How to use AI ethically and legally in your book | Episode 247

Today’s episode tackles a very hot topic: using AI in writing. Human authorship, our innate creativity, is crucial to impactful writing—and impactful living. Storytelling has existed for thousands of years and is an inherent part of our nature. We don’t want to limit our originality or risk uninspired outcomes, which is what happens when we depend on AI for content. AI can also create sticky legal issues, with publishers rejecting works with AI-created text due to copyright issues.

Yet there is a way to use AI ethically and legally in the process of writing your book (all with caution, I might add). After you’ve come up with your outline, AI can help with research by finding relevant content without generating text. You can also use AI to enhance your marketing—with definite controls in place—by repurposing your original content. The key to these efforts is to avoid AI-generated text.

Join me as I discuss essential points on how to use AI properly in your writing project and experience a richer and more productive writing journey.

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How to use AI ethically and legally in your book | Episode 247 Transcript

These transcripts were generated by robots, not writers.

Stacy: Hello and welcome to this week’s episode. I am so excited to be back with you to get to do another solo episode. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I have been doing more of these solo episodes because I get to connect with you and I think a more meaningful way when I’m getting to talk to you one to one in this format. I’m also publishing this all over, so you might be listening on Apple podcasts or watching on YouTube wherever you are. I’m so glad to be with you this week and if you’re a new listener, hello. I hope that this is a really useful episode for you this week. I want to talk about everybody’s favorite subject. Yes, AI.

Stacy: I know, I know, we’re all sick of talking about it, but I realized that I haven’t done too much on this podcast about AI. I have done a little bit. I’ve especially talked about some of the problems with bias in AI, which is not something I hear a lot of people talk about, but it’s a really big issue with AI. I’ve got, you know, centuries of bias programmed into this tool that we’re all using. But I haven’t talked too much on the podcast about how to ethically and legally use AI in your book writing process. Now, the thing that I want to say at the outset is that this is such an evolving area. I am already thinking differently today about certain things with AI that I had a different opinion about maybe six months ago or even three months ago.

Stacy: I am currently doing certification with Claude, so I’m going through some of their courses and making sure I really understand the software. Do we call it software? I don’t know, whatever it is so that I’m not just one of those like, oh, don’t use AI. I want to understand it. I want to integrate it where appropriate and I want to be careful not to use it in ways that are harmful, illegal. Yeah. So that’s what I want to talk about today, specifically in relation to your book writing process.

Stacy: Hey there. A little note before we get started with this episode. I just want to say that I hopefully this goes without saying on all of the podcasts, but this episode is not legal advice. You should always seek the help of an attorney for anything legal related, especially when it comes to AI or anything related to your book. So I’m going to be talking a little bit about legality here, but just know I’m not a lawyer. Of course I do my best to be educated, but. But you need to get actual help from real experts and not just AI lawyers. Okay, onto this week’s episode.

Stacy: So how I thought I would do this is I’m going to walk you through the book writing process from start to finish, and we’re going to talk about the different ways that people are badly using AI and some of the things that you need to think about as an author as you are using or not using AI in your book writing process. Let me first say you don’t need it. Okay? People have been writing books for a very long time. Storytelling has existed for around 30,000 years, and during absolutely none of that time have we had AI. We have not had technology to assist us in the most human act of creation. And you don’t need it either. But I also understand that there are certain things that AI enables you to do, especially when it comes to things like research. So.

Stacy: So we need to be realistic. You’re probably going to use it in some capacity. So let’s talk about how to use it and how not to use it. Let me add a disclaimer that I might change my mind in three months or six months and I’ll record another episode if so. But I want to tell you where my thinking is at and what my advice is at this stage. Okay, so we’re going to break this into key stages of your book writing process. Ideation. Writing. Well, let’s say ideation, outlining writing, editing, publishing and marketing. Now, there’s some other areas that in between there, but we’re going to follow that pathway because I think that’s broad enough that we can have a conversation about it, but limited enough that we are not going to be on a two hour podcast today.

