Our story
Authors A.I. (authors.ai) is a tech startup run by and for authors. We help authors improve their story craft with a suite of tools powered by artificial intelligence.
Our goal
To help authors at every stage of their careers write books that readers love.
Our big idea
Our big idea is to put the power of A.I. into the hands of published and aspiring authors at an affordable rate. It will modernize their self-editing process so they can more easily write books that find a large readership.
Our backstory
Our venture began when two authors/entrepreneurs, J.D. Lasica and Matthew Jockers started developing their idea of creating a new social hub for book lovers accompanied by a new suite of tools for fiction writers.
Lasica, a thriller author and Silicon Valley startup founder, was fascinated by the lessons in Jockers’s book The Bestseller Code, co-authored by Jodie Archer. Jockers was looking to work with a group of talented authors to field-test and enhance his A.I. algorithm. Soon bestselling romance author Alessandra Torre joined as the third founder.
Here is how the news media greeted The Bestseller Code — and where we’re taking it now.
Our company
Authors A.I. became a Delaware C Corp. on Jan. 1, 2020. The company began a soft rollout of its authors.ai site on June 8, 2020.
Our sister site, BingeBooks, is scheduled to soft-launch in last summer 2020. Here’s a preview. It’s a new site for book lovers that combines editorial, community and retail elements. Sign up to learn when it goes live.
How it came together
From August 2019 to February 2020, we assembled a community of more than 120 bestselling authors and expert advisors. Together we’ve helped refine and expand Jockers’s original algorithm to make it more actionable by fellow authors.
Today we’re using Marlowe — our fiction-savvy artificial intelligence — to help fine-tune our own manuscripts while making the bot available to authors everywhere who want an expert analysis of their books.
Key dates
June 2019: J.D. Lasica and Matthew Jockers begin collaborating on the new venutre.
December 2019: Romance author Alessandra Torre joins as president. Former Apple executive Rob McDonald joins as director of business development. Clemente Izurieta joins as CTO.
June 2020: Version 1.0 release of the artificial intelligence Marlowe. Launch of authors.ai website.
January 2023: Manuscript analyses from Marlowe 2.0 now include subject matter and writing style comparisons. Regular “First Draft Fridays” conversations with authors and editors have established Authors A. I. as a useful resource for authors at every stage. The team now includes publishing veteran Eric Kettunen as director of sales and partnerships