Collaborators

• Invite an editor, co-author or reader
• What each role can do
• Review suggestions and comments

Invite an editor, co-author or reader

You can bring other people into a book—an editor to go over the draft, a co-author to write alongside you, or beta readers to read and leave notes. This page shows how to invite them, and how to change or end their access later.

Invite someone

1. Open the book and click Share at the top right of the editor.
2. Under Invite by email, type the person's email address.
3. Under As, choose their role: Co-author, Editor or Reader. The line underneath explains what that role can do. (There's more on the roles in What each role can do.)
4. Click Invite.

Screenshot: the Share this book window, with one collaborator listed and the Invite by email row at the bottom.

What happens next

Write emails them a link to sign in. If they've never used Author Tools, they don't need a Writing Wives membership or a subscription—the invitation sets up their Author Tools account for them.

Nobody is put on a book without saying yes. When they open Write, the invitation is waiting at the top of their Library under Shared with you, with your name, the book's title and their role. They click Accept and the book joins their Library, or Decline and it goes away. Until they accept, they can't open the book, and they're listed in your Share window as invited, with a dashed circle beside their name.

Screenshot: the top of the Library with a Shared with you box: "Owner invited you to A Book as an editor," with Decline and Accept buttons.

If someone has invited you

Look at the top of your Library. Each invitation shows who sent it, the book and the role you'd have. Accept opens the book to you; Decline turns it down, and the person who invited you sees it leave their list.

Change someone's role

In the Share window, use the role list beside their name. The change takes effect right away; they'll see it the next time they open the book.

Remove someone

Click Remove beside their name. They lose access to the book straight away. Nothing they wrote or suggested is lost—their comments and changes stay in the book, under their name.

To cancel an invitation that hasn't been accepted yet, click Withdraw beside it.

Who can invite whom

• You, as the book's owner, can invite co-authors, editors and readers, change anyone's role, and remove anyone.
• A co-author can invite editors and readers, and remove those.
• Editors and readers can see who's on the book, but can't invite anyone.

Nobody can be made the owner of your book; it stays yours.

Good to know

• Sharing is per book. To share a whole series, invite the person to each book.
• Up to 20 invitations a day. That covers any book, and it keeps the invitation email from being misused. If you hit it, try again the next day.
• Restoring a backup doesn't put your old collaborators straight back on the book. Each gets an invitation in their Library to accept, without an email.
• Fonts you've uploaded show for your collaborators while they're in your book, so the page looks the same to them as it does to you.
• An AI you've connected isn't a collaborator—it works as you. See Working with an AI.

What each role can do

Everyone on a book has a role, and the role decides what they can do there. This page sets them side by side, so you can choose the right one when you invite someone.

The four roles

Owner

That's you, for the books you make. You can do everything: write, publish, change the page setup, invite and remove people, archive the book. A book has one owner, and the role can't be handed to anyone else.

Co-author

Someone who writes and decides alongside you. A co-author can:

• write and change the text directly;
• accept and reject suggested changes, and resolve comments;
• add, rename and reorder chapters, scenes and front and back matter;
• invite editors and readers, and remove them.

A co-author can publish the book too. The page setup stays with you, and only you can make someone a co-author.

Editor

Someone who goes over your words and proposes changes. An editor can:

• read the whole book;
• suggest changes—everything they type shows as a tracked change, in their color, for you to accept or reject;
• comment on any passage, and reply to comments.

An editor can't change the text outright. Their editor is always in Suggesting mode, and the Writing button is greyed out with a note saying why.

Reader

Someone who reads and leaves notes—a beta reader, a proofreader marking typos, a friend. A reader can:

• read the whole book;
• comment on any passage, and reply to comments.

Which to choose

• A developmental or line editor: Editor. You keep the final say on every change.
• A proofreader: Editor if you'd like their corrections as changes you can accept with a click; Reader if you'd rather they just point things out.
• Beta readers: Reader.
• A writing partner on a shared book: Co-author.

You can change someone's role at any time from the Share window; see Invite an editor, co-author or reader.

What everyone sees

Every comment and every suggested change carries the name and color of the person who made it, so you always know whose idea it was before you decide. When you accept a change, the text becomes part of the book.

Review suggestions and comments

When an editor goes over your book, their changes arrive as suggestions—shown in the text, but not part of it until you say so—and their notes arrive as comments. This page is about working through them: accepting, rejecting, replying and tidying up. Suggestions from an AI you've connected work exactly the same way.

Where they show

In the editor, a suggested change is marked right in the text: added words underlined, removed words struck through, in the color of the person who suggested it. Comments are highlighted on the words they're about.

All of them are listed in the review rail down the right-hand side of the editor. If it's hidden, click the tab on the right edge of the page—it shows how many items are waiting.

Screenshot: a scene with a suggested change marked in the text, and the review rail on the right showing a change and a comment.

This scene, or the whole book

At the top of the rail, choose This scene to see what's waiting in the scene you have open, or Whole book to see everything in every scene and section, in reading order. In the whole-book list, clicking a card opens that scene and takes you to the spot.

Accept or reject a change

Each change has a card in the rail with two buttons: accept it and the text becomes part of your book; reject it and the text goes back to how it was. After you decide, the next card is ready, so you can work through an editor's pass one change after another.

If you trust a whole batch, Accept all and Reject all do every change in the scene at once. The whole-book view offers the same for the entire book, and asks you to confirm first.

Only you and your co-authors can accept or reject; editors and readers see the cards but not the buttons.

Comments

• To comment, select some words. A small bar appears above them; click Comment, or press Ctrl+M (Cmd+M on a Mac). Type your note and press Ctrl+Enter to send it.
• To reply, click Reply on the comment's card.
• When it's dealt with, click Resolve. The comment is tucked away rather than deleted; Show resolved brings resolved comments back into view, and Reopen puts one back in play.

Everyone on the book can comment and reply. Resolving is for you and your co-authors.

Before you publish

Changes nobody has accepted or rejected yet print as though they had been accepted, so the book matches what you see when you read it. The Publish window reminds you if any are waiting; see Check your book before you publish.

Scenes written by an AI

A scene an AI agent wrote from scratch is new text rather than an edit, so it isn't shown as tracked changes. Its card says Written by an AI agent, with a Mark reviewed button for when you've read it through.