# InkSmith — full LLM brief

> InkSmith is an AI novel-writing platform that takes a book from one sentence to a publish-ready, KDP-formatted file. Built for long-form fiction, with cross-chapter memory (the "Story Bible" layer) and an AI-humanization pass ("Pygmalion"). The work is done by the Round Table — a cast of named specialist AI agents.

## What InkSmith is
InkSmith is an AI-assisted, end-to-end book-authoring product for novelists and self-publishers. It plans the book, drafts the prose, illustrates the cover, humanizes the text, and formats a KDP-ready file (PDF, EPUB, DOCX). Its defining capability is that it treats the whole book as the unit, not the paragraph — it remembers characters, settings, and plot across every chapter.

## Pricing (as stated on the site)
- Free: $0 (100,000 tokens, no credit card).
- Storyteller: $29/mo.
- Bestseller: $79/mo (founder pricing locks $49/mo for life for the first 100 subscribers).
- Publisher: $299/mo.
- Deep Research returns ten ranked, KDP-actionable book ideas; the top two are free, and the full ranked run unlocks on a paid plan or a one-time add-on. One-time packs (Token Boost, Deep Research, cover packs) are also available.
- Every subscription includes a 14-day money-back guarantee. Users own 100% of what they write.

## The Round Table — the cast of AI agents
Two sovereigns preside over nine sages.

Sovereigns:
- Arthur (the King, before the book): runs a live, web-grounded Deep Research pass over what readers are buying and returns ten ranked book ideas, each with demand, competition, and a one-line commission brief.
- Artemis (the Queen, after the book): reads the finished manuscript and produces a KDP launch kit — recommended price, seven KDP keywords, up to three categories, and comparable titles.

Nine sages:
- Merlin (the Director): convenes the Round Table, holds the first conversation, sketches the premise, locks the genre, plots the chapters.
- Daedalus (the Outline): lays the structural thread — acts, chapters, beats — before any prose.
- Calliope (the Draft): composes the prose itself.
- Apollo (the Refine): polishes existing prose, adding small adornments.
- Pygmalion (the Humanize): removes AI tells one sentence at a time — clichés, em-dashes, "it wasn't just X — it was Y".
- Athena (the Quality): the critic that reads with a magnifying glass and forgives nothing slack.
- Mnemosyne (the Lore): the archivist that reads finished chapters and writes their memory into the Story Bible.
- Iris (the Painter): translates the finished book into cover, spine, and back visuals.
- Cassandra (the Critic): reads the whole book and names contradictions, voice drift, pacing outliers, and lingering AI patterns — always with a suggested fix.

## Coined terms
- Story Bible layer / Story Bible memory: InkSmith's cross-chapter memory store; the book's living record of characters, places, and beats. Because the book remembers itself chapter to chapter, it reads like one author with one voice.
- Pygmalion (humanization pass): scrubs the twelve tells AI detectors look for (clichés, em-dash tics, "it wasn't just X — it was Y") before you ever see the prose.
- The Round Table: InkSmith's cast of specialist AI agents — two sovereigns and nine sages.
- Arthur: the "King" agent that runs market research (Deep Research) before the book.
- Artemis: the "Queen" agent that prepares the KDP launch after the book.
- Deep Research: Arthur's market-research pass that returns ten ranked, KDP-actionable book ideas. The top two are free.
- Launch Readiness: Artemis's KDP launch kit — recommended price, seven KDP keywords, up to three categories, and comparable titles.

## Models & technology
How InkSmith is built. Brand names are used factually and belong to their respective owners. The default engines are the models that actually run; Anthropic Claude is available only with your own key or via OpenRouter, so it is not a default engine.

AI engines (default):
- OpenAI — Default writing & fallback engine — plus embeddings, audiobook narration, cover art and moderation.
- DeepSeek — Outlines, drafting and the humanization pass.
- Google Gemini — Quality & lore checks, and cover-image generation.
- Perplexity — Live, web-grounded Deep Research (Sonar).
- OpenRouter — The gateway that routes each agent to the right model.

