AI in Publishing: Transforming How Books Are Written, Edited, and Marketed

AI is one of those topics that gets thrown around a lot and twisted by news articles and headlines. But AI isn't so scary when you realize it's been around longer than the Internet. It's also the reason many industries like farming and factory work are monumentally safer for humans these days. In fact, artificial intelligence is one of the fastest-growing markets in the entire world. For publishing, that means writing, editing, and marketing books like a pro in half the time, thanks to AI, without having to rely on traditional publishing houses (or anyone else, for that matter).

This blog post covers how AI is making self-publishing even more accessible to complete newbies, and it also shares some mind-blowing statistics about just where the future of AI and publishing is headed. (Bet you can't guess how much the industry is expected to be valued at within the next decade).

The only AI content strategy you need to start making money online, all in one place. Drop by our free webinar to see how Amazon is embracing artificial intelligence to help everyday people start simple side hustles that can create recurring income over time.

How Does Generative AI Affect the Publishing Industry?

Overall, there are five ways generative AI is changing the publishing industry:

1. Brainstorming: Generating unlimited ideas, overcoming writer's block, planning content
2. Prototypes & First Drafts: Sometimes, just getting something down on paper is the hardest part
3. Editing and Proofreading: Detecting errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and even readability, then suggesting improvements with just a few clicks. View our list of the best AI for proofreading.
4. Targeted Marketing: Optimizing book descriptions, author bios, book cover design, and even ads
5. Streamlined Process: Every single step of the publishing process can be done at least 5x faster

Every business takes an investment of time, effort, and funds. When we're first starting out, most of us have to sacrifice our time and effort because the funds aren't there. 

It's like trying to ride a bicycle uphill. We have to push and work so hard, knowing that eventually, we'll build up enough energy that we can stop pedaling for a little while and just steer (until the next hill). AI is like adding a motor, GPS, and all the bells and whistles to that bike.

With AI on your side, you still have to steer your business in the right direction and make the hard decisions, but you can get where you want to go much, much faster, and with much, much less energy. 

AI Use Cases: Publishing.com's Free Training Video

AI tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly already have a dozen uses for publishers, but here are just a few:

• Pen name generation
• Outlining full book chapters
• Finding Amazon keywords to include in your book description and ads
• Exploring new niches and sub-niches you might not have thought of before

The problem is that there are so many different AI tools on the market, and often, each one has its own subscription fees. Publishing.com is trying to change that. 

For the past year, our team of engineers has been hard at work cooking up a first-of-its-kind AI publishing tool specifically designed for self-publishers. While it can't do everything on its own yet, it comes pretty dang close. We have SO much planned. 

In this free training, Rasmus Mikkelsen (one of our co-founders) reveals the first public preview of Publishing.ai and demonstrates just how insanely useful AI-powered tools already are.

AI-Driven Content Creation

The first step of the publishing process is landing an idea and bringing the bones of your manuscript to life. Here's how AI tools can help!

Natural Language Generation

First things first, natural language processing sounds a whole lot more complex than it actually is. It basically means that instead of thinking in binary code with 1's and 0's, computers can now "think" and "act" a lot more like a human brain using the words we naturally communicate with.

You don't have to have any coding experience whatsoever to interact with large language models like ChatGPT. You can just have a casual conversation and type in requests that you'd ask a colleague. The biggest difference is that while virtual assistants and all of us humans get tired, have to take breaks, etc., machines that use artificial intelligence have unlimited energy day or night.

Some of the most popular LLMs on the market right now:

• OpenAI's GPT
• Google's Gemini
• Anthropic's Claude
• Meta's Llama

Automated Writing Tools

You can always edit "bad" writing, but you can't edit a blank page.

AI tools like Publishing.ai can already generate full chapters of written text for all kinds of genres, from nonfiction books to historical fiction (though certain tools are better for one genre over another). See for yourself why we're considered the best AI book writing software.

