How to write a book with Nightpress

Nightpress turns your idea into a finished, publish-ready novel. You decide what the story is; Nightpress plans it with you, writes every chapter, has a panel of AI editors review the whole manuscript, and hands you an EPUB, a Word file, a cover, and your Amazon KDP listing.

The whole path:

1. Describe your idea, a sentence or a full story document.
2. Plan the book with the AI. Answer its questions, read the plan, ask for changes.
3. Approve the plan. Writing starts.
4. Write. Chapters arrive one by one while you do something else.
5. Review. AI editors read the full manuscript and fix what they find.
6. Publish. Pick a cover, download the book, copy your KDP listing.

You never have to write or edit prose yourself. Every change goes through the plan or the editors.

1. Before you start

Sign in. Use Sign in with Google, Sign in with GitHub, or enter your email and click Email me a link (the link works once and expires in 15 minutes).

Signed in by a link? Some accounts get a personal sign-in link from the person who invited them instead of an email or Google/GitHub login. There is no password and no email on the account. The link works once, so open it on the device and browser you'll actually use; after that you stay signed in there for up to 30 days between visits. If you sign out, clear your browser, switch devices, or the link says it's expired or already used, ask the person who sent it for a new one (a new link replaces the old one). Anything Nightpress would normally email you, including account notices, reaches you through that person instead.

Nightpress is invite-only during the beta. If you have a code, click Have an invite code? on the sign-in page and Apply it before signing in.

The first time in, you'll confirm the Terms, that you're 18 or older, and that you live in the United States, then click Accept and continue.

How writing is paid for. One of two ways:

• Beta allowance. Credit we give you. The banner at the top shows what's left ("Beta allowance: $X of $Y left"). Redeem an invite code under Settings → Usage → Beta allowance. Each account can redeem one code.
• Your own API key. Add an Anthropic key under Settings → API keys. It's stored encrypted; only its last 4 characters are ever shown. Once a key is saved you can set a Monthly spending limit.

Nothing is spent without asking first. Before planning, writing, or review starts, a confirmation shows the estimated cost range and what it's billed to. If your allowance runs out mid-book, the book pauses with everything written so far saved, and you can raise the budget and resume.

2. Start a book

From your dashboard, click New Book (on your very first visit, the What's your story? box does the same thing: type your idea and click Start my book).

Choose how to begin:

• I have my idea. Type or paste it in What is the story? A single sentence works. So does a long description.
• Help me develop it. Brainstorm with the AI first; it drafts the idea for you when you're done.
• Paste a full story document instead. Already have a detailed outline or story bible? Upload it (.md or .txt, up to 2 MB).

Then set:

Quality tiers (typical cost for a 75,000-word novel):

Click Details & cost by book size on any tier for novella and longer-novel prices.

Length. Under More options → How long a book? pick Let the planner decide, Novella (~40,000 words), or Novel (~75,000 words), or set your own chapters and words. Books currently run up to about 90,000 words (45 chapters). The Spending cap defaults to about twice the estimate.

Click Create book.

3. Plan it

The Plan tab is where the book takes shape. Time spent here is the best investment you'll make: the plan is what every chapter is written from.

If you chose to brainstorm. Chat with the AI about your idea (you get 25 turns). When you're happy, click Create my plan. You'll get a Story brief you can Edit or keep brainstorming on, then continue below.

If you uploaded a complete story bible. You may see This reads like a complete story bible. Click Use as written & start writing to skip planning entirely and write from your document exactly as it is.

Otherwise:

1. Click Start Planning. The AI reads your idea and writes an analysis.
2. Answer the Questions for the Author. Skip any you don't care about with AI decides, or click AI decides all. Add anything else under Anything else the plan should know? and click Submit Answers.
3. The AI builds the full Story Plan: characters, chapter-by-chapter plot, setting, voice, and the continuity tracking the writer relies on.

Read the plan. Start with At a glance at the top of the page: the summary, themes, world, tone, and a card for each character. Open any card to read the full section.

