Recent surveys (from Gotham Ghostwriters and BookBub) verify what you probably have already guessed, that there are profound divides between writers who use AI and writers who downright refuse. But interestingly, these surveys have also shown that around 60% of writers do use AI tools of some kind.

So, when you’re creating a software program for writers, you have some choices to make. Do you alienate your anti-AI users or your pro-AI users?

Or do you try to find a compromise that works for the greatest number of people?

One of my favorite tools that I use in my fiction writing is Plottr, which I introduced to y’all back in Episode 74. It’s a program that lets you visualize your story from beginning to end and keep your notes on characters, themes, settings, and other plot elements all in one central place.

When I interviewed Plottr’s education outreach lead back in 2023, I had bought the basic program for myself, which is a tool that you download and use offline. I’ve used it for at least three different writing projects, and it’s helped make my process much more streamlined.

So when the folks from Plottr reached out to me to chat about new developments, I was excited. However, when I looked into it and saw that they had a new tool that used AI, I got very uncomfortable. I’m way more on the skeptical side of this issue, and I was scared to see another program I use get gobbled up by AI features.

But then I got curious, because I noticed that it was being implemented in a different way that we see in products like Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot (or, if you listened to my last episode ProWritingAid). The difference is that instead of forcing AI features on Plottr users, they offered a choice where users could stick to the completely AI-free Plottr program, or buy the AI-powered Storysnap either on its own or as an add-on. 

Seriously, it’d be nice if more companies would do that instead of making you jump through hoops to opt out.

No matter my own feelings, I can understand how that statistic poses a dilemma for software companies that don’t want to go out of business. Plottr seems to be trying to create a solution that gives both groups what they want, and I wanted to know more about how that choice was made and where those lines were drawn. When I interviewed Plottr’s founder Cameron Sutter about the way they’re trying to employ ethical AI use, I learned that a lot of careful thought was put into how to deploy AI in a way that avoids using stolen works and doesn’t write users’ stories for them.

I’m not here to sell you Storysnap, but I did make space in this interview to talk about it (even though, as you’ll hear, I struggle to pronounce it correctly). To keep it simple: Storysnap helps series writers create a personal story bible, so they can easily maintain continuity throughout each book. Cameron does a good job explaining how they’ve attempted to address issues about privacy and what measures they’ve taken to keep the AI from training on users’ work.

Personally, I’m probably still going to stick to using Plottr on its own, happily and wholeheartedly. But take a listen and decide for yourself where you draw your line. 

(Who knows—you might not even make it past Cameron and my discussion about pizza toppings.) But I hope you do.

Links of Interest:

• Affiliate link for a free Plottr 30-day trial
• Learn more about Storysnap
• Plot For Good
• Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task
• AI Writers Surveys from Gotham Ghostwriters and BookBub
• Episode 83 Transcript

The post Episode 83: Plottr, Storysnap, and Letting Writers Choose first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 83: Plottr, Storysnap, and Letting Writers Choose appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

We’re building Ellipsus as a platform that prioritizes transparency, trust, independence, and creative freedom. Writers shouldn’t have to trade their privacy or their ownership for good tools. The rise of AI scraping and big tech overreach only made that more urgent for us. —Rex at Ellipsus

Whatever your attitude toward emerging technologies, we can probably agree it’s tough to be online these days. The tools available seem to be multiplying for some and dwindling for others—particularly for those who don’t want to use generative AI. A growing distrust of big tech is leading people to search for less exploitative options than Google or Microsoft. 

Fortunately for them (and also me), new developers are creating tools that don’t push AI without the opportunity to opt-in. One of those new tools is Ellipsus, a writing tool created by a small group of writers who wanted better collaborative document options, and who are solidly for transparency, privacy, and writers’ rights to their own work.

What Makes Ellipsus Different

As a text editor, Ellipsus is a lot like Google Docs, but more focused on better performance for large docs. It’s got a git-style feature for better version control, richer permissions, flexibility, and creative customizations. It’s got a unique knack for supporting real-time collaboration, and is simple enough to start using right away. 

How Ellipsus Addresses Concerns about AI, Privacy, and Access

Ellipsus has been very clear on their stance: no generative AI in the program, ever. They believe writers’ work shouldn’t be harvested to train models without consent. Generative AI, when built on creative labor, undermines originality, and they believe putting it inside a writing tool would be fundamentally counterproductive to fostering genuine voices. Ellipsus’s creators want it to be a safe space for writers, and are working on offering better encryption and privacy protections, too.

Things that Make Ellipsus Fun

Things that Make Ellipsus Fun

Ellipsus has a vibrant Discord community of writers providing mutual support, betas, collaborators, and the opportunity to commune. Collaboration options in the documents themselves are pretty fun too—I love being able to create different drafts for different beta readers so no one has to feel put on the spot.

And another small but mighty feature is the variety of different skins you can apply to your program (my current favorite is Red Velvet ).

