Can I publish a book if I used AI to brainstorm?
Wretify is a clean, minimalist writing app for nonfiction writers, built for focus — with an AI that has read everything you've written and refuses to write it for you.
The short answer
Yes. If you used AI to brainstorm ideas or sketch an outline and then wrote the book yourself, it is your book. The US Copyright Office says that when a writer prompts an AI and references, but does not incorporate, its output, “using AI in this way should not affect the copyrightability of the resulting human-authored work.” Amazon KDP calls this “AI-assisted”, not “AI-generated”.
The line that matters is between ideas and text: brainstorming with AI is fine; text the AI wrote is treated differently, even if you edited it afterwards.
This page explains published guidance. It is not legal advice.
What does the US Copyright Office say?
In its January 2025 report on copyrightability, the US Copyright Office concluded that “the use of AI tools to assist rather than stand in for human creativity does not affect the availability of copyright protection for the output”, and that copyright protects “the original expression in a work created by a human author, even if the work also includes AI-generated material.”
It also drew the limits: copyright “does not extend to purely AI-generated material”, and “prompts do not alone provide sufficient control” to make someone the author of what an AI produces. Whether a writer’s contribution to AI output is enough is decided case by case.
Do I have to tell Amazon KDP I used AI?
KDP asks you to disclose AI-generated content — text, images or translations created by an AI tool — “even if you applied substantial edits afterwards.”
AI-assisted content is different. In KDP’s words: “if you used an AI-based tool to brainstorm and generate ideas, but ultimately created the text or images yourself, this is also considered ‘AI-assisted’ and not ‘AI-generated.’” The same applies when you wrote the content yourself and used AI to edit, refine or error-check it. Either way, you remain responsible for the content following KDP’s guidelines.
What about the UK?
In March 2026 the UK government proposed removing the special protection UK law gives to works generated entirely by computer, while keeping copyright for “works created with AI assistance”. As of September 2026 that is a proposal, not law.
How do I keep my book clearly my own?
- Use AI for questions, ideas and research — not for the sentences of the book.
- Write the text yourself, and keep your drafts.
- When a source matters, cite the real source, not the AI that pointed you to it.
- If any text did come from an AI, disclose it where your publisher or platform asks.
How does Wretify fit?
Wretify was built on exactly this line. Its AI brainstorms with you, questions your argument and brings you your own earlier writing and real, cited research — and it refuses to write the book. Nothing reaches the page unless you press Replace or Insert, or drag it there. In KDP’s terms, it is made to keep your book AI-assisted at most.
Sources
- US Copyright Office — Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability (January 2025) — www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf
- US Copyright Office — Copyright and AI — www.copyright.gov/ai/
- Amazon KDP content guidelines — kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390
- UK government — Report on copyright and artificial intelligence (March 2026) — www.gov.uk/government/publications/report-and-impact-assessment-on-copyright-and-artificial-intelligence/report-on-copyright-and-artificial-intelligence
Updated . Prices and features of other apps are taken from their own websites on that date and can change. Wretify is our product, so we have tried hard to be fair to the others. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.