AI Can Help You Write a Book, But It Doesn’t Replace Human Book Editors

If you’re an aspiring author, or even an experienced one, you may have considered using AI to help write your book. With tools like ChatGPT and Claude being so mainstream these days, we’ve seen first-hand that many nonfiction authors are using AI to brainstorm ideas, structure their thoughts, overcome writer’s block, or even write entire manuscripts. In this blog, we’ll look at how much AI can help you write a book and whether it can replace human book editors.

AI as a useful tool

Currently, a lot of the publishing industry believes that AI is inherently bad for writing and should be avoided at all costs. We respectfully disagree. We believe that if AI is used thoughtfully and with clear boundaries, it can actually be an incredibly useful tool for aspiring nonfiction authors.

We’ve seen that many brilliant people struggle to write books despite having valuable ideas to share. As an example, those who are neurodivergent, dyslexic, speak English as a second language, or haven’t written much since school and don’t feel like a “natural writer”. Likewise, those who are founders, leaders, or subject matter experts and communicate more often and more comfortably through presenting or conversing rather than writing.

In these cases, AI can help authors organise their thoughts, develop their ideas, and build their confidence in writing. As such, writing books has become more accessible across a wide range of people thanks to AI, and we believe that’s a good thing.

AI as the writer

That said, we’ll be the first to admit that there is a big difference between using AI to support you as a writer and relying on it to entirely write a manuscript for you with minimal human input. While some people are using AI to help them structure their ideas or become a better writer, others are entering a prompt into ChatGPT, copy-and-pasting the results, and submitting it to Amazon KDP without even a lick of editing. The latter is lovingly known as “AI slop”.

The problem is: when AI is left to its own devices to write a manuscript, the result often offers little value to the reader, lands poor reviews, and damages the author’s reputation—as well as the reputation of publishing in general (which is just one reason why the publishing industry dislikes AI books).

Why? Because while AI content can appear polished and well-written on the surface, long-form writing requires much more than regurgitating content, generating grammatically correct sentences, and forming polished paragraphs. It’s also why—as editors who we read manuscripts every day (and use em dashes because they’re useful)—we can easily spot the signs of AI-generated writing.

What a nonfiction book needs

Nonfiction books need structure, pacing, and narrative consistency, which requires memory across chapters. They require the ability to develop ideas in a meaningful and engaging way over tens of thousands of words. AI struggles with these things, not least because it’s not designed to remember verbatim wording. This is why an AI-written manuscript may sound convincing on a sentence level but gradually become repetitive, generic, or unfocused on the whole.

They require insight, clarity, and a distinct voice, which requires human personality and perspective. As editors, we often spot AI over-explaining concepts, falling into vague abstractions, and saying a lot without saying anything at all. Or simply sounding indistinct. While readers may not always identify that AI was used, they can usually sense when a book lacks individuality or the human touch.

On a basic (probably obvious) level, they require factual accuracy to the best of the author’s ability. We’re not saying that every author will be able to guarantee that their book is 100% correct, AI can hallucinate, make up references, and confidently present ideas as facts. Unless authors carefully fact-check their material, inaccuracies can easily slip into a manuscript. This is especially important in nonfiction as readers are placing trust in the author’s expertise.

Why books need an editor

Given all of this, it should be obvious why human editors are still needed. Yet the discussions around AI writing seem to suggest that authors, editors, and pretty much anyone involved in books is out of a job. Contrary to what people might think, AI-written or -assisted books often require more editing rather than less.

Authors who use AI to write books, or support with writing them, often need a human editor to tighten repetition, impose structure, play devil’s advocate, and find the author’s natural voice—among many other things. A good editor can make any manuscript (human- or AI-written) better and more valuable for readers.

This doesn’t mean that aspiring authors necessarily need to avoid AI. It just means recognising that AI is best placed as a collaborative tool with the author, and not as a replacement for the editor. It also means understanding that the real value of a nonfiction book comes from the author’s experiences, insights, and perspective, as that readers connect with authentic human voices, not grammatically perfect writing.

Our stance on AI-assisted books

At The Book Shelf Press, we believe that AI can help people who otherwise may never have finished, or even started, writing a book. AI has the potential to make writing more accessible and help more people share their ideas with the world. But we also believe strong books still require human judgement, human creativity, and human editing.

That’s why we’re open to working with authors who have used AI in their writing process. What matters to us is your honesty, originality, and expertise. So if you’ve used AI for brainstorming your ideas, organising your thoughts, challenging your thinking, or support with writing, just let us know. As long as you’re happy for human editors to shape your manuscript into something authentic and valuable for readers, we’re on the same page.