Stacy: Because I do want to keep this relatively concise and useful for you. So let’s start with ideation. One of the things that I have seen that is driving me crazy is authors are using AI way too early in their book writing process. So what does this mean? This means that as an author, early input is not your friend. You do not want to be out having conversations with people or technology about your idea. Your idea is gentle. It needs to be shaped it needs to be explored and you need to protect your idea as you explore it. I would not recommend using any AI at this stage. Certainly not as a thought partner. It can’t think, first of all, not as a sparring partner, not as anything. Don’t let it drive your idea. You drive your idea. Okay, don’t use it.

Stacy: Like, I know you’re going to be like, what? Why? No, don’t use it. You are going to rob yourself of uncovering, discovering and clarifying your idea and feeling really anchored to your book. The other thing that I’m finding is that my inbox. Oh wow. Is full of emails that look and sound very similar. I keep getting these four part book outlines that people have created with AI which brings me into this next stage of the outline. Oh no. I’m going to give you the same advice. Don’t use AI at all at this stage. None. Nunca nada. Like don’t use any this again right now. AI is not your friend. It’s going to create with you for you a very basic, very boring and disconnected from your heart outline that you later need to write to. Okay?

Stacy: So if you don’t have the connection to this outline, it’s going to be really hard when you get into the creation process to write the book. And part of the journey of writing a book, part of the accomplishment of writing a book, if you is doing the work and finding the clarity. I know it’s really tempting to go to AI and say, find the pattern. Tell me what I’m trying to say. Upload all your ideas. Here’s the book that I’m thinking about. Give me a structure for this. I know that’s really tempting, but your book is going to end up basic. It’s going to be structured the same as all the other books I’m seeing in my inbox telling you. It’s like introduction, four parts and a conclusion. This is the outline I’m receiving right now. Don’t do it. Don’t use it at all.

Stacy: I know, I know. Crazy, right? I’m saying no AI but humor me because a year ago, two years ago, you weren’t using AI in this way five years ago. I believe that one of the things that we’re going to have to reskill on is thinking. So don’t outsource your thinking at this stage. Use your brain. Use that human beautiful brain of yours. And the beautiful thing about this stage, the ideation and the outlining stage when you work with somebody like me, is that I have a process for You, I will guide you through that step by step using neuroscientific principles. Brain science, your brain, your real beautiful brain that is totally capable without AI to write a book you are deeply proud of. Now, let me say there are some components of the outline where you could start to utilize AI.

Stacy: So as an example, once you get your outline done and you’re starting to look for research, or you’re starting to look for data points, things like that, what a tool. I mean, AI is such a great tool for that one study that you saw two years ago that you remember this couple of details and you think it was here. I mean, what an amazing tool to be able to use to gather research, to give you articles to read, to give you a starting point for some of that. I think it’s incredible for that. Another place that it can be really useful if you have a blog or a podcast. Again, once you get your outline done, you can use a prompt like I am working on a book on blank, so you can insert that again.

Stacy: Make sure you’re using a long language model that does not train on your content. Do not upload your content. Do not upload your book. This is my, right now, my recommendation. Even if you’re using a long language model that does not train on your material, I still don’t recommend uploading your book at this stage. It’s too risky. But you can give it a prompt like I’m working a book, like a book about blank. Here are. And then give it your very high level outline and say, give me links to blog posts, podcast episodes related to each topic so it can help you organize your content that exists, that’s already published. And I would really recommend I always use this in my prompts.

Stacy: Not always, but whenever I’m creating something and I don’t want it to write for me, I always write, do not write for me, only my original words. And so that means it can’t add any transitional stuff. It can’t write for you, but it’s just simply gathering existing content that is a great use, especially for those of you who have tons and tons of content out there and you want to pull some of your existing work and utilize it for your book. That’s a really great use case for it. You have been thinking about writing a book for a while now, maybe even years. The idea is there, the intention is there, but somehow the book just isn’t getting written. That’s where Idea to Draft comes in.

