I’m sure you’ve seen the ads popping up on social media. The 28-day course that will make you an expert on how to use AI to launch your productivity to new levels. I ignored them because as a creative, AI is supposed to be the bad guy, the thing we shall not use. In the end, I surrendered the $20 for the course.
Now I’m forking over twenty bucks a month for the paid version of ChatGPT. It didn’t take much convincing. Here’s my journey. Coming up on a book launch (Scorched Earth, February 24), I needed some fodder for social media posts. I never know what to say.
I logged into the basic, free version of ChatGPT and typed the question, “What makes Facebook posts effective when launching a new thriller novel?” Two seconds later, I got this:
Launching a thriller on Facebook is basically about triggering curiosity without giving the game away. The posts that work best tend to do a few specific things really well:
1. They tease a question, not a plot
Thriller readers love puzzles. Effective posts don’t summarize the book—they dangle a mystery.
“What would you do if the person you trusted most disappeared… and left your name behind?”
“Everyone in this town is lying. The question is: about what?”
If a post can be answered with “I need to know more,” you’re winning.
2. They spotlight stakes, not characters
Readers don’t yet care who your protagonist is—but they care deeply about what’s at risk.
Life or death
A secret getting out
A ticking clock
An innocent person paying the price
One clear, escalating threat beats three paragraphs of backstory every time.
3. They use short, punchy copy
Facebook is a scroll battlefield. Thriller posts that perform well usually have:
1–3 tight sentences
White space
A line break before the hook or CTA
Think movie trailer voiceover, not book jacket prose.
4. They pair text with a mood image
You don’t need literal scenes. You want vibe:
A deserted road at night
A cracked mirror
A bloodless but unsettling detail (locked door, abandoned phone, empty swing)
Mood-first images stop the scroll better than character art.
5. They imply credibility or social proof
Especially important for new releases.
Examples:
“Early readers say this one kept them up past 2 a.m.”
“If you like Reacher, The Night Agent, or The Fugitive…”
“My darkest thriller yet.”
This reduces risk for the reader.
6. They invite low-friction engagement
Posts that ask for opinions outperform posts that ask for purchases.
“Which scares you more: being hunted or being framed?”
“Night reading or daylight only?”
“What’s the one line that makes you buy a thriller?”
Engagement boosts reach—and warms readers before the buy.
7. They rotate formats during launch week
Effective launches don’t repeat the same post. They mix:
Hook lines
Micro-excerpts (1–2 killer sentences)
Behind-the-scenes (“This idea came from a real case…”)
Countdown posts
Reader reactions
Variation keeps the algorithm—and your audience—interested.
8. They end with a clean, obvious CTA
No cleverness here. Be clear.
“Now available on Amazon”
“Kindle + paperback out today”
“Link in comments”
Confusion kills conversions.
If you want, tell me:
your subgenre (political, military, serial killer, tech, etc.)
whether this is Book 1 or a standalone
your target comps
…and I’ll write 5–7 Facebook launch posts tailored specifically to your thriller.
Yeah, all of that in a few seconds. Intrigued, I typed, “Scorched Earth is the 17th book in the award-winning Jonathan Grave political thriller series. Summary: Vengeance, murder, and violent political games are on a collision course in a propulsive Jonathan Grave thriller by New York Times bestselling author John Gilstrap. Disgraced U.S. President Darmond has been ousted from office, but his minions have taken aim at everyone they perceive to be enemies. Off-the-record contractors on a secret list are being eliminated, one by one. Jonathan Grave and his Security Solutions team manage to turn the tables when the assassins come for them. But the ultimate attack will strike deep at the heart of what’s best about American values.”
Most of that comes from cutting and pasting the description off Amazon. Two seconds later (and I’m serious about the two seconds), this appeared:
Nice—this has serious launch-post fuel. Since this is Book 17, award-winning, and political thriller readers already know the Jonathan Grave world, the posts should lean hard into stakes, legacy, and national consequences, not introductions.
Here are 7 high-impact Facebook launch posts, each with a different angle so you can rotate them across launch week.
Post 1: The Hook (Pure Thriller Tease)
Vengeance has a list.
And Jonathan Grave’s name is on it.When a disgraced president’s allies decide to erase their enemies, the killing starts quietly… and escalates fast.
SCORCHED EARTH is out now.
Post 2: Stakes Over Story
They aren’t after money.
They aren’t after power.They’re after revenge—and they’re willing to burn the country to get it.
Jonathan Grave faces the most dangerous enemy he’s ever fought in SCORCHED EARTH.
Post 3: Series Credibility / Social Proof
Seventeen books in—and the threats have never been bigger.
If you’ve followed Jonathan Grave from the beginning, SCORCHED EARTH takes the fight straight to the heart of American ideals.
If you’re new? Buckle up.
Post 4: Villain-Focused (Political Edge)
A president may be gone.
But his loyalists are still pulling triggers.Off-the-books contractors are dying.
Secrets are being erased.
And the endgame is anything but subtle.SCORCHED EARTH—available now.
Post 5: Ticking Clock
They’re killing names on a secret list.
One by one.
No witnesses. No mercy.Jonathan Grave and his team turn the tables—but stopping the assassins may not be enough.
Because the real attack is still coming.
