Upload Your Manuscript
Drop one or more files here, or click to browse.
Multiple files will be assembled in the order you set.
Name This Manuscript
Enter the working title for this manuscript. It will appear in your review history.
Manuscript Files
Drag to reorder. Files will be assembled top-to-bottom.
Review History
Review Studio Guide
Everything you need to run a professional manuscript review from upload to finished corrected draft.
What This App Does
Manuscript Review Studio runs your manuscript through a structured seven-stage editorial process using three simultaneous expert perspectives: a professional book editor, a book marketer, and a subject matter expert for your specific domain. The review is unsparing - it provides the level of critique a serious publisher's editorial team would deliver before committing to print.
The Six Stages
1 - Manuscript Input
Upload your manuscript as one or more files. Reorder multi-file uploads to set chapter sequence. The app assembles everything into a single text before review begins.
2 - Pre-Review
Before the full review, the app derives five key points from the manuscript itself: author positioning, subject matter domain, target reader profile, competing titles, and a front/back matter audit. You confirm these before proceeding.
3 - Critical Review
A complete six-section analysis covering structural integrity, voice and pacing, prose quality, factual accuracy, front/back matter, and market positioning. No section is omitted. No findings are softened.
4 - Recommendations
One best recommendation per issue identified in the Critical Review - written and ready to implement. No option lists. Decisive, actionable guidance with a brief justification and one viable alternative per recommendation.
5 - Title Evaluation
Evaluation of title, subtitle, and author name as a trio. Covers genre fit, Amazon discoverability, and series branding. Includes pen name recommendation if no author name was found, or evaluation of the existing name's market fit.
6 - Cover Design
Generates a scroll-stopping ChatGPT prompt for your book cover. Upload your generated cover images and Claude identifies the single strongest version with specific improvement suggestions. Iterate until you have a winning cover, then proceed to Implementation.
Cover Design — How the Iteration Works
Step 1: Claude generates a ChatGPT prompt optimized for your book title, target market, and format (ebook or print).
Step 2: Take that prompt to ChatGPT/DALL-E and generate 3–4 cover variations.
Step 3: Upload the images here. Claude evaluates each one and identifies the single strongest cover — clearly explaining why it wins. If a second cover is genuinely close, Claude notes what separates them.
Step 4: Claude provides 3–5 specific, actionable improvements for the winning cover.
Step 5: Take those improvement suggestions back to ChatGPT and generate a refined challenger image. Upload it alongside the current winner and click Re-Evaluate. Repeat until you are satisfied.
Step 6: When you have a winning cover, click Confirm — Begin Implementation to proceed.
7 - Implementation
A single corrected manuscript pass incorporating the confirmed title, subtitle, and author name, plus all accepted recommendations. Download as .md, .txt, or .pdf. Followed by AI-generated rule recommendations to personalize future reviews.
The Rules System
Rules are custom editing and formatting instructions that apply to every review you run. They are appended to the review instructions automatically. Over time, your Rules library becomes a personalized style guide that shapes every manuscript the app touches.
See the Step-by-Step tab for full details on creating and managing rules.
Before You Start
Open Settings (⚙ top right) and enter your Anthropic API key. Click Test Connection to confirm it works. Your key is stored only in your browser - it is never sent anywhere except directly to Anthropic's API.
Step 1 - Upload Your Manuscript
Click the upload area or drag files onto it. You can upload:
- .md or .txt - plain text, read directly
- .docx - Word documents, text extracted automatically
- .pdf - text extracted from each page
- Multiple files - e.g., one file per chapter
If you upload multiple files, a reorderable list appears. Drag files into chapter order before proceeding - this is the order they'll be assembled and reviewed.
Step 2 - Pre-Review Confirmation
After assembly, the app automatically runs a Pre-Review analysis and streams the results into the transcript. Review the five derived points:
- Author positioning
- Subject matter domain
- Target reader profile
- Competing titles
- Front/back matter audit
If anything looks wrong, use the text input at the bottom to add a correction before confirming. When satisfied, click Confirm - Begin Critical Review.
Step 3 - Critical Review
The longest phase. Six sections stream into the transcript one by one. You can add notes or questions in the text input at any point - the reviewer will incorporate them. When the full review is complete, click Confirm - Begin Recommendations.
Step 4 - Recommendations
Each issue from the Critical Review receives one best recommendation - formatted as: recommendation → brief justification → one viable alternative. Review carefully. Use the text input to push back, ask for elaboration, or accept with notes. When done, click Confirm - Begin Title Evaluation.
