AI. I know, I know. We’re all sick of hearing about it. We’re all questioning our own ethical use of it. And we’re all finding ourselves wondering where the line is in almost every area of life.
People are turning to AI to get advice about their marriage, create slide decks for presentations, plan vacations, and meet emotional intimacy needs. As an opinion article in The New York Times aptly put it, “We’re All in a Throuple With A.I.”
Excuse me while I cry into my coffee.
Hyperbole aside, in the book-writing world—which happens to be where I spend the majority of my days—I’m seeing authors turn to AI in ways that are not only questionable but also harming them in significant creative and intellectual ways. I think that’s because many aspiring authors want to have written a book, not necessarily do the hard work of writing a book.
There are many immediate and downstream impacts of using AI. And many benefits as well. In this piece, my aim is to help you look at AI through the lens of authorhood, and consider whether, or how, to use AI in your author journey.
A little note before we get started: Although I will discuss some legal considerations, this 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 pertaining to your book. I also want to emphasize at the outset that this is an evolving area, and the following is subject to my own evolving understanding and education around AI, not to mention the active legislation in this area. Now, on to the AI conversation.
Consideration #1: AI is inherently biased.
I’ve talked and written widely about some of the problems with bias in AI. Although bias is not widely discussed in everyday conversation around AI, people who study the technology know that “systems trained on biased data can perpetuate and even amplify those biases, leading to inaccurate outputs or unfair decisions,” as described in a piece in Harvard Business Review. The article also mentions cognitive biases, which—while useful in certain situations—ultimately make us worse at decision-making and problem-solving that require complex thought and consideration.
This is particularly an issue for writers of any marginalized group and writers who care about people in marginalized groups. As a woman, person of color, disabled person, queer person, or person who is part of any underrepresented group, you’re using a system trained on bias and oppression against you and others like you. There are centuries of bias programmed into this tool we’re all using. This isn’t such a big deal if you’re planning an end-of-year soccer party (though I’d bet there are some gender stereotypes baked in!). It is a big deal if you’re using generative AI (having it write or create for you) for a high-stakes project—like, say, a book.
Consideration #2: We have 30,000 years of storytelling without AI.
Let me first say: You don’t need AI to write your book. People have been writing books for centuries, much of that without any modern technology. Storytelling has existed for thousands of 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 there are certain things that AI enables you to do, especially when it comes to research. So we need to be realistic, because you’re probably going to use it in some capacity. But I want you to know, to remember, to repeat in that amazing brain of yours while you’re writing your book:
I don’t need AI.
I already have a supercomputer for a brain.
My book is already within me—I need to uncover it, organize it, and write it.
The best books are written from the inside out, not the outside in.
OK, I got that out of my system, so let’s move on. We’ll start with ideation, the earliest stage of your book-writing journey.
Consideration #3: AI stunts the ideation process.
One of the things 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.
Even without technology, you do not want to take in a lot of outside opinions or guidance around your idea. Your idea is gentle. It needs to be shaped and explored by you. Certain guidance is useful, such as by a coach or trusted mentor, but at the earliest stage, you need to protect your idea as you explore it.
Because of this, I would not recommend using any AI at this stage. Certainly not as a thought partner, not as a sparring partner, not as anything. It can’t think, first of all, because it’s not human. Don’t let it drive your idea. You drive your idea.
It can be incredibly tempting to outsource your thinking to AI at this stage, because the ideating process can be hard. It can sometimes feel like you’re walking through the muck and the mud at midnight with no flashlight. But, friend, this is part of the journey—and part of why intentional authors arrive at the destination of authorhood better than when they started.
If you outsource to AI at this gentle stage, you’ll rob yourself of uncovering, discovering, and clarifying your idea and feeling really anchored to your book.
Consideration #4: AI outlines all smell the same.
The other thing I’m finding is that my inbox is full of three- and four-part book outlines that people have created with AI, which brings me into this next stage of the outline.
And yes—sorry, not sorry. I’m going to give you the same advice. Don’t use AI at all at this stage. None. Nunca. Nada. AI is not your friend. It’s going to create for you a very basic, very boring, and highly disconnected-from-your-heart outline that you later need to write to.
And if you don’t have a true connection to this outline, it’s going to be exceedingly hard when you get into the creation process to write the book.
I know it’s really tempting to go to AI and say, “Here’s my work. Find the pattern. Tell me what I’m trying to say.” To upload all your ideas and say, “Here’s the book that I’m thinking about. Give me a structure for this.”
I know that’s 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. And worst of all, you’ll miss out on finding the true essence of your book—the human investigation that makes your work truly unique.
What can you do instead? You can find a coach, a program, or a system to follow that helps you uncover and organize your ideas. And you can do the deep thinking and work to find the book that is already within you.
Consideration #5: AI is de-skilling us slowly.
An article in The Atlantic put this era of AI beautifully, calling it “The Age of De-Skilling.”
I believe some of the things we’re going to have to re-skill on are thinking, problem-solving, and creating. Instead of outsourcing the most human parts of yourself—your creativity, your creation—use that beautiful human brain of yours. Your brain that is totally capable without AI. There is a real risk that if you outsource critical brain activity like generation and problem-solving, you will experience atrophy and loss of skill. Um, no thanks.
Now, there are some components of the outlining process where you can utilize AI.
Consideration #6: AI can be a powerful research tool.
Once you get your outline done and start looking for research, including data points, AI is a powerful tool. It’s useful for gathering research to find that data point you remember a few things about but can’t recall where you read it, to give you new articles to read, to give you a starting point for deeper research.
Another place it can be really useful is if you have a blog or a podcast. Once you get your outline done, you can use it to organize existing published content so you can reference and utilize it during your writing process.
