The final preflight for a finished novel. Traditionally published, small press or self-published. The same mistakes survive all three.
Your reader will notice that Velora is spelled Vellora in chapter nine.
Your spellchecker never will. Neither will your grammar tool, your editor's first pass, or the fourth re-read where you stopped seeing your own words.
Check the book, not just the prose. Names, invented terms, fictional worlds - map who and what, compare across a series. Build reference material your editor, narrator and readers need.
Chapter 36
Since the events of the Great Conflation, of which all Thygons were well-versed, seedlings had become harder to come by. Each new mass calling brought in fewer seedlings than the last, and the rates were becoming worryingly low. Thygen felt that something was going to have to change, and sooner rather than later.
The patch of forest surrounding Thygen, which he was currently in the process of destroying, was one of the last of the original growths. It contained some of the original Thygo themselves. They were probably extinct elsewhere across the galaxy, with this last little enclave left. They had once spanned thousands of star systems, but had been beaten back by time and the sensespace. The Thygo could no longer add anything new to the artwork. If anything, they had been overused, and their effects would need to be further diluted with even more non-Thygo sentients.
Thygen felt no special affiliation with these Thygo, his own progenitor’s creators. Thy’s parents. A little sympathy perhaps, but at least they had been able to contribute more viscerally to the great work, their smashed bodies splattered across its canvas. He was only a painter, and one of millions at that – he would never be remembered. Only the creation mattered, not the creators.
Outside the forest, covering the rest of the planet, were billions of sentients. They were all pinned to the planet. The time for each of them to be harvested would come. The artwork needed contributions.
The garden world had not actually been an original Thygo planet. However, after taking control of the Thygo Empire many millions of years before the Great War, Thy had realised it was ideal for the artwork. It was not as large as its gas giant neighbours, but was far bigger than the standard rocky balls. This had the added benefit of making it rife for tectonic processes that were easily harnessed to power Thy’s enormous intellect.
Thy had been the guardian of the Thygo, the apex of their creative potential. Like many intelligent creations, Thy had gone on to outshine them in all respects. Benevolently caring for them, and during the coming of the sensespace and the calamitous war that was waged, protecting them. Making important and tough decisions, foreseeing the prudent actions to take. It was during the earlier stages of the battle against the sensespace that Thy had decided to self-experiment, prudently seeking an advantage in the war that had the potential to outlast the Thygo themselves. Searching for something to use. A noble search. In methods that other civilisations sneered at, Thy saw potential. The Step Principle was a much-flouted reason against self-tampering. It embodied the mistaken belief that a machine-lect might change, become too far removed and altered from its original state. Too different, unbalanced even, with its motives completely changed. That had been proven wrong, and Thy was the proof.
- No plugin. Nothing to install in anything.
- No Microsoft Word required. Any browser, any machine, Mac included.
- Upload the manuscript you already have. .docx, .epub, .rtf or .txt, up to 20MB.
- A term your world inventedGlossary generator
- Close enough to another name to confuseSimilar name checker
- Written more than one wayCapitalisation checker
- A short name inside a longer oneAlias detector
- Used and never explainedUnexplained terms
- Said exactly onceOne-off terms
The deterministic checks AI and generic editors are bad at.
The same term, written more than one way
A finished glossary, from the same single reading
Thygo faction 20× · ch. 36–51
The Thygo were the progenitor race who had created Thy, but they had long since disappeared.
Apalu character 58× · ch. 5–51
Apalu was one of the craft-lect’s siblings.
Step Principle unsorted 1× · ch. 36–36
The Step Principle was a much-flouted reason against self-tampering.
Hyplex Dolsden Triple tech 1× · ch. 35–35
It considered the Hyplex Dolsden Triple, the triumvirate set of equations governing the composition of …
Thyscry tech 10× · ch. 31–45
When he looked through the Thyscry, the Thygons’ intelligence network, which housed all the information…
Craftnet tech 2× · ch. 47–52
It left a message, for the first time, on its internal craftnet, the platform used by c-automs to talk …
Where each term falls, first page to last
Where a term bunches up, and where it goes quiet
Is that a lot? Placed against 3,028 published books
more than most published novels carry
about what a published novel carries
lower than 95% of published novels
shorter than 65% of published novels
higher than 65% of published novels
higher than 80% of published novels
The Novel Kit helps prevent inconsistencies that typically survive a professional edit and reach print.
