Making a Book With AI: What Really Happens Behind the Scenes

2026-11-10

"Making a book with AI" sounds like one button that spits out a book. In reality it is a process with several stops, and at each of them you decide. Here is what happens behind the scenes at Magical Book, from the moment you upload a photo until the printed book arrives.

Stop 1: Your answers are the raw material

The AI does not invent the story. It writes it from your answers to seven questions: the occasion, the tone, three memories that have to be in, favorite places and hobbies, and a sentence for the last page. A book without good answers comes out generic. A book with the memory of "the car that broke down on the coast road" comes out as yours.

Stop 2: The story is written, and you edit

Within about a minute you get a cover and ten pages. This is where human review comes in: yours. You can edit any page by hand, ask for a rewrite, or leave a note and we write it accordingly. Nothing moves on to illustration before you approve the text.

Stop 3: The illustrations are made from the photo

The clear photo you uploaded, one per person, is used so the character in the illustration looks like them: the face, the hair, the build. That is why we ask for one photo with the face toward the camera, in good light, with no sunglasses or hat. We illustrate the cover and two pages first, for free, so you can see the likeness before you pay.

Stop 4: Approval, printing, delivery

Only if you love the sample do you order the full book. It is printed as a hardcover, 21 pages: a cover, ten text pages, and ten illustrations, with a dedication. The price for your country is shown before you pay, and you can see current prices on the create page. In the US, delivery takes about 12 days.

And what about children's books?

In our children's books the process is similar, but the story is chosen from dozens of ready-made stories (birthdays, holidays, adventures), and the child becomes the hero with their own face and name in every illustration. There too: one photo, a free sample of the cover and two pages, and only then payment.

Three questions everyone asks

Is my photo kept? The photo is used to create your book. It is used for the illustrations only, and it is not sold or used for advertising. A photo that no book was made from is deleted after 7 days, an unpaid book is deleted after 21 days, and after a purchase everything is kept for 8 months and then deleted. You can ask for earlier deletion. The full details are in the terms of use and the FAQ on the home page.

What if the illustration does not look like the person? That is why there is a free sample before payment. You can upload a different photo and try again.

Who writes it, a machine or a person? The text is written by artificial intelligence from your answers, and you edit and approve every page. The final book is what you approved.

Make a personal book, starting from the first question.