Reader Panel

Reader panel

A reader panel evaluates the novel AS A WHOLE, not chapter by chapter. The disagreements between readers are where editorial decisions live.

Procedure

Step 1 — build the arc summary

If /arc_summary.md does not already exist (or is stale), generate it. The arc summary is what you hand to each persona — they don't read 80k words.

For each chapter, write:

## Ch N — [title]

OPENING (~150 words, lightly trimmed from the actual chapter open)
...

KEY BEATS:
- beat 1
- beat 2
- beat 3

KEY DIALOGUE (1-2 lines that capture the chapter's tone)

CLOSING (~100 words from the chapter's actual ending)

Concatenate all chapters into /arc_summary.md. Total target ~12,000-18,000 words for a 75k-word novel.

Step 2 — spawn four subagents in parallel

Use the Agent tool with one tool-use block containing four parallel calls:

| subagent_type | Persona | |---|---| | panel-editor | Senior fiction editor | | panel-genre-reader | Avid fantasy reader | | panel-writer | Published novelist | | panel-first-reader | Thoughtful general reader |

To each, pass:

• The full content of /arc_summary.md inline in the prompt
• A note that the novel is N chapters / W words
• The JSON schema (in each agent's instructions, but reiterate it: the 10 questions)

Each agent returns JSON with the 10 questions answered.

Step 3 — merge

Save each persona's JSON to /edit_logs/reader_panel.json under readers..

For consensus detection across these questions: momentum_loss, cut_candidate, thinnest_character, worst_scene:

1. Extract chapter numbers each persona mentions (re.findall(r'Ch(?:apter)?\s*(\d+)', answer, re.IGNORECASE)).
2. For each chapter mentioned by any persona, list which personas flagged it and which didn't.
3. Consensus item = 3-of-4 or 4-of-4 agreement. These are revision priorities.
4. Disagreement item = 1-of-4 or 2-of-4. These are editorial calls — flag them but don't auto-act.

Write /edit_logs/reader_panel.json:

{
  "readers": {
    "editor": { /* the editor's JSON */ },
    "genre_reader": { /* ... */ },
    "writer": { /* ... */ },
    "first_reader": { /* ... */ }
  },
  "consensus_items": [
    {"question": "cut_candidate", "chapter": 14, "agreement": "4/4", "details": {...}}
  ],
  "disagreements": [
    {"question": "thinnest_character", "chapter": 8, "flagged_by": ["editor"], "not_flagged": ["genre_reader", "writer", "first_reader"]}
  ],
  "timestamp": "..."
}

Output to user

Print:

• Each persona's would_recommend and best_scene answer (one line each)
• All consensus items with the question and chapter
• All disagreements with the split

Suggest: pass each consensus item to gen-brief to generate a revision brief, then gen-revision.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: tchr-dev
• Source: tchr-dev/autonovel
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.