Fake Ai Hawaii Guides flood Amazon: Here’s how to spot them
Easiest way to find a real book: Take a look at a Trailblazer Travel Book, there’s one for each island (see link below). In continuous print for nearly three decades, Trailblazers are written by authors who have explored everyplace in Hawaii, multiple times—and who have backgrounds in graphic design, photography, and journalism. The books are well-organized, full of detailed descriptions, and have some 200 photographs. The guides cover everyplace, including the dreamy Duke Kahanamoku lagoon on Waikiki Beach (above). You get to pick and choose your destinations.
Before being available on Amazon, they were at all major bookstores, including Barnes & Noble and Borders, as well at many dozens of smaller chains and independents stores. We used to make $10,000 print runs, and wait several months for books to be distributed, sold, and invoices paid.
As book distributors and stores went out of business (stiffing independent publishers in the process), Amazon Digital Text Platform (DTP) became a savior for indy’s like Trailblazer Travel Books. We, the author/publishers, can now upload print-ready files to Amazon, and they print books on demand, requiring no up-front cost to the authors.
In the last two or so years, Amazon’s DTP has opened the floodgates for independent authors. That’s mainly a good thing. But now publishers have zero investment to make, risk to take. or editorial scrutiny to overcome to reach a bookstore. There is no quality-controlled competition to get on the shelf. As a result, some of the new books are cut-and-paste mash-ups that use AI and plagiarize other books.
Here’s how to spot an AI-written book:
1. Short length, around 140 pages.
2. Recent publication (though not a deal-breaker in and of itself).
3. No maps or photographs.
4, Content that is short on actual descriptions of places, and long on blah-blah about the island.
5. Lots of flowery descriptions to make up for not actually having visited the place.
6. An abundance of 5-star reviews, published within a week or so of each other, and right after the pub date..
7. If you are familiar with an island, you will also note comically wrong descriptions and facts.
Some new books are legit. And Amazon also offers new editions of professionally published guides, like Frommer’s, Fodor’s, the Revealed, Moon and Lonely Planet.
Know that when you purchase a Trailblazer guide you are getting a genuine, well-researched guidebook. If you are an independent traveler who wants to explore Hawaii’s outdoor beauty, find trails, beaches, historical and cultural sites, and avoid the crowds, consider a Trailblazer guide for Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island. They are authentic.
