Writing the book is the creative act.

Launching it is the business act.

This week, I’ve been testing how far AI can push the business side without diluting the art.

When my formatter, Silvia Mihalcea, delivered the interior files, the creative work was technically finished. But publishing isn’t finished until the files meet the specifications of IngramSpark and Amazon. So I had Ingram generate a template, opened Photoshop, and built compliant print covers myself.

It’s not glamorous work. But it’s part of the modern author skill set.

The next layer was social media.

Each platform speaks a different language: Facebook rewards conversation, Instagram rewards visuals and emotion, and Pinterest rewards search intent and evergreen imagery.

Instead of staring at a blank screen trying to invent six variations of “preorder now,” I used AI to pressure-test angles, generate character visuals, and refine captions with SEO-rich phrasing tailored to each platform.

The result wasn’t automation. It was acceleration. Using the same images and text in different combinations and different formats.

I could test ideas faster, discard weak ones, and schedule posts in advance so marketing didn’t steal writing time. For Pinterest, for example, I found images online of each of the six European racetracks in Driven Together. Then Chat helped me create captions for each that tied the image to the book.

“From above, Silverstone looks open and expansive. Wide run-offs. Sweeping curves. Endless sky. But when the whole world is watching, even wide spaces can feel suffocating. Insider Formula 1 romance — Driven Together”

I recognized that I can’t do everything. I tried my hand at using Canva to create an Instagram reel, but everything I did looked amateurish. So I hired a guy on Fiverr, and gave him images and text that Chat generated. He came up with a 20-second reel. I had neglected to tell him about music, so he added a rap track, which I hated, and which made the video load slowly. He easily removed the music, and I like the final result.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DU_IGFvioJK/

It isn’t ethical to pay reviewers, but good reviews are essential to continued book sales. I hired a promotions company that has a list of over 500 readers who are eager to read new books, and willing to write reviews in exchange for the book. This company will also post social media and YouTube for me.

I deleted a chapter early in the book because I wanted to get to Formula 1 faster. But this chapter shows the growth of their relationship, so I created a separate epub for it as a “lead magnet,” a teaser that will encourage readers to buy the book. That’s a small project in itself—convert the chapter to epub format, create a cover and a brief marketing blurb, then upload it to the hosting platform for free downloads.

https://BookHip.com/FGRHHRN (for New York Interlude)

Preparing the upload requires many steps, too. I kept editing the copy that the reader sees after choosing to download. "Start Your Engine! After you read New York Interlude, get your copy of Driven Together. Full book available at Amazon.com"

What’s important here is that every step of the path toward a sale, a reader can experience friction. It’s up to me to minimize that friction, to make sure that every action is clear.

Final step of this particular process: to document this for you, dear readers, so you can get a glimpse of how business and creativity work together to bring you my new book.

Order Driven Together now and you're off to the races!
https://amzn.to/4rGtzqy