Amazon may ban your ChatGPT book

Using AI and ChatGPT in writing your book
may risk getting your work banned by Amazon.

Can you use ChatGPT to write a book?

Many Instagram and TikTok posts say yes and even tell you how to do it.

Sounds easy!

The problem is you risk getting banned by Amazon, booted by the United States Copyright Office or losing your original content to others.

Our Publishing Director, Laurie Aranda, explored some of these issues, while attending an industry conference last month (May 2023). The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) featured a leading session on artificial intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT. 

Author Bridge Media's COO and Publishing Director, Laurie Aranda at the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Publishing University 2023 event with Emily Davis from IngramSpark.

One speaker told how Amazon delisted a book that used AI-generated content. In addition, Amazon also banned the publisher and all 60 authors under its imprint. The shopping platform kept the royalties for all 60 books, depriving the publisher and authors of further income.

Why?

Because AI and ChatGPT content is not original. It can also be easily duplicated, thus risking plagiarism issues. 

For example, if two authors ask similar questions, ChatGPT’s similar response could appear in both books. This violates Amazon’s User Agreement for original content.

Legally, AI and ChatGPT content also cannot be copyrighted.

The U.S. Copyright Office only recognizes original work. In one legal case, the bureau revoked an author’s copyrights on its artwork, because it was generated by artificial intelligence.

And corporations are also banning ChatGPT. Companies—such as Samsung, JP Morgan and Bank of America—have found that ChatGPT takes their intellectual property and private data, making it available on the dark web.

Here’s a warning. 

If you write your book using ChatGPT and simply publish its words without turning them into your own original phrases, you cannot legally claim copyrights on it.

And if you submit that book to Amazon, you risk getting banned as an author and publisher. You might get away with it, but you also might not. 

It’s a scary mess.

While ChatGPT will surely evolve rapidly, a legal and copyright backlash is even more likely to ensue.

For now, the old rules still apply.

Think independently. 

Create original content. Do original work.

ChatGPT is a wonderful tool. But be sure it aids you, not replaces you in writing your books.

As always, if you’d like to chat (hahaha), I’m here. 

I promise to create your original book.

Unlike ChatGPT material, you can copyright ghostwritten prose.

I’m a real person, happy to have real conversations. 

by Helen Chang, ABM Editorial Director

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