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A note on my process

Curious about how my books and this site come to life, what tools I use, and why? Here's exactly where I stand. I'd always rather over-explain than leave you wondering.

Last updated · June 2026

How I draft

I write—well, type—every word of my books myself, in ordinary writing software (Word, OneNote, Atticus, and most recently Campfire). I have never used AI or any other tool to write my books for me. The same is true of everything I write at length: my blog posts and even my newsletter are mine, start to finish. (Honestly, would an AI ramble as much as I do?) I respect authors who choose otherwise and disclose it clearly; I've simply decided against it, because I write for the joy, the accomplishment, and the self-exploration, and handing that to a tool would take those things away. (I don't even use voice-to-text yet—I'm not sure I think that linearly. I'll update this if I ever give it a go.)

Where I do use AI tools

I do use a few AI tools around the edges, and I'd rather be specific than vague:

  • Image generators (like Midjourney, Nano Banana) for visual inspiration, and to picture scenes and characters I already have clearly in mind. I share them only as free bonuses for my readers and subscribers. I believe in paying human artists when I can, and I don't profit from AI images: they never go inside the books I sell or on anything you pay for. Going forward, I'll also try to keep the style illustrated rather than photoreal. (My current character art for the Blood of the Covenants is photoreal because I created it a couple of years ago, before my rules solidified, but I always clearly disclosed its Midjourney origin from the beginning.)
  • Human cover artists for the books I sell—always. I pay a human artist to create the cover of every book you can buy, and I only ever use AI images to share ideas with her. The one exception is the free ebooks and PDFs in my Reader Library: because I give those away and make no money from them, I can't justify a cover designer's fee—and, trust me, I've tried to make my own, and I'm hopeless at it. So those free downloads sometimes carry an AI-made cover, just so the gift I'm handing you is something you'd actually enjoy looking at. I will never put an AI cover on anything you pay for.
  • AI chat tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) for research and fact-checking. I haven't used them for plot or character ideas, since those have come naturally so far—but I won't rule it out, and I'll update this note if that changes.
  • Claude (Anthropic) to build this website. Claude generated the visual design, UI components, and interactive features (including the Seven Clans personality quiz), and built them into a custom WordPress theme. I directed every decision about look, copy, and functionality—what you see reflects my vision; the tools carried it out.

How I revise

For developmental editing, I weigh the feedback of my wonderful human beta readers alongside ProWritingAid's AI critique reports, which only make suggestions; they never change my manuscript, and I reject around half of the AI suggestions (I take my beta readers far more seriously). For the Blood of the Covenants series, I also used Fictionary's evaluation tools; again, evaluation only, nothing that altered the text on its own, and I probably won't even bother for the next series.

For copyediting and proofreading, I use grammar and spelling checkers (ProWritingAid, Word, Google Docs) that may have AI under the hood, plus a human volunteer proofreader and several careful passes of my own—including while I narrate. I was a professional editor and proofreader myself; I know how valuable they are, and I'll pay for them as soon as I can.

Formatting & covers

I formatted the ebooks and PDFs for the series in Atticus (I'm considering Campfire for the next one). And, as above: a human artist makes the cover of every book I sell, always—I only use AI images to share ideas with her. The lone exception is the free ebooks and PDFs in my Reader Library: those no-profit gifts sometimes use an AI-made cover, since I earn nothing from them and can't justify a designer's fee. Never on anything you pay for.

Audiobooks

For each book's 2024 release, I offered an audiobook through Google Play's AI ebook-to-audio service, priced at or below the ebook—because it was the only option I could manage at the time, and it gave listeners an affordable choice. But I wanted to do better, so I took a narration course and spent 2025 recording the books myself. In February 2026 I finished the last one: now all six have an author-narrated version (available everywhere) alongside the AI version (still only on Google Play).

For my own narration I use Audacity to record and edit, Auphonic to clean up the audio, and—for a couple of the books—Pozotron to proof it (think spellcheck for audio; it changes nothing on its own). I'm committed to always offering a human-narrated option, and I'll hire a professional narrator when I can. (Audiobooks are expensive to make—I know now, from my own blood, sweat, and tears!)

Social media

I never use AI to write my longform work—the books, blog posts, and newsletter are all mine. What I use AI for is adapting that finished writing into social posts: I'm only ever reshaping words I wrote completely on my own.

