We’re constantly gathering, testing, and updating chat prompts for various publishing tasks. Feel free to test, modify, and save these prompts to your AI Chat favorites.
Jump to prompts for specific departments using the links below, or scroll and browse.
Editorial
Copyedit Short Pieces of Text
Edit the following text using the Chicago Manual of Style, and give me a complete list of every change you make: (enter text here)Recommended LLM: Claude Sonnet 3.5 or Haiku (if working with longer texts)
Why this works: You’re giving the AI not only a framework for making copyedit changes (Chicago Manual of Style) but also instructions to give you a list of changes it made, so you can evaluate whether to implement these suggested edits.
Metatopic for Indexing
Describe the metatopic of the book.Recommended LLM: GPT 4o or Claude Sonnet 3.5
Why this works: This prompt gives you both a concise overview of the topics and themes in the book (for both fiction and nonfiction), as well as a starting point for building an index.
Marketing
Author Q&A
First: Upload an author bio to AI Chat (click the blue paperclip icon and upload a document or enter a URL)
You are a book marketing professional. Your task is to create an author Q&A for your publishing house website. Create a list of 5 potential target audiences for this book. Then write 10 questions for the author of this book that take into account the author's background and will elicit interesting answers for the target audiences. Make sure your questions don't include any spoilers.Recommended LLM: GPT 4o or Gemini Pro
Why this works: You’ve given the AI a role and asked it to incorporate multiple pieces of information (target audience, author bio) into its response.
Publicity
Press Release Announcing a New Book Publication
Write a press release announcing the publication of this book. The press release should include:
Headline: Catchy and informative headline that announces the book title and author, and teases what makes this book unique.
Book Information: Title, author, ISBN, publisher; leave blank spaces to for a human to fill in page count, price, publication date.
Author Bio: leave a blank space for a human to fill in the author bio. (Do not add anything or make up any information in this section.)
A compelling teaser summary of the book: start with a hook or sales tagline that conveys the book\'s theme, genre, unique elements, and/or target audience (DO NOT start this hook with a verb!). Continue with a brief plot teaser (for fiction) or topic overview (for non-fiction), key themes, and target audience. Highlight what makes this book unique or special.
Clearly articulate what makes this book stand out in the market.
Notable Features (Optional): If applicable, mention any special features of the book, such as illustrations, forewords, accompanying digital content, or partnerships.
Publisher Information: leave a blank space for a human to fill in the publisher details.
Contact Information: leave a blank space for a human to fill in press contact details.
Consider these additional instructions:
Do not use the phrases "in a world", "dive in" or "delve".
Use a professional yet engaging tone.
Balance factual information and narrative elements.
Tailor the language and focus to the intended readership of the book.
The press release should be approximately 400-600 words.Recommended LLM: Gemini Pro, GPT 4o, or Sonnet 3.5
Why this works: This prompt asks for a defined structure for the press release and instructs the AI to add blank spaces for information it doesn’t have access to (like the author bio, media contact info, etc.). It also adds detail about the tone and writing style.
Book Review Pull Quotes
First: Click the paper clip icon. Enter the URL of the book review or upload it as a PDF or Word document.
Give me 5 positive direct quotes from this book review about the book and the author to use in promotional materials about this book.Recommended LLM: GPT 4o
Why this works: This is just one example of how uploading additional content into AI Chat can be useful and time-saving.
Sales
Short Sales Tagline
Write a short sales handle for this book that teases the plot and takes into account the book's genre, subjects, and unique selling points. DO NOT START THE FIRST SENTENCE WITH A VERB! DO NOT USE THE PHRASE "In a world". DO NOT USE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING WORDS: dive, immerse, delve, step, journey, atmospheric, immersive, rich, richly, engaging, depth, gripping, unravel, weave.Recommended LLM: Try with GPT 4o, Claude Sonnet 3.5, and Gemini Pro. Then pick your favorite version.
Why this works: Asking the AI not to use certain words and phrases can help generate more meaningful responses—particularly in promotional materials.
Rights
Foreign Rights Pitch
(may include spoilers)
You are an experienced foreign rights manager at a prestigious publishing house. Create compelling promotional summary to attract potential foreign publishers. Follow these steps: Start with by creating a modern pitch line for the book that accurately highlights its primary genre and subjects, its themes, and unique elements. Include any key locations, people, or other elements that help sell the book. Mention the target audience or who potential readers of this book are. Next, Create a brief synopsis of the book, and include the driver of the narrative, arguments or story; Key Themes (What are the major themes or messages conveyed in the book?); Unique Selling Points (Mention what sets this book apart from others in its genre? Is it the author's unique voice, an innovative narrative structure, or a timely and universal theme?) Conclude with a statement about this book's appeal to foreign publishers: Briefly explain why this book has potential in other languages.Recommended LLM: Gemini Pro or Claude Sonnet 3.5
Why this works: You can give AI Chat longer, more detailed instructions as well as a defined structure for its answers. If you aren’t sure what kind of structure to ask for, you can first ask AI to help you define a structure.
Bonus tip: Ask the AI to translate its answers in different languages. After you get the answer you want in AI Chat, tell the AI: “translate your answer into French and Spanish”.