The Palace Project vs PlotCatalyst Echo

Palace is a free, easy-to-use e-reader app that lets you find, check out, and read or listen to books from your local library. It’s been said that libraries are “palaces for the people” and the Palace app gives you instant access to your local “palace” any time, right from the palm of your hand. All you need to sign up is your library card! And even if your library isn’t using Palace yet, you can still read more than 10,000 books--from children’s books to classics to foreign language books--for free from our Palace Bookshelf. The Palace app is built and maintained by Lyrasis, a not-for-profit organization working in partnership with Digital Public Library of America with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. For more, visit https://thepalaceproject.org.

PlotCatalyst Echo is a manuscript review and editing companion for novelists, screenwriters, and long-form writers who want to HEAR their work the way a reader will. Pacing problems, awkward dialogue, and overused phrases that hide on the page jump out the moment they're read aloud — capture the reaction in a voice note anchored to the exact paragraph, then come back to act on it. Turn driving, walking, and commuting time into focused editing passes. LISTEN TO YOUR MANUSCRIPT • Live paragraph highlighting that follows the narrator. • Jump between chapters. Tap any paragraph to start there. • Bookmarks save your spot with one tap. CAPTURE NOTES THE MOMENT IT MATTERS • Voice notes with automatic transcription — dictate hands-free, every note anchors to the exact paragraph you were hearing. • Optional auto-stop timer (15s, 30s, 60s, 90s, 2min, or custom up to 5 min) with an animated countdown ring around the mic. • Typed notes, AI-suggestion notes, and bookmarks side-by-side. • Filter and sort by status, kind, chapter, recency, or location. • Search across all your notes; tap to jump to the underlying passage. HANDS-FREE CAR MODE • Large-button interface designed for safe in-vehicle use. • Giant Play/Pause, skip, and chapter buttons sized for glanceable taps. • One-tap voice notes and bookmarks while you listen — playback pauses on the way in, resumes on save. AI CRAFT TOOLS • Writing assistant: Craft Feedback, Pacing Check, Tighter Rewrite, and free-form prompts on any paragraph or chapter. • Apply AI rewrites as edit overlays — your original text is preserved. • Redundancy check scans the whole book and grades overused words by severity (red / orange / yellow / green). Step through each occurrence, edit in place, or Generate Variations to swap in tailored alternatives. • AI metadata assist for title, subtitle, genre, description. • AI cover artwork generation. EDIT WITHOUT FEAR • Paragraph and chapter title edits are stored as overlays — the source is never mutated. Revert anything, any time. • Find & Replace manuscript-wide with case-sensitive and whole-word matching. • Universal search across manuscripts, chapters, paragraphs, and notes. IMPORT & EXPORT • Import .txt and .docx files; chapters detected automatically. • Export notes as Markdown, JSON, CSV, plain text, or annotated alongside their passages. • Export the manuscript as plain text, Markdown, or Word (.docx). DROPBOX BACKUP & RESTORE (Premium) • Per-book or whole-library backup with one tap. • Quiet auto-backup that pushes changes a few seconds after you stop editing. • Versioned snapshots — roll back to any earlier draft. • Books land as folders containing readable .txt / .md / .html files you can open anywhere, plus JSON data files used for full restore. BRING YOUR OWN AI MODEL (Premium) • Plug in your OpenRouter API key and choose from a curated list of frontier models — Claude, GPT-5, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Grok, DeepSeek, Llama, and more. PERSONALIZATION • Dark and light themes with instant re-themeing. • Selectable accent color for highlights, progress, and active controls. • Reorderable, collapsible Settings cards so what you use sits at the top. PRIVACY • Manuscripts, notes, and bookmarks live on-device. • AI and premium narration calls happen only when you trigger them. • No account required to use the core app. FREE TIER • 3 manuscripts, 10 lifetime AI uses, 5 voice notes per manuscript. PREMIUM (monthly or yearly) • Unlimited manuscripts, AI passes, and voice notes. • Dropbox backup with version history. • Bring your own AI model. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/