Watch your beta read happen.

Step through them, or press Watch it play.

1. 1 / 5

   Sign in to your reading room

   Sign in at the door with your seat code — there is no API, no key, and no separate account to open. The read runs on our own account from there.

   Nothing is installed on your computer, and there is nothing to configure.

2. 2 / 5

   Upload your manuscript

   You upload the finished manuscript at the door. Our own intake guidance is a clean Word file, and approximately 120,000 words: the machinery has been tested to that size — tested as carrying, not as a complete read. Manuscripts larger than 120,000 words may produce errors — we recommend novels under 120,000 words. We cannot guarantee a complete beta read above 120,000 words — contact us first. A file the door cannot open is stopped at upload, before anything is sent or read, and the door tells you so — never silently failed and never fabricated around. That is not a problem with your writing: a clean .docx or .txt copy is all it needs.

   Check your manuscript →

   No setup maze. Three required questions, followed by creative context you may answer fully, partly, or not at all.

   The three questions, as they are asked

   1. Is this the correct manuscript?

   2. Is this your original work?

   3. Have you used AI on any part of this story?

   The third is asked plainly and without judgment. The answer is recorded, and it never gates care or courtesy.

   The one thing that unblocks the read

   This room evaluates an author’s own work. If you hold the rights — co-author, estate — tell me and we’ll continue; otherwise I can’t evaluate it.

   That is the only thing that unblocks the read. An authorised read — an agent, editor or steward reading with the author’s permission — is accepted and recorded.

   Your Read Code is not asked for here. It is issued to you at delivery.

3. 3 / 5

   The controlled read begins

   Every page, first to last, in one continuous controlled read — never a sample, never a skim. The manuscript is measured against industry standard and against comparable work; the findings are then read against a genre-matched set of five to six documented craft references — published, verifiable craft, never people on staff and no author, living or dead, taking part; and the reader-experience findings are recorded where they happened. Every finding names the instrument that found it, and every finding is tied to its location and supporting evidence in your pages — with a quoted line whenever one exists.

   Turnaround is subject to manuscript length, file condition, and system availability; and end to end, most reads are faster than you expect.

4. 4 / 5

   Receive your two briefs

   THE VERDICT and THE ELEVATION BRIEF arrive together at the close of the read, as Word files you download at the door — with the Current Read, one Estimated Potential After Priority Revisions, and the priority order for revision. Your Read Code is issued here and printed on both, and the two come as one download as well.

   Your beta read is complete when your deliverables reach you.

5. 5 / 5

   Walk through the findings

   The Elevation Walkthrough is included with every beta read. Every chapter is walked in your Elevation Brief — what it is, where it happened, why it affected the reading experience, where else the manuscript does it, and the approaches you might consider, with an example that demonstrates the principle. You apply, modify or decline — every decision is yours, in your own words.

   Your briefs are yours to keep, forever.