Most writing tools are not designed to build a model of your book’s own vocabulary, entities and naming patterns and audit it across a whole novel.
A spellchecker cannot tell Aenoun from Aenoune. Already use PerfectIt, Grammarly or ProWritingAid? Keep using them. They check prose and editorial style. The Novel Kit checks the things specific to this book.
| The check | Spellchecker | Grammarly / ProWritingAid | PerfectIt | The Novel Kit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary English | ||||
| the Duke, or the duke | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| half-empty, or half empty | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| US or UK spelling, kept throughout | partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mr or Mr., Thomas’s or Thomas’ | No | partial | Yes | Yes |
| Straight quotes and stray double hyphens | No | partial | partial | Yes |
| Your world | ||||
| the Ilmaren Compact, or the ilmaren compact | No | partial | partial | Yes |
| sun-wrought, or sunwrought | No | partial | partial | Yes |
| Close names flagged as potential slips | No | No | No | Yes |
| Character aliases, linked and counted once | No | No | No | Yes |
| Unexplained terms, frequency and importance | No | No | No | Yes |
| A name used once, cut thread versus typo | No | No | No | Yes |
| Book two checked against book one | No | No | No | Yes |
| What scans give you | ||||
| Glossary and terms analysis | No | No | No | Yes |
| Character, place and faction directories | No | No | No | Yes |
| Density and heat map reports | No | partial | No | Yes |
| Detailed fix lists | partial | partial | in Word | Yes |
| Series consistency and comprehensive bible | No | No | No | Yes |
| Style sheets, pronunciation lists, handoff packs | No | partial | partial | Yes |
| Benchmarks against published novels | No | No | No | Yes |
| What TNK doesn’t do | ||||
| Ordinary misspellings, grammar, rewriting, house style | partial | Yes | partial | No |
| The process | ||||
| An AI model reads your manuscript | optional | optional | no | never |
| What it costs | included | monthly subscription | subscription | pass or annual plan |
We scanned 3,028 published books to see how common this really is.
of published novels spell at least one of their own names or invented words two ways
What the typical published novel contains
And what that implies for a draft nobody has edited yet
Measured across
Every figure measured with the same scanner you would run, on published books. These books were finished, professionally edited and printed. A draft has more. Our research → · How we measured it →
Book Two, meet Book One.
Check the new book against the world readers already know. Upload the next manuscript and see where it disagrees with the last one: a character renamed by one letter, a place that gained a hyphen, a term book one explained and book three forgot.
One word, two books
Neither book is wrong on its own. Together they are a continuity error a reviewer will name.
- Character namesA name spelled one way in book one and another in book four, including the one-letter changes nothing else catches.
- Place namesPlaces that moved, merged or changed spelling between volumes.
- Invented vocabularyTerms the series established, and the ones a later book quietly dropped.
- Spelling and hyphenationA compound written three ways across a trilogy, with the count for each.
- House styleA standard book one kept and book two never applied.
We measured 408 pairs of published novels that share a cast. 15.2 per cent of them spell at least one of their own invented words differently from each other, and 67.5 per cent of those disagreements are hyphenation.
The reports tell you what to fix. These are the finished pages you send, print or publish.
A back-of-book appendix
Print-ready, alphabetised, with your own definitions. Paste it into Vellum or Atticus, or take the same list out as a .docx.
An EPUB for Kindle and Apple Books
A standalone companion edition, a newsletter sign-up gift, or a free download that sells the next book.
The sheet your narrator asks for
Every name a narrator would hesitate over, split into syllables, the document every audiobook production requests.
A series bible for the next book
One document holding whichever reports you choose, so book two starts from what book one established.
Three steps, and nothing to set up.
Upload your manuscript
A .docx, .epub, .rtf or .txt up to 20MB.
One pass builds every report
The whole book is typically analysed in under a minute. No AI, nothing stored.
Fix and publish
Every finding says where in the book to look, chapter by chapter, and what to search for.
