I’m hearing it all the time lately: “AI Wrote my 20K word book for me in a day!”’ and so as an author, editor, ghost writer and book coach, of COURSE I wanted to know if an AI generated book was actually going to steal my job.

Well, the results are back… and here’s what I’ve found….

So we’ve got a whole bunch of people churning out books at lightning speed, and on the one hand, I’m all for creating more authors and getting more books out into the world

But on the other hand, we don’t just need more books – that’s just noise – we need more books that matter.

More books that not only change the lives of those who read them, but the lives of the people who write them too, because that was already on touchy ground.

I’m also worried that an over reliance on AI when writing yours, could rob the world of a book that could have been a total game changer for you and for your readers.

And instead you run the risk of having a book that is grammatically correct and structurally sound but a total flash in the pan.

I’m not stupid and you aren’t either – you’re totally going to use AI when you get your book written.

In which case you’re going to need to know what AI is great for when it comes to writing a book that is a total game changer for you and your business, and where its going to make your book a thing you did once but never got any results from…

So I’ve done all the research for you. And here is what I’ve found….

Let’s start with the good. Because it really is good at a ton of stuff that an author needs help with:

It’s an awesome research assistant

So much of writing a book is in the groundwork and so many people get stuck here, but when it comes to idea generation and brainstorming, AI is the GOAT.

A lot of authors tell me they’re not ready to work with me because they’re stuck on this bit. If only they could unscramble all those ideas in their heads.

Of course that’s something I can help with, but it’s probably not the best use of your time with me. Load up what you’re thinking into Chat however, and it will unjumble your thoughts and ideas, put them into a coherent order, pull out themes and help you connect the dots in moments.

From there it can even make other suggestions that might spark other ideas and connections that might have taken you hours to see on your own.

It can then help you whittle down that explosion of ideas into the essence of what really matters, so you finally have some clarity on the substance of your book.

It can make your messy first draft a doddle

The best writing is always re-written. In other words it started off in a big old mess and it was rewritten and edited and crafted into a masterpiece.

The problem is, you can’t re-write a blank page.

For so many aspiring authors, getting something (anything!) remotely coherent onto paper in the first place feels so intimidating that they stare at a screen for three hours and then go and clear out the junk drawer instead.

The good news is, AI can take the pain out of this one too. Share your notes, and half written pages, and blog posts, and other content, along with your idea and plan, and it can pull together a first draft in record time.

Finally, you have something tangible to work with. No more blank page.

It might be a little cold, a little crude, a little lacking in that ‘je ne sais quois’, but you’re no longer trying to create something out of thin air. Now you have the modelling clay in one malleable clump, and all you have to do is craft it.

It’s a great sub-editor

When you’re in flow your words can often spill out in a tumble.

Your sentences are loooong, your punctuation all over the shop, and you’ve used fifty words when you only needed 5.

The prospect of unpicking this pickle can sometimes relegate your manuscript to the proverbial drawer under your bed – but wait!

Now you can whack those paragraphs in to AI, ask it to check for grammar, flow and coherence and Bob’s your uncle, Sally’s your aunt, it’s all cleaned up.

While it definitely has a few annoying ticks, like an over reliance on things like em dashes, its great for cleaning up your copy, so you can focus more on the fun stuff like message and storytelling.

OK, so that’s the good stuff. Now here’s the stuff that ONLY A HUMAN can do for your book….

A.I can’t quite nail your book strategy

The best book strategies are baked into the bones of a book from the start. So it isn’t just about sewing ideas together, it’s about strategically creating the right book that aligns with your goals and speaks to your audience.

AI can generate ideas and even suggest a hook, but it’s not tuned into what your specific business needs. It can help you get there, but only if you know exactly what you want to achieve and what questions to ask, and how that goes massively depends on what your goals for your book are.

So many things play into how you might position that book, and AI isn’t necessarily going to be able to work that bit out for you.

The real work of positioning your book, aligning it with your business strategy, and crafting a narrative that speaks directly to your dream readers, needs to come from you.

You can’t just write any book. You have to write THE book. And AI doesn’t know what THE book is.

An A.I book is missing it’s heartbeat

An AI generated book can be structurally and formulaically sound, but it will always feel like it’s just missing something, and it is – it’s missing its heartbeat.

While all good self-help and expert books follow a formula of some kind, the real craft lies in knowing when you can (and should) deviate from that formula. It’s also about pacing and rhythm, and how we allow ideas to unfold – when to expand and when to hold back. This is what creates that push and pull in your writing and emotional tension that keeps your reader gripped and hooked.

A human writer does these things instinctively. The natural flow of your book is a feeling, a knowing, an intuition that grows the more you interact with your manuscript. And the more you touch your book, the more it takes on a life force of its own.

A good editor is able to tune into this too.

When you work with me, I often can’t tell you why something needs changing or adding or tweaking, i just know it does. And after doing this for more than 20 years I think this is because a human is able to tune into the heartbeat of a manuscript in a way that AI just can’t.

Whatever stage or capacity in which you are working on a book, as a writer, editor, or consultant, you become the steward for the message that’s coming through and it creates a dynamic that is more than just compiling information in a digestible way, but expressing it and presenting it with with soul – which is really the thing that your reader responds to.

Finally (and this list isn’t exhaustive) this leads us to…

It can’t replace your energy

When you input your writing into AI to be polished, it has a terrible habit of wiping all personality from your writing in the process. And yes I know it can be trained, but it’s also true that it favours certain sentence structures, certain vocabulary, and while on the surface it looks like a good piece of writing, that writing can often feel like it’s been given a lobotomy.

Your reader may not know enough about writing to be able to put their finger on exactly what is wrong, but they will feel it.

It’s lacking that lustre, surprise, quirks, authenticity and intention that only a human can bring to a book, and those are the things that a reader falls in love with.

So is there a middle ground?

Of course there is!

There are plenty of other areas where I know an AI-generated book is going to fall short and probably a ton of other ways it can help, but the truth is the inevitable rise of AI means that the way we do everything is changing – and that includes the way that I work with my clients on their books too.

In March 2025 I’m kicking off Read Magnet, my four-week immersive program and as result of everything I’ve learned over the last few weeks testing out A.I, I’m going to be doing things a little differently to planned.

Yes, I’ll still be guiding a small group of authors through the process of nailing their READ MAGNET idea and creating a rock-solid plan and outline so they’re ready to hit the ground writing by the end of it..

And yes, everything I teach in Read Magnet is designed to speed up your book-planning process and cut the overwhelm. I’m sharing with you my tried and tested methods for identifying THE book you need to write, and turning it into a high-converting book that is Velcro to you dream clients and collaborators.

But I’ll also be showing you the best ways to use AI to help you implement what you’re learning and make everything even faster and less overwhelming.

Because I know you’re going to do it anyway, so I want to help you do it right.

So you can save time on the mechanisms and focus on the soul.

Read Magnet kicks off on the 3rd of March, and there’s still time to join us. This is the very first cohort, which means a small group, high touch, and at a steal of price. If you’d like to join us, you can find all the details HERE>>