Author First: AI Assisted | Steve Castledine | Working v5, 8 October 2026 | Review date: 9 October 2026
Scope: practical non-fiction; complete Working v5 DOCX body and its structural features inspected. Print and ebook are manuscript-discussed uses, not tested production files.
This review offers Casover's editorial assessment of your manuscript. It identifies strengths and explains where, in our judgement, changes could improve the reading experience. Recommendations are supported by examples and reasons, but editorial judgement allows for different interpretations. You decide which suggestions serve the book you want to write. You may adopt, adapt or decline them.
The supplied file is usable as a manuscript: chapter labels are clear, the Introduction gives readers routes through the book, and the appendices provide the named working material. No consequential contradiction in names, examples or framework definitions was established. Fictional teaching examples should remain separate examples rather than be made into a continuous cast.
The main additional concern is access to sources in a printed edition (OO-01). Many reference names carry a hyperlink rather than a visible address. That is useful electronically, but a print reader needs a usable route to the same material. A short maintained resource page, with its address printed in the book, is one option. Visible source addresses are another.
Navigation, heading levels and template fields need checking in the actual publication files (OO-02). They have not failed a test here; those files were not supplied. The text contains no Word tables or images, so claims about broken tables, missing image descriptions or device performance would be unsupported.
Start by choosing the source-access method, then test the converted contents, headings, lists, links and working fields. Keep the prose alternatives and the clear distinction between examples and instructions. OO identifies findings in Other Observations. The final service-wide order is set in the Final Editorial Summary.
Author First: AI Assisted is a practical guide for authors using AI through planning, drafting, revision and self-publication. Readership is manuscript derived, not a separately approved marketing brief. The supplied source is the 8 October 2026 Working v5 DOCX, not an EPUB, PDF proof or retailer upload.
All eleven chapters, six appendices, title, copyright, dedication, Before We Start, Introduction, Sources and Further Reading and Thank You were processed. Supporting documents were inspected for their relevance and source context. They are not publication files.
No consequential continuity issue was found within this assessment's limits.
The rural Wales retired-detective scene, the Hull female-detective example and Carys in an invented passage are separate teaching examples. Their different details do not establish a contradictory character history. RISE and LYRA definitions agree across their chapter and appendix appearances. The three AI working modes remain distinct.
Chapter Seven's interrupted explanation is examined in Pacing and Dialogue and Voice. It concerns sequence, not contradictory facts. The outside-guide references are examined in the Complete Manuscript Review and Dialogue and Voice; their access consequence is noted below.
Practical conclusion: retain the separate examples and established terminology. Do not create continuity repairs without a shared referent.
OO-01, source access, conditional on print publication. Sources and Further Reading includes descriptive linked labels such as Amazon KDP's guidance and the named research papers. The DOCX contains 66 hyperlink destinations; many destinations are not printed as visible addresses. The printed labels alone would not let a reader follow the links. This is an observable access limitation, not evidence that a destination is broken.