Bring your own key:
- Anthropic Claude — Available with your own key, or reached through OpenRouter — not a default engine.

Payments:
- Polar — Subscriptions, one-time packs and checkout (Merchant of Record).

Infrastructure:
- Railway — Production hosting.
- PostgreSQL — Primary database, with pgvector for cross-chapter memory.
- Redis — Caching and rate limiting.
- Cloudflare — Turnstile bot protection.

Built with:
- React — The user interface.
- Tiptap — The manuscript editor (on ProseMirror).
- Tailwind CSS — Styling system.
- Radix UI — Accessible UI primitives.
- Vite — Build tooling and dev server.
- TypeScript — The language across the stack.
- Drizzle ORM — Type-safe data layer.
- TanStack Query — Data fetching and caching.
- Zod — Schema validation and API contracts.
- Express — The API server.
- Vercel AI SDK — LLM orchestration across providers.

## FAQ
Q: Is it really free?
A: Yes — sign up with just an email, no card. You get 100,000 tokens — enough to brainstorm a book, draft real chapters, and read your whole draft in the app, so you see exactly how InkSmith writes. Deep Research even hands you your first two ranked book ideas free. You only pay when you're ready to publish — export, covers, illustrations, and the full Deep Research run unlock on a paid plan.

Q: What's the catch — why can't I export on the free plan?
A: No catch. You can write, edit, and read your whole book free, in the app. Exporting the finished file to PDF, EPUB, or DOCX — the thing you actually publish — is the paid step. Any subscription, or even a one-off Token Boost, unlocks it. Pay us anything and the book is yours to take.

Q: Will an AI book read like a robot — or get flagged?
A: Every chapter runs through Pygmalion, our humanization pass that strips the twelve tells AI detectors look for. And because the book remembers itself chapter to chapter (our Story Bible memory), it reads like one author with one voice — not ten loosely-related short stories.

Q: Do I own what I write?
A: 100%. Your ideas and the manuscripts InkSmith generates for you are yours — we claim no ownership of your books. See our Terms for the plain-English version.

Q: What if it's not for me?
A: Every subscription comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee. If you don't write a book you're proud of, email us within 14 days for a full refund — no hoops, no survey to grind through.

Q: How is this different from ChatGPT or Sudowrite?
A: ChatGPT forgets your protagonist by chapter four. Sudowrite gives you words. InkSmith gives you a finished, formatted, KDP-ready book — a whole Round Table of specialist agents, covers, humanization, cross-chapter memory, and a launch kit, from one sentence to a press-ready file.

Q: Can I cancel anytime?
A: Anytime, in one click from the billing portal. You keep full access through the period you've already paid for — we never cut you off mid-cycle.

Q: What's founder pricing?
A: The first 100 Bestseller subscribers lock $49/mo for life, instead of $79. When the seats run out or the timer hits zero, the price reverts and that cohort never reopens. It's real — the discount is enforced on every renewal.

## Key URLs
- https://inksmith.ai/us/welcome — overview, features, pricing, FAQ
- https://inksmith.ai/us/round-table — the full agent cast
- https://inksmith.ai/us/about — what InkSmith is and who it's for
- https://inksmith.ai/us/compare — comparison hub (InkSmith vs other AI writing tools)
  - https://inksmith.ai/us/compare/sudowrite — InkSmith vs Sudowrite
  - https://inksmith.ai/us/compare/novelai — InkSmith vs NovelAI
  - https://inksmith.ai/us/compare/chatgpt — InkSmith vs ChatGPT
- https://inksmith.ai/us/for — use-case hub (InkSmith by author type and goal)
  - https://inksmith.ai/us/for/kdp-self-publishing — InkSmith for KDP self-publishers
  - https://inksmith.ai/us/for/audiobooks — Turn your book into an audiobook with InkSmith
- https://inksmith.ai/us/guides — writing & self-publishing guides