C.J. Kichuk

The problem

When I was getting BITS ready for my first readers, I ran into the same wall every writer does: feedback is either too expensive, too slow, too vague, or too kind to be useful. Critique partners are generous with their time but limited in number. Professional editors are excellent but costly — an avenue best reserved for final touches. Beta readers mean well, but six people reading the same book rarely agree on what's actually wrong with it — or they all tell you what you want to hear.

I'd spent years in software development before I spent years writing fiction. That need is what pulled the two together, and I started building the tool I wished existed.

What it is

Readers' Verdict submits a manuscript to a jury of AI reader personas — each with a distinct genre background, taste, and critical lens — built to review independently and then respond to each other, the way a real critique group argues over a draft. The result is a structured, written verdict: where the manuscript is strong, where it's weak, and where the readers themselves disagree.

It's not a replacement for human readers. It's a bridge to them — a way to walk into critique groups, editors, and beta readers with a manuscript that's already had its obvious problems found and fixed.

Your manuscripts are kept confidential and aren't used for any purpose but the review process. The reviewers are not human readers but carefully constructed AI entities, built specifically to make your eventual time with human readers count for more. That's the solution Readers' Verdict offers to one of writing's most frustrating obstacles: a consistent, repeatable close read, something you can apply to every draft, not just the one you think is finished.

Readers' Verdict runs on Anthropic's Claude models, with each reader persona designed to argue from a real critical position rather than hedge politely. My manuscript was the first one it ever reviewed — and, with months of work, Readers’ Verdict became the tool I wish I’d had from the beginning.

Try Readers' Verdict →
Free sample: first 5,000 words, 3 readers, no credit card required.

Readers' Verdict exists because while I was writing BITS, I needed it. I made it a product because every other author needs it too.