Stacy: Idea-to-Draft is a small group coaching program led by me, Stacy Ennis to help you create a structured, well positioned draft that not only will be a great book, but will also be positioned to help you make the impact you are meant to make on the world. The best part is that you won’t be doing it alone. You’ll be journeying alongside an incredible group of other driven future authors and have expert guidance from somebody who has contributed to more than a hundred books throughout 16 years in publishing. If you decide that this is the year you are finally going to write your book, head to staceyannes.com idea to draft to grab your spot in the program. Okay, so you’ve gotten your ideation completed. If you’re working with me, you’re going through a wonderful tactile verbal writing process to get the ideation completed.

Stacy: You’re building an outline and now you get into writing the book. Okay, so here’s some things you could use AI for. You could use AI to build out a writing plan. We’re actually working on. We’re actually building something in our team to help writers do this. Cool, right? Like that’s a great use for it. You can again use AI for research needs along the way. Always check original resources, original sources. I mean, AI makes things up all the time, so you always need to check things. But it’s a great starting place. Here’s what you’re not going to do. You’re not going to write a paragraph or a chapter and put it in AI and say, tell me how to make this better. Don’t do that, don’t do that. Because it’s going to rewrite things for you.

Stacy: And once you step over that line, that is called generative AI. Now we have stepped over the line of using it as a tool and you’re now using it to generate, to create and creating even one word, adding a word in your sentence is still creation. Right? Now that is legally very risky. When I was at the London Book Fair a little while back, one of the top things that I heard from traditional publishers is if there is even one line of generative AI in a book, they will not publish it. And the problem is that most books don’t have one, they have many. And most authors don’t know exactly where they used AI. They can’t be sure if they used it in this sentence or not in this sentence.

Stacy: And so I really strongly recommend that you do not use AI to help you write or help you edit. What can you use? Well, if you think about it, technically, Microsoft Word uses AI in its spell check and its grammar check. You can use those. Those are fine. Those are accepted. Those are also closed software. So as long as you are checking all of the privacy, it should not be reading or using any of your material. I know something going around about this, so it’s probably good to make sure that you don’t have their AI assistant scanning your work. I don’t know a lot about that, but I know that I saw something about that. But generally, like a grammar checker, spell checker in a closed software platform like Microsoft Word is fine, so you don’t need to worry about those.

Stacy: But I would never suggest uploading your writing and getting quote unquote editorial feedback. First of all, I can spot AI content a mile away. You don’t want to just sound like AI right now. It has a very distinct voice and I hope that just doesn’t appeal to you. But also it’s unethical. You know, this content or this platform has trained on the backs of writers and creators. And it is, you know, it’s plagiarism. Actually, I’m just going to call it what it is. It’s plagiarism. And there comes a point also where you start to get influenced in your own writing by AI. So AI is now showing you what’s quote unquote better, and that’s now influencing you as a writer. That makes it so much harder to find your own voice.

Stacy: The other thing that I can see happening is that rather than just working through something, people are going to AI to solve a problem, like how do I describe this place or what should I call this thing? And it really becomes a learned inability to problem solve and create. I really encourage you to keep your brain sharp, to keep it functioning, to keep problem solving, to keep thinking and keep creating. Okay. So important. So we kind of just blurred the lines between writing and editing there. In general, just always work with humans. Be a human, show up as a human in the writing process. Do not use generative AI in any instance to create any words. It’s very risky right now. Legally, what I’m hearing from publishers is that you can’t legally copyright something that has been created with AI.

Stacy: And I personally think there should be some kind of legal requirement for authors to state that they used AI in the creation of their books. I think just also for you, as a human being in the world, maybe as a business owner, as a brand, is super risky to use a tool like that and not have the full ethics to share your work with the world. Like, don’t you want to show up integrity. I think that’s really important. When you actually create your book fully, you show up integrity. And I think that people are talking themselves into being okay with these tools. But really what I’m seeing is it is shutting down creativity. It is making everything so boring and vanilla. And that is not what you want.

