One weekend I tried to write a vampire novel.

I cheated. I had AI do most of the work.

First, I gave it a plot. Then I asked it to write the first chapter.

Then I made it pretend to be Anne Rice, Stephenie Meyer, John Grisham, and Dan Brown. Each author had to critique the others, argue about what worked, and rewrite the chapter.

I kept changing the prompts. Trying different approaches.

Eventually, I realized I was rewriting practically everything AI wrote.

Why am I even using AI?

Look, I love AI. I studied it in the 1980s, built companies around it, and use it every day.

But here’s the problem with it: AI gravitates toward the average.

This is useful for plenty of things. If you're solving a math problem, you want the answer everyone agrees on.

But the average novel is terrible. The average business idea is mediocre. The average website looks like every other website.

And here's the biggest problem: AI is making it easier than ever to be average.

I discussed this with Chandler Bolt, founder of SelfPublishing.com, on my latest podcast.

His company helps publish two to five books a day. And our conversation revealed something much bigger than the future of publishing.

The Mobile Notary Lesson

Chandler told me about a book his company helped publish called Sign and Thrive.

It's about mobile notaries.

That's it.

Not leadership. Not finding your purpose. Not seven habits of people who wake up at 4:30 a.m. and make everyone else feel terrible.

Mobile notaries.

Chandler thought nobody would read it.

It now has roughly 1,600 Amazon reviews.

Meanwhile, thousands of people are writing generic books about leadership.

What's the difference?

Specificity.

The mobile notary book solves a particular problem for a particular group of people.

And this applies to almost every business.

AI makes it incredibly easy to build a website, launch an app, produce content, or start a company.

But when everyone has the same tools, the tools stop being an advantage.

The advantage becomes knowing exactly whose problem you're solving.

The Third-Marriage Problem

Chandler showed me another successful book: The Six Pillars of Intimacy.

I told him Claude could probably write something similar.

Six pillars. Historical anecdotes. Psychology research. Some Jungian ideas.

But there's a problem.

If I wrote The Six Pillars of Intimacy, people would say, "James, aren't you on your third marriage?"

Fair point.

The actual authors spent years coaching couples. They've lived the subject. They have credibility.

AI can give me the same information they have.

It can't give me their experience.

And this is going to matter enormously.

As AI makes products cheaper to create, trust becomes more valuable.

So does reputation. So does distribution. So does having real relationships with real customers.

The things AI can't simply generate on command.

The Viral Coefficient

Chandler introduced me to something called the viral coefficient.

I've written about 25 books and somehow never thought much about this.

It's simple.

When somebody buys your product, how many additional customers does that purchase create?

If one customer brings in another, your viral coefficient is one. If each brings in two, it's two.

Chandler pointed to The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.

Someone reads it. Changes their morning routine. Friends notice.

"What happened to you?"

"I read this book."

Another sale.

The product changes behavior. The behavior becomes the marketing.

This is what every entrepreneur and investor should be thinking about.

Not just, “How much can AI cut costs?”

But, “How can AI help build something so valuable that customers can't stop talking about it?”

Because cutting costs improves margins. Creating something people love builds businesses worth owning.

The New Scarcity

Chandler's company does about $10 million a year.

So I asked how he gets to $100 million.

His biggest challenge isn't producing more books.

It's finding customers.

Search engines used to bring him roughly $3 million to $5 million in annual customer revenue.

Now people ask ChatGPT instead of Google. They get their answers without visiting his website.

AI is making production cheaper while simultaneously disrupting distribution.

That's a pretty remarkable combination.

And it tells us where the next fortunes might be made.

Not necessarily by the people generating the most content, launching the most apps, or writing the most code.

But by the people who understand a specific customer, earn their trust, and build something customers recommend.

I still might finish that vampire novel.

But it has nothing to do with whether AI can write it. 

Because in a world where everyone can make anything, the hardest thing to manufacture is a reason to care.