Autocrit Review for 2024: Read This Before Purchasing

There's always a debate or question on whether or not certain proofreading software tools will actually help specific types of writers and whether or not they are worth it.

And if you've done any research on them, you'll find that many authors do use a proofreading software to assist that is greater than Word's spellcheck, but most complain that many of them are not designed with fiction authors in mind.

While, I'll admit that others softwares like Grammarly or ProwritingAid aren't fiction focused, it turns out that AutoCrit is.

AutoCrit actually touts itself to be the “Fiction Writer's Secret Weapon.” But is that really the case? Plus, it claims it has reports that will help you write better. But does it?

Well, in this AutoCrit review, I'm going to discuss its features and capabilities, plus its cost, and decide on whether or not it is worth the cost. If you want my quick answer, my take on this is that while AutoCrit is good at what it does, there are other features it tries to do and doesn't do well. Due to the high price, I do not think it is worth the cost.

I do rank AutoCrit as #2 on my list of best proofreading software, but it might not be the best for you, depending on your situation, so read on to learn more about what makes AutoCrit so great. Additionally, Kindlepreneur has a special lifetime deal for AutoCrit as an affiliate, which is not something that they don't normally do, and is exclusively for Kindlepreneur readers. So be sure to check out the lifetime deal here.

What is AutoCrit?

AutoCrit is an editing software, that prides itself on being your own personal fiction writing mentor. It's designed to help you fine tune your understanding of fiction style writing so you can continue to master your craft. 

AutoCrit is able to achieve this due to a very unique database it has. You see, the folks behind the program have scanned millions of different fiction books into AutoCrit's programming. (Which by the way is important to keep in mind as I'll discuss this scanning later).

After going through the program's algorithms, AutoCrit can give you an accurate judgment and constructive criticism tailored to fiction writing.

And it's not just stylistic insights that AutoCrit provides. With the simple push of a button, it provides over 20 different ways to improve your manuscript, ranging from poor dialogue choices to cliches you might want to eliminate. And it guides you through every step of the way. As far as this AutoCrit review is concerned… The idea behind the software is a solid one.

Side note: it's worth pointing out that these analysis features that AutoCrit has used are simple algorithms scanning for things like dialogue tags, the number of adverbs you have, the instances of passive voice, etc.

Pricing: How Much Does AutoCrit Cost?

So what does a service like this cost? It's a pretty invaluable tool, so how can you put a price on that?

Autocrit does that through a monthly subscription plan at three different levels.

As you can see, there is a free version. However, I find it to be a glorified spell checker and grammar system – a step up from what you'd find in Word. But what makes AutoCrit special is when you pay for the Pro version – which them comes with all the legitimate features. You can either do $30 per month, or if you pay annually it turns out to be $15 per month or $180 for the year.

What about a lifetime membership?

When I first wrote this AutoCrit review, one of my major hangups was the fact that there was no lifetime membership option. I personally hate having to pay monthly subscription fees for my writing – and I was pretty vocal about this. I'd prefer to pay once and use it throughout my career, instead of waiting for it to dry up.

Because of what I wrote, I was actually able to negotiate a special lifetime deal that is ONLY for Kindlepreneur readers! Which is nice. So, for those of you who hate subscriptions, there is now an option for you. But again, this is only offered here:

My Experience with AutoCrit (And Why I'm Qualified to Write About It)

I'll admit, I was skeptical about AutoCrit at first. I was hesitant about whether it did a good job with fiction writing and ‘how' they scanned books. Was it invasive? Would it be problematic?

But then again I heard a lot of good things, and then a lifetime membership popped up, and I jumped on it.

I knew I was going to be writing this review soon anyway, and figured that AutoCrit had a 60 day moneyback guarantee, which I can take advantage of if I didn't like the software while I was reviewing it.

So with that in mind, let's talk about AutoCrit and whether I kept it or took advantage of the moneyback guarantee.

The Summary Report

If you have the Pro version, you get access to the summary report, which is just a large report summarizing every one of the smaller reports that AutoCrit provides.

Doesn't sound that innovative right?

