Your subject
Anything you have always wanted to understand. One word is enough to start.
Made-to-measure books
Understand the subjects you keep giving up on.
Name one. OnTopic writes you a whole book about it: your angle, your starting level, the depth you ask for. It begins, it explains, and it ends.
Or start from one of these
Your subject
What you are about to get
What do you want to understand?
A book on this subject would be built like this.
- CoverYour subject, your book, your library.
- The angleThe side of the subject you chose to take.
- ChaptersIn order, each one building on the last, each ending with a short recap.
- Key termsDefined where they appear, not in a glossary you never open.
- The essentialsA closing chapter that gathers what to remember.
This is the shape of every OnTopic book, not a plan written for you yet. Yours is written once you answer a few questions about the angle and the level.
Read one first
The first public books are being written.
The shelf opens with complete books on hard subjects, free and without an account. Until then, the fastest way to see what a book looks like is to start one: the plan is free.
How it works
Three steps, then a book.
A few questions
Your angle, where you are starting from, how much detail you want, the tone, the length. This is the part a chat never asks you.
Your book
Written chapter by chapter, in plain language, and delivered whole. Read it in the app, or send it to your Kindle or Kobo.
The same subject, twice
One subject. Two different books.
You set the depth before a word is written. Here is the same subject, written for two different readers.
SubjectHow the Middle East became so complex
How the Middle East became so complex35 pages
An evening to finally get it
Enough to follow the news without getting lost, and to hold a conversation about it.
- Starting level
- Beginner, the essentials
- Level of detail
- Ideas and the big picture
- Tone
- Conversational
- Length
- 35 pages, about 45 minutes
How the Middle East became so complex80 pages
The long version, with the names and the dates
The treaties, the actors and the turning points, in an order that holds together.
- Starting level
- Knows the basics, going further
- Level of detail
- Names, dates and figures
- Tone
- Academic and rigorous
- Length
- 80 pages, about 1 h 40
Same questions, different answers. No competitor can show you this, because no one else asks you before writing.
Why a book
A chat answers. A book explains.
You have asked an AI about a hard subject before. You got an answer, then another, and nothing that held together the next morning.
It has a structure
Chapters in an order that builds. Not twelve answers you have to assemble yourself.
It ends
A book is finite by design. You close it knowing you have the whole thing, not the first slice of an endless thread.
It goes deep without going dense
Depth comes from explaining better, not from harder words. Simple is not shallow.
You decide before it is written
The level, the angle, the detail, the tone, the length. A search engine cannot take an instruction like that.
It is an object you read
A cover, pages, a place in your library, and a Kindle or Kobo if you would rather read it there.
Where the trust comes from
Written by AI, on a method we publish.
Anyone can generate text. The question is what rules it was written under, so here they are, in full, on one page.
Neutral on contested subjects
Where a subject is disputed, the book presents the competing readings and the evidence behind them, and lets you judge. It takes no side.
Nothing invented
No made-up names, figures, quotes or events. Where something is uncertain or contested, the book says so instead of sounding certain.
Plain language, on purpose
Written for an intelligent non-specialist. A technical term is defined the first time it appears.
AI, said plainly
Books are written by AI, following OnTopic's editorial method. We sell the result, not the technology.
Somewhere to start
The kind of subject this is for.
Hard, tangled, worth understanding. Pick one, or type your own.
- How the Middle East became so complex
- What inflation is and why it affects you
- The history of the Cold War, explained simply
- Why some countries are rich and others are poor
- How central banks control the economy
- The history of colonialism and its effects today
- What existentialism teaches us
- Why China is rising as a superpower
- The history of economic crashes
Pricing
Five books a month, from $8.99.
The first 48 hours are free, on either plan. Prices are in US dollars, and you cancel from your account whenever you want.
Monthly
$11.99per month
5 books a month, written for you
Annual
$8.99per month
Billed $107.88 once a year
You save $36 against twelve monthly payments