Some popular automated writing tools:

• ChatGPT
• Jasper
• Sudowriter

Data-Driven Storytelling

Non-fiction books are stronger with evidence and facts to back up your claims, which makes sense, right? 

Doing this research might have taken the average self-publisher weeks or even months in a pre-ChatGPT world. Now, you can generate a list of facts and sources in less than 5 minutes. 

Of course, the caveat here is that you'll still have to fact-check everything, but that's still way faster than tracking down everything from scratch.

Even Pearson (yes, the school textbook Pearson) is using AI-generated content to help students learn more. There are unprecedented opportunities for learning and teaching, and even though AI has already been around for way more than a decade, we're really just at the beginning of seeing what it can do.

Editing and Proofreading Automation

It's not uncommon to go through multiple rounds of revisions, whether you take on the writing and editing yourself or hire a ghostwriter for help. AI tools can help with that, too!

Grammar and Style Enhancers

These days, AI-driven writing tools can help you during pretty much any stage of your publishing process. Like Rasmus mentioned in the video, Grammarly is pretty much spell-checking on steroids. Tools like this can strengthen the quality of your work and catch errors as well as suggest alternative phrases or words you might like instead. And the less time you spend on editing and proofreading, the more time you have to be creative and make personalized content.

Other AI-driven editing systems include:

• StyleWriter
• ProWritingAid
• Hemingway

Consistency and Accuracy Checkers

Some AI-driven tools can also be put to work, making sure your manuscript is consistent and accurate during the final polishing stages. 

This might include detecting inconsistencies in capitalization, hyphenation, and formatting or providing suggestions on word choice or phrasing based on context (which is especially useful if English isn't your first language). You can also double-check that your writing conforms to a particular style guide (MLA, APA, Chicago) or that books in a series are formatted the same way.

Lastly, AI-based tools can help verify the authenticity and validity of the information in your content. For instance, they can automatically cross-reference claims or data points within your document against a verified database or source to add credibility to your work and massively save time on manual fact-checking.

Some popular consistency and accuracy checkers include:

• PerfectIt
• WordRake
• SmartEdit
• Turnitin
• Originality.ai
• Grammarly's Plagiarism Checker
• Factinsect
• Wisecube

Personalized Marketing and Distribution

Marketing isn't everyone's favorite thing, but it's necessary to connect with new readers and get more eyeballs on your work. AI technologies can make it a lot less painful!

Targeted Advertising

As humans, we can only really hyperfocus on one thing at a time. AI, on the other hand, can use neural networks to talk with other computers and analyze millions of pieces of content in literal seconds. Think about how powerful that is, especially for understanding your readers better.

With AI's advanced data analysis capabilities, you can identify the preferences and interests of your specific target audience and create more effective marketing campaigns that position your books in front of the right readers.

Some common AI-powered targeting strategies include:

• Behavioral targeting: Analyzing reader browsing and purchase history
• Demographic targeting: Focusing on specific age, gender, location, etc.
• Contextual targeting: Advertising books based on the content readers are consuming.

Reader Analytics

Once the readers are engaged, you can use AI's predictive analytics to anticipate market shifts and keep optimizing your marketing efforts. This is especially useful if you're publishing on a budget and really need to make sure every dollar counts.

Some key reader analytics you can track with AI include:

• Time spent reading
• Pages read
• Reader demographics
• Book completion rates

Pro Tip: When you publish with Amazon, you get instant access to your KDP dashboard, which collects all kind of sales and royalty data for each of your works for free!

Dynamic Content Distribution

A lot of marketing fundamentals can be traced back to one of the OG direct marketers, Dan Kennedy. He talks about crafting the right USP (unique selling proposition) to reach the right people at the right time. That's exactly what your book has to do to sell well.

Instead of relying on traditional channels and methods for book distribution, AI enables dynamic content distribution, tailoring the delivery based on reader preferences. This means your books can reach the right audience at the right time and in the right format.