Post 6: Reader Identity Post (Engagement-Friendly)
Thriller readers:
Do you prefer a villain driven by power, or one driven by revenge?If your answer is revenge, SCORCHED EARTH was written for you.
Post 7: Clean Launch CTA
The rules are gone.
The gloves are off.
And the fallout will be devastating.SCORCHED EARTH
Book 17 in the Jonathan Grave series
Now available in Kindle and paperback.
Pro tip for Facebook performance
Put the purchase link in the first comment, not the post
Pair these with dark, symbolic images (burned paper, shadows, empty corridors, flags in distress—not literal violence)
Pin either Post 1 or Post 7 to your page during launch week
If you want, I can:
tighten these to Amazon-ad length
write a Book 17 “jump-in” post specifically for new readers
or craft a controversy-safe political hook that pushes harder without tripping moderation
Just tell me which direction you want to lean.
I started a dialogue with my machine, and together, we put together a plan. But it didn’t stop there. I decided to play with images. A pivotal scene in the novel involves an airborne attack on a campground where children are celebrating the annual “Planetariat.” Don’t worry about the name, just stick with me.
I wrote, “Create a photorealistic image suggesting that violence is coming to a Camporee.” This one took closer to 10 seconds, and this is what I got:
Disclosure: The first iteration was Boy Scout centric. The final version is the result of edits like, “Change Camporee to Planetariat.”
Addicted now, I wanted more. I wrote, “Create story-related captions for this image.” Boom:
Here are story-related caption options for an image titled “Mysterious campsite at twilight”, all tuned to Scorched Earth–style tension. I’ve grouped them by vibe so you can pick what fits the post or rotate them.
Quiet Dread
Twilight is when secrets stop hiding.
By morning, this place won’t be what it was.
Nothing looks dangerous… until it is.
Ominous / Foreboding
The calm before escalation always looks like this.
Every tent holds a name. Every name is on a list.
This is where the plan starts to unfold.
Minimalist / Scroll-Stopping
They thought they were safe.
Safe ground is a myth.
Night falls. Consequences follow.
Political-Thriller Edge
Revenge doesn’t care who’s camping nearby.
When ideology turns violent, innocence becomes collateral.
The fight doesn’t stay in Washington.
Jonathan Grave–Flavored
Jonathan Grave knew this silence wouldn’t last.
He’d seen places like this before.
They never stayed quiet.The mission always starts after sundown.
All of the above (and much, much more) ate up less than an hour of my day.
I’m hooked, folks. Have y’all played with AI yet?
Click the link if you’re interested in listening in as Jonathan and Boxers discuss Scorched Earth. Spoiler: Big Guy is not happy with me.
That’s a mighty interesting post, John, reminding me of an old one-liner. “Hi, I’m from the IRS, and here to help.” How many steps from asking AI for sales copy to letting ChatGPT into writers’ novels? First a sentence, then a paragraph. Next a scene. Finally, an entire novel.
Instead of asking what ChatGPT could do for me, I’m left wondering what greedy Big Tech values serve as oil for the AI machine, grinding away the creativity of novice writers and leaving people feeling duped?
Like watching an accident unfold at a stoplight, I feel powerless to stop the AI carnage. As you wrote, ‘Addicted now, I wanted more.’
I’m going to avoid this slippery slope and its addiction.
John, I respect you a lot but I gotta agree with Grant on this one. No, I haven’t tried Chat GPT. Nor have I tried heroin or cocaine.
My aging brain needs all the exercise it can get. One day it may not work any more. I don’t want to hasten that day.
Like you I’m impressed with what AI can do and it’s getting better all the time. Stay tuned tomorrow for an example gone wrong.
I’ve used AI for research (it’s fast!), and when I needed to come up with discussion questions for a book we’d read at book club, or to generate ideas for questions to ask my panelists when I’ll be moderating a session at Left Coast Crime next week.
Also, when I have to distill a book description to 350 characters for filling out metadata.
No thanks. AI is too close to Frankenstein for me.
Hard pass from me. Aside from the huge environmental costs, there’s the negative impact using AI has on our brains. Like Debbie, the last thing I want is for my critical thinking skills to atrophy, especially as I age. I want to continue to embrace the creative struggle, be it writing a story, a novel, or “marketing content.” The effort involved is part and parcel of the process.
I’m one of those Humpty-Dumpty people who sit on the fence when it comes to AI. Depending on how deep things go, it’s possible for me to fall on either side of the fence. Depending on your definition of AI, the spell check feature in my word processor, or using the Find Synonyms feature, could be considered AI. What about subscribing to a tool that suggests sentence restructures, new words to maintain tense integrity? Could a definition of AI go so far as to include hiring an editor to look for typos, punctuation, story and character arc, etc. After all, hiring someone else to make suggestions is pretty much the same as ChatGPT, we’re not using our own brain power. Well, at least until we see their recommendations, just like spell check’s recommendations, then use our own brains to accept or reject. So, with all of that said, and talking myself in circles, I do my best to stay balanced and NOT fall off the wall. I don’t want to be so broken that not even all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put me back together again…I might need AI to do it.
When I want a sentence or two for social media marketing, I use ChatGPT (the free version). Here’s one for Lacey’s Star: A Lady Pilot-in-Command Novel:
“Lies, shadows, and half-truths followed her everywhere—until one star revealed what everyone else had missed.”
I also use Mockup Shots for images that include my book for social media posts.