What is JaneBot?
It is a chatbot that references material I’ve written and published on this site (free and paid) as well as other works, such as my book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition. It also accesses Q&A documents I’ve written in various educational contexts. It does not reference any contributor material at this site.
- Free version. The free version of JaneBot, available to anyone who visits my site, pulls from my publicly available articles, my Q&A documents, and my book. It will limit you to about three questions or exchanges; you can’t save your conversations.
- Premium version. The premium version of JaneBot is available to paid subscribers of my newsletter, The Bottom Line. It reference both free and premium content I’ve written at this site, along with my book and Q&A documents. Conversations are unlimited but cannot be saved. I may roll out the ability to save conversations if there’s demand.
Who built JaneBot?
I work with Soqratic to build, host, and improve JaneBot. Soqratic was founded in 2025 by Charles Voloshin and Brandon Clark, who are based in Portland, Oregon. The company focuses on helping authors turn their expertise into a chatbot that offers personalized answers to reader questions. Major tech companies, such as Google and Amazon, have already launched this type of functionality for books in partnership with major publishers. (Learn more.) But I’m interested in owning and running this type of application on my own site—I don’t want Google, Amazon, or any other entity to offer this interactivity. Plus my knowledge extends far beyond my book; my website and newsletter is where the bulk of my knowledge lives.
Charles and I worked closely together to develop the JaneBot persona, to ensure it offers answers that align with my values and the overall spirit of how I guide writers. The underlying model for JaneBot is Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 5.5, using an Enterprise license. Conversations are not stored by Anthropic/Claude or trained on by Anthropic/Claude.
Why did you create JaneBot?
Every day I receive multiple messages from people who ask me questions about the publishing industry. Easily half the time, those questions are already addressed in writing at my website but the person can’t find the answer or be bothered to look.
I recently gathered statistics on how often I answer writers’ questions via email. In a typical month I write to about 1–2 people (strangers) per day. This doesn’t count how many Mark answers, since he does a first pass on questions that come through my website. While some people would ignore these messages and save their time for other things, I created this site to help people and I do want to help. Having the right information from a trusted source can help avoid a costly mistake down the road, and a good number of people who reach out to me are on the brink of making important publishing decisions.
I know from experience that for every one person who writes me, many more don’t. As user friendly as I’ve tried to make my site, some people are overwhelmed by how much information is here. I get it. This site has been running since 2009 and I’ve written and published more than 4,000 articles here. Even I can’t remember everything that I’ve written and published.
Are JaneBot conversations private?
Your conversations are stored by Soqratic for 90 days, where I can read or access them. I would not include sensitive or identifying information in your conversation if you want to remain anonymous in your use. While I’m not likely to have time to look at all JaneBot conversations, I may review them from time to time to see how I can improve JaneBot’s responses.
Does JaneBot train on my conversations?
No. A human such as myself may look at your conversations, but they are not being fed into an AI for model training.
What about the ethical implications of using AI?
My purpose and mission is to help writers with the business of publishing. JaneBot helps me in my purpose and increases how much good I can do in the world. I use AI to save my time for meaningful activities that I enjoy (like writing and publishing) and that offer the highest value to other people.
Perhaps it goes without saying, but if you object to AI use, then you shouldn’t use JaneBot.
What about the environmental implications of using AI?
It’s complicated. AI’s water usage has been overstated. Electricity usage is still being sorted out and is not well understood. This op-ed in the New York Times aligns well with my views.
How much does JaneBot cost you?
That depends on how much people use JaneBot. Right now, JaneBot is in beta and I’m seeing how much use it will get. This beta run (November through December 2026) will cost me $100 because Soqratic is being generous; it will cost them more. I’ll know more about the cost in 2027; that cost will help me determine if I can continue with JaneBot.
Soqratic did not charge me to set up JaneBot.
What if I want to develop a chatbot like yours?
Contact Charles at Soqratic. He would be happy to talk with you.
I am upset you’re doing this.
From the very beginning of my career, I’ve been interested in new tools and technologies. That journey involves buying my own website domain in the early 2000s and starting a blog, experimenting with social media, self-publishing my work through Amazon and Smashwords, offering online classes through Zoom five years before the pandemic, and much more. As I see it, use of AI is a continuation of what I have always done: use new tools and technologies to support my very human work. I don’t like, agree with, or endorse what the Big Tech companies do, but that’s not going to stop me from adapting and evolving to meet the challenges ahead.
“Is the system going to eat you up and relieve you of your humanity? Or are you going to be able to use the system to human purposes?” —Joseph Campbell