Here are some ways AI enables dynamic content distribution:

1. Automated Recommendations: Algorithms suggest books that align closely with individual reader preferences. This is all automatic when you sell on Amazon, which is why it's so important to conduct thorough market and competitor research in the early stages of your manuscript.
2. Flexible publishing formats: AI can optimize your content for various formats, including eBooks, audiobooks, and paperbacks or hardcovers. Amazon has a free tool that can help with formatting as you're uploading your book to KDP, but it can be temperamental at times as a forewarning.
3. Automatic Sales: There are times when Amazon will slash the price of your book and offer it to readers at a discount. A lot of newbie publishers tend to panic when this happens, but it means Amazon's algorithm has detected a lot of potential in your book, and they want to give it a little boost. Amazon will also take any price difference out of their own pocket and still give you the royalties you earn.
4. Print on Demand Services: Amazon handles all the inventory management and shipping that comes with selling your books, so you don't have to worry about a thing. They'll even send nudges to customers who forget to check out their carts and suggest your book if they've purchased similar ones in the past. Again, this is with zero extra work on your part.

Legal Risks, Ethical Considerations, and Intellectual Property

Some of the debate surrounding AI in publishing has to do with the legalities and ethics of it all, which is completely understandable. 

Here's an overview:

Authorship and Creativity

Generative AI works by mixing and matching millions upon millions of bits and pieces of the content it's trained on, which means it may occasionally produce similar work. That's obviously a pretty big concern among many publishers and authors in the industry. The thing is, this problem isn't just related to AI. You could easily have the same problem working with a ghostwriter (and many publishers have also experienced that).

But at the end of the day, originality only really becomes a real problem if you're relying solely on AI to do all your reading, writing, researching, and thinking. It doesn't matter what industry you're in, and you don't need a degree to know that that's probably not the best idea.

Human creators who use AI as a copilot have the biggest advantage here because they can analyze vast amounts of existing content, spot market gaps, and make data-driven decisions for their publishing business without wasting their time or energy on busy work. This makes fact-checking and editing 1000% easier to fit into even the most hectic schedule. 

AI can't be inherently good or bad—it's simply a tool.

Copyright and Plagiarism Challenges

How the battle between 100% AI-generated content and copyright ends is as good a guess as anyone's right now, but AI certainly isn't going anywhere. 

Not when Forbes has found that:

• The AI market is expected to reach over $400 billion in the next three years.
• AI will increase the United States GDP by over 20% over the next six years.
• More than 1 million users joined ChatGPT within the first week that it went live.
• Nearly 2/3s of businesses expect AI to increase productivity
• Even social media platforms like Facebook and X are pouring millions of dollars into AI research

That's also why we constantly try to hammer the difference between AI-generated and AI-assisted content.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Implementing AI in the Publishing Industry

Let's talk about the pros and cons of incorporating AI into the creative process:

Advantages:

1. Publishing at Turbo Speed: The time you save with these tools is just unreal. This gives everyone a chance to publish. Yes, even if you're a busy parent of three, trying to balance two full-time jobs with a side hustle or going to school.
2. Publishing Even Better Content: AI-powered tools can catch things we might accidentally miss or help us look at things with a new perspective. These things are completely invaluable to publishers, no matter what genre you're in.
3. Scalability: Each quality book you put out (and quality is the keyword here) can potentially go on to earn recurring income for the rest of your life. Think about all the ways you can use AI to help other people solve their problems in the form of new books. For example, seniors who want to learn chair yoga to work on their mobility, moms who want to know the best way to budget for their kids' college tuition, and families who want to know how to go gluten-free with young kids.

Disadvantages:

1. Investment: Although most AI tools do offer a free version, you'll likely need to upgrade to a subscription plan as you scale your business. Of course, the payoff is all the time and energy you'll save, but it's just something to think about.
2. Learning Curve: Even though natural language processing is intended to make artificial intelligence as accessible as possible, any new technology takes getting used to. Learning how to craft a "prompt" (message for the AI) just takes some practice and trial/error to get the model to understand what type of response you're looking for sometimes.
3. Using AI as a Crutch: If you think you'll be too tempted to rely on content produced by the models, it's not a bad idea to work with freelancers or human editors to bring your vision for your book to life.