Well, it turned out to be the thing that sold me on the software. After analyzing my book (which was a recent book that I just finished but not released yet), it gave me a list of reports, showing me a few that were very consistent with other fiction authors in my genre.

But then it showed me a number of reports of things that I could improve. I quickly saw that there were opportunities for better dialogue tags, as well as my use of adverbs.

But perhaps my favorite part was the peace of mind I got in seeing that my use of passive voice, for example, was actually lower than the average best-selling fantasy book.

And that's my favorite part, the fact that you can compare these objective markers to bestsellers in your genre.

It's not perfect, because these objective markers are not the only things that make a best-selling book, but it does provide some peace of mind for certain specific, identifiable issues.

How Does AutoCrit Work?

AutoCrit is broken down into a variety of different reports. This summary report I mentioned above can help you zone in on which reports are most relevant for you and your book, and which you don't need to look at.

But for those who want to dive deeper, here's a more comprehensive list of all of the different reports you could run, and how you can use them to improve your book:

Pacing & Momentum

AutoCrit provides several reports focused on improving the pacing and momentum of your story. These identify issues with variation at the sentence, paragraph, and chapter levels so you can pinpoint problem areas and enhance flow.

• Sentence Variation: Sentence variation refers to using a mix of short, medium, and long sentences to improve sentence length and flow. This report helps identify areas where sentence structure could be more diverse.
• Pacing: The pacing report lets you know if certain sections drag or move too fast so you can better control the speed of your story.
• Paragraph Variation: This report highlights paragraphs that are too long or short so you can break things up and vary paragraph length.
• Chapter Variation: The chapter variation report identifies chapters that are exceptionally longer or shorter than others and may need adjustment.

Dialogue

AutoCrit's dialogue reports provide useful metrics and suggestions for improving character interactions in your story.

• % of Sentences With Dialogue: This report tells you if dialogue makes up an appropriate amount of your text or if there is too much or too little.
• Dialogue Tags: The dialogue tags report identifies repetitive or ineffective tags like “she said” so you can replace them with more dynamic alternatives.
• Adverbs in Dialogue: This report highlights unnecessary dialogue adverbs to eliminate so your character interactions sound more natural.

Strong Writing

AutoCrit provides a suite of reports focused on improving the strength of your prose for a more compelling read.

• Adverbs: This report identifies unnecessary or repetitive adverbs you can remove or replace for stronger verbs.
• Passive Indicators: The passive voice report allows you to pinpoint areas of passive voice to change into active voice for punchier writing.
• Tense Consistency: This checks for improper switches between past, present, and future tense so your writing remains consistent.
• Showing vs Telling: The showing and telling report helps identify passages dominated by exposition so you can turn them into more immersive scenes.
• Cliches: This highlights overused cliches so you can brainstorm fresh and original alternatives instead.
• Redundancies: Any redundant phrases that made it past editing are called out so they can be removed.
• Unnecessary Filler Words: Filler words that pad sentences rather than enhance them will be identified for trimming or removal.

Word Choice

AutoCrit provides numerous reports to improve word choice and variety in your manuscript.

• Initial Pronoun and Names: This checks that you effectively vary between pronouns, names, and nicknames when referring to characters.
• Sentence Starters: Any overused sentence starters are identified so you can vary how sentences begin.
• POV Consistency: The POV consistency report ensures your chosen narrative voice remains consistent and doesn't accidentally switch perspectives.
• Generic Descriptions: This highlights bland descriptive words so more unique and vivid options can be used instead.
• Personal Worlds and Phrases: Quirky personal vocabulary choices stand out so you can decide if they align with voice and tone.
• Power Words: This suggests impactful verbs and descriptors that can replace weaker word choices.

Repetition

AutoCrit provides several reports focused on identifying repetitive elements you'll want to revise.

• Repeated Words: This checks for repeated phrases used too many times in close proximity so you can replace them with synonyms.
• Word Frequency: Any words that appear with unusually high frequency throughout the manuscript are highlighted.
• Phrase Frequency: This identifies phrase patterns that repeat too often so you can mix things up.

Readability

AutoCrit offers some useful reports for assessing and improving your manuscript's readability.

