From manuscript to finished book.
Write, review, design and prepare your book for publication in one quiet workspace.
Writing one, or helping shape one?
Write a book
Bring the work together, from first notes and manuscript through feedback, design and publishing files.
Read a book before it is published
Some authors open a manuscript to readers. You can browse the books currently looking for readers, join a reading round with an Author’s Couch account, and give the author honest feedback.
Browse books looking for readers
Looking for published books? Browse Books
The author decides what is opened, and closes the round when it is finished. A manuscript is never simply made public.
The whole journey of one book
Think
Capture notes, research, questions, concepts and material before they disappear.
Write
Build and revise a structured manuscript, import existing work, keep writing when the connection drops, and preserve versions.
Review
Invite private readers to a frozen review copy, or open a reading round to readers looking for books.
Design
Develop the book brief, interior and cover while the creative decisions stay yours.
Publish
Prepare Kindle and paperback information and generate the production files.
Revise
Keep editions and make corrections without losing the history of the book.
One book. One workspace.
A book should not become a collection of disconnected files as it moves from drafting to feedback, cover design, print and digital production. Author’s Couch keeps the manuscript, decisions, versions, reviews and publishing work connected.
Let someone read the book you actually sent them.
Readers work from a frozen review copy while you carry on writing. Their comments stay attached to the exact version they read.
Private review
- Invite specific people by name.
- They read a frozen version of the manuscript.
- Comments stay attached to that version.
- Your live manuscript remains separate.
Open review
- Open a reading round to readers on Author’s Couch.
- Your book can appear in Books looking for readers.
- Readers deliberately join the round.
- You decide what is opened, and when it closes.
An open listing shows only what you choose to publish for discovery. Uploading a manuscript does not make the manuscript public.
Assistance, not autopilot.
Ask questions about your manuscript, run a read-through pass, look at a paragraph again, or work through an idea. Suggestions are grounded in your own book material.
It proposes. You decide what becomes part of the book. Nothing is adopted unless you choose it.
Make it a book.
Author’s Couch goes past manuscript editing into the production of the book itself.
- Book brief
- Title pages, typography and the look the book keeps.
- Interior design
- Chapter openings, running heads, margins and page rhythm.
- Cover preparation
- Front cover work and a full paperback wrap.
- EPUB
- A reflowable ebook built from your manuscript.
- Print interior PDF
- Print-ready pages with embedded fonts and preflight checks.
- Editions and corrections
- Saved editions, corrections and a record of what changed.
Ready for the publishing platform.
Prepare the information and files a Kindle or paperback listing asks for: shared book metadata, description, keywords, categories, audience and rights details, AI-content declarations, and the production files themselves.
Author’s Couch helps you prepare for Amazon KDP. You make the final submission on the publishing platform, and no retailer approval is implied here.
Write without an audience.
Your workspace is private by default. Write, rethink, delete, rewrite and change direction without making your creative process public.
Share your work when you choose to, such as inviting someone to review your book. Nobody needs to know what you are working on until you decide to share it.
The people operating Author’s Couch do not need to inspect your creative work as part of running the platform.
Built around the work.
- DOCX, EPUB, Markdown and TXT import
- Offline editing protection
- Named versions, compare and restore
- Research, notes and concepts
- Structured parts, chapters and sections
- Private reviewer invitations
- Open review rounds
- Read-through assistance and to-dos
- Amazon KDP preparation
Learn while you make the book.
The Publishing Guide covers the practical questions that come up while writing, reviewing, designing and preparing a book for publication.
The Author’s Couch Newsletter
Making a book is full of small decisions nobody explains.
Practical notes about writing, reviewing, designing and publishing books. No more than that, and you can unsubscribe from any email.
Your book can start here.
From first notes to the files you hand to a publishing platform, keep the work connected.