Everything writers ask before trying Novel Mage

Novelists who want an AI co-author that knows their whole book, without handing their manuscript to a cloud service or paying a monthly bill forever. It suits first-time novelists finishing a first draft, series authors juggling dozens of characters and a lot of lore, and privacy-conscious writers who want the option to run AI fully offline. If you want a browser tool with a bundled model and zero setup, a cloud tool like Sudowrite may suit you better, and we'd rather tell you that now.

Only as much as you ask it to. Novel Mage is a co-author, not a ghostwriter. You can draft every word yourself and use the AI for brainstorming, character interviews, continuity checks and line edits, or you can have it continue a scene and then rewrite it in your own words. Nothing is generated unless you trigger it, and nothing changes in your manuscript unless you accept it.

Generic output usually comes from an AI that knows nothing about you or your book. Novel Mage gives the AI three layers of context: Writer's Voice presets that capture your style, custom system prompts for genre and tone rules, and a Codex that holds your characters, places and lore. The AI writes from your world and your voice, not from a blank prompt.

Yes, that's the core of the product. The Codex builds and maintains entries for characters, locations and world rules as you write, and Manuscript Review checks your chapters for contradictions such as a character's eye colour changing or a timeline that doesn't add up. Agent Chat can answer questions about your whole novel, so you can ask what you established in chapter 3 instead of scrolling for it.

Novel Mage isn't tied to a genre. Fantasy and sci-fi writers lean on the Codex for world-building, romance and literary writers use character interviews and Writer's Voice, and thriller writers use continuity checks to keep clues and timelines straight. You set the genre rules once in a system prompt and the AI follows them across every session.

Yes. The interactive demo runs the real Novel Mage interface in your browser with a sample novel, so you can click through the manuscript editor, chapter structure, Codex and AI chat before downloading anything. Nothing you type in the demo is saved, and its AI replies are pre-written.

If you can paste a key into a settings box, you can set it up. Writing works like any word processor: chapters and scenes on the left, your manuscript in the middle, the AI tools a click away. The only extra step is connecting an AI model (see Setup below), and if you get stuck, email us or ask in our Discord and we'll walk you through it.

If you already have an OpenAI or Anthropic API key, about 5 minutes: install, paste your key, start a chapter. A fully offline setup with a local model through Ollama or LM Studio takes about 20 minutes, most of which is the model downloading. You don't have to connect AI at all to start writing; the editor works without it.

94% of writers finish chapter 1 within their first 7 days, which is the length of the free trial. The trial gives you time to see a real chapter take shape on your own book before you decide anything.

Yes. Import your manuscript from Word (.docx or .doc), Markdown or HTML and keep going. An existing series bible can come in too: the Codex imports from JSON, Markdown and HTML. Once your chapters are in, the Codex can pull characters, places and lore out of them so you don't have to rebuild your notes by hand.

You need one AI source, and there are two free-to-start paths. (1) Run a local model through Ollama or LM Studio: free, fully offline, nothing leaves your computer. (2) Connect your own API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or OpenRouter and pay the provider directly for what you use. Neither path requires a Novel Mage AI subscription, and we add no markup to AI calls.

Not directly. ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro are chat subscriptions; tools like Novel Mage connect through the provider's API, which is billed separately on a pay-per-use basis. Creating an API account takes a few minutes on the OpenAI or Anthropic developer platform, and you can add a small credit balance and set a monthly spending limit there.

Pick local if privacy is the priority or you want zero AI cost: everything runs on your machine. Pick a cloud model (Claude, GPT, Gemini) if you want the best long-form prose and whole-novel context. Many writers mix: a local model for private brainstorming and routine review, a cloud model for the drafting and continuity passes where quality matters most. You can switch per task inside the same project.

It depends mostly on memory. With 8 GB of RAM or less, local models are good for brainstorming and review, but prose will be thin, so a cloud key is the better choice for drafting. With 16 GB, mid-size models handle scenes, Codex extraction and manuscript review well. With 32 GB or more (or Apple Silicon with plenty of unified memory), larger models write noticeably better fiction, though cloud models still hold more of a long book in context. The free trial lets you test on your own hardware before paying.

Cloud: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini and OpenRouter, using your own key. OpenRouter also connects in one click through its sign-in, with no key to copy, and gives you access to hundreds of models on one bill. Local: Ollama and LM Studio. A custom option accepts any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, cloud or local. You can set different default models for generation, editing and chat to balance cost and quality.

