Should you work with AI or a book coach?

The purpose of a book coach is to help you become a better writer and write a better, more effective, book.

Now you can, at least in theory, hire an AI to do the same thing. Which is better? Let’s compare.

AI wins on price, availability, and flexibility

From a purely mechanical standpoint, AI wins.

• AI is cheaper. AI tools run have capable tiers at about $200 per year for lots of usage. Even if you paid for ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, that’s only $600. You’ll blow through that in just two sessions with an editorial coach.
• AI never sleeps. You can chat with it at 2am on a Saturday if you want. You can ask questions Monday morning and again on Monday afternoon.
• AI is omniscient. It knows about financial services, literary history, and the World Cup. It can handle horror novels, how-to books, motivational books, and religious books. If knowledge is online, it’s in your AI tool.
• It has a perfect memory. You can ask it what you discussed six weeks ago and it will remember flawlessly.
• It will find grammatical errors and inconsistencies. It’s endlessly patient with the nitpicky little details.
• AI loves you. It’s unfailingly encouraging, unless you tell it not to be.

A good coach wins on creativity and growth

If you actually want to be a better writer with a better book, a human coach is your best bet.

• The coach actually cares about you. If you want real, challenging advice, go with the coach. The coach understands what motivates writers and readers, and will push you to fix the most important problems, even though you don’t really want to face up to them.
• The coach listens and exercises judgment. The right advice depends not just on what you wrote, but on who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. Balancing those goals takes a human touch. A coach is part therapist and part editor, a combination that AI has difficulty imitating.
• What the coach contributes is copyrightable. Coaches and editors often suggest better ways to write text. Strictly speaking, if an LLM does that, the output can’t be copyrighted. But writing by human editors and ghostwriters is just as copyrightable as what you wrote yourself.
• A regular coaching appointment creates discipline. Let’s say you meet with your coach once a week for an hour. You know you need to write text for them to review, and you know you must be prepared for your session. These regular meetings are valuable in moving you forward. The complete availability and forgiving nature of AI makes it easy for you give up and lose the writing habit — since no human is expecting anything from you.
• A coach can retain a long-term focus. It’s easy for writers to get sucked into the problems of the moment. A coach relates today’s issues to your long term goals, such as building a reputation as a thought leader.
• A coach will keep you learning. When you’ve mastered storytelling, the coach will challenge you to learn about structure. When you’ve learned how best to cite sources, the coach will challenge you to write about your original ideas. Every interaction with a coach is an opportunity to grow.
• Coaches have a sense of humor. I challenge the writers I work with using sarcasm, irony, and personal stories. Listening to criticism is not easy, but I try to make it fun. That works because I’m fully human.
• A coach makes you do the work. You can give up and ask an AI to do the work for you. You’ll learn little, and the results will be boring. As a coach, I’m not going to write things for you — I’m going to make you write them, because that’s what it takes to create something you can be proud of.

Don’t ditch the coach. But don’t give up on the AI, either.

AI can make you more efficient. It’s a powerful tool. But it’s no substitute for feedback from a human with a long history of building editorial and motivational skills.

You’ll pay a lot more for the coach. But they’ll help you grow to be a better writer with a book that accomplishes your goals.

Even in the AI era, that’s still worth it.