FAQ
Answers about our company, Authors A.I.
We’re a startup, created by authors for authors. Our goal is to help authors improve their craft and gain new readers.
Our A.I. team, set up by data scientist Matthew L. Jockers, Ph.D., is working with scores of bestselling authors to create original, advanced analytical artificial intelligence and natural language processing tools that can help authors refine their manuscripts by comparing them to bestselling works of fiction.
You can read more about how we use our analytical A.I. in this article: https://beta.authors.ai/our-use-of-ai-in-fiction/
To help authors find readers, we’ve also launched a book discovery site, BingeBooks. Indie, self-published and traditionally published authors can all create their own author pages, upload their novels and connect with readers. Start here: https://bingebooks.com/pages/author-access
The authors who run Authors A.I. have collectively spent decades working in the publishing industry. We are committed to using AI in fiction in a limited, ethical way.
Our data scientists are affiliated with academia and adhere to strict ethical and security standards. Our founding authors ensure that any submitted manuscript is handled with the diligence and care we would want with our own works — which means that Marlowe keeps your submissions private and in its own contained system. There are no outside technologies learning from or training on your writing.
We’re using Marlowe’s comps – comparisons of books by subject matter, linguistic style, character agency, mood and tone – to recommend books to readers. More at https://beta.authors.ai/marlowe-recommends/
Yes, we’re a Software as a Service ecommerce company because we offer authors a manuscript analysis through our A.I. But we’re also a community of authors providing free online resources.
No, we’re a business. All of our founders and nearly all the equity stakeholders (about 120 team members) are authors, mostly from the U.S. as well as from Canada, the U.K., Australia and Europe.
Answers about Marlowe, the Authors A.I. manuscript analysis tool
Our artificial intelligence, Marlowe, has analyzed tens of thousands of novels. When you submit your manuscript our A.I. compares your work to the books in its knowledge base to give feedback on the key elements of your novel, from pacing, story structure, and comparable titles to sentence stats, dialogue vs narrative and cliche use.
The analysis is delivered as a report, so that you can choose which of the recommendations to implement.
You can purchase our Marlowe Pro analysis as a one-off report ($45) or as part of a Marlowe Pro membership (two reports for $29.95/month or $199 a year). We also offer the free Basic report, a limited version of the Pro report. You can find more details here: https://beta.authors.ai/plans/
Once you’ve bought the report, or joined a Marlowe Plan, you submit your manuscript on our site. In about five minutes, Marlowe, our artificial intelligence, analyzes the manuscript, comparing it to the tens of thousands of novels that it has already analyzed, and produces a comprehensive report, with suggestions of how, and why, you might edit your work.
For about five to 10 minutes! Whether you run the Basic or Pro report, Marlowe will email your novel’s report to you within minutes and also store it in the My Reports section of your account. Be sure to add [email protected] to your contact list to make sure it doesn’t end up in spam.
The Marlowe Pro report offers insight into the structure, pacing and potential of your manuscript. And the report will point out many of the elements that a developmental editor or proofreader might identify, such as story beats, overuse of certain words, possible spelling mistakes and much more.
That said, unless you’re a really good editor as well as a good writer, we recommend that you work with real human beings to edit and proofread your work after you incorporate Marlowe’s feedback. Don’t forget beta readers, too.
Currently our A.I. can perform an analysis on any long-form narrative, including novels, biographies, histories and novellas. Although it can read and offer feedback on nonfiction, its real expertise and experience is primarily with fiction.
Technically, yes. Marlowe can read and analyze texts of any length and provide useful feedback about chapters, sections, and even scenes. However, its methods and metrics are most effective and reliable when it has a complete draft. We recommend that you submit at least 20,000 words.
No. Seasoned authors know that the best stories are told within the broad contours of an existing narrative framework. It’s the specifics of your story, your characters, and your writing that will set it apart.
Readers have certain expectations when they begin reading a new book. They don’t want to pick up what seems to be a thriller and discover 50 pages in that it’s actually a paranormal romance. Yes, you can break the rules and stretch genre boundaries — go for it! — but it’s good to know what those rules are so you can break them intentionally, not by accident.
