Assisted versus generated

Assisted: brainstorming, outlining, research summaries, grammar and line suggestions, blurb drafts, keyword lists, marketing copy. You made the judgements; a tool did some labour.

Generated: prose, images or narration produced by a model and used substantially as produced. This is the category platforms care about, and the one with unsettled copyright.

Where you will be asked

Upload forms at the major retail platforms, agent and publisher submission portals, some contest entries, and cover-art licensing terms. Answer the question in front of you and do not volunteer a category the form does not recognise.

Policies at every one of these differ and are revised often. Read the version live on the day you submit rather than trusting a summary — including this one.

Wording you can use

For a copyright page, where you want it stated and closed: “This work was written by the author. AI tools were used for research, editing suggestions and marketing copy. No portion of the narrative text was machine-generated.”

For synthetic narration: “This edition is narrated with a synthetic voice.” For your own cloned voice: “Narrated by the author using a licensed clone of their own voice, with consent on record.”

Only state what is true. A disclosure that overstates your restraint is worse than none.

Keep a record

Note which tools you used, for what, and when. If a rights question, a contract clause or a platform audit arrives two years from now, that note is the difference between a two-minute answer and a problem.

Asked and answered

Do I have to disclose using AI for editing?

Usually not as generation, but the form may still ask. Answer what it asks; grammar and line assistance is normally treated as a tool, not authorship.

Will disclosing hurt my sales?

Honest disclosure of assistance rarely does. Concealment discovered later does real and lasting damage to a name.

Does Drakenscroll disclose its own AI use?

Yes. Some of the free instruments use AI drafting and say so on the page. Nothing built for a client is machine-authored, and no voice is synthesised without its owner's recorded consent.