Manuscript Review Studio

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:

1. Author positioning
2. Subject matter domain
3. Target reader profile
4. Competing titles
5. 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

1. Rules tab → + New Rule — write directly, any time.
2. 💾 Save as Rule button on any Claude response in the transcript.
3. + Suggest Rule button in the input bar during a review — queues your suggestion for post-review evaluation. Does not affect the current review.
4. 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.