Advice for writers
for writers
Our Approach to Artificial Intelligence in Publishing
Artificial intelligence is already reshaping publishing, and we believe it is important to be honest about both its possibilities and its harms.
At Atmosphere Press, our approach is rooted in a simple principle:
AI can be a useful tool, but books should remain human creations.
We use AI selectively to support our publishing professionals—not to replace the people whose judgment, creativity, and expertise shape each book.
- What will always remain human
- Where we may use AI assistance
Publishing a book involves hundreds of decisions that depend on taste, judgment, communication, experience, and an understanding of what an author is trying to accomplish. Those responsibilities belong to people.
At Atmosphere Press:
➜ Your book remains your creative work. AI does not replace your authorship or creative vision.
➜ Editorial judgment is human. Editors—not AI systems—determine the feedback and recommendations they make about a manuscript.
➜ Your book is designed by publishing professionals. Human designers remain responsible for the creative direction and final execution of covers and interiors.
➜ Proofreading remains subject to human judgment. Technology may help identify possible errors, but a human proofreader determines the appropriate corrections.
➜ Marketing strategy and positioning remain human-directed. Our team determines how a book should be presented, positioned, and promoted.
➜ Final creative decisions remain human. AI-generated output is reviewed, revised, and evaluated rather than treated as automatically complete or publication-ready.
➜ The author retains the creative authority established in our publishing process and contract.
In other words, we may give publishing professionals better tools. We do not replace the publishing professionals.
We do use AI-assisted technology in portions of our publishing workflow, and we believe authors should know where that may happen.
Depending on the project and service, AI may assist with:
➜ Comparable-title and market research, including audiences, keywords, metadata, and positioning
➜ Manuscript analysis to support editorial, production, or marketing work
➜ Manuscript preparation and formatting for usability and clarity
➜ Proofreading support, including identifying possible spelling, grammar, or consistency issues for human review
➜ Back-cover teaser and marketing-copy development, including drafting or refining preliminary language that is then reviewed and edited by our team
➜ Marketing research and planning, including promotional ideas and discoverability opportunities
➜ Limited cover-design support, such as visual exploration, modification, or refinement under the direction of a human designer
➜ Internal organization and workflow tasks, including summarizing, analyzing, or transforming information to help our team work more efficiently
These examples are not intended to be an exhaustive list of every tool or task that may involve AI. As technology changes, some applications may change as well. What remains constant is that AI assists our publishing professionals rather than replacing their judgment or responsibility.
We recognize the ethical concerns around AI
We recognize the serious concerns surrounding artificial intelligence, including the environmental cost of large-scale computing, the use of copyrighted and creative work to train systems without meaningful consent, and the fear that human artists, writers, editors, designers, narrators, translators, and other publishing professionals may be undervalued in the rush toward automation.
These concerns matter to us because books are not merely products. They are acts of human imagination, craft, memory, and meaning.
Without the beauty of human creation that books represent, Atmosphere Press wouldn’t even exist, so this is something we take seriously.
We protect authors’ work from unauthorized AI training
Because we are a publisher founded on author rights, our author contract directly addresses one of the central concerns around AI in publishing: whether an author’s work can be used to train generative AI systems.
We want to protect our authors’ intellectual property, so Atmosphere Press does not knowingly license or use an author’s book, manuscript, or any portion of their work to train large language models (LLMs) or other generative AI technologies without the author’s prior express written consent.
This protection applies whether that use would happen directly or through a third party.
And in line with the explicit recommendation of The Authors Guild, we also will not use AI to narrate or translate a book without the author’s prior express written consent.
We expect transparency and respect for creative rights
Our publishing process depends on respect for authorship, ownership, and creative rights.
In the publishing contract, authors are required to affirm that they own the book and have the right to publish the material they provide. When a book includes material the author does not own, the author is responsible for securing the appropriate rights, permissions, and credits.
Authors also must affirm that the work they provide does not infringe on copyright, violate privacy rights, or contain libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful material.
This same principle of transparency applies to AI-generated material. Because AI-generated content may raise editorial, ethical, legal, and copyright considerations, authors are required to disclose any AI-generated content they provide for publication.
It is also our responsibility as publisher to disclose to printers and distributors when they will be manufacturing and selling AI-assisted material.
How this appears in our author contract
These principles are not just philosophical. They are reflected directly in our public author contract.
Our author contract asks authors to affirm that they own the work they are publishing, that they have secured the necessary rights and permissions for any material they do not own, and that any AI-generated content provided for publication has been disclosed.
The contract states:
The Author asserts that (i) the Author is the sole proprietor and owner of the Book and has the right to publish all elements of the Book provided by the Author; (ii) for elements of the Book not owned by the Author, Author shall take responsibility for rights acquisition and proper crediting; (iii) the Book does not infringe upon any copyright or proprietary right, or violate any right of privacy, or contain any libelous, defamatory, or other unlawful material; and (iv) any content generated by artificial intelligence must be disclosed by the Author.
The contract also directly addresses the use of AI in connection with a book during the production process:
Publisher shall not knowingly license or use the Book, or any portion thereof, to train generative artificial intelligence technologies, whether directly or by sublicense to a third party, without Author’s prior express written consent.
Publisher shall not cause the Book to be narrated by artificial intelligence or translated into another language using artificial intelligence without Author’s prior express written consent.
Publisher may employ artificial intelligence tools at its discretion as part of its publishing workflows. Author’s creative authorship remains unaffected, as all final editorial and creative decisions remain human.
What this means for authors
For authors, our position is straightforward:
Your book remains your creative work.
We will not knowingly use your book to train generative AI without your permission.
We will not use AI to narrate or translate your book without your permission.
We may use AI-assisted tools as part of our publishing workflows, but those tools remain subject to human review and professional judgment.
And authors are expected to be equally transparent with us about AI-generated material they provide for publication.
Our guiding principle
We believe the future of publishing should not require choosing between innovation and integrity.
New technology can help publishers research more effectively, catch problems, work more efficiently, and find better ways to connect books with readers. But those tools are most valuable when they support—not replace—the human work that makes publishing meaningful.
Our goal is to use AI thoughtfully and transparently while continuing to honor the people at the center of every book: the authors who write them, the publishing professionals who help shape them, and the readers who bring them fully to life.
Last updated: September 8, 2026
Atmosphere Press is a selective hybrid publisher founded in 2015 on the principles of Honesty, Transparency, Professionalism, Kindness, and Making Your Book Awesome. Our books have won dozens of awards and sold tens of thousands of copies. If you’re interested in learning more, or seeking publication for your own work, please explore the links below.