With the rapid proliferation of AI tools, we are all discovering new ways to leverage these tools to improve our writing, conduct research, brainstorm ideas, develop creative titles, and so much more.
AI tools can support your writing efforts, but please, please, please don’t use AI to write a nonfiction book manuscript. (See why writing your book with AI is a terrible idea here.) Instead, use AI tools to inspire creativity and improve productivity. Just be sure any content you publish is written in your own words.
The following is a list of 20 ways you can use AI tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and others to assist with a variety of creative tasks.
Create an Outline for Your Book – Describe what your book is about and ask AI to generate a comprehensive book outline. This can give you a good starting point but be sure to review it carefully and adjust to fit your needs.
Conduct Research – While many of the AI tools are notorious for hallucinations and citing false information, Perplexity cites its sources and makes it easy to verify them. Describe your project and ask it to generate a list of statistics or news articles for you. And no matter which tool you use, be sure to manually verify all sources.
Evaluate Competition – Ask AI to make a list of the top ten books that are similar to yours and provide you with the current Amazon sales rank, publisher information, retail price, categories, and a summary of feedback from user reviews.
Generate Title Ideas – Coming up with a catchy book title can be challenging for all of us, so why not let AI give you some suggestions? Describe your book and ask it to generate a list of “unique titles not already in use elsewhere.” I find these results can be helpful, especially when you can take some word suggestions from one and apply them to another, moving ideas around until you find your perfect title. This process works for books, blog posts, and articles too.
Ask for Keyword Research – If you want to understand what your target readers are typing into Google to find a book like yours, ask AI to perform keyword research and present you with the results. This data can be useful for crafting your title, book jacket copy, and setting up your book on Amazon.
Edit Your Manuscript and Articles – Before you ever import your content into an AI tool, be sure to turn off data tracking so your content isn’t used to train the agent and doesn’t get repurposed by someone else. And while you can upload your chapters into just about any AI tool, I recommend using an editing-specific tool such as Grammarly or ProWritingAid. These have been around for years and are specifically designed to help you catch errors. You can also ask the tools to review chapters for consistency, such as present vs. past tense, and ask it to point out areas that look repetitive or too vague. While these editing tools can be quite useful, be sure to still hire a human editor to review your final manuscript.
Critique Each Chapter – Share your manuscript and ask AI to review each chapter and summarize if it meets the needs of your target readers. You can also ask it to review your work based on different personas like a beginner, business executive, skeptic, etc.
Reorganize Chapters – If you’re unsure whether your chapters appear in the proper order, ask AI to assess it and make recommendations for improvements.
Carve Out a Niche – If your target audience is broad, ask AI to evaluate potential niches you could focus on.
Identify Potential Concerns – You can ask AI to look for areas that may be overly generalized. Conversely, you can also ask it to check for medical or financial advice and help you rewrite phrases to minimize liability. (Of course, this should never replace the advice of an actual attorney.)
Assess the Opening Chapter – Ask AI if there is a different chapter or section that should open the book instead of the one you are using.
Draft a Book Description – Share your table of contents and ask it to write the sales copy for your book. As said previously, don’t ever use AI-generated text verbatim, but reference it as a starting point to help you capture the key points from the book.
Write at the Appropriate Grade Level – Since our mission is to write manuscripts at the seventh-grade level, you can import a chapter or short piece of writing into an AI tool and ask it to rewrite it at the seventh or eighth grade level. This is for reference only so you can see the difference between your version and the new version. For example, it may use smaller words and shorter sentences, which tells you what you can do to improve your own version.
Get Content Ideas – Have AI generate a list of content ideas for your blog, podcast, and social media based on the content from your book.
Generate Lists of Resources – If you want to provide readers with additional resources or you want to learn about them for your own purposes, ask AI to compile the lists for you. For example, you could ask it to give you a list of trade associations for medical professionals or a list of sports influencers located in New York.
Create Companion Exercises and Worksheets – If you are aiming to teach your readers something, ask AI to help you identify workbook prompts or exercises for readers to complete.
Identify Quotations – Perhaps you want to start your chapters with a famous quote or share them on social media. Ask AI to do the work and create a list of 100 quotes related to your topic.
Locate Media Outlets – Ask AI to create a list of podcasts, blogs, and websites that reach your target audience.
Create Talking Points – To prepare for media interviews, ask AI to create a list of talking points you should focus on. You can also ask it to generate a list of potential interview questions so you can be fully prepared.
Create a 3D Book Image – Upload your book cover and ask AI to create a 3D version of it. You can also ask it to create images for social media.
Create a List Like This One – To write this list of AI strategies for writers, I gave Perplexity the following prompt: “Create a comprehensive list of ways a nonfiction author can use AI for research, editing, and other tasks.” I took inspiration from about 40% of the results it provided, wrote everything here in my own words, and added additional ideas I had already developed on my own. Easy peas-y!
How are you using AI for creativity and productivity? Share your best tips in the comments below!
If you like this blog post, you’ll love this book: The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan by Nonfiction Authors Association CEO Stephanie Chandler!
