First Book ai Reviews

First Book ai is useful for getting from an idea to a structured manuscript quickly. The guided workflow helps with outlining, drafting, and getting past the blank page. For first-time authors, consultants, coaches, and business owners, that part has real value.

But for me, the product still feels more like a manuscript generator than a complete book-building platform.

The main gap is what happens after the manuscript is created. A book needs more than chapters of text. It needs proper structure, polish, and production features that make it feel credible and ready to publish.

I would like to see a proper table of contents, preface, copyright page, author bio, stronger front matter, and better back matter. These details matter because they make the book feel complete, not just generated.

The page structure and formatting also need to feel more premium. The final output should not look like plain text exported into a PDF. A professional book needs better typography, spacing, headers, footers, page numbers, chapter opening pages, section breaks, pull quotes, callout boxes, and a layout that feels intentionally designed.

I would also like built-in, editable front and back covers. If the tool is helping users create a book, it should support the full book package, not only the manuscript. Editable cover design, back-cover copy, author bio placement, and copyright details would make the workflow much stronger.

Another important improvement would be chapter-level editing after generation. Right now, too much depends on getting the first setup process right. Book writing is rarely linear. Once I see the draft, I want to go into each chapter, edit the content, refine the ideas, add personal stories, adjust the tone, and regenerate or improve sections without feeling stuck in the original process.

I would also like support for uploading my own documents to create an Author DNA or Brand Voice profile. For example, previous writing samples, LinkedIn posts, website copy, brand guidelines, podcast transcripts, case studies, personal background notes, frameworks, and existing bios. That would help the AI understand my writing style, tone, professional background, point of view, and the language I actually use.

For a business book, this is important. The book should not just sound well-written. It should sound like the author. It should reflect their stories, expertise, positioning, values, examples, and way of explaining ideas.

Direct publishing options would also make the product much stronger. Once the book is generated, edited, formatted, and designed, users should be able to prepare it for popular publishing platforms such as Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo, Draft2Digital, IngramSpark, Gumroad, Payhip, or Shopify. Even if it does not publish directly, it should at least guide users through metadata, categories, keywords, author bio, description, ISBN, pricing, and export requirements.

What I like:
The guided book creation process
Fast manuscript generation
Helpful outline workflow
Useful for turning ideas into a structured draft
Good starting point for authors who struggle to begin

What needs improvement:
Add a table of contents
Add preface and front matter
Add copyright page support
Add author bio section
Improve page structure and premium formatting
Add better typography, spacing, headers, footers, and chapter openers
Add built-in editable front and back covers
Allow users to edit each generated chapter inside the app
Allow chapter-by-chapter regeneration and refinement
Support uploads for Author DNA and Brand Voice
Allow users to upload bios, writing samples, brand guidelines, transcripts, and previous content
Create a persistent author profile that shapes tone, examples, style, and positioning
Add direct publishing options or guided publishing exports for popular marketplaces
Support marketplace metadata such as title, subtitle, description, categories, keywords, ISBN, pricing, and author bio

Overall, First Book ai has potential. It is good for generating a first manuscript draft, but it does not yet feel like a complete premium book production platform.

The biggest improvements would be better post-generation editing, stronger page formatting, editable covers, full front matter and back matter, Author DNA or Brand Voice uploads, and direct publishing support.

That would make the product feel less like a one-way AI manuscript generator and more like a real book-building, branding, formatting, and publishing workspace.

I had a great deal of excitement about using FirstBook to create my first draft and then edit it. Of course, I knew that Spanish (my native language and the language of my audience on the social networks where I plan to sell my book) might be an issue. I found that in the outline stage I could write everything in Spanish, but when I moved on to the phase of writing chapter by chapter, I ran into error after error. I spoke with Casper, and he told me that I should change, or rather translate, everything into English, which is a big problem for me. I did it anyway, and even then I kept having problems. I decided to stop using it. It would be very expensive to translate an entire book from English to Spanish.

I believe I can do everything in my native Spanish with the new ChatGPT 5.5 model or Claude Opus 4.7 in Codex. Please don’t take my criticism the wrong way. I think FirstBook is a great tool, but they should make it very clear that it only works 100% in English. Spanish is spoken by more than 450 million people around the world. Unless I receive a response from Casper saying that Spanish will be included very soon, I’m afraid I will request a refund. Those who plan to use it in English will have no problem. I will change my review if everything changes very soon.

Okay lets put the bottom line up front. After creating several manuscripts, I would buy it again in an instant. I bought the highest tier (5). I have played with this app and found that it does what it says it's going to do. I wanted more information on emotional non-reactivity. Not boundaries, not stuff about Buddha and lunar cycles and feelings and positive attitudes or any of that more nuanced perspective. I wanted facts and actionable advice. I got it in less than 2 hours.

The output explained everything from neuroplasticity to actionable steps. I was shocked at the detail and in-depth work it created and wondered if the ai was making stuff up. So I used Perplexity, Google and more tools to find sources that I could verify. The book does indeed follow current knowledge and advice. I can't ask for more. This is exactly what I wanted.

I don't have any feedback other than I want the quality output to stay the same. New features are great an all, but not if those features detract from the detail and depth I am currently getting. I really hope they are around for the foreseeable future so I can keep using this awesome tool.

It worked as advertised. I was able to get a book in an afternoon (would have been faster if I didn't keep leaving while it worked). What I really liked was it provided ideas I never thought of and added context to the main points.

I love this product it writes like a dream, the books he writes is like a dream so good!