Human Writes

Writing and promoting books in the age of AI

Bestselling author and journalist Catherine Mayer, acclaimed novelist Winnie M Li and Killing Eve author Luke Jennings explore the challenges of writing and promoting books in the age of AI and social media. With authors inundated with AI scams and high-profile exposés resulting in un-publishing books, how can authors navigate the minefield of AI and its application in writing and promoting books? Three bestselling and acclaimed writers talk openly about their experiences.

About the authors:
Catherine Mayer is a bestselling non-fiction author, novelist and an award-winning journalist, whose career spans stints at The Economist and as the editor of TIME magazine in Europe. She co-founded the Women’s Equality Party and Primadonna Festival. One of her books, the biography Charles: The Heart of a King, generated worldwide headlines with its claims of dysfunction in the royal courts. Her novel, TIME/LIFE, was published by Renard Press in 2025 and this summer sees publication by HarperCollins of her latest book, Divide and Rule: Royal Women and their Battles. Widowed at the start of the pandemic, Catherine runs the music estate of her late husband, musician Andy Gill, and executive-produced a double album in his memory, The Problem of Leisure: a celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four. Catherine served as director of a technology think tank and continues to work to highlight the risks and rewards of new and emerging technologies. She is a member of the Society for Hopeful Technologists.

Winnie M Li is the author of three novels and Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. Her most recent novel What We Left Unsaid is out in paperback now. A former film producer, her debut Dark Chapter won The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize, was nominated for an Edgar Award, and translated into ten languages. She has since adapted it for the screen. Her follow-up Complicit was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award. Winnie holds a PhD from the London School of Economics in Media and Communications and an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland.

Luke Jennings is the author of the Killing Eve novels, the basis for the worldwide hit TV series. The novels follow the thrilling, obsessive duel between Villanelle, an elite assassin, and Eve Polastri, the MI6 agent tasked with hunting her down. The sixth of these novels, Luke’s much-anticipated new title Killing Eve: Medusa, is published on May 11. Further novels tracking Villanelle and Eve’s lethal adventures and volatile relationship will follow. Luke is a London-based former journalist who has written for the Observer, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. He is the author of Blood Knots, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson and William Hill prizes, amongst other fiction and non-fiction titles. With his daughter Laura, he wrote the Stars stage-school novels.