AI tools can now brainstorm, edit, draw, narrate and translate. Used well, they are a helper that saves you hours on the parts of publishing you dread. Used carelessly, they can water down your voice, misquote Scripture, and cause problems when you publish. Here is how to get the help without losing what makes your book yours.
Five ground rules
- 1Your story stays yoursNo tool can write your testimony, because it did not live it. Let AI ask you questions, organize your notes or tighten a sentence, but write the heart of the book in your own words. Readers can tell the difference.
- 2Pray before you promptAsk God what this book is for before you ask a machine to help write it. The purpose shapes every choice that follows.
- 3Check every ScriptureAI tools sometimes misquote verses, mix translations, or invent references that do not exist. Look up every verse yourself. ChosenPages' Scripture search, in the editor's Scripture tab, lets you check the KJV, ASV, WEB and YLT without leaving your manuscript.
- 4Protect your manuscriptBefore you paste chapters into any AI service, check its privacy and data settings. Some services may use what you type to train future models unless you turn that off. Keep private stories about other people out of these tools unless you have their permission.
- 5Be honestBe honest with your readers, with your publisher, and with Amazon about how the book was made. The KDP rules are explained below.
Where AI can really help
- Brainstorming and outlining: general AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are good thinking partners. Ask them for questions, angles and outlines rather than finished chapters.
- Getting unstuck: describe the scene or season you are trying to write and ask for ten questions that would help you remember it. Then answer them in your own words.
- Editing and proofreading: tools such as Grammarly and ProWritingAid catch typos, repeated words and long sentences. You can also ask an assistant to list problems without rewriting, so your voice stays intact.
- Early feedback: ask where a reader might get confused or lose interest. Then still give the book to real beta readers. People notice what tools miss.
- Book description, back-cover copy and keywords: AI is good at giving you several drafts to react to. Pick one and make it sound like you.
- Covers: design tools such as Canva and Adobe Express have templates in the right sizes, and some include AI image features. A professional cover designer is still often the best money a self-published author spends.
- Illustrations for children's books: image generators such as Midjourney, ChatGPT's image tool, Gemini and Adobe Firefly can create artwork. Keep a written description and reference image of each character so they look the same on every page. Check every image closely for odd hands, faces or garbled text.
- Audiobooks: AI narration services such as ElevenLabs can voice a book, and Amazon offers an AI "virtual voice" audiobook option to some KDP authors. Each audiobook store has its own rules about AI narration, so check before you produce one.
- Translation: AI translation (for example DeepL or an assistant) is a strong first draft. Have a fluent speaker, ideally a believer who knows Christian vocabulary, review it before you publish.
- Marketing: social posts, video scripts, voiceovers for ads, and email newsletters.
- 01"Here is my outline for a testimony book. Ask me ten questions that would help me remember details for chapter three. Don't write the chapter."
- 02"List the sentences in this passage that are confusing or too long. Don't rewrite them. I'll fix them myself."
- 03"Suggest fifteen possible titles for a 31-day devotional about trusting God in hard seasons."
- 04"Here is a summary of my book. Write three different 150-word Amazon descriptions I can choose from and edit."
- 05"Describe this character in detail so an illustrator could draw her the same way on every page: [your notes]."
- 06"What questions would a skeptical reader ask after reading this chapter?"
What Amazon KDP requires you to tell them
When you publish (or republish an edited book), KDP asks whether you used AI tools to create text, images or translations.
- AI-generated content must be disclosed. That means text, images (including your cover and interior illustrations) or translations created by an AI tool, even if you edited them a lot afterward.
- AI-assisted content does not need to be disclosed. That means work you created yourself and then used AI to brainstorm, edit, refine or error-check.
- Either way, you are responsible for making sure everything in the book follows KDP's content guidelines, including other people's intellectual property rights.
What copyright protects
In its January 2025 report on AI and copyrightability, the U.S. Copyright Office explained that copyright protects human authorship. Your own writing is protected. So are your creative choices in selecting, arranging and meaningfully changing AI output. Material generated purely by AI is not protected, and typing a prompt, however detailed, does not by itself make you the author of what comes out. If you register your copyright, the application asks you to identify any AI-generated material that is more than a small amount.
In practice, the more of the book you write yourself, the more of it you own. That matters most for illustrations: AI-generated artwork may not be protected, so someone could reuse it.
“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”
Colossians 3:23 (KJV)