AI for Independent Authors: Where I Draw the Line

Artificial intelligence has made its way into just about every profession, including writing.

And depending on who you ask, that's either exciting, terrifying, or a little bit of both.

We've seen conversations about authors facing backlash over AI use, writers openly admitting to using it, and people who aren't writers at all plugging an idea into a large language model and asking it to spit out a book.

Somewhere in the middle are authors like me trying to figure out: Where exactly is the line?

There are legitimate concerns around copyright, intellectual property, how information may be used to train AI systems, and what all of this ultimately means for creatives.

But there's another side to the conversation, especially for independent authors.

We aren't just writing books.

Most of us are running entire businesses.

That means marketing, financing, graphic design, website maintenance, managing email, paying for and learning new tools, interacting with readers, planning events, tracking sales—and somehow finding enough quiet time to actually write.

There's a lot on the plate.

And in my case, like many indie authors, writing is still something I do part-time because it doesn't pay all the bills.

At least not yet.

So my thinking about AI has shifted.

Instead of asking AI to replace something I can do, I've started asking: What can it take off my plate so I have more time to do the things only I can do?

That's where I've found it most useful.

Organization. Research assistance. Sorting through information. Brainstorming. Looking at data.

Helping me turn the 47 things floating around in my head into something I can actually work with.

Basically, I want AI to be the assistant—not the author.

Four Rules I Follow When Using AI

1. Don't put all your business in there.

Every idea doesn't need to immediately go into a language model.

Sometimes an idea needs time to mature in your own head first. I don't believe in handing over every unfinished thought, manuscript, business idea, or piece of intellectual property just because a tool is available.

Leave some mystery.

More importantly, understand the privacy and data policies of whatever AI tool you're using before giving it something you wouldn't want shared or stored.

2. Check your privacy and training settings.

Don't assume every AI platform handles your information the same way.

For tools that provide privacy, data-control, or model-training settings, actually look at them. Know what you've agreed to and what controls are available to you.

I'm much more comfortable using AI when I understand what happens to the information I'm giving it.

3. Keep humans in the loop.

AI can do a lot.

That doesn't mean it should do everything.

I still believe in hiring a human editor. I write my own books. And there are parts of my business I either handle myself or want another person involved in because judgment, context, and human experience matter.

Efficiency shouldn't mean removing yourself from your own work.

4. Treat security like security.

Be careful about personally identifiable information, financial information, passwords, private reader information, contracts, unpublished material, or anything else that could create a problem if it ended up somewhere you didn't expect.

My rule is pretty simple: if it's extremely sensitive, AI probably doesn't need it.

Things I Wouldn't Hire AI to Do

Write my books.

This is probably my clearest line.

Will I use AI to brainstorm? Yes.

Help me organize ideas? Absolutely.

Talk through a plot problem? Sure.

Point out that a sentence sounds awkward and suggest another way to structure it? Fine.

But write the actual book for me?

Never.

The entire reason I became an author was because I wanted to tell stories. If I hand that part over, I've outsourced the thing I actually came here to do.

Be my only editor.

AI can catch things. It can identify repetition, awkward wording, inconsistencies, and other problems that are easy to miss when you've stared at your own manuscript 700 times.

I still don't think that replaces a human editor.

A good editor isn't simply checking whether a sentence is technically correct. They're considering voice, intention, emotion, pacing, context, and whether the reader will understand what you're trying to communicate.

I want that human touch on my books.

And maybe that's ultimately where I've landed with AI in general.

I don't need it to be creative for me.

I need it to give me more time to be creative.

For an independent author doing the jobs of an entire publishing team, that's where AI becomes valuable to me—not as a replacement for the writer, but as another tool that helps the writer keep writing.

Join the Conversation

What does “writing for the culture” mean to you as a reader or writer? Share your thoughts in the comments. If you’re a writer committed to authentic storytelling in Black fiction, subscribe to the newsletter for more craft insights, publishing conversations, and indie author resources.

If you liked this article, share it with a friend and subscribe to The Melanated Pen Blog.