“I’m thinking of having ChatGPT write my book.”
It’s a comment I hear every few weeks, and if you’re seriously considering the option, I wish you success.
Before you proceed down this road, though, here are a few things you might want to first consider:
- If artificial intelligence writes the book, what are you doing besides providing the general concept?
- If ChatGPT (for example) writes the book you’re putting your name on, OpenAI may actually own the book. This is an issue still working its way through the courts, and good luck getting a straight answer until then.
- ChatGPT and other generative AI programs start to repeat themselves after about the fifth paragraph. To prevent this, you need to constantly add details, telling the program what should happen next. No new original ideas means no new original content.
To paraphrase 1960s comedy folk singer Tom Lehrer, AI is like a sewer: What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
After 45 years in marketing, I’ve learned the most important question is always, “What is your objective?” This is the ball you must keep your eye on, and after answering that you can address your audience, timeline for success, resources you’ll invest, etc.
So ask yourself why you’re writing your book. If it’s just so you can say, “I wrote a book,” then you may not care about originality, quality, graphics and the like.
However, if you want to point with pride, using your accomplishment to promote your business, reputation or social life (or all three), then you should write the book, rather than relying on generative AI.
Now don’t get me wrong: There is a place for AI in your writing. It can be a good research tool, telling you train schedules from Beijing (or whatever) in seconds.
And I’ve seen authors use AI to generate a rough first draft of ideas for a story. They are then off and running, editing this rough draft and turning it into something of their own.
However, if you’re just picking up ideas provided by a machine and using them wholesale, rather than as a vehicle for generating your own creativity, you’re absolutely doing yourself a disservice.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
Learn to write better. www.writeawaybooks.com.
