Authors Finish Books in Record Time with Document Review Software

The hottest trend in the publishing industry is to create thousand-page books that are parts of a massive series. Authors and publishers are struggling with the difficult task of keeping track of all the information, character developments and plot twists that occur in every book. Notebooks and beta readers were commonly used to spot the differences, but advances in technology have helped make that process easier. 

“When writing my books I used to have to rely upon readers and forums to get details”, said Terry Shiner author of a self-published mega-hit romance series. “I would create a fake screen name and go on the forums and ask questions to get the details I needed.”

Scan for Details, a new document review software program is advancing the review and editing process for editor and authors. The program requires authors and publishers to upload manuscripts or digital forms of previous books into a central database. When an author or publisher wants to check for details or scan for a quote they can conduct a quick search, and the program will pull up relevant text. 

The uploading process can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 4 hours depending upon how many books are in the series and how detailed the authors and publishers want the search results to be. Search results can range from just sections of the text, to authors uploading a mini-review of events that occur in the chapter for quick search results. 

“Some authors just want to see where a character made a certain appearance, or what they did when they encountered someone”, said creator of Scan for Details, Tom Morey. “However, some authors really need a refresher on what happened, or who did want. That’s where the mini-review and synapsis comes in handy. Just type in a search such as “love scene Tim and Tina” and the books will be scanned for that particular part.” 

Scan for Details has not been released to the public yet, and has been in beta-testing for the past four months. Authors and publishers were invited to try the product out for free in exchange for reviews and bug reports. Feedback for the program has been mostly positive. 

“The hardest part about writing a book for myself was the researching”, said Greg Hamilton. “I would constantly question if I was repeating a scene or quote. Scan for Details made researching these little details easier, and I can focus on what I do best; write.”