How Authors can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Book Marketing
By Scott Lorenz
Westwind Book Marketing
As a book publicist, I am constantly looking for new and improved ways to help clients promote their books. Marketing is key when it comes to success—you can create a great book, but it will go nowhere if nobody knows about it. One new tool that is being used in book marketing is artificial intelligence (AI). AI is software that helps to carry out a task by collecting and applying data.
Many authors are already using a form of AI while writing. Features such as autocorrect and spellcheck utilize AI to search out grammar and spelling issues and offer corrections. With the more advanced generative AI, it can completely transform the style and tone of your work while keeping the content intact. I recently used AI on the first few pages of a client’s book, asking the program to rewrite it in a more dramatic style, and I was blown away by the finished product!
Beyond writing, AI can be used in many different ways during the publishing process. Here are some examples of ways AI can be used in book marketing.
1. Producing Copy
Using AI, authors can input key ideas and let the machines do the rest! What would take a human being hour to write up can be done in seconds. Sites such as The Associated Press have used AI for years to provide near-instant news, and in publishing, that speed can be used to get content out quickly, jump on the latest trends, and prepare for what comes next.
2. Find Target Audience
Many social media platforms utilize AI to provide personalized recommendations to each user. As stated in an article from FADEL, these recommendations are “a powerful tool for enhancing reader engagement, increasing content consumption, and fostering long-term loyalty.” For authors, AI can find those who will be interested in your book based on other content that they have engaged with.
3. Social Media Content Creation
Similar to producing copy, AI can be used to create social media posts based on popular trends. According to Forbes, this form of AI uses “text-to-image, image-to-video, image-to-image and other varieties of algorithms to create unique content like images, video, music and text.” For authors using social media to promote their books, AI will keep their content relevant and engaging.
4. Book Cover Creation
AI can also be used to create book covers. Given your genre and book content, it can make suggestions for potential covers based on similar or popular titles. Much like creating social media posts, some AI programs can even generate images for your cover. However, make sure to use programs that are not using stolen artwork to teach their AI!
5. Increased Accessibility
AI can also increase the accessibility of your book by generating text-to-speech, creating audiobook formats, translating to other languages, and much more. By offering more than one way to consume your content, more readers will be interested. Author C.S. Lakin recounts her experience of Amazon’s AI Audiobook feature: “Honestly, it took all of fifteen minutes, after I spent one minute choosing one of my titles, picking a voice, and publishing. Seriously! I have an entire 11 hours of audio listening for Time Sniffers, and it took Al all of ten minutes. The reading is pretty good—better than some narrators I paid to do my audiobooks.” Even better, this program is free!
6. Find Places and People for Promotion
You can ask AI chatbots for suggestions of places to promote your book based on your genre, target audience, or other factors. They can quickly locate influencers, websites, magazines, or bookstores that might be interested in promoting your book! Given how vast the internet is, it’s much simpler than trying to find them on your own. Plus, AI can find places that might not have ever crossed your mind.
7. Interview Practice
Not sure how to talk about your book? Ask AI chatbots to ask you questions about it. You can prepare answers for common questions before actual interviews. AI can also offer feedback on your answers, such as how to improve wording or what information you should add or remove.
8. Predictive Analysis
AI can be used to track trends and predict what will come next. What books will be popular? What advertising methods will be effective? What will catch people’s attention? What is going out of style? AI can study past and current trends to predict the answers to these questions. PublishersWeekly claims, “[AI] can do a great job with competitive analysis and can paint a compelling real-time picture of what’s happening in the market to the books that are siphoning off sales, and to opportunities missed.” Get ahead of the curve by preparing for the next big thing!
Reminder: Always double-check your AI-produced creations! You don’t want false or plagiarized information.
AI will continue to grow and expand, and authors should take advantage of it. It is cost-efficient, effective, and saves time. Some common AI programs for writers and publicists include ChatGPT, Bard, Jasper, CopyAI, Writesonic, Ocoya, Bing CoPilot, and DALL-E. However, this barely scratches the surface of the hundreds of programs available for every niche. Take time to explore and find what works for you!
If you’d like to see a step-by-step overview in using AI, check out an online video class by Jess Todtfeld, President of Success In Media, Inc, a leading business communication expert whose clients include the United Nations and Fortune 500 firms. ChatGPT to Supercharge Your Public Relations Media Training. Just watching the free previews will help you.
The Bottom Line: AI is a valuable tool when it comes to book marketing, as it is an effective and efficient way to expand your audience.
About Book Publicist Scott Lorenz
Book publicist Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether it’s their first book or their 15th book. He’s handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA Officers, Navy SEALS, Homemakers, Fitness Gurus, Doctors, Lawyers and Adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, & Howard Stern to name a few.
Learn more about Westwind Book Marketing at https://www.WestwindBookMarketing.com or contact Lorenz at [email protected] or 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist. Want help titling a book? Check out Scott Lorenz’s new award winning, bestselling book: Book Title Generator- A Proven System in Naming Your Book www.BookTitleGenerator.net.
