The US Book Show was held yesterday in New York City. The one-day affair brought together some heads of the Big 5 and other industry marketing experts for educational panels. One theme that weaved through these sessions was how AI is here to stay and that the publishing industry could simultaneously use it to thrive but can also get burned by it. Curiosity and concern were in close competition.
It was eye-opening to hear how AI has been or can be used to write, edit, market, and sell books. It can help from collecting data to writing author contracts, and it can do things that simply replaces workers, maybe even writers, or at least it will redefine those roles.
The rate of AI capability growth is happening rapidly, much the way the entire Internet grew in the 1990’s and social media in the 2010’s.
The event made it clear: AI can and will have a big role in the book world. It is actively used now by some in various ways. Eventually we will have to use it to stay competitive, just like many have adopted the use of computers, smart phones, the Net, and social media into their professional and personal lives. For the moment, use of AI is a convenient choice. It may not be in five to 10 years.
AI will have a tipping point, where certain companies establish themselves as the dominant leaders in the space, the way that Meta, Google, Amazon, and Netflix won the tech wars. Then things will become uniform and streamlined and new products will get released on a schedule.
People who create, like writers, don’t want computers writing books for humans, but many are open to AI providing data, research, document summaries, and suggestive prompts to help create dialogue or story elements, to do edits, and to help create promotional content for social media and websites.
There are far-reaching ways that AI can be used, many of which not everyone knows about nor is the tech capability yet perfect, but more and more people are inquiring and experimenting, and in the process of trying to learn AI, AI is learning about us and consuming what we feed it.
If you are curious about what to do or where to start, I am quoting what one of the speakers at the convention shared — a list of AI tools for book publishing:
Inkbloom: Slush pile/submissions analysis powered by Al to identify manuscript strength and market potential (inkbloom.ink).
Shimmr: Leading digital marketing firm (images and video) for the creation and optimization driving discoverability (shimmr.ai).
Editrix: Al-driven developmental editing that provides a fresh set of "eyes" for authors and editors (editrix.ai).
Clio: One of the top voice-assisted Al ghostwriters for non-fiction authors (cliobooks.ai).
In another slide, these products/services were recommended:
|
ChatGPT (OpenAl) |
- $20/month (plus plan) |
|
Photoshop (Adobe) |
- $59/month (Adobe Suite) |
|
Veo 3 (Google) |
- $20/month (Google Al Pro) |
|
Midjourney |
- $24/month (standard plan) |
|
NotebookLM (Google) |
- $24/month (Google Workspace) |
|
Kling |
- $11/month (pro plan) |
|
Intercom |
- $108/month (starter plan) |
I have not tried any of them and can neither recommend nor rule out any or all of them. But I might start exploring them.
It is an ally. It is an enemy. It is a
frenemy. Just like a weapon can be used for good (defense against invasion) or
bad (launch a war), AI can make the world a Utopia or a living Hell. What’s it
going to be for you?
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About Brian Feinblum
This award-winning blog has generated over
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For
the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He
formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the
head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the
director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many
first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with
best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen,
Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard,
Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C.
Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.
His
writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s
The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).
He
hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and
has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah
Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association,
Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and
Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the
2024 IBPA Book Awards.
His
letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester)
and The Washington Post. His first published book was The
Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook. It
was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.
Born
and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids,
and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.
You
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