I read an interesting piece in Publishers Weekly, “Survey Finds Book Buyers Split on AI Use.” In a survey of 5,025 U.S. book buyers, 28% were uncomfortable with AI in books at all, and 22% were okay with it at any stage, including the writing (that should give us authorly types pause). But the biggest takeaway for me was that 85% wanted disclosure in at least some cases. That breaks down to 59% who wanted it every time and another 26% who wanted it if AI played a major role. So I thought I should address it. For what it’s worth, the human in the room wrote this blog post. I let AI help with the copyedit.
I won’t bury the lede. Here’s my #1 unbreakable rule.
AI does not write or rewrite any of my books!
I signed up for ChatGPT in October 2024, and it’s been finding its way into more and more corners of my life ever since. For my writing and publishing business, I’m using ChatGPT/Work and Muse these days.
So, how do I use AI? Or maybe the better question is what I use it for.
I use it as a brainstorming partner, a critique group, a beta reader. I use it to help with some of the jobs a publishing house would handle, jobs I used to do myself or hire people to do. It helps with research and fact-checking, marketing, and keeping the business running. It’s the ultimate virtual assistant, quick, available anytime, never out sick, on vacation, or busy with another client. Of course, when it runs out of tokens, we take an unscheduled break.
If you’re a reader, that may be all you care to know. If you’re a fellow writer, or you just like to peek behind the curtain, I’ll get into the details in future posts and link them here. Hopefully you’ll find something useful. Once the series is finished, I’ll post my AI policy and link to it here. But for today, I think I’ll wrap up here. You should, too. Go read something fun.
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