Lifetime is $111, paid once. Subscriptions are $9.99 a month, $26.99 a quarter or $99.99 a year, and you can cancel anytime. Every plan includes every feature: the AI agents, Agent Chat, the Codex, character interviews, Manuscript Review and Writer's Voice. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial and no credit card.

With a local model, nothing. With a cloud key, it depends on the model and how much text you send. Scoped tasks such as a Codex lookup, a scene review or a character interview cost cents on most models. A chat that reads your entire manuscript costs more: a 100,000-word book is roughly 130,000 tokens, so at around $3 per million input tokens one full-manuscript question is about $0.40. Most writers spend a few dollars a month; heavy daily use of whole-novel chat on a frontier model can reach tens of dollars. You pay the provider directly, with no markup from us.

Yes. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google all let you set a monthly spending limit in their dashboards, which takes about a minute. Use the scoped tools for routine questions, and save whole-novel chat for when you need the full context. Running a local model for brainstorming brings that part of your cost to zero.

Lifetime is $111 once. Sudowrite Professional is $29 a month, so lifetime pays for itself in about 4 months; Novelcrafter Artisan is $14 a month, so about 8 months. After that, every month you keep writing is free. If you're not sure you'll still be writing in a year, start monthly at $9.99 and switch later.

No. There are no credit packs, word limits or premium tiers inside the app. Every plan unlocks the full product. The only other cost is your AI provider's usage if you choose a cloud model, and that's billed by the provider, not by us.

Cancel from your profile page on novelmage.com in a few clicks: no email, no call, no retention maze. Your novels stay on your computer, and if you come back later everything is exactly where you left it. You can export your manuscript to Word, PDF, Markdown or plain text at any time.

Novel Mage never sees your manuscript. Your chapters, Codex and chats are stored on your own device and are never sent to Novel Mage servers. With a local model, the AI runs on your machine too, so nothing leaves it. With a cloud key, the text you send goes directly from your computer to that provider (OpenAI, Anthropic or Google) under their API terms, so check their data policy. For a sensitive manuscript, use a local model. The only things the app itself sends to Novel Mage are license checks, update checks and any feedback you choose to submit.

No. We can't: your manuscript never reaches us. Your API keys are stored locally too. If you use a cloud provider, their API terms govern what happens to the text you send; OpenAI, Anthropic and Google publish those terms for their APIs.

You do. Your manuscript lives on your machine, in your files, and Novel Mage never receives it. Everything you write and everything you accept from the AI is your work to edit, publish and sell.

Nobody can honestly promise a company lasts forever, so here's how Novel Mage is built to protect you. It's desktop software installed on your machine, and your novels are stored locally, never on our servers. Once a lifetime license is activated on a device, it validates offline from then on, so the app doesn't need our servers to open your book. You can also export your manuscript to Word, PDF, Markdown or plain text, export your Codex to Word or PDF, and make encrypted backups at any time. The worst case is that updates stop; your book and your installed app keep working.

That skepticism is fair, so here's what you can check rather than take on faith. Payment goes through Paddle, a major merchant of record, not a form that sends money to us directly. The price history is real: lifetime was $99.99 until September 13, 2026. Your work is stored on your own computer, so you're never locked out of your book. And the free 7-day trial means you see it working before you pay anything. If you'd rather not commit, the monthly plan is $9.99.

Every update to Novel Mage, major and minor, at no extra cost: new features, improvements and fixes. You'll never be asked to pay for an upgrade or a higher tier. What it doesn't cover is your AI provider's usage fees, which they bill you directly if you choose a cloud model.

Yes. Amazon KDP asks authors to disclose AI-generated content (text, images or translations created by AI) when publishing, but AI-assisted work, where you wrote the content and used AI to brainstorm, edit or refine it, doesn't require disclosure. Check KDP's current content guidelines before you publish, and follow your publisher's or contest's rules if they differ.

A chat window doesn't know your book. Every session you re-paste chapters, re-explain characters, and lose track of what you told it last week. Novel Mage gives the same models a permanent memory of your project: the Codex, your Writer's Voice, your chapter structure and your whole manuscript, inside an editor built for novels. You get the same AI, but now it knows your story.

Sudowrite is polished and easy if you want a bundled model in the browser and don't mind paying monthly; Professional is $29 a month. Novel Mage is a desktop app with a one-time $111 license, works offline, keeps your manuscript on your machine, and lets you choose any model, including free local ones.