One tip: When prompting AI, I suggest adding something like, “Do not write for me, draw any conclusions, or make suggestions. Only organize my original words.” This keeps you in the ethical green zone because it’s just simply gathering existing content. That is a great use, especially for those of you who have tons of content out there, and you want to pull some of your existing work and utilize it for your book.
That said, don’t outsource the research entirely. Some of the best insights and connections come from going down the research rabbit hole. And always, always check the original source. AI has a tendency to make things up, after all.
Consideration #7: Copyright around AI is iffy—in other words, DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR MANUSCRIPT. (!)
Copyright is iffy right now, with the courts actively deciding how software can use our work and how copyright works with generative AI and when authors upload their content into these models.
A word of caution: Make sure you’re using a large language model (LLM) that does not train on your content; often, you have to deselect this default training opt-in in the settings of the LLM. In Claude, you need to uncheck, “Help Improve Claude”; in ChatGPT, turn off “Chat History & Training” or “Improve the model for everyone.”
And please, be safe and do not upload your content. Do not upload your book. Do not upload unpublished work.
This is, right now, my recommendation. Even if you’re using an LLM that does not train on your material, I still don’t recommend uploading your book at this stage. It’s too risky. But from what I can tell right now, you can give it a prompt like, “I’m working on a book about [blank]. Here is my high-level outline. Give me links to my [blog posts, podcast episodes, etc.] related to each topic.” It can help you organize your content that exists and is already published, or gather research, data points, and so on.
Consideration #8: Planning and organization—now, there’s a use case for AI.
Here’s something you could use AI for: planning. For example, you could give AI a prompt like, “I’m writing a book with ten chapters. I’m writing two chapters per week, adding an extra month on the end for a buffer. I write about 1,000 words per day. Build me a writing plan that I can track along the way.” You could also prompt it to create the plan in a spreadsheet, a PDF, or upload to your favorite project management software.
You could even ask it to code a tool to help you track your progress. We’re building something right now to help writers do this in alignment with coaching. Cool, right?
Consideration #9: The ethical line is blurry; know where you stand.
Repeat after me: AI will not generate, think, or problem-solve for me.
Here’s what I advise: Don’t write a paragraph or a chapter and put it in AI and say, “Tell me how to make this better.”
When AI does so much as insert a comma or change a word for you, it has become generative AI. Now you have stepped over the line of using it as a tool, and you’re now using it to generate, to create. Adding a word to your sentence is still creation.
AI generation is legally very risky. When I was at the London Book Fair in early 2026, one of the top things 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 only one line; they have many. And most authors don’t know exactly where they used AI. Because of this—and the many reasons I’ve already outlined—I 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 grammar checker. This is an acceptable use of AI. Word is closed-source software; it is safe to use. Generally, grammar checker and spell-check in a closed software platform like Microsoft Word is fine, so you don’t need to worry about those.
Consideration #10: You may eventually be required to disclose AI generation (and you should).
I personally think there should be some kind of legal requirement for authors to state if they used AI in the creation of their books, especially if they used it to write or edit. And on the ethical side, you—as a human being in the world, maybe as a business owner or as a brand—are being risky to use an AI tool without disclosure.
Don’t you want to show up with integrity? When you create your book fully, you show up with integrity. People are talking themselves into outsourcing their creativity, problem-solving, pattern-finding, and thinking, saying things like, “AI knows me better than I know myself.” Don’t delude yourself into not thinking. But if you do, disclose it.
Consideration #11: AI steals from others’ works—even design elements.
Now let’s talk about publishing. There are a lot of things that happen in this stage. In essence, this is where your manuscript turns into a product and becomes a real book out in the world.
Of course, there are endless things you could use AI for: proofreading, interior design, cover design, and back cover copy.
You can probably guess what I am going to advise for these. You got it: Don’t do it.
“But, Stacy!” I can practically hear you crying at the screen. “There are so many great tools out there! Why can’t I use those?”
First, all of these have trained on artists, creators, and writers, which means AI has stolen from them. So then we get into plagiarism, which is a serious problem with potential legal issues for you and your book. While it’s still a gray area right now, there are judgments coming out that are continually shaping the legal landscape of AI use.
Second, there is an active social cost. Authors are getting canceled for using AI right now. Canceled, as in, socially canceled and their contracts canceled. Why would you want to risk that?
If you’re just writing a book to share with your family, with no plans to market it, that’s perhaps a different story. But if you actually care about becoming an author, and writing a book is a foundational goal—and that book is meant to go and impact the world in a meaningful way to help grow your business, brand, or impact—I would not risk the integrity of your work for some of these quick-and-cheap options.
Consideration #12: AI can be a great marketing assistant.
Now we get to marketing. And here’s where I think AI can be incredibly powerful.
Tools like Claude integrate with other tools like Canva, which can be hugely helpful for the dreaded social media marketing that keeps many authors up at night. In Canva, you can upload all your brand colors and your logo, add your own generated content, and utilize it to create social content.
A rule in marketing is to create once and use that content as many times as possible, and AI can be helpful in getting many uses out of content you’ve humanly created.
AI can also be a great tool to look for places to pitch speaking, podcasts, guest articles, and more. It can help plan calendars, scan your existing online content for post content, and generally cut down a lot of the work and effort that used to be rote and time-consuming.
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I hope this conversation has gotten you thinking critically about your AI use. The truth is that everybody is using AI, with very few exceptions. My hope is that you take to heart 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.
Even the most 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’re going to stand out in excellence, because right now people are cheating, plagiarizing, and creating garbage. But you’re not going to do that now because you are wise and thoughtful. At least that’s my hope.
A closing thought if you’re on the author journey: 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.
What do you think about using AI in the book-writing process? Share your thoughts in the comments. I love engaging in smart dialogue!
P.S. This is a genuinely human article. No AI was used to write this piece.
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