Someone Used AI to Write Her Biography, Sold It for $27

The text message came first, the existential weirdness followed. New York Times tech reporter Kashmir Hill writes that a friend reached out to ask why she hadn't shared news of her biography, which was selling on Amazon in hardcover for $26.99. Writing for the Times, Hill explains she didn't know about the 90-page book—which stitches together public facts, generic filler, and outright inventions (the author had not read her childhood diary as claimed)—because she had no part in it. That "author," one John Crane Miller, appears to be an AI-enabled phantom who cranked out at least 10 journalist biographies in a week.

Hill tracks the ecosystem around these books, and while she was unable to track down the person behind Miller, she did manage to meet Bill Johns, a retired cybersecurity consultant who has, since March 2025, used ChatGPT to write and self-publish 445 nonfiction books on Amazon on subjects ranging from eccentric geniuses to booze to the Chesapeake Bay, where he lives. He walks Hill through his process and goals (10 books per week, Amazon's max), as well as the economics: He makes about $7 per sale, and sells a few hundred per month. In the run-up to the holidays, he sold 821 books, netting about $6,000. As for his take on The Biography of Kashmir Hill? "There's not a lot of content here. I could do this one by noon." Read the full story here.