Novelcrafter is the closest tool: a codex plus bring-your-own-key AI, in the browser. On its lower tiers it's cheaper in year one. Novel Mage costs more up front but is a one-time $111 license, so it wins over a longer horizon; it also works fully offline, stores your manuscript locally instead of on a server, and has a Codex that updates itself as you write. Your API key works in both, so you can compare them on the same chapter during the trial.

Scrivener is an excellent organiser but has no built-in AI, so many authors end up running Scrivener plus a separate AI subscription. Novel Mage combines manuscript organisation with an AI co-author that knows the whole book, and like Scrivener it's desktop software you can buy once.

Download Novel Mage and you get 7 days of full access to every feature, with no credit card. When the trial ends, the app asks for a license key. Buy any plan, enter the key in the app and you're unlocked, with your work exactly where you left it. Subscriptions also add 7 extra days on top. If it's not for you, don't buy it.

After purchase you receive a license key. Open Novel Mage, enter the key, and the app unlocks. Activation needs an internet connection once per device; after that, a lifetime license is checked offline. There's no account sign-in required to write.

Every license key activates on up to 3 devices, for example a desktop, a laptop and a travel machine. To move to a new computer, make an encrypted backup in the app, install Novel Mage on the new machine, enter your key and restore the backup. If you run out of activations or need more than 3 devices, email us and we'll sort it out.

Windows, macOS and Linux. On Windows you can install from the Microsoft Store or by direct download. The Mac app is a universal build that runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. On Linux (64-bit x86) it ships as an AppImage and a .deb package.

Yes. The editor, your manuscript and your Codex all live on your machine. With a local AI model, every AI feature works offline too, on a plane, in a cabin, or when your Wi-Fi drops. You only need internet to activate your license once per device, and whenever you use a cloud model.

Yes. If you're not happy with your lifetime license, email [email protected] within 7 days of purchase and we'll refund you, no questions asked. The refund goes back to your original payment method. Outside the 7-day window, if a technical problem stops you using Novel Mage and we can't fix it, contact us anyway and we'll make it right.

Email [email protected], or join the Novel Mage Discord or r/NovelMage on Reddit, where the team and other writers answer setup and writing questions. Lifetime and subscription customers get priority support.

In your user data folder: C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\novelmage on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/novelmage on macOS, and ~/.local/share/novelmage on Linux. The location can't currently be changed.

All your projects live together in one local SQLite database (db/novel-mage.db inside the data folder), with uploaded images and fonts in sibling folders. To get a single portable file, use Backup & Restore, or export a manuscript to Word, PDF, Markdown or plain text.

Yes. The Codex, chat history, memory and summaries, Writer's Voice presets, API keys and model endpoints are all stored in that same local database. Only display preferences such as your theme are stored separately.

Manuscripts: import from DOCX, Markdown or HTML, split into chapters and scenes; export to PDF, DOCX, TXT or Markdown, either the whole book or selected parts. Codex: import from JSON, Markdown or HTML; export to PDF or DOCX.

There's no live sync yet. Settings → Backup & Restore creates a single encrypted backup file containing everything, which you can restore on another computer. A restore replaces all data on that computer, so always restore from the machine you wrote on most recently.

We don't support that. The local SQLite database isn't designed for file-sync services, which can corrupt or overwrite a database that's synced mid-write, and the data folder location can't currently be moved anyway. To move between machines, use an encrypted backup and restore it on the other machine.

Yes, on a fresh install. If you move your data with a backup, your keys, endpoints and settings come with it.

Yes. The Ollama base URL is editable, so an address like http://192.168.x.x:11434/v1 works. Start Ollama with OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0 on the host machine so it accepts network connections. The same applies to LM Studio and any custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

It doesn't override it. Novel Mage reads the context size the model is loaded with in Ollama and fits what it sends to that window, so set num_ctx in Ollama (for example in a Modelfile) if you want a larger context.

Agent Chat uses tool calls, so any local model with tool-calling support should work. Models without tool calling can still be used for generation, rewriting and the other writing tools.

Yes. Activation needs an internet connection once per device and is tied to that device. After that, Novel Mage runs fully offline, and with a local model, so do all the AI features.

The app includes built-in guides for each feature, and the feature pages on this site cover how each tool works. We're expanding this FAQ and adding more documentation pages. If something isn't covered, email [email protected] and we'll answer it here.

Don't decide on a sales page. Download the free trial, open your own manuscript, and ask the AI one question about your book. In 7 days you'll know whether it fits, and you won't have paid anything. If something specific is holding you back, such as setup, cost or your hardware, email [email protected] or ask on Discord and we'll tell you honestly whether Novel Mage is the right tool.