Four things one scan gives you.
Indispensable whichever way you publish. A query to an agent, a copyedit at a Big Five house and a KDP upload all start from the same manuscript, and none of them is looking for a name you spelled two ways.
Find mistakes in the world
Names, invented terms and aliases that drifted: one term written two ways four hundred pages apart, two names close enough for a reader to confuse, and the proof-stage errors underneath them.
Velora 63 uses Vellora 2 uses
Capitalisation checker · Hyphenation checker · Similar name checker · Alias detector · Spelling standard · Typography check · House style · Benchmark comparison
Map the book
Who and what is actually in it. Characters, places, factions, invented vocabulary and magic or technology, each with the sentence it arrives in, where it was last seen and how often the book leans on it.
Character directory · Cast report · Name shapes · Glossary generator · First appearance index · Defined terms · Unexplained terms · One-off terms · Place index · Organisations & factions · Magic & technology index · Mention heat map · Term clustering · World-building density
Carry the world forward
Book two against book one. Where the next manuscript disagrees with the world readers already know, what changed since your last draft, the book's own clock read out of the text, and a canon reference the next book starts from.
Book 1: Kestrun Book 2: Kestrunn
Last seen · Story clock · Compare two drafts · Series check · Series bible
Hand the book onward
The documents other people need. A fiction style sheet for your editor, a pronunciation sheet for your narrator, and a glossary for your readers that gives nothing away.
Book handoff pack · Reader editions · Spoiler-level editions · Pronunciation guide · Fiction style sheet
Every finding names the chapter to look in. Nothing is stored, and no AI model reads a word of it.
View all features →Every report behind those four answers.
The 32 reports one pass produces, grouped the way the app groups them. Each has its own page covering what it looks for and where it stops.
Characters and names 3
World-building reference 11
Publication checks 4
Series continuity 5
Reader and production outputs 5
Buy a pass for one book, or a plan for a year of them.
Most authors need a manuscript checked a handful of times, and a pass does exactly that: pick a window, use your scans, and it simply ends with nothing to cancel. If you publish more than one book a year, the annual plans work out cheaper per scan.
What every paid plan includes
The plans differ by volume and licence, not by features. Every report, export and check above is on all five. Final Check, Revision Pass and Prolific / Series Author are for manuscripts you wrote or own the rights to; Editor and Editor Pro add permission to scan clients' work, and have a page of their own.
The annual plans renew until you cancel, and the scan allowance resets each year rather than rolling over. Cancelling keeps your access to the end of the period you have paid for. Upgrading, downgrading and cancelling are all in your account.
Publishing at higher volume? Publisher is a bespoke arrangement: higher volumes, longer terms and a licence to match. Tell us what your list looks like and we will quote for it.
A free scan needs no account and reports real headline counts for your whole manuscript - terms found, near-duplicate names, terms never explained, terms used once - each placed against the published novels we measured. It lists no terms: the terms themselves are what a pass unlocks. Re-tuning the detection and scanning again is free at that tier.
Tax included where applicable. No plugin, and no Microsoft Word required: every plan runs in a browser on any machine, and takes the .docx, .epub, .rtf or .txt manuscript you already have.
Questions authors ask us.
What does it actually find?
Things a spellchecker cannot see, because they are only wrong in the context of your book, a name spelled two ways, a term you introduced in chapter two and never explained, a place that appears once under a slightly different name, a title that is capitalised in half its appearances. You get 32 reports in all, and each one tells you the chapter and the exact spot to look.
Do I still need The Novel Kit if my book has been professionally edited?
Yes, and the evidence is in published books. We scanned 3,028 of them, all finished, professionally edited and printed. Of the 1,868 full-length novels in that set, 99.8 per cent spell at least one of their own names or invented words two ways, and 90.7 per cent do it ten times or more. Those are the finished ones. A draft has more, and nothing else on your desk is looking for them. It matters wherever you are in the process, querying an agent, working with an editor or uploading to KDP, and consistency is only part of it: one scan runs 32 checks in all.
Should I stop using PerfectIt, Grammarly or ProWritingAid?
