Cracking the Case of A.I. in Publishing
When I first tell people I’m using A.I. to help me publish my book, the first question I usually get asked isn’t even a question. More like an accusation:
“So you’re getting ChatGPT to write your book for you?”
The answer is no. I wrote the story on my own, every word. The tale itself is a thrilling detective novel set in a fantasy kingdom of elves, magic, and monsters called The Neversleep Scrolls: Circle of the Mind Thief. The protagonist, Fraenk Neversleep is a human investigator who is trying to figure out the reason behind the murder of the man who saved his life when he was a young orphan boy living on the streets. What he uncovers is a twisting conspiracy from a dangerous rival elven family who will stop at nothing to get their hands on something called ‘the Mind Thief’. The story is full of surprises and I won’t spoil how it ends, but you should definitely check it out.
There is another story here that is worth talking about. In the past few years, AI tools have fundamentally changed the nature of creative work and sent shockwaves through many industries that have felt pretty ironclad. The sentiment has been: “Sure, we can teach computers how to solve complex math problems, but they’ll never be able to paint pictures, compose songs or write poetry.” And while A.I. has yet to surpass, or even match humans on these tasks, the fact that it can do them at all is pretty astounding.
Ever since I started writing as a hobby years ago, my goal has been to create work that other people can enjoy. Maybe it would be nice if millions of people could enjoy it, and nicer still if I could reap the rewards of that. But while there have always been huge obstacles and gatekeepers between my story and my potential audience, those barriers are quickly vanishing. A.I. tools are making it easier than ever to publish your story and reach that audience– even if you’re just one person.
Here’s how I’m using A.I. in conjunction with human-powered creativity to launch my book:
Write the manuscript (human power). I wrote the story set in a world created by a close friend of mine. Anyone versed in Tolkien or Dungeons & Dragons will find a lot to like about this place. I’ve never actually written fantasy before, nor anything this big. (140k words!) But I honestly think it’s one of the best creative things I’ve done. And another cool thing is we have two other authors both writing stories in the world as well, so the potential audience has an opportunity to be three times larger.
Find more of my companion’s stories here at Blacksteel Press.
A.I. Generated Image plus Human Typography
Create the cover (A.I. and Human power) The old expression “don’t judge a book by its cover” seems to apply to everything except books. From what I’ve read online, it’s often the deciding factor in a lot of people’s decisions as to whether or not they’re going to check out your book. At this point in the process, the cover for my book has beautiful artwork which was generated with Midjourney and typography, which I did myself. I eventually plan to have an actual human illustrator create the final version, but for now, while everything is still fluid, there’s no shame in using A.I. to help you concept and iterate on the look you want. It saves you so much time (and money), not to mention frustrated back and forth with your illustrator trying to dial in an exact cover art image.
Narrate the Audiobook (A.I. power) So I’m veering off the traditional path of publishing here because I actually have published in the past and guess what? In my opinion, going straight to print without an audience ready to put down their hard-earned money is a fool's errand. It’s a good way to end up with a bunch of unpurchased boxes of books in your garage.
Instead, I’m launching my book as an audiobook. It’s a very popular way for people to consume your work and they can do it while driving, exercising, or any other time where listening is easier. But don’t you need a narrator? And with that, a sound engineer, editor, and recording studio? To do it professionally and traditionally, yes. I could save the time and money by trying to narrate and record it myself, but if you’re anything like me, maybe you’re not a huge fan of recordings of your own voice. That’s where ElevenLabs A.I. voice tools come in. With a subscription, I created a randomly generated elderly British man voice who sorta reminds me of David Attenborough or Roy Dotrice to narrate my story just by copying sections of the text and hitting the “generate” button. It actually adds a lot of nice gravitas to the story that my own voice could not.
Build the Visual Audiobook (Human and A.I. power) Wait, did you say “visual” audiobook? I thought by their very definition, audiobooks involved almost exclusively sound. That’s true, but here’s another point where I’m deviating from the traditional mode. Instead of purely audio, I’m launching my book as a series of videos. The audio format is still available and ready to go if I want to export it in a podcast format, but as videos, I can release all or parts on social media platforms and digestible on phones in a format that audiences are comfortable with and use all day, every day. To do that, I’m laying everything out in After Effects, starting with my narration files. Then I’ll need some artwork, which I generate using… you guessed it, Midjourney! This is a great way to get a bunch of amazing, creative artwork for the visual audiobook. With some good prompt engineering, you can even get some consistency across images and really add some ‘wow factor’ to your story. As a proof of concept, I even built a teaser trailer.
Commission Music (Human power) Videos don’t feel the same without some good music to go along with them, so I sought out the best to commission a piece for my story– a legendary YouTuber who makes the best Star Wars-themed sea shanties on the internet. He goes by Rowan the Bard and he’s crazy talented– you really need to do yourself a favor and check his stuff out. I thought he’d be perfect to create the brooding, medieval jazz score I needed for my book. It’s something that I specifically wanted a human to compose, due to its very unique style, and gives me a chance to support another amazing creator.
Release the Episodes (Human power) I haven’t reached this part quite yet, but I think my plan is solid: Launch weekly chapter-based episodes of my story on my branded YouTube channel. Since I’m untested to my potential audience, this gives them a chance to discover my work and build that following over time. I’ve got 50 chapters of the book, so that makes for nearly a full year of content to go out over time, gaining momentum and size– hopefully snowballing into an avalanche of an audience. Will this strategy work? Time will tell, but it gives people a chance to discover the book when they can and share it with others. All the while, I can promote, build hype and even launch an accompanying aftershow with each episode (if it’s going well).
It also affords me the chance to monetize my story by adding pre-roll YouTube ads, not to mention drive presales of the print copy of the book. And if no one preorders, then I know I don’t need to even do a print run, but at least I can know that ahead of time without the expense of having boxes of unpurchased books in my garage.
I’m also exploring the option of launching concurrent episodes in podcast form on Apple and Spotify, for additional reach. It never hurt to get your story out there whereever your audience may be— that’s how discovery happens.
Prepare the Sequel? (Human power) Assuming the book is a success and is building that audience, I have time to start thinking about Fraenk Neversleep’s next adventure. I may even have a few months of prep time to get the next book written and ready to launch just as the first one is complete. Or if the Neversleep Scrolls never catches on, I’ll know I can put my creative energy elsewhere.
Will my plan work? Time will tell, but I’d love to have you along for the ride. Please be a part of this amazing experiment and I’ll check back with you on how it’s all going.
