Getting started
A Beginner's Guide to Your Book Pro
Everything from a blank page to a finished export - what each tab does, which button to press, and what to expect on screen.
Your Book Pro is built around one simple idea: most people can say their book long before they can type it. So you speak, we write it down, and then a set of tools helps you turn that raw material into an actual manuscript with chapters, a plan, an editorial read and a finished export.
Every book you make lives in a workspace with five tabs - Dictate, Plan, Edit, Feedback and Prepare. This guide walks through them in the order most authors use them.
1. Starting your book
From your Library, press New book. You'll be asked a short questionnaire - one simple question per screen - covering what kind of book it is, who it's for and roughly where you are with it. Nothing here is permanent; it only sets the starting shape.
- Genre matters more than it looks. It changes the Plan sections you get, the way editorial feedback reads your work, and how the export is laid out. Memoir, business, fiction, poetry, children's books, screenplays, textbooks and graphic novels all behave differently.
- You can start without an account. A temporary session lets you record straight away; when you sign in, that work is attached to your account.
- All book categories are available on Basic. Nothing about your genre is locked behind a plan.
2. Dictate: speaking your first words
The Dictate tab is where a book actually starts. Press the big round record button and talk. There is no script and no minimum - a first session of five honest minutes is a real beginning.
Your book workspace
The Dictate tab while a session is running. Words appear as you speak them.
What to look for
- The timer confirms you are actually recording - if it isn't moving, the microphone hasn't started.
- A live transcript preview scrolls beneath the button so you can see the words arriving.
- While recording, a fixed pill stays at the bottom of the screen so you always know a session is live.
- The word counter and progress bar quietly track momentum for the session.
On screen: The privacy note and the “speak naturally” explainer sit in a single box above the recorder and hide themselves once you start recording, so nothing competes with your voice.
You don't have to speak at all
Under the recorder is the Raw material box. It is a plain, editable text area, and it is open from the very first second of a brand new book - you can type into it before you have recorded anything. Dictated words land in the same box, appended to whatever is already there.
- Save files your raw material into the Draft Manuscript. If it can be merged into the current chapter it will be; if it clearly begins new material, new chapters are created.
- A word count sits beside the Save button, and the button flashes whenever you have unsaved changes.
- Upload takes an audio file instead of a live recording - useful if you record on a phone or a handheld recorder.
- Recent recordings lists your sessions underneath, each with its transcript.
3. Exact text vs Light edit
This toggle sits directly under the record button and it is the single most useful setting on the page. It decides how faithfully your speech is written down.
- Exact text - word for word. Every “um”, every false start, every repetition. Use this when the wording itself matters: interviews, verbatim quotes, poetry, dialogue, anything you intend to preserve exactly as spoken.
- Light edit - the same words, tidied. It removes ums, ahs, uhs, filler words and repetition for a cleaner read, and formats speech with quotation marks. It does not rewrite your sentences, change your vocabulary or add anything you didn't say.
Most authors draft in Light edit and switch to Exact text for the passages that must stay raw. You can change the toggle between sessions - it isn't a decision you make once for the whole book.
On screen: The explanatory line under the toggle updates to describe whichever mode is selected, so you can always confirm what will happen before you speak.
4. Your book dictionary
Every book has its own vocabulary - family names, place names, an invented world, technical terms, a spelling you insist on. Transcription cannot guess these, so Your Book Pro lets you teach it.
Your book workspace
The book dictionary, reached from Edit details on your book, or the 'Not what you expected?' link above the raw material box.
What to look for
- Add the correct spelling first, then list the ways it gets misheard - separated by commas.
- Refresh suggestions scans what you have already dictated and proposes entries you may want to fix.
- Entries are per book, so a memoir's family names never leak into your novel.
Once an entry is saved, it is applied automatically to every future transcript for that book - including audio you upload rather than dictate live. Add three or four names before your second session and the difference is immediate.
5. Adding recordings you already have
If your material already exists as podcast episodes, talks, lectures, sermons or interviews, there is a dedicated seven-step wizard for turning that archive into book material - with its own transcripts, themes, chapter spine and drafting options. That process has its own full guide.
Uploading existing audio, managing sources and drafting from transcripts is covered separately.
Read the audio-to-book guideEverything else in this guide applies whether your words arrived by microphone, by keyboard or from an uploaded recording.
6. Plan: the shape of the book
Plan is where the book stops being a pile of words. It is a set of short boxes, chosen for your genre, that hold the thinking behind the writing.
Your book workspace
Plan sections change with your genre. A business book gets Core idea, Ideal reader, Framework and Proof; a novel gets Premise, Characters, World, Conflict and Themes.
