find your way through the book.

Getting started

Author Magic takes a book from idea to the files KDP asks for: a print interior, a paperback cover, an ebook and an ebook cover.

1. Choose your books folder. It's where your book projects live. Nothing is moved.
2. New book offers three ways in: Import a manuscript (Word, Markdown or text), Start a book yourself, or Write it with AI from an idea.
3. Write, check the Bible, design the cover, then build the KDP pack in Publish.

Your books folder

Any folder inside your books folder that contains a book.json is a book, at any depth, so you can organise folders however you like. Each book folder holds everything it needs:

• book.json: the book's settings
• manuscript.md: the text
• bible.json: continuity data
• cover/: images you added
• build/: every file Author Magic makes

Move or copy a book folder anywhere and it still works.

Writing

The editor saves as you type. A few marks shape the book:

• # Title starts a chapter, which always opens on a right-hand page in print
• ## Heading starts a section inside a chapter
• *italic* and **bold**
• * * * on its own line is a scene break

The chapter list shows each chapter's length against your target. Click a chapter to jump to it.

The authorship dial

You decide how much the AI writes, for the whole book and for each chapter:

• I write every word. AI only checks: continuity, targets, repetition.
• I write, AI expands. Write a paragraph and AI grows it into a full scene in your voice.
• I brain-dump, AI shapes. Pour out notes and fragments, and AI turns them into prose.
• AI writes from my brief. Describe the book, plan an outline, and AI drafts chapters.

Set the book's level at the top of Write. Use the small menu beside a chapter to give that chapter its own level. The dial also decides what the KDP pack tells you about AI disclosure.

AI mode and actions

AI mode is a prompt view. Fill in the brief (genre, audience, voice, premise), then:

• Plan outline for a chapter-by-chapter plan
• Write this chapter, or Write all empty chapters (your manuscript is backed up first, and each chapter saves as it arrives; you can stop at any time)
• Ask anything in the prompt box and put the answer into your book

In the Editor, select text to Expand, Shape, Rewrite or Trim it. With nothing selected you can Continue here, Hit a word target or Trim redundancy for the chapter. Results open beside your text; edit them, then Accept or discard.

Every AI call reads your brief, your house style and your Bible, so it keeps to your canon.

Connecting AI, and what it costs

AI features use your own account with an AI service. Open Settings → AI and add one or more:

• Claude (Anthropic), OpenAI, Google Gemini or OpenRouter: paste an API key. It's checked as soon as you paste it and kept in your Mac's Keychain. It's only ever sent to that service.
• Ollama or LM Studio: free models that run on your Mac. Nothing leaves your computer.
• Other: any OpenAI-compatible service, such as DeepSeek, Mistral or Grok, by its address and key.

Click Say hello to see a real reply come back.

A model for each job: drafting, checks, cover art and private books can each use a different model. Recommended models are chosen for you; change any of them. In AI mode, the Model menu tries another one for a single conversation.

Costs: using AI through a key is billed by the provider, on your account with them, separately from any chat subscription. Author Magic doesn't charge for AI. A small ≈ $x* estimate sits beside AI actions; hover it for what it means. In Settings you can set a monthly limit or hide the estimates. Models on your Mac are free.

Everything else (writing, the Bible scan, covers, building, EPUB, the KDP pack) works without AI.

Write it with AI

New book → Write it with AI walks you from an idea to a first draft:

1. Kind of book: pick Novel or story, or a kind of nonfiction: Narrative nonfiction, Idea or argument, Survey or reference, How-to or Memoir. Not sure which? Nonfiction, not sure lets the editor suggest one, and you can change it. Every question after this follows the kind you pick.
2. Idea: type a sentence or a page, tap a spark, or click Surprise me. To dictate, press Fn twice (the Mac's own dictation).
3. Shape: for a novel, genre, point of view, tense, tone and reader. For nonfiction, the approach, the subject and how deep to go. Both choose the book size and the length, in pages or words, with a chapter count if you want one. Pick an author profile, and drafts match that author's voice.
4. A few questions, optional, that make the pitch yours. Pick an answer, change its wording, ask for more options, or write your own. Decide for me lets the editor choose and say what it chose; Not sure yet leaves it open in the pitch.
5. Writing rules: no em dashes, US or UK spelling, and no AI-sounding phrases are set for you; change them, or add banned words, swearing, heat level and plain "said" tags. More under Writing rules, below.
6. The pitch: for a novel, three titles, the cast, the places, a chapter-by-chapter outline and the first page. For nonfiction, see Nonfiction, below. Edit anything. The estimate shows the likely time and cost.
7. Write: choose Write the book, or Write chapter 1 only to read one first. It writes in the background: keep working, and you're notified when it's done. Pause, Stop and Carry on writing are always there, and Undo the whole run puts the book back as it was.

Nonfiction

Nonfiction is set up as nonfiction, not as a novel with facts in it.

• Here's what we heard: your notes come back as threads in your own words, each tagged Your call, We'll research or Both. Tap a tag to change it, and edit, remove or add threads.
• Questions about your decisions only: organisation, scope, depth, voice and the claim. Research is never left for you to answer.
• The pitch: titles with subtitles, the hook, the thesis with two other framings to swap in, who it's for, how it's organised, an outline grouped into parts, a research plan and the facts to check.
• Nothing made up: no invented people, events, dates, quotes, statistics or sources. Where something is contested, the book says so.
• Facts to check: when the AI isn't sure of a date, a number or a quote, it writes a [check: …] note beside it. The manuscript check lists each one, and the KDP pack isn't marked Ready until you choose I've checked it.

Writing rules

Writing rules are set at the start of Write it with AI and in Format → House style at any time. They go into every AI request, and the app fixes dashes and spelling in every AI result before you see it: chapters, edits, the pitch, the blurb and the store listing.

