AI showed me what my audience was most interested in learning about, and it completely altered the way I grew my business. When I published my nonfiction book, I didn't want it to simply showcase my expertise, I wanted it to actually bring new clients into my business. I didn't treat the book as something to be hawked, but instead I developed A.I. to figure out how my audiences were behaving. I put my email open rates and website traffic through AI analytics tools to discover which topics in the book had piqued the most interest. That epiphany informed what I spoke on, the webinars I put on, and even how I framed sales calls. I also used AI transcription and summarization to transform podcast guest spots into short articles and newsletters. It helped me get more reach but without doubling the effort. What I found most surprising was that many of these readers actually found me through this repurposed content before ever making a purchase.
I found publishing the nonfiction book thrilling, but I soon discovered how much time traditional marketing can consume. Rather than assembling an entire team, I turned to AI to streamline my timeline without compromising the quality. For instance, I leveraged transcription services to quickly transform recorded talks and client workshops into well-crafted articles that reinforced themes from my book. That generated a ton of content for me without days of rewriting. I experimented with AI scheduling tools to test various headlines and posting times on both LinkedIn and Twitter. Within weeks, I learned when during the week and time of day the content connected most with my audience so there's less guesswork and more success. The biggest win was efficiency — I managed to keep pushing the book consistently and still run my business. AI gave me hours back each week, and turned book marketing into a manageable, repeatable system.
When I was preparing to launch my book Chat GPT for Authors: A Step-By Step Guide to Writing Your Non-Fiction Book, I skilled myself up on three AI tools for my book marketing campaign. I did this initially because I was curious about what they could do in the practice of running a book launch campaign. I now swear by these tools and use them with all the authors I support with promoting their newly published books. For the prelaunch, I used www.pressranger.com. Their AI press release feature automatically searched for journalists and publishers who might be a good fit, which saved me from hours of cold outreach. Even better, the press release helped get my book indexed across AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, and Microsoft Copilot. That still makes me smile, knowing that someone might ask a chatbot about my subject matter and be recommended my book. Next came ads, I tried www.app.quickads.ai, which let me deconstruct high-performing ad content in my niche. It wasn't about copying, it was more like looking at why certain ads work and then re-shaping that structure for my own campaigns. I used those insights to run ads on Facebook, Amazon, and BookBub. It made me realize just how many ads I'd run in the past without this data (and how much money I'd probably wasted). Finally, I used www.eezycollab.com, which has an AI influencer finder paired with an outreach tool. That helped me pull together a launch team across social media. It wasn't just influencers either, lots were passionate readers who wanted to be part of the journey. It turned what could have been a long, exhausting process into more of a community effort, which made the launch far more enjoyable. Using these tools gave me structure and momentum, and made the whole process less overwhelming. If you're a nonfiction author wondering about AI for marketing, my advice is: give it a try. Keep the connection human, but let the technology simplify the journey.
I have used AI to market my non-fiction books on Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Google My Business. I am the Dragon Ball Scholar, and I write non-fiction books and articles about the culture, history, and fandom of Dragon Ball, the world's biggest Japanese cartoon and comic. https://instagram.com/derekpadula https://www.facebook.com/dragonballscholar https://x.com/derekpadula https://youtube.com/c/derekpadula https://pinterest.com/derekpadula https://linkedin.com/in/derekpadula I use a SaaS website called AdCreative.ai that generates ad creatives as images and videos that are sized with the proper dimensions for each social media platform. I use them to promote my non-fiction books and brand. For example, I'll make a new creative any time I release a new chapter in an Early Access ebook, or when I publish a new print book, or I have a 5 or 10-second promotional short for my consulting service. The benefit of this approach is that the creative is always on-brand with my colors and font selection, and it is generated faster than making an original design in a graphic design program. They might still require tweaking, but it's oftentimes faster to edit an existing concept than create a new one from scratch. Having said this, there's not much of a difference in terms of user engagement. Whether it's AI-generated or my own original design, the percentage of users who engage with the creative remains the same. Whether high or low, each post remains a roll of the dice. I suppose that's a testament to the AI. Happy to answer any follow-up questions and provide samples.
Chief Marketing Officer / Marketing Consultant at maksymzakharko.com
Answered 5 months ago
Hi, I am Maksym Zakharko (Chief Marketing Officer/Marketing Consultant), an expert in media buying, user acquisition, and team leadership. Published author, industry speaker, podcaster, and judge. 170+ certifications, MBA, and 10+ years in digital marketing. More information about me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maksymzakharko/ https://maksymzakharko.com https://maksymzakharko.com/certifications/ My Answer: When I published my book, Digital Marketing Metrics That Matter: How to Track, Analyze, and Optimize Every Stage of Your Funnel for Profitable Growth, https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Marketing-Metrics-That-Matter-ebook/dp/B0FM8VVB94?ref_=ast_author_dp, I leaned heavily on AI to extend its reach. The biggest challenge wasn't writing—it was making sure the book found the right audience, and AI gave me a way to do that more creatively and efficiently. I used Sora and Veo3 to create video content for promotion. Instead of static graphics, I produced short-form video trailers tailored for YouTube Shorts and social platforms. Examples: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YHEm1FcPs7g https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wGwi3fhXz1g I also used AI tools for content adaptation, particularly for platforms like Reddit, where tone and authenticity are critical. Despite that currently sales are not as good as projected, plan to use more AI-generated video and test different marketing angles for book promotion. I've written 3 books in the field I work in and noticed that having too "niche" a book is a problem. I mean In the book above I've covered 10 years of experience that might be too advanced for readers. To succeed, a more "broad" niche is better in nonfiction. My number 1 example is Alex Hormozi's books. His books contain great insights to think about for every business owner and professional to use. Hence, in self-publishers like me, AI is a "gold" solution for low-budget promotion, especially in content creation like video.