Where AI Meets Ancient Wisdom

 When you first learned about ChatGPT in November 2023, did you feel a sense of doom? As in, “Here comes the end of humanity...” Visions of Blade Runner flashed in my head. 

Were you scared? I was.

But I was lucky enough to have a best friend and fellow storyteller, Jen Tate, who overcame her fear by diving in. Pretty soon, she was writing me emails telling me how much generative AI had helped her ghostwrite the book she was working on by suggesting a table of contents, doing a competitive analysis of similar books, and editing. 

And it’s only gotten better – fast. NotebookLM now helps you organize 30 books worth of content and generate short podcasts to digest complex information. Claude is a terrific tool for helping rewrite transcripts and generate summaries because it handles longer chunks of text.

However, it’s not all great. AI is also generating tons of junk content, flooding us with absolutely generic articles and blog posts and books and, frankly, dumbing down a lot of what I’m reading. Clients have submitted entire manuscripts to me of what we here at Your Bestselling Book fondly term “AI Slop.” 

It’s boring!

So, where does that leave professional authors like me, and people like you, who care about writing?

Somewhere in the messy middle.

We at YBB believe that generative AI is here to say, and it can offer a helping hand in many ways. So we should take advantage of the tools that are out there! 

We also believe that there is no substitute for the human voice. Our friends at Nardi Media agree. Founding CEO Ashley Bernardi has implemented a “no AI to write pitches to journalists” policy in her workplace. 

AI sounds generic. It’s overwrought in its use of grandiose statements and adjectives. Above all, it doesn’t have your voice. It does not know your unique life stories. It does not speak from the heart as you do.

That’s why we’ve pivoted in our acclaimed online book authoring course for high achievers like you, Your Bestselling Book. We’re leaning hard into AI as a writing partner, teaching when and where you should use it—and when and where to avoid it. We’ve revamped our program so that in 8 weeks, if you keep up and do your homework, you will leave with a completed manuscript.

We also feel that, in the midst of political upheaval, climate catastrophe and global uncertainty, you sharing your authentic voice is more critical than ever! We need you to uplift and inspire, to bless others with your tales of courage, to bestow upon us your wisdom and lessons for navigating these troubled waters. 

Join us for the Spring 2025 Cohort. 

Then, we’ll offer a personal handoff to our trusted partners who can publish your book on Amazon and in print (if you so desire), and offer assistance with personal branding, digital marketing and traditional PR if you want. 

Aloha,

MeiMei

Writing Tip of the Week: Use AI, but Not Too Much

• Write an Introduction to a book, poem or article entirely with your own mind, no AI
• Then feed that into AI and ask it to edit, “As if you were a New York Times bestselling author.”
• If you feel like it, you can ask it to act like a certain author you admire, for example Simon Sinek or Glennon Doyle
• Compare your version with the AI version. What do you like about what it did? Where do you feel it oversimplified, misstepped or lost your authentic voice?

Quote of the Week

Vision without action is just a dream, action without vision just passes the time, and vision with action can change the world.

⁃ Nelson Mandela