Author Sweets
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Author Sweets for novelists

A novel is long enough to get lost in. Author Sweets keeps the shape of the book in view while you write the scenes, and stays out of the way of the writing.

Create a free accountTry the editor first

What you get

Start with a shape, or without one
A new book can begin as three acts, fifteen beats, the hero’s journey or romance beats, each chapter laid out with a scene that says what it is for; or blank, with the shape added later. Every chapter can be renamed, moved or deleted. The six structures and their beats
Scenes inside chapters inside parts
The manuscript is a tree of parts, chapters and scenes. Each scene has a status, a point of view, a synopsis and a word target of its own, and the editor saves as you type, online or off, with focus mode and typewriter scrolling for the long sittings.
The plan beside the draft
Characters and places have their own pages, each listing the scenes it appears in. The Outline moves scenes between chapters on a board, and the Plot grid shows the book by point of view, character or status, chapter by chapter, so a thread that goes quiet for five chapters shows up.
A pace you can keep
A word target and a finish date for each book, daily goals, sprints from the header, a streak and a calendar of every day you wrote. The statistics say how many words a day keep the book on time. How many words a day? The calculator
Versions you can go back to
Automatic snapshots as you write and a word-by-word compare on every plan; on paid plans, versions you save by hand and restore in one click, so a bold revision costs nothing.
Readers before publication
Share chapters by read-only link, hand out reader codes for a beta round, ask every reader the same three questions and see how far each one got. Running a beta round in Author Sweets
Out the door in the right format
Word in standard manuscript format for agents and contests; Word, EPUB and PDF with the front and back matter in place; and a style check on your device for passive voice, adverbs and long sentences before anyone else reads it. What agents and contests expect

The path a book takes

  1. Pick a structure, or a blank book. The chapters arrive laid out, each with a scene that says what it is for, or you add them as you go.
  2. Write the scenes in any order. A synopsis and a status on every scene, so the Outline shows what is written and what is still a card.
  3. Keep the plan beside the draft. Characters, places, notes and the Plot grid, all in the same book, a click from the scene.
  4. Revise with a safety net. Save a version, cut what has to go, compare the two drafts word by word, restore anything you miss (saving and restoring come with the paid plans).
  5. Run a beta round. Links or reader codes, comments in the margin, three questions per chapter, and how far each reader got.
  6. Export and submit. Standard manuscript format for the query, EPUB and PDF for the readers, with the page count shown.

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 memoir writers, nonfiction authors and writers with beta readers.