Step 5 - Title Evaluation
Title, subtitle, and author name are evaluated as a trio. If Phase 1 found no author name in the manuscript, this phase opens with that flag. The reviewer will:
- Recommend one title and subtitle with justification and one alternative
- Confirm or recommend an author name / pen name with justification and one alternative
- Consider genre fit, Amazon searchability, and series branding
Confirm your choices in the text input, then click Confirm - Begin Implementation.
Step 6 - Implementation
The app produces a single corrected manuscript incorporating your confirmed title, subtitle, author name, and all accepted recommendations. When complete, three download buttons appear - see the Export & Production tab for what to do next.
Using the Rules System
Before Starting a Review
Open the Rules tab and confirm all rules are correct and enabled before clicking Begin Review. Rule changes made during a review do not take effect until the next review. If you want a rule change applied to the current manuscript, you must restart the review from the beginning.
Four Ways to Create Rules
- Rules tab → + New Rule — write directly, any time.
- 💾 Save as Rule button on any Claude response in the transcript.
- + Suggest Rule button in the input bar during a review — queues your suggestion for post-review evaluation. Does not affect the current review.
- Post-Implementation rule recommendations — AI-generated, reviewed one-by-one with dialogue before being added.
Suggesting Rules Mid-Review
If you notice a pattern worth capturing while the review is in progress, click + Suggest Rule in the bottom input bar. Enter a short title and description. Your suggestion is saved but not applied to the current review — it will be surfaced during the post-review rule evaluation, where Claude assesses it, recommends refined wording if needed, and you discuss it before it is added.
Post-Review Rule Dialogue
At the end of every Implementation, the app presents all candidate rules — app-generated and your suggestions — one at a time. For each you can: Accept to add it immediately, Discuss to open an inline dialogue with Claude to refine the wording, or Skip to discard it. User-suggested rules are automatically evaluated by Claude first, with refined wording recommended where appropriate.
Enabling and Disabling Rules
Each rule has a toggle switch. Disable a rule temporarily without deleting it — useful if a rule applies to one series but not another. Only enabled rules are sent to the reviewer.
Session Recovery
Your session - including the transcript, current phase, and assembled manuscript - is automatically saved to your browser's local storage after each phase. If you accidentally close the browser, reopen the app and you'll be prompted to resume where you left off.
If the AI hits a context limit mid-review, the app will:
- Pause and explain what happened in plain language
- Attempt automatic recovery (compressing prior context and continuing)
- If automatic recovery fails, display a manual recovery panel with step-by-step instructions and a Restart from Phase X button
Your Downloaded File
At the end of Phase 5 (Implementation), a download button appears for the format you selected:
- .md (Markdown) - Recommended. Best for Pandoc conversion to EPUB or PDF.
- .html - Self-contained file. Opens in any browser. Good for web-based publishing tools.
- .doc - Opens in Microsoft Word. Save as .docx after opening. Good for editors and clients.
Working with Images
During Implementation, the app inserts placeholders in the format [IMAGE: filename.png] at each recommended location.
Step 1 - Generate your images
Use the image prompts from Phase 2 (Recommendations) to generate images in ChatGPT or your preferred tool. Save each image with the filename shown in the placeholder.
Step 2 - Place images in your manuscript folder
For Pandoc conversion, images must be in the same folder as your .md file (not in a subfolder). Example structure:
Step 3 - Replace placeholders in your .md file
Replace each [IMAGE: filename.png] with a Markdown image tag:
Installing Pandoc
Pandoc is a free, open-source document conversion tool. Download from pandoc.org/installing.html
Windows
Download and run the .msi installer. Open a new Command Prompt window after installation.
Mac
Linux
pandoc --version in a terminal. You should see a version number.Converting to EPUB
EPUB is the format Amazon KDP accepts for Kindle ebooks.
Windows - open Command Prompt (Win+R, type cmd)
Mac - open Terminal
Replace my-book.md and my-book.epub with your actual filenames.
Converting to PDF
Pandoc requires TinyTeX for PDF output. Download from yihui.org/tinytex (Windows installer available) or install on Mac/Linux:
Then convert:
Uploading to Amazon KDP
- Go to kdp.amazon.com and sign in.
- Click Create a New Title and choose Kindle eBook or Paperback.
- Complete book details: title, author, description, categories, keywords.
- Upload your EPUB file under Manuscript.
- Upload your cover image from Phase 4 (Cover Design).
- Use KDP's previewer to check formatting before publishing.
- Set pricing and royalty options, then submit for review.
Editing Rules
Rules are custom editing and formatting instructions applied to every review automatically. Toggle rules on or off without deleting them. Active rules are appended to the review instructions on every API call.