Last week a big story broke that called into question the use of AI ethically in publishing.

A new book publisher, Spines, is promising to ‘disrupt’ the publishing industry by releasing 8,000 new books into the world in 2025.

To put this in perspective, Penguin Random House’s website reports that they publish an average of 1,500 titles a year across a range of genres.

For $5,000, Spines can help a writer go from manuscript to published in just three weeks, by using AI to proofread, produce, publish and distribute the books.

A lined notebook lies open on a table with a pen resting across the page and a mug blurred in the background

Now, I get why some writers would do this. If all you’ve ever wanted to do is publish your book, this is going to sound really tempting. But for me, this feels like a dangerous slippery slope.

Gaining visibility among readers is tough enough, but with 8,000 new books a year hitting the shelves (virtual or otherwise) it’s going to be tough to get your head above water.

Also, what guarantee do we have of the books quality? I put a lot of work into making sure my books are the best they can be because I love what I do, but will AI feel the same about the books it works on?

So, are there ways for authors to use AI ethically? Here are my personal rules:

What I wouldn’t use AI for:

Editing

A good developmental edit is vital for making your book the best it can be and I, for one, would not ever skip this step. I’m sure AI is very good at reading sentences but can it really take in, understand and give advice on plot, structure and character development? I doubt that very much. And I also notice editing is the missing element from what Spines is offering.

Proofreading

To the uninitiated, proofreading sounds like just reading a book and looking for typos but it’s much more than that. A proof reader is a very skilled professional, who looks for inconsistencies – like changing a character’s hair colour or name half way through the book, plot points that perhaps don’t work and the finally spelling, punctuation and grammar. Skip this step at your peril.

Cover design

I know there are a lot of people out there who would use AI to create a cover for them, but it’s not for me. No matter how good it gets, AI can never (in my opinion) offer the creativity that my cover designer does. And that’s the important word – creativity. My cover designer will look at what’s happening in my genre, the style of my previous covers, the content of my book and create something wonderful.

Narration of audio books

Yes, yes, a computer is probably much cheaper than a human when producing something like an audio book, but when I tested it, it was unable to pronounce ‘Allensbury’ correctly. Not great when it’s the name of your fictional town, eh? Plus I love what my narrator does. Ben Hynes is a very talented man and by using him I’m supporting his career as well as mine.

Where I would use AI:

Research

While working on my latest book I needed a description of a Georgian house and garden. That would distracted me from writing so I asked Claude AI. In just a couple of minutes, I had a list of 10 points and it was great, a bit like having your own research assistant. However, the rest of the research in the book was done by me, aided by library books and history specialist websites, because AI can be slapdash with it resources and referencing.

Creating content ideas

When I was deciding to restart my blog, I was worried about whether I’d find enough to write about. So I asked ChatGPT for a list of subjects readers would like to know more about. It did what I asked and, although the results weren’t all that inspiring, it can give you a good starting point.

ProWritingAid

This is a great tool to use as a last line of defence. It can be used as generative AI, but I use the basic version checking spelling, punctuation, grammar and sentence structure to make sure the book reads well. It can’t replace the proofreading process but it’s good to have a second opinion.

In short,

While advances in technology are great, I do worry that they’re going to cheapen the publishing industry and indie (or self) publishing in particular.

It can be tough as an indie, especially when you’ve just starting out, and I hope that in trying to ‘disrupt’ the publishing industry, this company doesn’t damage it instead.