Links of Interest

• Try it for yourself for free on Ellipsus’s website
• Ellipsus’s statement on generative AI
• NaNoWriMo Organizers Said It Was Classist and Ableist to Condemn AI. All Hell Broke Loose
• What Happens When a Romance Writer Gets Locked Out of Google Docs
• Episode 81 transcript

The post Episode 81: Ellipsus—an AI-Free Tool for Collaborative Writing first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 81: Ellipsus—an AI-Free Tool for Collaborative Writing appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

Today we’re joined by Nellie McKesson, automated publishing pro and founder of publishing software startup Hederis.

Nellie has over a dozen years of experience in publishing. She spent the early years of her career doing hands-on book production and layout, and then moved into more technical and managerial roles. As the market for ebooks began to rise, she taught herself web development and was an early evangelist for using web technologies in the book production process. (You may have seen her speak at a conference about building automated book production tools.) In 2018, she founded Hederis, with the goal of bringing web-centric book production to publishers of all levels.

2:14 —

We find out Werner Herzog is a Virgo, and Corinne rescues Emily from her own non-existent Russian accent. And now Corinne is fair game for voiceover requests.

6:15 —

Time to dive right in with our important ice breaker question, which is about—guess what?—Nellie’s tuxedo cat, Cool Runnings! And the story of how she came into Nellie’s life is very similar to the way Ardi Alspach and her house panther Merlin came together.

9:00 —

Nellie shares the path that brought her to book publishing, which heavily features libraries (of course). Also her teachers rewarded her hard work with, rather than a field trip, a full day of snack-eating and read E.B. White’s The Once and Future King in the corner.

13:12—

Nellie shares her early days of book publishing, and Emily learns that Boston is a big publishing town (so West-coast-centric of her not to know!). Although, we realize that we also don’t know anything about LA publishing. Any LA publishers want to be on the show to set us straight?

16:30—

And now for the story of her illustrious career! Nellie is often identified as an ebook person, but she doesn’t think of herself that way. Instead, she sees herself as an “automated publishing person.” She gets into what that means and how her first job at a small math book publisher piqued her interest in markup languages. Her next job as a production editor at O’Reilly Media continued to carry her in that technological direction.

19:47—

So like…how do you input math equations when the figures aren’t on the keyboard? Nellie tells us about some of the languages that make it possible.

24:04—

Nellie cracks open an ebook and starts learning different coding languages, the ins and outs of EPUB, and the technological side of publishing. Emily jumps the gun on asking the difference between xml and xhtml tagging, but fortunately Nellie was just about to tell us what it was anyway!

28:36—

Wait. Who is in charge of the web? The Illuminati? They’re called the W3C actually, and NELLIE IS PART OF IT—their Publishing Working Group, to be precise. They developed a way to use CSS for creating both ebooks and print books (so the coding works both for print and the web).

30:45—

We learn Nellie’s personal preferences when it comes to print vs. ebooks, and though she has had different preferences at different times in life, she’s never really settled for one or the other. She also points out that print books have had hundreds of years to evolve into what they are today, which can (and should!) inform any new publishing technology.

34:27—

Ah yes. It’s time to talk the good old-fashioned Sharks and Jets of publishing technology: print vs. ebook. As someone who understands both digital and print reading and production, Nellie has encountered resistance to using different standards and technologies. But she’s got passion and vision, so she does what it takes to bring that to life!

39:20—

Corinne makes the mistake of reading Jenna Jameson’s memoir in print on the NYC subway. Also we take a detour to talk about Awards for Good Boys and having your local bookseller (Hi Lori!) order a new book for you.

43:14—

So what is Hederis anyway? It’s Nellie’s effort to help make a publishing automation tool more accessible to publishers. Basically, she wants to make the process simpler (and more book-centric) and the product more beautiful. The aim is to help publishers put out books faster and with more efficiency, keep up with trends, and be braver with what and who they choose to publish. Currently the software is in beta testing with different publishing companies such as Erewhon Books.

50:53—

Nellie tells us her thoughts on the future of publishing and the evolution of digital reading.

55:53—

Why did Nellie move to Portland? And where is she exercising her mad drumming skills?

59:09—

Sleater-Kinney is still an important trailblazing band in rock and roll, but they’re also hacky-sack cops.

1:00:15

Her list of people, companies, and things to follow:

• Laura Brady, Editor in Chief of EPUBSECRETS
• Colibrio Publishing Platform for online reading
• Rachel Comerford, an advocate for digital reading accessibility from Macmillan Learning
• Paged Media, advocates for open-source book design tools
  • Julie Blanc
  • Adam Hyde
• Wendy Reid and Tzviya Siegman, Co-Chairs of the W3C Publishing Working Group
• Dave Cramer, also of the W3C and Hachette
• Ken Jones of Circular Software, focusing on book discoverability online
• Book Net Canada

1:03:45

So what are we reading?

• Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Series
• And also Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology
• Nightwatch Series—Sixth Watch to be precise—by Sergei Lukyanenko
• Bad Blood by John Carreyou
• I Know What I’m Doing and Other Lies I Tell Myself by Jen Kirkman

The post Episode 26: Interview with Nellie McKesson of Hederis first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 26: Interview with Nellie McKesson of Hederis appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.