How it works
- 1
Describe the book
Start with a few questions about the draft and the feedback you want. If you already have a synopsis or notes, you can paste them in. Rough notes are fine.
- 2
Send the pages
Send a chapter, several chapters or a whole manuscript. It can still be a rough draft. During the test phase, every read is free, up to 250,000 words including your book description.
- 3
The pages are read twice
The first pass follows the story and looks at where it holds attention or loses it. The second uses the craft notes to examine those passages and suggest what to work on.
- 4
You get a letter
The letter covers what works, what needs attention and where to start. I review it before sending it to you. You can read the notes alongside your pages, then make any changes in the app you normally write in.
- 5
Mark what helped
Mark the notes you found useful and those you didn't. Your feedback goes into the next reading, along with the earlier letter.
Free during the test phase, no card needed. You'll create an account, upload your pages and answer eight short questions. Letters usually arrive within a few days.
Who does what
How AI is involved
Karlove uses Claude, made by Anthropic, to read your pages and draft the feedback. I wrote its instructions using notes from books on writing craft. Those notes guide the analysis; they aren't training data for a new model.
I review every letter before sending it, edit the feedback and remove notes that don't hold up.
The tool doesn't write scenes or offer replacement prose. The letter gives you suggestions to work through in your own manuscript.
Who this is for
This is for you if
- You have an early draft and want some help deciding what to work on
- A rejection gave you little to go on
- You've had conflicting feedback and want to think it through
- You're stuck on a chapter and aren't sure how it fits into the book
- You'd like to work on the draft before paying for an editor or querying agents
- The draft feels close, but a few passages still bother you
This may not be the right fit if
- You want the writing done for you
- You need proofreading or a final copy-edit
- You have not written anything yet
- You prefer to keep AI out of your writing process
More questions
How does it fit into the actual writing?
Keep writing in whatever app or notebook works for you. When you have pages you'd like feedback on, send them here. Read the letter when you're ready to revise, and make the changes in your manuscript.
I find it helps to leave some time between drafting and editing, so I can look at the pages with a bit of distance.
Why does the letter name craft books?
They give you somewhere to follow up on an idea. The tool works from my notes on around thirty books about writing, and the letter names a source where it helps explain the feedback.
In the brief, you can choose short explanations or a more detailed look at the techniques involved.
Is this a replacement for a professional editor?
No. It's intended to help you work through an early draft. A professional editor brings their own experience and judgement, and can work with you in ways this service doesn't cover.
What if the book is already good?
The letter should explain what's working and focus on anything worth another look. There's no requirement to find a set number of problems.
Do you read non-fiction?
It was built for fiction, memoir and narrative non-fiction. I haven't tested it on other kinds of non-fiction.