Stacy: You want to write a great book that you are so proud to share with the world. All right, so we have talked about ideation, outlining writing and editing kind of together in the conversation. And now let’s talk about publishing. And in the publishing stage, of course, there’s many things that happen during this stage. This is where your manuscript turns into a product. So it goes through this process of becoming a real book out in the world. And of course, there’s many things that you could use AI for. You could use it for interior design, you could use it for cover design, you could use it for back cover copy. I am going to give you a guess about what I am going to advise in these. What do you think? Yeah, don’t. Just don’t. I know, I know.

Stacy: It’s like there’s so many great tools out there. Why can’t I use those? Well, a couple reasons, probably some that I’ve already said, but just to kind of reiterate on it, first of all of these have trained on artists and on creators and on writers. It has stolen from them. So then we get into plagiarism, which is a problem. And then because of that, then we’re running into potential legal issues for you and your book. And while, you know, it’s kind of like a gray area right now, and there’s. There’s certain cases that are coming out, there’s certain authors getting canceled for using AI right now. Literally canceled. Like, not them, but their contracts canceled. Why would you want to risk it?

Stacy: You know, if you’re just writing a book, to write a book and get it out and share it with your family, that’s maybe a different story. But if you actually care about achieving a goal and writing a book that is a foundational goal, it’s a thing that’s meant to go and impact the world in a meaningful way to help you grow your business, your brand or impact. I would not risk, again, the integrity of your work for some of these quick and cheap options. There, I said what I said. Okay, so now we get to marketing. And here’s where I think AI can be incredibly powerful. And especially if you’re using a tool like Claude I love Claude. I think Claude is way better than ChatGPT.

Stacy: I’m also much more of a fan of Anthropic than I am OpenAI, although I’m not like, really a fan of any of the major technology companies. They’re all kind of gross when you really look into it. But Claude has some great integrations with things like canva, with different tools, and so you can use it for really great social media. You can, you know, upload all your brand colors, your logo, take your own generated content and utilize it to create social content. One of the things that I would really recommend in any marketing is create once, use as many times as humanly possible. Or I gu AI ly possible technology. Ly possible, technologically possible. And so this is where I think that tools are so powerful.

Stacy: It’s a great tool to look for places to pitch for speaking, for podcasts, for all kinds of things like that. And so this is where I think you can lean in and really use the power of AI in a way that feels better and is more respectful of artists and creators and your own self as a creative person. Now, I would be remiss if I did not mention the ecological impact of AI. I think it’s questionable ethically to use it at all. I need to note that, because that’s true, it’s a fact, and I’m a realistic person. I know that you are using AI. Everybody’s using AI, with very few exceptions. And what I would encourage you to really consider is how you’re showing up as a human to create one of the most human things, which is art. That’s what a book is.

Stacy: Even the most like prescriptive how to nonfiction book out there is art because it’s been created by a human being. And the more you can preserve that and show up with integrity in this process, the better your book’s going to be. Not only that, but you are going to stand out, because right now people are cheating, people are plagiarizing, and they’re creating garbage. But you’re not going to do that now because you now know you are wiser after this episode. At least that’s my hope. Thank you so much for joining me this week. I hope this was really helpful for you and just know you can do it. People have been writing books forever, even before there were computers. So you don’t need a technology brain. You need your brain, your human brain.

Stacy: I want to thank, as always Rita Dominguez for her production of this podcast this week. She was like, get it recorded. Like she is so good. She keeps me on track, but she’s way nicer than that. And she’s the reason that you are watching this or listening to this because otherwise it would just collect digital dust and you would never see it. So I am so grateful for her. And if you are still listening to this or watching this right now, you must have really enjoyed this episode. So do be sure that you are subscribed or following on whatever platform you’re on. And if you have a moment, either leave me a comment on YouTube or in your podcast app. Stacy:
And if you really want to go the extra mile rate and review the podcast because it really helps me reach more people with the message of living a life that is not just better but beyond better. And that’s human. I mean, that’s our conversation today, right? Being human. And I will be back with you before you know it.