Why I Don't Use AI in My Editing Practice

(Or, Why I Work for You Now Instead of the Publishing Company)

I walked away from a high-paying publishing job over generative AI.

I'm not anti-AI. I believe AI can be created and used ethically. I've trained my own model for a specific, targeted use case and benchmarked it against the heavy hitters. I've examined how small models can meet many of our needs without turning the ocean into a seafood boil. I believe AI can be ethically trained—see Arcee AI's Trinity Manifesto for a framework that makes sense.

But even that doesn't mean I'm all in for every use case.

When my company's head tech honcho asked me to rubber-stamp a policy allowing generative AI to write our publications for us, I pushed back. I voiced real concerns.

1. US copyright law is clear: AI-generated writing isn't copyrightable. We'd be shipping publications straight into the public domain. No protection. No ownership. No recourse.

2. If ChatGPT can write our content, no one needs to pay us for it. They can generate their own, for free—likely better suited to their own needs than ours was. The business model evaporates.

3. AI technology isn't sophisticated enough yet to develop authentic, good content. Maybe one day it will be. As of today? It's not.

4. Customers don't want AI slop. The reputational risks of points 3 and 4 together made the prospect untenable for our business.

Leadership was not prepared for a mid-level publishing executive to present a real obstacle to their big plan. The party line was "AI for everything," and anyone who stood in the way was "a luddite" or "afraid of change."

So, I resigned the next day.

Do I use AI? Sure. For lots of stuff. But publishing is too important to me to jeopardize quality or, worse, copyright, with generative AI. That's why I do all my writing myself and all my editing myself.

5 Reasons to Avoid AI for Editing

AI can do a lot. But it can't do the things that actually matter. The fact is, AI doesn't understand anything. It's just good at impersonating understanding.

1. AI doesn't understand your voice—it just matches patterns. ChatGPT can produce grammatically correct sentences. It can mimic styles. It can generate something that sounds like a professional piece of writing. But it doesn't know your voice. It doesn't know what you're trying to say, why it matters, or who you're saying it to. It can't tell you when a sentence is technically correct but emotionally wrong. It can't preserve what makes your writing yours. It will absolutely flatten your voice to make you sound like the average book.

2. AI doesn't understand structure—it just predicts the next word. A language model doesn't know what a plot is. It doesn't know what a character arc is. It doesn't know that a scene needs to earn its place. It can generate text that looks like a novel, but it can't tell you when your pacing is off, when your stakes are unclear, or when your protagonist is passive. It's a pattern-matcher, not a reader. Readers notice the difference.

3. AI doesn't understand readers—it just understands the patterns that readers have liked in the past—and that's not the same thing. AI is trained on a snapshot of the internet. It doesn't meaningfully understand genre, audience, or reader expectations. It knows that that romance readers want a guaranteed happy ending because it's seen that romance novels always have a happy ending, but it doesn't understand why. It knows the aggregate. Your readers don't want the aggregate.

4. AI doesn't understand copyright—and neither do you, if you rely on it. If AI generates content for your book, you don't own the output. You can't register it for copyright protection. You can't stop someone from copying it. You can't sell it with confidence. That's not a theoretical risk—that's the law. Worse, AI may insert copyrighted material from its training data into your work without you knowing, leaving you on the hook for copyright infringement.

5. AI doesn't understand you—it just processes prompts. When you hire an editor, you're not just buying a service. You're buying a relationship. Someone who reads your work, understands your goals, and cares about your success. Someone who can push back, ask hard questions, and tell you the truth. Someone who's been where you are and knows what it takes to get where you want to go.

If You're Considering Using AI to Edit Your Work

I understand why you're thinking about AI for editing. This is a shame-free zone. If you've thought about it—or are thinking about it—you're not alone. Your reasons are probably good ones.

Maybe know you can't afford an editor. Maybe you've looked at the rates and thought, "I'll never be able to pay that." Maybe you're staring at your manuscript, feeling stuck, and ChatGPT is right there—free, fast, and eager to help.

I get it. Editing is expensive because it's skilled labor. It takes years to learn how to do it well. It's time-consuming for a human being to read your manuscript through two or three times to edit it properly. And not everyone has $2,000 or two months to spend on a developmental edit.

That's why I've built a middle ground.

If you're ready for an editor, I'm available or I can make referrals to editors who are. I work with writers at every stage—from manuscript evaluation to developmental editing to copyediting to proofreading to typesetting. I offer free consultations. I want you to know exactly what you're getting before you commit.

If you're not ready for that investment, I've got tools for you. My workbooks, planners, and courses are designed to help you do the work yourself. They're not a replacement for a human editor—but they're a hell of a lot better than AI.

If you're just starting out, I've got entry points for all budgets. $2.99 worksheets. Free resources on my Substack. A podcast.

AI isn't the only way. It's not the best way. It's just the easiest way—but easy isn't the same as good. Writing your book wasn't easy. Don't give in to the temptation to take the easy way now.

If you're not sure what you need, let's talk. I offer a free 30-minute editorial consult. No pressure. I offer this because "free" is in everyone's budget. The consultation is a chance to figure out what kind of help actually makes sense for you—whether that's working with me directly, using one of my workbooks, or just walking away with a clearer sense of your next step. No pressure. Just clarity.

You don't have to choose between doing it alone and going broke. You just have to choose the right tool for where you are right now.

If you're ready for an editor, I'm here. If you need a middle ground, I've got tools for you.