It comes as no surprise that I am impressed by and fond of ChatGPT. While it is not perfect, it remains a useful, powerful, and resourceful tool.
For those less experienced with writing books, a book manuscript undergoes various forms of editing prior to publishing. Here are some key types of edits that book manuscripts typically undergo:
Developmental Editing: This focuses on the overall structure of the book, storytelling, progression, character development, and more.
Content Editing: This evaluates the actual content of the manuscript, ensuring it is coherent and engaging.
Line Editing: This entails editing the book line by line, improving the style, standard of writing, and overall flow of the stories and key messages.
Copy Editing: This primarily involves checking grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Proof Editing: This is the final review, considering the book as a whole—the look, feel, impact, and quality. Some even add beta-reading, where copies of the manuscript are given to beta readers for a final evaluation.
Book manuscript editing typically happens in this sequence, as each stage builds on the previous one.
Gemini can advise on editing manuscripts but cannot perform the edits itself. ChatGPT, on the other hand, can perform these edits. By simply uploading the manuscript and prompting it to perform specific edits, you can see ChatGPT work its magic.
However, the manuscript editing performed by ChatGPT should not be seen as a replacement for professional book manuscript editors. Professional editors bring a wealth of experience and human relatability to a book, which ChatGPT cannot yet replicate. Through various iterative engagements with ChatGPT, one might achieve a book edit equal to that of professional editors. Yet, this remains untested and will likely require extensive engagements and iterations. The fact that books are often long and ChatGPT has a limited display window complicates this. There are ways to prompt around this constraint, but it is not an easy exercise for those not well-versed in using ChatGPT.
Despite these limitations, the manuscript editing capabilities of ChatGPT should not be underestimated. As a cost-saving measure or for books not intended for professional consumption, ChatGPT can perform adequately if prompted properly. In due course, I will be releasing my book on professional ChatGPT prompting.
Upwards and Forward
-Sidney Pretorius