You may find some of the information and advice in other places. But we have the only A.I.-based end-to-end manuscript analysis tool for authors and the only tool that’s been designed by Matthew Jockers, co-author of The Bestseller Code.
Not at all! As long as you can convert your manuscript into a Word or plain-text document, you’re good to go. We’ve made the whole process simple for authors. It’s Marlowe and its programmers who perform the technical wizardry.
Absolutely! Once Marlowe runs a report, it’s emailed to you in PDF format. It’s also available for you to access when you log into your account. Either way, you can print or download it to your computer for permanent record-keeping.
Yes, it’s coming soon.
Sorry, that’s not allowed under the Terms of Service. However, you’re free to use component parts, such as screenshots of the graphics, and share them.
Marlowe is named for both Christopher Marlowe, the Elizabethan tragedian who inspired Shakespeare, and Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled private eye who plays chess and reads poetry. We like to think it has Philip Marlowe’s intellect and investigative skills and Christopher Marlowe’s pioneering spirit and love for the written word.
Answers about analytical artificial intelligence and protecting your work
You’re right, there’s been a lot of debate about the use of artificial intelligence in the creative industries recently. As authors ourselves, we wanted to make sure the technology is used to help advance the interests of authors and readers, not to undermine us.
We’ll never program our A.I. to displace the author’s central, pivotal role in the book publishing ecosystem. There is no replacement for the author’s imagination, talent, grit, hard work or inspiration. We’re committed to using A.I. only for outcomes that benefit authors.
We’ve put together this article explaining in more detail how we use our analytical A.I. https://beta.authors.ai/our-use-of-ai-in-fiction/
Not at all. As authors, we take intellectual property seriously. We do not use submitted manuscripts to train our AI.
No, we don’t use submitted manuscripts for any training of our A.I.
Once received by our servers, your manuscript will be processed through Marlowe and archived. Our manuscript storage system is encrypted and shielded by multiple security layers to ensure that only you or those you authorize have access to data describing your manuscript.
We’ve trained Marlowe to analyze your manuscript; no humans even look at it. Your manuscript is sent to Marlowe via an encrypted upload process and is then stored as an encrypted data object on a secure server far from prying human eyes, and out of reach of generative A.I.
Answers about pricing and membership
Bestselling authors, including the ones who’ve helped set up Authors A.I., know the value of investing in making their books as good as they can be and marketing them to readers. Our artificial intelligence, Marlowe, makes the first step in that process — developmental editing and proofreading — more accessible to many writers.
We offer three different packages.
Our one-off single Marlowe Pro report is $45.
Our Marlowe Basic plan is completely free and offers unlimited Marlowe Basic reports, which are a limited version of the Marlowe Pro report.
Our Marlowe Pro plan is $29.95 a month and includes two Marlowe Pro reports ($90 value). This is a month-to-month subscription. You can save $150/year if you purchase the annual plan.
You can find all the details on our pricing page https://beta.authors.ai/plans
We also offer an Industry Pass for organizations that want to run analyses in larger volumes.
More here: https://beta.authors.ai/industry-pass/
Each time you submit a manuscript for a Marlowe Pro report, it counts toward your monthly or yearly limit, without regard to whether you’ve submitted it before. https://beta.authors.ai/plans/
You can run an unlimited amount of free Marlowe Basic reports.
If you have a Marlowe Pro monthly subscription, you can cancel or upgrade to an annual plan from inside your My Account section. Just log in, visit My Account (in the top navigation), and click on My Membership, from where you can upgrade or cancel your subscription. You can delete your Authors AI account and all associated user data from the Account Details section.
The Marlowe Pro plan renews monthly or annually, based on your selection.
Monthly plans renew (and award fresh report credits) on whichever day of the month you initially subscribed. Your report credits will roll over to subsequent months if unused and remain active as long as you are in an active paid subscription plan.
The Marlowe Pro annual plan is for 12 calendar months, and then you have the option to renew.