Made by an author, for authors
AuthorOrbit was built by Susan Mac Nicol, a romance author with more than forty published titles. Like most working authors, she ran her business across a dozen half-remembered spreadsheets, folders and email threads — and spent more of each week hunting for things than she wanted to admit.
AuthorOrbit is what she built to fix that for herself. It’s now available to other authors who are tired of the same scavenger hunt.
“Orbiting Creativity, One Story at a Time.”
Frequently asked questions
Is my data private?
Yes. AuthorOrbit runs on your computer. Nothing goes to the cloud unless you choose it — importing a statement, running an AI feature, connecting Google Drive, or sending a post to your scheduler.
Do I need to be technical?
You need to install Node.js once — it’s free, and we guide you through it. If you’d rather not, add the done-for-you setup and we’ll hand you a ready app. There’s also a one-hour one-to-one session (£35) over Zoom, Google Meet or Teams if you’d like someone alongside you while you set it up and find your way around.
Windows or Mac?
Both.
What do the AI features cost?
Nothing from us. They use your own Anthropic API key, and Anthropic bills you directly — usually £1–3 a month for an active writer, pennies for a light one. The app is fully usable with no key at all. There’s more detail on our AI transparency page.
Which royalty statements does it read?
Amazon KDP & Kindle Unlimited, Draft2Digital (read exactly, with no AI needed), IngramSpark, Kobo and more. Direct-sales, audiobook and translation statements — Payhip, itch.io, Storytel, audiobook distributors and foreign-rights publishers — are read too, but those are in beta, so always check the preview before saving. The original file is always kept attached to its quarter, so you can go back to it.
Does it work outside the UK?
Yes. You choose your tax year once — 6 April for the UK, 1 January for a calendar year such as the USA or the Netherlands, or your own start date — and your money is kept in pounds, dollars or euros, each in its own tab with its own totals and reports. AuthorOrbit doesn’t convert between currencies, doesn’t handle VAT or sales tax, and the interface is in English. It’s a record-keeping tool for you and your accountant, not tax advice.
Can I see income by type — audiobooks, translations, direct sales?
Yes. Each royalty statement can be tagged with an income stream — ebook retail, print, audiobook, translation and foreign rights, direct sales, or your own — and reports and the Tax Schedule can be broken down by stream.
Is it a one-off price, or a subscription?
One-off. £149 and it’s yours to keep — there’s no subscription, and no ongoing fee of any kind from us. The optional done-for-you setup is a separate one-time £99 if you’d like your catalogue imported for you.
Do you offer refunds?
Your rights, and how to ask for a refund, are set out in our refund policy.
What happens after I buy?
We email you your download and a short setup guide, by hand, usually within a working day. If you bought the done-for-you setup, we’ll also write to collect your catalogue, links, publishers and royalty statements.
Do I get updates and support?
Yes — 90 days of email support, included in the price. From the day you buy, write to contact@authororbit.co.uk about anything: installing it, getting Node.js onto your machine, importing your catalogue, a feature you can’t make sense of, or something behaving oddly. We aim to reply within two working days.
After 90 days you’re still very welcome to write, and we’ll still answer — it simply stops being a commitment. Genuine faults are different: if something is broken or doesn’t work as described, we’ll fix it and send you the corrected version, however long after buying you find it.
What there isn’t is a schedule of new features. AuthorOrbit is a finished app that runs on your own machine, with a How To section covering every feature, and it keeps working whether or not we ever touch it again.
Is there a hosted or web version?
Not yet — AuthorOrbit today is a private app you run yourself.
Can more than one person use it?
It’s built as a single-author tool. One shared password protects each install, and there are no per-user logins, so it suits you on your own machine or home network rather than a shared team setup.
A question before you buy?
Send it over — a real author will read it and reply.