Change anything. You don't edit the plan by hand; you tell the AI what you want:

• On an At a glance card, click Suggest a change.
• In the Story Plan panel below, click the feedback icon on any section, or Feedback for the whole story.
• Or just type in the Planning Conversation.

Write it the way you'd say it: "Make her older and more guarded", "The town should be smaller and meaner", "Make this 30 chapters". Click Send & Update Plan and the plan is rewritten. Repeat as often as you like.

Check the chip above the plan, Planned: N chapters · ~Nk words, to confirm the size is what you wanted.

When it's right, click Approve Plan & Start Writing. You'll see the cost estimate one more time. Click Approve & Start Writing.

(Changed your mind completely? Reset wipes the planning and starts over. Stop cancels a planning step in progress.)

4. Watch it write

You land on the Write tab. There's nothing you need to do here. Close the tab if you like: the book keeps writing, and the bell at the top lets you know when there's news (with browser notifications if you allow them).

What you'll see:

• Writing Chapter N of M with a progress bar, and tiles for chapters, words, cost so far, and time.
• A list of chapters marked Done, Writing..., or Pending. Click a finished one to read it, or Open in the reader.
• Pause stops after saving everything; Resume Writing picks up where it left off.
• If a chapter fails, Retry Chapter writes it again.
• If the budget runs out, a banner says the book is paused and offers Raise +$10 & resume, Raise +$25 & resume, or Stop here.

When the last chapter is done, review starts automatically.

5. Review

The Review tab is where the book gets edited. A team of AI editors (Mechanics, Story, Publisher, Voice, Continuity, and First Reader) read the whole manuscript over several passes, fix what they find, and check their own work so false alarms don't turn into needless rewrites.

When review finishes you'll see one of:

• Converged. Done. The editors signed off; nothing that breaks the story remains. If a few known issues were left on purpose, the banner says how many and "Why were N known issues left?" opens the list, the Editor grade and the Editors' notes.
• Publishing held — N blocking criticals. The editors found something serious they couldn't settle. Click Run another review pass to let them try again, or Accept & publish anyway if you're satisfied (this is recorded on the book).

6. Read and publish

Read it. The Read tab is a full book reader: a cover page, a chapter list, Larger text / Smaller text, the arrow keys to turn pages, and it remembers where you stopped.

Publish it. On the Publish tab:

• Choose a cover. Pick from the generated designs and click Use this cover. Copy prompt gives you the prompt if you'd rather make your own.
• Front & Back Matter. Title page, copyright, dedication, foreword, afterword, about the author, and your other books. The last two fill in from your Author bio and Other books in Settings (unless you're writing under a pen name).
• KDP Metadata. Your Amazon listing, ready to paste: description, the 7 keywords, categories, age range, trim size, comparable titles, and social media copy.
• Download. Download EPUB, Download Word (.docx), or Markdown (.md). Export ZIP bundles everything: chapters, manuscript, reviews, covers, and the story plan.

7. Tips for a better book

• Give the plan your best thinking. A specific idea ("a lighthouse keeper's daughter, the last week before the light is automated, a death no one reported") beats a broad one ("a mystery by the sea").
• Say what you love and what you hate. Tone, pace, the books it should feel like, what to never do. Put it in Anything else the plan should know?
• Fix it in the plan, not later. A change before writing costs one plan update. The same change after writing means rewriting chapters.
• Check the cast. Open each character in At a glance. Weak or interchangeable characters are the easiest thing to fix at the plan stage.
• Use Standard first. It's the best value. Try Premium when a book matters most.

How long does it take? Planning takes minutes plus however long you spend on the questions. Writing a full novel runs for hours, so it's built to run overnight: start it in the evening, read it in the morning.

What does it cost? The tier table above gives typical totals; every step shows its own estimate before it spends anything, and live spend is shown while it runs.

Want to see what Nightpress writes first? Read the example book under Example books on the home page.