No, and you should not. Those read your prose and your editorial style: grammar, tense, rhythm, repetition, and a house style you define. This reads your world, the names, places and invented terms your book is built from, which no dictionary contains and no style sheet holds until somebody has written it. They do different jobs, and most authors want both.
How long does it take, and how big can my book be?
A few seconds for a normal novel. Across a test set of 38 manuscripts, the longest of them over 110,000 words, the slowest scan took two and a half seconds. You can upload a file up to 20MB, which is far larger than any manuscript in Word or ebook form.
Do I need to install anything, or learn how to use it?
Neither. It runs in your web browser, there is nothing to download, and there are no settings you have to understand before you start. Upload your file and the reports are simply there. If you want to tune what counts as a term, the controls are on the left, but the defaults are chosen to be right for most books.
Does it use AI, or send my manuscript anywhere?
No AI, and no. Your book is read by fixed rules about spelling, capitals and punctuation, not by a language model, so nothing you wrote is used to train anything. The file is read once to produce your reports and is never saved on our servers.
Does one scan really cover every report?
Yes. Your manuscript is read once, and every screen is a different view of that same reading. Moving between reports, filtering, re-sorting and striking terms off never use another scan. Changing the detection options and running them is the one thing that does, because it reads your file again, and that is free until you have a pass.
Will it change my manuscript?
Never. Nothing here edits your file. Where something needs fixing you get a list of the places to change, in the order you would work through them, which you can copy or download and then apply in Word or Scrivener yourself. Your original is untouched.
What if it flags something that is not a mistake?
Remove it with one click and it disappears from the list and from every export. Change your mind and you can restore it just as easily. Two spellings that are meant to be the same thing can be linked so they count as one.
What file formats can I use?
Upload a Word document (.docx), an ebook (.epub), rich text (.rtf) or plain text (.txt). You can export as plain text, a spreadsheet (.csv) or a formatted Word document, and turn your glossary into a reader-ready ebook, a web page, or something printable. One thing to know. Searching by bold and italic only works for .docx and .epub, because .rtf and .txt do not carry any formatting.
Should I run this before uploading to Amazon KDP?
Yes. Fixing a name spelled two ways after you have uploaded means correcting the manuscript, regenerating every file and, in print, ordering a new proof. The scan takes minutes while the book is still a .docx.
Does it work outside sci-fi and fantasy?
Yes. Anything with recurring names or its own vocabulary benefits: historical fiction, crime series, litRPG, memoir, and non-fiction with specialist terms. If your book has a cast and a world, there is something here for it.
Do I need an account?
Not to scan, and there is no password to create at any point. A free scan reports what is in your own manuscript - how many terms, how many near-identical names, how many never explained - and how that compares with published novels, with no sign-up at all. Seeing the terms themselves and exporting needs a pass or a plan, bought through Stripe: the two short passes last 7 or 30 days and are one-off payments, and the three annual plans renew until you cancel. Buying makes you an account against the address you paid with, so you can sign in from your inbox on a new machine. You never have to use it: your access is already on the browser that bought it. If you subscribed back when this was Glossary Generator, your code still works: open the pass screen and use the legacy link at the bottom.
What happens if I clear my cookies or change computer?
Sign in at your account page with the address you bought with, and we will e-mail you a link that puts the same remaining access on whichever browser you open it in. Nothing needs saving at the time of purchase, and there is no password to remember. If you would rather not depend on an inbox, you can generate a private recovery key for an active pass from the same page: it restores the pass anywhere with no e-mail involved. Keep a key to yourself, because anyone holding it can use the pass, and we cannot resend it - we deliberately never keep a copy.
Notes on world-building & craft.
What Happens to a Series Between Books
Where a Novel Loses Track of Its Own Words
Which English Do Published Novels Actually Keep?
13 fillable templates, free
Scene list, novel timeline, continuity checklist, story bible and nine more, as a spreadsheet or a Word document. No sign-up.
What 35 writing tools cost
Price, licence, where each one keeps your manuscript and whether it generates text. One dated table, with the source beside every row.
Find it before your reader does.
The final preflight for a finished novel. One pass over the whole book, under a minute, and nothing installed.
Check your manuscript- No sign-up
- Nothing stored
- No AI