An Author’s Guide to AI, Part 1: Understanding the Basics

This is the first in a plain-English primer on AI and what it means for your writing life.

Alex Shuper for Unsplash+

If you’re an author, chances are you’ve already formed an opinion about AI.
Maybe you’re cautiously curious, wondering if it could save time or spark new ideas.
Or maybe you’ve already made up your mind: “No thanks, robots. I saw Terminator. I know how this ends.”

Either way, the conversations about AI aren’t going anywhere. And neither is the technology. What is changing is the way authors are expected to write, market, and show up. Tools are evolving fast, and many of the ones you already use (yes, even Canva and Google Docs) are powered in part by artificial intelligence.

That’s why I’m writing this series. Not to convince you to start using AI, but to help you understand what it is, how it works, and what it means for your writing life. You don’t need to love it; you just need to know how to navigate it.

So, What Is AI?

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, refers to computer systems that try to mimic human thinking, decision-making, or creativity. It shows up in more places than you might expect.

If you’ve used auto-suggestions in Google, predictive text on your phone, or clicked on a recommended show in Netflix, you’ve interacted with AI. But lately, the real buzz has been around tools that can create things: blog posts, book covers, marketing copy, even audiobooks.

These are called generative AI tools. And they’re the ones most relevant to your life as a writer.

How It Works (No Tech Degree Required)

AI tools don’t actually “think.” They don’t have ideas. What they do is process enormous amounts of existing information from books, articles, websites, forum posts - and learn patterns from it.

When you type a prompt into a tool like ChatGPT, it generates a response by predicting what’s most likely to come next based on what it has seen before.

It’s less creative genius and more very advanced autocomplete.

Sometimes, it nails it. Sometimes, not so much. But even on its off days, it’s fast; when used well, it can help you move from stuck to starting.

Where Does AI Get Its Information?

This is where things get murky.

Large language models are trained on massive amounts of data pulled from across the Internet. That includes publicly available websites, books, social media posts, forums, and more. Some of it is licensed. Some of it isn’t; and in a few high-profile cases, companies have been caught training AI on pirated books, without permission from the authors who wrote them.

That raises a lot of ethical and legal questions we’ll explore in a future post in this series. For now, just know this: AI doesn’t create content from thin air. It remixes what it’s been fed; content that was, in many cases, written by people like you.

This is part of why authors are right to approach AI with a mix of curiosity and caution. It’s powerful. It’s useful. And it’s not always transparent.

So Why Should You Care?

Because AI is already here, and it’s not going anywhere.

It’s embedded in tools you’re likely using right now:

• Canva’s “Magic Write”

• Smart suggestions in Google Docs

• Grammarly’s tone rewrites

• Microsoft’s Copilot

• Amazon’s internal systems that power book listings and ad targeting

Even if you never directly use an AI tool, its influence will still affect how you write, publish, and promote your work. The good news? AI can’t replicate your voice, your lived experience, or your point of view. What it can do is help you move faster, save time, and offload the tasks that slow you down.

That’s where the opportunity lies; not in handing your work over to a machine, but in choosing where a machine might make things easier.

Coming Up Next:

Will AI Replace Authors? (Spoiler: Nope.)
Next time, we’ll break down what AI can’t do - and how to protect the one thing it can never replicate: your voice. Because let’s be honest... until it makes dinner, folds laundry, and files your taxes... you’re still the boss.

Not sure what’s standing between you and the readers you want to reach?
Let’s take 30 minutes to look at where you are, where you want to go, and what might be getting in the way. If I can help close the gap, I’ll share how - whether that’s coaching, consulting, or done-for-you support.
Book your free UnStuck appointment here.

Lynn brings her more than 30-years experience in small business marketing, publishing, and multiple best-selling author campaigns to her Substack newsletter. She helps authors build and grow their platforms to reach their unique marketing goals through private coaching, non-fiction consulting, and done-for-you marketing programs. And all this, through her computer, in her little lake house in rural Pennsylvania which she shares with her husband, son, and two fluffy companions, Kaiju and Bella.