• No em dashes (on unless you turn it off)
• Spelling: any, US, UK, or UK with Oxford spelling
• Avoid AI-sounding phrases like "a testament to" or "a tapestry of"; edit the list
• Banned words, swearing and heat level, and plain "said" tags if you want them

### The manuscript check

Before the KDP pack is built, Publish reads the whole book.

• Must fix: the AI talking to you instead of writing ("Here is the revised…"), placeholders, empty chapters, and facts to check in nonfiction. The KDP pack isn't marked Ready until these are gone.
• Worth a look: chapters much shorter than the rest, chapters that stop mid-sentence, repeated passages, a title repeated as the first line, and formatting code that would print.

Each issue has a button: remove the paragraph (with Undo), write the empty chapter, go to it, or mark it Not a problem.

Reviewing AI changes

When the AI rewrites something of yours, the change opens beside your text paragraph by paragraph. For each paragraph you can:

• Keep new
• Keep mine
• Edit it
• Try again… with a note

Then Apply my choices. A copy of the chapter is saved first, so Undo in the bottom bar reverses it, and History shows every earlier version.

The continuity Bible

• Scan manuscript (no key) finds recurring names and places, and flags eye colour, hair or ages that change.
• Extract with AI reads chapter by chapter and records characters, places, facts, a timeline, and who learns what.
• Check continuity compares each chapter against the Bible and flags contradictions, timeline slips, and characters acting on something they haven't learned yet.

Edit anything: what you write wins. Mark flags resolved as you fix them. For books drafted by AI this matters most, because a model writing chapter 30 hasn't read chapter 3; the Bible is how it knows.

Covers

Cover opens in Studio, where the whole wrap (back, spine and front) is made of layers. Quick designs is still there if you want one of the ready-made templates.

• Layouts: nine, each previewed with your own title, colours, type and art: Full art, Art and band, Framed art, Classic, All type, Bold, Split, Statement (for nonfiction: a big claim and a side bar) and Minimal. Switching keeps your words.
• Art with AI: describe the picture, or Suggest from my book. Pick one of seven styles and choose from four options. Make art for the Front cover, or one wide picture across the Whole wrap, with a calm area on the back for your blurb. The art is made without lettering, and it's enlarged to 300 DPI for print. It uses the image model chosen for cover art in Settings → AI (OpenAI, Gemini or OpenRouter).
• Your own image: made somewhere else, or a photo of your own. It needs to be 300 DPI at the printed size, and the check tells you if it isn't.
• Restyle: with nothing selected, pick one of ten palettes and nine type pairs and every layer changes at once. Colours you picked yourself stay.
• Add text in any of the 14 typefaces, shapes, icons, ornaments, and patterns made from your title. Select words in a text box and press ⌘B or ⌘I for bold and italic.
• Back-cover blurb: with the blurb selected, Write it with AI gives three options, each a different way in. More options adds three more.
• Arrange: click to select, drag to move, pull a corner to resize, and use the top dot to rotate. Double-click text to edit it on the cover. It snaps to the centre, the spine and the safe area. Arrow keys nudge; ⌘D duplicates; ⌘Z undoes; ⌘S saves.
• Check: the KDP checks update as you work (type inside the safe area, barcode zone clear, spine text allowed, images at print resolution).

The spine width comes from your interior's page count, so build the interior first for an exact cover. The guides show the bleed (trimmed off), the safe area (keep type inside), and where KDP prints the barcode. Nothing of ours goes there: KDP adds the barcode itself.

You get the print cover as a PDF at the exact KDP size, and a 1600 × 2560 ebook cover, drawn from exactly what's on screen at 300 DPI. Building the KDP pack redraws the cover to the final spine width.

Publishing to KDP

1. Build print interior. Checks trim, embedded fonts, safe margins and the gutter KDP requires for your page count.
2. Build EPUB. Built to pass epubcheck, the validator KDP and Apple use.
3. Build the KDP pack. Every file in one folder, plus KDP metadata.md with your title, description, keywords, categories, print options and the AI-disclosure answer.

Then in KDP: create a paperback, fill the details from the metadata sheet, upload 1 Interior.pdf and 2 Cover (paperback wrap).pdf, choose the same trim and paper, and preview. For the Kindle ebook, upload 4 Ebook.epub and 3 Ebook cover.jpg.

Author Magic doesn't upload for you. Amazon has no publishing API, and tools that automate it drive a browser on your account, which risks it.

House style

In Format, set your own rules: characters you never allow (like em dashes), American or British spelling, phrases that must never break across a line, terms that stay capitalised, and banned words. Every build checks the manuscript against them, and AI writing follows them too (see Writing rules). They're your rules; no house style is imposed.

Chapter openings (Format → Chapter openings) sets how each chapter starts: seven presets, or your own mix of the number style, title, lettering, an ornament, and a first line in small capitals or with a drop cap. The preview shows your own first pages.

Troubleshooting

• "KDP would reject this cover": KDP needs at least 24 pages. Build the interior first; the cover reads its page count.
• "… refused the key": make a new key on the service's site and paste it in Settings → AI. The card says what's wrong.
• "The AI service is busy": Author Magic waits and retries by itself. If it still can't get through, try again in a minute.
• "… declined to write this passage": some models refuse some violence or sexual content. Soften the request, or pick another drafting model in Settings.
• "You've reached the monthly spending limit": raise or clear the limit in Settings → AI → Costs.
• Something went wrong mid-way through writing the book: everything written so far is saved. Carry on writing picks up at the next chapter, and Undo the whole run restores the book from before it started.
• Anything else: Help → Report a problem sends a short report to support (no keys, no book text) and lets you read it first.