My AI Process For My Books
AI has been one of the most controversial tools to hit the market since the advent of electricity and the internet. I remember hearing tales of people refusing electricity because they associated it with the devil, until over time, it became normalized. One thing I’ve learned with AI, especially from a business and marketing background, is that it is inevitably going to take over most markets. That has caused a lot of fear for job positions, but I think all fear can be set aside as long as we are willing to adapt to new technology. Technology doesn’t have to “take” our jobs; it can simply change the way they are done. I have a very optimistic view of AI, and like all tools, it can be used for both good and bad.
AI is most controversial in the art world because of the moral and ethical concerns around the “theft” of work from artists. But the great thing about AI is that you can train AI software based on your own art, which allows you to scale your products so you can make a livable income. Let’s break down how the art in my books is created.
I create a rough draft of the covers for my books using Procreate, a digital art software that allows you to create artwork on your tablet or computer, as opposed to using a traditional paintbrush and canvas. The rough draft captures the colors, the aesthetic, and the overall vision I have for the book.
I then upload this image into MidJourney and use it to train the software to replicate my art and create additional images for my book. This ensures a consistent aesthetic across the multiple images found in my children’s books. If you simply ask AI to create images, it will, but it rarely can repeatedly create images that align with the same artistic style and colors across an entire book. This "training" process can be a pain.
I repeat this process for every page. It is a time-consuming process. It does not take as long as painting out the image freehand, but it takes hours, if not days, to finalize each image. That’s not to say it can’t take seconds in a rush job, but if you want to put quality work into the world, it’s necessary to take your time with each piece, especially in a book setting where consistency is crucial.
After the images are created, they are then taken back to Procreate or Canva for additional editing. This editing process is sometimes quite extensive. As is humorously known with AI, in its efforts to create art, it can produce some oddities—like seven fingers on one hand instead of five. Can you just download the first image it gives you and put it in a book? Sure. Is it something your clients are going to appreciate? Most likely not.
In order to produce a quality book, this process still takes a significant amount of time to complete. Then, you have to format and design the book itself, write the story, edit, publish, etc. As an independent self-published author, there is nothing "easy" about using AI to create books, but it does simplify the process in terms of time compared to free drawing each design.
So why use AI at all? To scale my products. To make a living. In today's world, everyone is an author, an artist, a musician, etc., and that's something to celebrate. The world needs more artistry and beauty. However, this unfortunately saturates the market, making it difficult to earn a living. AI helps expedite the process of creating free-hand drawings, allowing me to produce a traditional 32-page children’s book in about one to two months versus six months to a year. My ability to create my children’s books more quickly allows me to release more stories into the market and establish my name, so I can earn a livable income doing what I love.
I currently own a business in conservation, and it has been a dream of mine to create books that teach adults and children about the absolute beauty and magic of our natural world. Now, I can do that in a way that is financially sustainable. All tools—ALL of them—can be used for harm or good. This applies to AI as well. Can you use AI to rip off artists and plagiarize authors? Absolutely. Can you also use AI to be trained on your own works so that you can scale your business and make a living? Absolutely. When used in this way, it is no different than digital art. Procreate and Photoshop received a lot of backlash in their time and were considered not "real" art compared to traditional canvas art, but this has been normalized when people recognized the time and dedication it still takes to create each piece. So, when people say AI art isn't real art, I disagree. When done ethically and based on your own designs, it still requires hard work, patience, and love to create each piece.
Do You Use AI To Write Your Stories?
No, not at all. But surprisingly, it’s not because I’m against using AI for writing, but because I personally don’t think what’s available to the public can create quality work. Can it write a poem? Sure, but it lacks significant emotion. Can it write a story? Sure, but it lacks significant depth and character/plot development. Tools like ChatGPT can form sentences that make complete sense, but it’s like reading a high school textbook that makes your head hurt and the words blur after some time because it is so dense and boring. As of now, it cannot create a beautiful story like your favorite author can.
In addition to that, it repeats itself over and over again. That’s how teachers started recognizing their students were using AI software to turn in their papers because every paper sounded exactly the same. Does it change a few words up and add new adjectives? Yes, but overall, it’s always the same repetitive dense content. I think the quality of tools like ChatGPT can potentially create textbook-style non-fiction, but even this would be fraught with lots of misinformation that would need to be edited. I have no objection to using AI as a tool in writing, but it is not capable of writing books worthy of building a dedicated reading audience.
I have been writing since my childhood. Pages and pages of poetry, songs, and short stories filled my notebooks. Books were my lifeblood—nature and books were what I turned to growing up in an abusive home. Writing helped bring my dreams to life, poetry put my pain into words. At 19, I wrote my first full book then turned around and wrote the full movie script to go with it. I then went on to publish my first book in my mid-twenties about my upbringing and finding business success by the age of 25. I am a writer; it is all I have known myself to be. Artistry and everything else has been secondary to being an author. My head is filled with countless stories, fantasies, poems, and I itch to get them written on paper. So for me, every book, every word will be my own. It must be. For no other reason than the words swarm in my head and must come out in a story and shared with the world.
AI is great in its current capacity to be used as a mild editor, which works great for children's books. You do need additional editing when creating a full chapter book. It also works better than Google for finding the right locations to build my story plots, or for searching historical facts to build your characters. Good authors spend a lot of time doing research for their books, and ChatGPT expedites the process. However, for some scenarios, I still fact-check the information from ChatGPT with Google because it consistently puts out misinformation.
If you were able to get through all of that—I applaud you! The process may not be interesting to some, but I know it’s of concern to many who are worried about the ethics of AI. Thankfully, it can be used in a way to scale an artist’s works so they can make a living instead of using it to steal or plagiarize the work of others. I dedicate a lot of time, passion, and excitement to each book I create. And I hope to inspire the world with the magic of our natural world and fantastical stories that inspire both adults and children to explore our wild planet and find the magic and beauty all around us.