Dear I Write My Books …

I’m getting this question a lot. Some publishers have posted submission guidelines prohibiting ANY use of A.I. in a submitted manuscript. But there’s an argument that using A.I. to check grammar and spelling is akin to using the spell check and grammar check features in word processing programs, which we’ve done for decades. I’ve been watching for the industry to settle on this point. The Authors Guild may have just answered the question. They’ve launched a “Human Authored” certification program, which allows authors and publishers to put a trademarked seal on books to signal that the text was written by a human rather than generated by artificial intelligence. In its guidelines about what qualifies a work as “Human Authored,” the Authors Guild allows AI-powered spelling and grammar tools. Their guidelines also allow the “use of generative A.I. to create a table of contents, indices, or other auxiliary parts of a book, or for researching, brainstorming, outlining, or any purposes other than generating text.” You can read about the program here: https://authorsguild.org/human-authored/.

Happy writing!
The Editor

The Editor, Deborah Halverson, has been editing books for thirty years and specializes in picture books, Middle Grade/Young Adult fiction and nonfiction, and New Adult fiction. For her editorial guidance in making your manuscript ready for submission to agents and publishers or for self-publishing, click Editorial services. Learn more in her books: Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies and Writing New Adult Fiction