globally distributed. Blurb owns the ISBN 9798349827167 for ALIEN : Broken Covenants, and was the first point of appeal.

I then created a free IngramSpark account to lodge a second appeal. The following (limited to 700 characters) was submitted on 26th of June: "This book is the result of over three years work by my Create With Cape Town (CWCT) business, the author Robert Walcott and illustrator Rupert Dolby. None of us have used AI in the course of plotting, writing or designing this novel. It is the first to provide an original, speculative narrative for Sir Ridley Scott’s incomplete ALIEN movie prequel. The third film in his trilogy was never made. Blurb Distribution Services published our work of fan fiction in June, 2025. Blurb could not supply us with details on why our was withdrawn by IngramSpark. Do let us know why, so that we might fix this?"

Eventually, the Ingram Content Group responded to this appeal on the 22nd of July by just stating: "Thank you for reaching out requesting an appeal. It appears your title is already enabled and active through our global distribution network!" While this seemed a positive development, Blurb only listed a PDF for sale on its site. Our novel must presumably still be resubmitted via Blurb to become available via Ingram Spark's online retailers.

Alien : Broken Covenants Second Edition

Our original novel was first published in May, 2025. Our experience with the false AI flag suggested that we should add an AI disclaimer to it. With our trademark attorney shifting to an international firm and other text corrections, we decided to update our novel to a second edition. It's was published to https://www.blurb.com/b/12997217-alien-broken-covenants with a revised cover, and I hope it will be made available to purchase as a softcopy soon with its new ISBN.

On the upside, our first edition's softcopy is now a collector's item for its select purchasers!

Concerning false-positives

False positives by detectors for AI content are a well-documented problem. It seems unethical to falsely accuse authors of using AI without providing them with sufficient details to support their right-to-reply. As our example demonstrates, there is minimal transparency during Blurb or Ingram Spark's appeal process.

Instead, the AI content flagging process seems to assume guilt with no direction on what aspect of our work featured AI creation. Their opaque appeals process can take weeks to resolve, meanwhile their clients lose book sales and are embarrassed by their book's links redirecting to a different Blurb title.

In addition to false positives, an inscrutable ‘black box’ AI system may readily be subject to abuse.

A lack of transparency leads to speculation as to the motives of Blurb and IngramSpark. For example, its 'AI check' could be clandestinely fulfiling powerful franchise-holders interests. Such as Disney and 20th Century Studios seeking to prevent fair use via original Alien™️ fan fiction productions. It is a pity that self-published authors do not have access to an ‘explainable AI’ (XAI) to directly interrogate the AI check's decision and thereby potentially allay such misfounded fears!

Archive of Our Own (AO3) flags a commercial infringement

As a contra-example showing how to do it properly, AO3 sent me a 'Warning: Commercial Promotion Violation' email on the 2nd of September. An anonymous party had reported Alien : Broken Covenants for being in breach. Perhaps not-so-surprisingly close to media reports covering Sir Ridley Scott plans for complete his Alien prequel by returning David 8 in a moote sequel to Alien : Romulus!

AO3's email was crystal clear about the areas of infringement and how they should be fixed, before our book might be reinstated:

"The AO3 Policy & Abuse committee has received a complaint that one of your works contains references to commercial activities:

"ALIEN Broken Covenants", located at https://archiveofourown.org/works/64030441

This is a violation of Section II.C of our Terms of Service, which states: "Promotion, solicitation, and advertisement of commercial products or activities are not allowed." This includes any mention of commercial sites (e.g. Amazon), paid memberships or donations (e.g. Patreon or Ko-fi), sales, paid commissions, or any other language which one might interpret as requesting or having requested financial contributions, whether for yourself or others. For more examples of commercial activities, please refer to our Terms of Service FAQ: https://archiveofourown.org/tos_faq#commercial_examples

We have determined that the following content is commercial in nature:

Visit https://www.createwith.net/alien-ebook-download to see soft copy order OR epub and PDF download options. Buy a soft copy from Blurb at https://www.blurb.com/b/12456220-alien-broken-covenants or order via online book retailers. Use the book's ISBN 9798349827167 to search on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others. We appreciate your support, as we work on a sequel.

3 Also available as a free e-pub and PDF via createwith.net

Also available as a free e-pub and PDF via createwith.net

To enjoy the free novel in its optimal layout, download the e-publication (e-pub) and/or portable document (pdf) file versions from ebook-download/" rel="nofollow">www.createwith.net/alien-ebook-download.

Create With welcomes well-justified criticism for improving this novel before its first dropshipped version completes production. Readers alerting us to major errors will be eligible for a complimentary hardcopy of the drop-shipped first edition after it's linked from https://www.createwith.net.

The moral rights of this creative work’s author, illustrator and sponsor are hereby asserted.

However, this is not necessarily a comprehensive list. It is your responsibility to ensure that your account and the works posted on it are in compliance with our Terms of Service.

We have hidden the work and require you to edit out all instances of commercial promotion within 7 days. You can access the hidden work using the link provided above. If you don't sufficiently edit your work by this deadline, an AO3 administrator will delete the work. Otherwise, your work will be unhidden after the deadline.

A warning has been placed on your account as a result of this violation. We recommend that you review your account and ensure your other works are in compliance with our Terms of Service. If you do not remove all violating content, or if you violate the Terms of Service again, you may be temporarily or permanently suspended.

For more information about content and behaviors that are not permitted on AO3, and the penalties you may receive for a violation, please refer to our Content Policy and Terms of Service FAQ:

https://archiveofourown.org/content

https://archiveofourown.org/tos_faq#policy_procedures_faq

If you have any questions, or if you wish to appeal this decision, please reply to this email."

I quickly replied to AO3 Policy & Abuse with, “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to remedy the commercial promotion infringements. As requested, I've removed the flagged content from our book’s description and background content in Chapter 18’s end. I trust that none of the remaining content will be in breach of AO3’s terms, and am committed to promptly fixing any other examples that your team spotlights."

AO3's Policy & Abuse committee were happy with my fixes, unhiding our novel by the next day. What a contrast versus Blurb and Ingram Spark.

Missing cases in an emergent field?

With my researcher cap on, the topic of false AI misattribution for authors' self-published novels seems a potential new scholarship opportunity area. Hopefully this example might be referenced by this nascent field's researchers in the future....