What to look for
- Each box has a one-line hint under its title telling you exactly what belongs there.
- A 'Need help?' button opens a longer explanation with examples if the hint isn't enough.
- Nothing is compulsory - a half-filled plan is still far better than none.
Plan collects things from elsewhere
- Pinned feedback. Any editorial suggestion you find useful can be pinned, and it appears at the bottom of Plan as a working note rather than a one-off comment.
- Source notes. Themes and material sent over from your uploaded recordings land here too, so the plan reflects what you actually have.
- The chapter spine. Once you approve a chapter structure, those chapters become real, selectable chapters in the Edit tab.
7. Edit: chapters and the manuscript
Edit is the writing room. At the top of the tab is Ask the Editor - a direct line to a book-aware assistant that knows your genre, your plan and your manuscript so far.
Your book workspace
The Edit tab. Everything you have written, organised into chapters you control.
What to look for
- The chapter dropdown includes chapters created from your approved spine, not just ones you typed.
- Draft text added by AI appears in red italics until you approve it, so you always know what is yours.
- The Chapter spine panel lets you rename, reorder and delete chapters with drag and drop.
- Sources and transcripts are managed separately - see the audio-to-book guide.
How to use Ask the Editor well
- Be specific about the job: “tighten this scene” beats “make it better”.
- Ask for options rather than replacements - you can accept, edit or discard anything proposed.
- Proposed text is always shown to you first. Nothing enters your manuscript without you choosing it.
On screen: Managing uploaded sources, transcripts and speaker names happens on the Manage Sources page, which is covered in the audio-to-book guide.
8. Feedback: your editorial read
The Feedback tab holds a single button - Get Editorial Feedback - and the report it produces. This is not a grammar checker. It reads your manuscript the way a commissioning editor would: structure, voice, pacing, evidence, and whether the book is doing what you said it would do in Plan.
Your book workspace
Feedback reads the whole manuscript and reports back in order, encouragement first.
What to look for
- Encouragement always comes first - it is not padding, it tells you what to protect.
- Each suggestion can be pinned to Plan so it becomes a working note rather than a passing comment.
- Feedback adapts to your genre and to any book modes you have on - poetry keeps its line breaks, scripts are read as scripts, textbooks are assessed against teaching standards.
9. Prepare: the readiness checker
Prepare answers one question: is this book ready to leave the workspace? It is a checklist with a live counter at the top - “4 of 7 ready” - and each row turns green when it is done.
Your book workspace
The readiness checklist. Rows you have completed turn green and count toward the total at the top.
What to look for
- The counter at the top is the fastest way to see how far off you are.
- Each row has its own action button - nothing here is hidden behind another page.
- Author name and picture take you to your Account and come straight back.
- Fact-check only appears for genres where factual claims matter.
What each check is actually for
- Manuscript - the working download. Includes your plan notes so you can read the thinking alongside the text.
- Cover and blurb - generated from your own material, then fully editable. A blurb you disagree with is still a useful first draft.
- Safety screen - flags legal, safety and duty-of-care risks before anything is published. Memoir in particular benefits from this.
- Fact-check & citations - for non-fiction, validates claims, source attributions, quotations, dates and statistics, and tells you where it could not verify something.
10. Exporting your finished book
Until readiness is complete, the golden button on your book reads My draft book and opens the manuscript. Once the checklist is satisfied it becomes My finished book and produces a formatted PDF - title page, author credit, chapters in order, plan notes left out.
- The manuscript download is the working copy: plan notes included, formatting plain.
- The finished PDF is the reader's copy: clean, ordered, and ready to send or print.
- From there, Publish and Print covers your route options, publisher submissions and proof copies.
FAQ
Do I have to dictate, or can I type?
Either. The Raw material box on the Dictate tab is a normal editor - you can start typing into it on a brand new book before you have recorded anything, and dictated words land in the same box.
What is the difference between Exact text and Light edit?
Exact text transcribes what you said, word for word. Light edit removes ums, ahs, filler words and repetition for a cleaner read, and formats speech with quotation marks. Both keep your wording and meaning - Light edit never rewrites your sentences.
What does the book dictionary do?
It teaches transcription the names, places and unusual words in your book. You add the correct spelling plus the ways it is commonly misheard, and every future transcript for that book is corrected to your spelling automatically.
Do I need Pro to write a book?
No. Recording, transcription, typing, manual chapters and the Plan tab are all available on a Basic account. Pro adds AI chapter breaks, editorial feedback, the readiness tools and export.
Where does my recording go?
Audio is saved on your device first, then transcribed when your connection allows. Your book, recordings and transcripts are private to your account.
Start with ten minutes
Open a new book, press record, and say the part you already know by heart.
Start my book