Author Sweets
Sign in

Author Sweets for writers with beta readers

A beta round is a lot of email: the file, the version, the questions, the chasing. Author Sweets runs it from the book. Readers open a link; you see what they said and how far they got.

Create a free accountTry the editor first

What you get

A link, not a file
Readers open a read-only link in any browser, with no account, on a phone or a laptop. The page remembers each reader’s chapter, and you can set an expiry or revoke the link at any time.
A code for each reader
Reader codes with a label and a use limit, so you know which reader said what and can close the round when you have enough.
Comments in the margin
Readers comment on the passage they mean, and the comments arrive on your Share screen grouped by reader, with the chapter and the text they were about.
The same three questions
Ask up to three questions and every reader answers them at the end of each chapter. The Answers section lays them out by question and chapter, ready to copy as text.
How far each one got
Every link and every reader shows the furthest chapter opened and the chapter they are at, and each code sums its readers up: how many have started, how many reached the end. Readers see none of this.
The next draft, without losing this one
Save a version before the round, revise with the comments beside the draft, and compare the two word by word.

The path a book takes

  1. Save a version. So the draft the readers saw stays as it was.
  2. Make the links or the codes. A plain link for a friend, a code per reader for a round you want to keep track of.
  3. Set the questions. Three at most, asked at the end of every chapter, the same for everyone.
  4. Read the comments and the answers. By reader as they arrive, by question and chapter when the round is in.
  5. Close the round and revise. Revoke the links, keep the answers, and compare the new draft with the version you saved.

What it costs

The free plan includes one book with the manuscript, the Outline and the Plot grid, characters, places and notes, read-only links for readers, and Copy as text and Download as Markdown, with no card. Scribe adds a second book and Versions, Scribe adds import, Artisan adds the Word, EPUB and PDF exports, and Artisan adds reader codes. The pricing page has the full table.

Also for novelists, memoir writers and nonfiction authors.