For that I use Claude (Anthropic) and AuthorAutomations.Social. AuthorAutomations.Social drafts posts from my existing work and—using AI models like Gemini and Nano Banana—writes image prompts from that same content and generates the images. My assistant and I review every draft post and every image carefully, and I rewrite whatever needs it. Nothing is published until we're sure it's a quality post that accurately reflects the longform piece it came from. Then we use AuthorAutomations.Social to schedule and post.

A word on why I use AI-generated images at all—two reasons. First, social media now expects authors to be on camera almost constantly, and I'm not there yet. I understand how much that face-to-face presence builds trust and connection, and I'm working myself up to it, but I'm simply not mentally ready for it at that frequency. Second, I write fantasy because I love the magic we can't find in everyday life, and AI imagery can capture a little of that magic. No human artist could illustrate every post for me, even with a massive budget, and stock photography falls flat of it. I've consulted my moral compass on this at length, and I'm at peace with my use as long as I hold to three rules: I never profit from the AI-generated imagery, I keep the style illustrated rather than photoreal, and I disclose the process and my reasoning clearly—exactly as I'm doing here.

Replies are a different matter, and stricter. My assistant watches for comments and messages worth answering and brings them to me; I write the reply, and my assistant posts it verbatim, with zero variation. So every reply on my accounts genuinely comes from me—just relayed by a real human. This workaround exists to protect my mental health: without it, I simply couldn't be on social media at all. It's this or nothing. There's a fuller note on my Social page.

Why I'm telling you this

I don't take the trust readers place in an author lightly. Transparency is part of writing clean, honest stories—I'd rather over-explain than leave you wondering. If you ever have a question about how something here was made, just ask.

Common questions

Quick answers

Does Leah E. Welker use AI to write her books?
No. I write—well, type—every word of my books myself, in ordinary writing software (Word, OneNote, Atticus, and most recently Campfire). I have never used AI to write, plot, or generate ideas for me. I write for the joy, the accomplishment, and the self-exploration, and handing that to a tool would take those things away.
Are these books AI-generated?
No. The Blood of the Covenants series is written entirely by me, by hand. The only place AI touches my work is around the edges—research, grammar checking, and visual inspiration I share as free bonuses—never the words of the books themselves.
Do you use AI to make your book covers?
A human artist creates the cover of every book I sell, always—I only use AI image generators (like Midjourney) to share ideas with her, and those images never appear on a book you buy. The one exception is the free ebooks and PDFs in my Reader Library: because I give those away and make no profit from them, I sometimes use an AI-made cover (I can't justify a designer's fee for free content, and I'm no designer myself). I'll never put an AI cover on anything you pay for.
Are your audiobooks AI-narrated?
All six books now have an author-narrated version that I recorded myself, available everywhere. An older AI-narrated version (from the 2024 releases) still exists on Google Play as an affordable option, but I'm committed to always offering a human-narrated edition—and I'll hire a professional narrator when I can.
Do you use AI for editing or proofreading?
Only as evaluation tools that suggest, never tools that change my text on their own. I weigh my human beta readers far more heavily than AI critique reports (ProWritingAid, Fictionary), and I reject around half of the AI suggestions. Grammar and spell checkers may have AI under the hood, but a human proofreader and my own careful passes do the real work. I was a professional editor myself.
Was this website built with AI?
Yes—and I'd rather be specific than vague. I used Claude (Anthropic) to build this site: it generated the visual design, the components, and the interactive features (including the Seven Clans quiz) into a custom WordPress theme. I directed every decision about look, copy, and functionality—what you see reflects my vision; the tool carried it out.
Do you use AI on social media?
Yes, and as with all my uses of AI, I'll be specific about how. I never use AI to write my longform work; my books, blog posts, and newsletter are all mine. For social media, I use Claude and AuthorAutomations.Social to adapt that finished writing into posts, and AuthorAutomations.Social (using AI models like Gemini and Nano Banana) drafts image prompts from the same content and generates the images. My assistant and I review and rewrite every post and image before anything is scheduled. Replies are different: I write them myself and my assistant posts them word-for-word, so every reply genuinely comes from me. There's a fuller note on my Social page.
Why do you disclose all of this?
Because I don't take the trust readers place in an author lightly. Transparency is part of writing clean, honest stories—I'd rather over-explain than leave you wondering. If you ever have a question about how something here was made, just ask.