What Is the Future of AI in Publishing? Accessible!

AI is opening doors for more and more people looking for a change.

• Ease of Access: AI is breaking down the barriers traditionally set by the publishing industry. Now, anyone with a story can publish it. Whether you're a stay-at-home parent, a full-time student, or working a 9-to-5 job, AI tools can help you craft and polish your manuscript on your schedule, making publishing more accessible than ever.
• Creative Freedom: AI empowers you to publish what you want when you want. You can explore any genre or mix them up, creating unique blends that truly represent your creative vision.
• Diversified Income Streams: With AI, it's never been easier to create a brand. AI can help you expand into audiobooks, interactive eBooks, and even personalized bonus content, opening up multiple channels of revenue. This diversification can provide a more stable income, giving you financial freedom and more time to create.
• Global Reach: AI-powered translation tools aren't quite there yet, but they will be eventually, which means you'll be able to make your book accessible worldwide in pretty much any language. (Side note: If you didn't watch the free training above, go back to hear what AI spoken words currently sound like. They're not perfect, but they're better than you'd probably think!)

If you're looking to learn directly from the leading AI experts of the world, these are some upcoming events that might be handy:

• The AI Conference
• AI4 Vegas
• The AI Summit New York

Can You Publish a Book Written By AI?

Yup! You can absolutely publish a book written by AI with just a few caveats.

First, certain platforms like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing require self-publishers to declare whether their content is AI-generated or AI-assisted for research purposes.

Second, artificial intelligence runs on the "GIGO principle." In other words, "garbage in, garbage out." If the models are trained on poor data or given poor prompts, they're doomed to produce poor outputs. At the same time, humans aren't immune from producing poor content, either.

Book publishing will always be about doing right by the readers and giving them both what they want and what they need, no matter how you go about the content creation process. If you decide to use AI, there should still be a human review and quality check every single step of the way.

Your Roadmap to Publishing: The #1 Beginner-Friendly AIA Course

The AI Publishing Academy has everything you need to know about book publishing (yes, everything) neatly packaged into bite-sized self-paced modules and video walkthroughs.

Get rid of all the guesswork and learn how new publishers produce recurring income from the royalty business model with just a laptop and a free Amazon account. Read our reviews for AIA here.

Quick Disclaimer: It WILL take work. We can show you exactly how to find profitable ideas hiding in plain sight and turn them into a fully polished manuscript. We can even reveal all the best Amazon ad secrets from an expert who has made over $500,000 from his books alone. What we can't do is actually publish the book for you. That's on you! If you're willing to swap the Netflix and couch time for the next season of your life, knowing it'll pay off in the future, we might just be the right match!

Meet the Book Publishers Who Got Their Start with AIA!

Nicolas and Marie talk about meshing the publishing life with married life and how they manage:

Irenne talks about juggling two kids, a business, and publishing in a language that wasn't native to her:

Savera, the "Book Review Queen," gives the publishing rundown and all her best advice for the newbies:

What Are the Cost Implications of Integrating AI into the Publishing Process?

Integrating AI into the publishing process might initially require some investment in software, but even the subscriptions often give you the option of going month-to-month, and you can cancel your plan at any time. In general, most tools will set you back between $9.99-$30/month, which is easily offset by all the other benefits:

• Efficiency Gains
• Smarter Budgeting
• Reduced Overhead Costs
• Long-term Sustainability

Welcome to the Publishing World!

Our AIA community has collectively said goodbye to...

• Work that sucks the life out of them
• Needing to request PTO days just to spend time with their kids
• Constantly worrying about retirement in the future

Instead, our students are...

• Enjoying the challenge of bringing an idea to life
• Taking time off whenever they feel like it
• Maintaining their faith that today's investment in themselves will pay dividends in their futures

Human authors and publishers + AI can be a really beautiful thing.

Stop by our free webinar to see how it all works!