• Readability Statistics: This provides common readability metrics like Flesch-Kincaid grade level so you know the target audience.
• Dale Chall Readability: The Dale Chall formula specifically measures readability for fiction novels.
• Complex Words: Any unnecessarily complex vocabulary is flagged so simpler alternatives can improve readability.

AI Features

But before we get too much further, let's also talk about some of the newer AI features. AutoCrit is often mistaken as an AI writing software, but it existed long before generative AI became a thing.

Indeed, it is easy to mistake the comparisons with best-selling authors as AI features, but they are not. However, AutoCrit has begun to implement the small AI features…which is where things get interesting. Their AI features so far are only for inspiration and analysis, and they do a really useful job at both.

Here are the two biggest features:

Inspiration Studio

Inspiration Studio is a collection of AI features that let you do a number of brainstorming tasks.

• What Happens Next?: This is a place to look at everything you have written before, and get ideas on where to go next. The AI knows the context of your book, and so it can give you decent ideas of what happened next, basically eliminating writers block completely.
• Change the Mood: A feature that lets you highlight text, and it will give you suggestions on how to change the tone/mood of the scene.
• Story Builder: The Story Builder lets you brainstorm new story ideas from scratch, complete with premise, worldbuilding features, and characters. While rudimentary compared to some of the AI writing programs out there, this can be helpful for the author that doesn't use AI a lot.

Story Analyzer

The story analyzer is another really useful tool that will analyze each chapter of your novel, providing you with a summary, information about conflict, characters, world building, possible contradictory events, the timeline, and more.

Once you have analyzed every chapter, it can also do an analysis of your story overall.

I found this to be a useful tool for larger, developmental edits.

Nonfiction Options

While most of the examples I've given in this review so far have been for fiction, Autocrit does work for nonfiction as well – it's just not its specialty.

For example, there is a Nonfiction Builder, a Nonfiction Analyzer, and reports designed to compare your manuscript against other nonfiction manuscripts, in the same way that the fiction reports analyze your book in comparison to other books in your genre.

Here's a brief look at the Nonfiction Analyzer as an example of what you will find.

It's pretty good at this, however, still better at fiction.

Is Their AI System a Problem? (Problem)

My issue is that with their machine learning system, I'm not jazzed about any system where I need to submit my book for some system to read it, and then give me advice. They aren't using “AI” but they are learning from my book through Machine Learning. Granted it needs to do this in order to work, but there in lies a bit of a problem.

So, I'm not a fan, as an author and artist, of submitting my books to be read, learned, and used in that manner. So, that's a bit of a strike for me.

What About AutoCrit Formatting? (Problem)

AutoCrit does have the ability to format your writing into an ebook but not a print book. However, this feature is actually pretty poor and I'd stay away from it.

First it is incredibly buggy, and problematic. Also, it is severely limited in its capability with things like no chapter heading image options, low number of font choices and other features.

Basically it is riddled with errors and feels like they released that feature too early. So, stay away from that!

Is the Price of AutoCrit worth it?

Well, it depends, but no not really. Paying $30 a month to get a report on a book and some grammar and spelling recommendations feels a bit much. Based on other software out there that does these sorts of things as well as this pricing seems a bit steep.

However, if you are a professional writer that is pumping out many books, and you'd like to have a go-to-system to check your work, then paying for lifetime at $350 is a possibility. Still a little steep – (I'd rather see it at $150 or $200) but if you're doing well sales wise from your books, then might as well beef up your arsenal. But if not, then this is a luxury high priced cost.

What I Liked About AutoCrit:

So let's dig into my favorite parts about AutoCrit, and why I think you should use it.

• Reports: Unlike some other programs out there that do this, I'll admit the reports are well done and seem to give good recommendations.
• Exporting: I haven't talked about this yet, but the exporting features were excellent. It was able to easily read a DOCX file I gave it and accurately divided it into the correct chapters for me.
• Ease of Use: Overall I found the reports very easy to handle, and it didn't take me long before I was in the weeds, fixing up my book based on the recommendations.
• Goal Setting: AutoCrit also has a fun goal setting app lets you set goals for words written and the like. While I don't use these features for myself, they were are welcome addition.

