This week, at the behest of a mutual connection, I spent a terribly unpleasant 30 minutes offering free advice on book publishing and marketing to a venture capitalist. This guy is a renowned futurist who, according to himself, is “a serial inventor of wildly creative technologies and one of the top speakers on the future of AI-enhanced technologies.” In other words, a tech bro. The most sensible thing this unnamed individual said was, “I could have gotten a big book deal but chose to self-publish because it’s faster and I retained control of the cover design and the IP [intellectual property].” I told him I agree, and that I give my book coaching clients the same advice.Tech bro then proceeded to inform me that I ought to be utterly depressed, or at best “relieved that you’re retiring soon” (not something I mentioned, FYI) because “AI is killing books, and it does the writing for you already. So there will no longer be a market for any of your services in the near future.” He even gave an evil chuckle. I kid you not. Tech bro’s argument was full of holes, obviously. For one, novels aren’t going anywhere. He was speaking only to the realm of non-fiction. Secondly, we know that there will always be a place for books because there will always be people who – oh, I dunno, maybe this is hard for him to fathom – actually enjoy reading?I took a deep breath before responding. Then I said, “You know, I still have a steady stream of clients, even with the emergence of generative AI. My clients want to tell authentic stories from the heart, to write books with soul that connect them to themselves, their loved ones, their colleagues, and their readers in a meaningful way. These are people who genuinely care about healing themselves and having a positive impact on the world. They’re not just generating some piece of marketing material.”But since I’m a curious person, I couldn’t resist asking what he meant by “books are dead.” And I’m glad I did, because this was the only interesting bit of the conversation for me. “Books will morph into, essentially, AI chatbots. You’ll be able to ask them questions, and they’ll lead you through the material—likely in a highly individualized way, customized to your learning style,” tech bro mansplained. “Okay,” I said. “I can see that happening. But you still have to create the material the chatbot is based on to begin with. Just like audiobooks begin as words on the page until someone reads them aloud, and movies begin as screenplays—whether or not the book ends up in book form, you still have to write the book. You still need that raw material.”But he had grown bored and moved on. We wrapped up our conversation. I must admit, ever since, I’ve been having fun envisioning an AI chatbot version of our acclaimed 8-week writing course, Your Bestselling Book (which is now open for enrollment! The Fall 2025 Cohort runs from September 29 - November 21, 2025 and will sell out. Join us). How would I create an AI that takes people through the process of authoring their bestselling book? I wondered. Could it get them to dive into their “Movie Moments,” my trademark methodology for discovering the most impactful moments of your life? Could it guide aspiring authors in determining their core message and the optimal organization, while discarding unneeded material? Could it ensure the writing is actually good?What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you find AI does a great job of writing for you? Do you think books are dead? Would you use an AI chatbot version of YBB? Hit “reply” and share your thoughts with me.Aloha,
MeiMei *This newsletter was written entirely without AI. |
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