What I Didn't Like About AutoCrit:

While there is a lot to like about AutoCrit, there were a few things that didn't quite work for me.

• Integrations: Sadly, you have to do everything within AutoCrit's own software. There is no downloadable version of the software, and there is no integration with Scrivener, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Atticus, or any other major writing platform out there. In my opinion, if they want to compete with programs like ProWritingAid, this will need to change eventually. That said, it really is much more manageable in their own format, and I can see why it would be difficult to integrate with other programs.
• Dictation Feature: I tried out their dictation feature to see if it worked, and found it to be almost unusable compared to Dragon dictation or some of the AI dictation apps out there.
• Lots of Upsells: while this is a little nitpicky, I did find it slightly annoying that, after having paid hundreds of dollars for the lifetime version, that it was presenting me with courses and services that cost even more, in some cases. While I understand that these are separate products, it did feel a little annoying to have more things to buy, after I had already spent a good chunk of money on the software. Obviously you don't have to make these purchases, but I thought I would mention it.
• Formatting Riddled with Errors: As I discussed the formatting was terrible and limited
• Pricing: As I said earlier, I wish this was a $100-$150 cheaper. But as is, its a bit too pricy for the worth. But at least there is a lifetime option.

Verdict: Is AutoCrit Worth It?

As I wrap up this Autocrit review, the real question is… Is it worth it? And I believe the answer is: No – unless you are making a lot of money from your books and you can afford the luxury.

Yes, the reports are very well done and is what makes this a great option. However, that's about it. Everything else it does beyond the reporting is meh. While Autocrit does catch some grammar errors, I would still run my writing through a program such as ProWritingAid. It does do some AI suggestions, you're better off with something else. And, while it can do formatting, its riddled with bugs and extremely limiting – thus you're better of using something else.

And I can't stress enough the issue of not being able to work inside of other programs. There is no downloadable version or integrations. Furthermore, be prepared to get offer after offer for other things to buy like courses, or services, etc.

Now, if the above doesn't bother you, then for what it's worth, Autocrit is a pretty good tool for fiction writers. I've been using it myself for my own novel ever since I purchased it to write this review. But I do make enough money from my books to justify paying that and keeping the program. So, not a necessary program…just a good luxury.

And if you do get AutoCrit, I definitely recommend the lifetime version – which is what I did.

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Other Frequently Asked Questions:

Is AutoCrit Better than ProWritingAid or Grammarly?

AutoCrit is quite different from ProWritingAid and Grammarly. AutoCrit is specifically designed for helping fiction writers improve their craft through detailed style and writing quality reports benchmarked against top-selling authors in each genre. So for fiction writers, AutoCrit provides more relevant and actionable feedback, though ProWritingAid and Grammarly have their own strengths. ProWritingAid is still my favorite for general grammar checking.

Will AutoCrit Take Away My Writing Voice?

No, the reports provided by AutoCrit are meant to strengthen writing voice by identifying overused words and phrases and suggesting more creative alternatives without imposing any uniform style. The community also helps writers develop their unique voice.

Is AutoCrit Only for Fiction?

No, AutoCrit has multiple reports for both fiction and nonfiction manuscripts. All of the comparison reports, Story Analyzer, and Builder are available for both fiction and nonfiction.

Is AutoCrit worth the money?

For fiction writers who are serious about perfecting their manuscript and getting actionable feedback that goes well beyond free alternatives, AutoCrit seems worth the investment given the depth of reports and the access to a supportive community of fellow authors. I would especially consider the lifetime option.

Does AutoCrit Use Generative AI?

For most features, no, AutoCrit relies on its own databases of successful novels to analyze writing quality and style rather than any generative AI. It does use generative AI for ideation and analysis in the Inspiration Studio and Story Analyzer.

Does AutoCrit Work for Nonfiction?

The reports most relevant to fiction like dialogue and pacing may not apply to nonfiction or academic writing, but AutoCrit has other reports that are specific to nonfiction writers for improving readability, reducing repetitions, highlight passive voice issues, and more.