ValidDraft does not analyze your finished text. It records how you wrote it — and Author is the desktop app where that happens for book-length work. This guide skips the pitch and gets straight to the mechanics: what to click, in what order, and what you end up holding when you’re done. If you already know why proof-of-writing matters, start here.
What you need first
ValidDraft Author runs on macOS only today — macOS 10.15 or later, on an Apple Silicon Mac. There is no Intel build and no Windows version yet, so if you’re on an Intel Mac or Windows PC, the web editor is where you’ll want to start instead. Beyond that, you just need a ValidDraft account and a manuscript you’re ready to begin — Author doesn’t require you to have finished anything first.
Step 1 — Open a manuscript and start chapter one
After you sign in, create a new manuscript and give it a title. A manuscript is a container for chapters — you don’t need a finished outline to start one, just a first chapter to write. Open chapter one and begin typing in the editor like you would anywhere else. Nothing about the writing experience is different: no timers, no pop-ups, no visible tracking. In the background, Author is quietly recording the keystroke dynamics and behavioral signals that will later become your proof.
Step 2 — Write, then seal, one chapter at a time
When a chapter is done — or done enough for now — click Seal Chapter. This is the one action every chapter needs before the manuscript can move forward. Behind the scenes, Author scores that writing session, which takes a few seconds, and locks the chapter’s content along with a hash of it. You’ll see the chapter’s tab change from pending to sealed — it turns green — and that’s your confirmation it’s done.
A sealed chapter is finished as far as the certificate is concerned, but that doesn’t mean your book is finished. Open the next chapter, write it, seal it, and repeat. Some authors seal a chapter the moment they finish a draft of it; others wait until a chapter has been through a revision pass. Either way works — sealing captures the writing session that produced the version you lock in, so there’s no rush to seal early and no penalty for sealing late.
Step 3 — Publish, once every chapter is sealed
The Publish button stays inactive until every chapter in the manuscript has been sealed — it’s the one gate that keeps a half-finished book from being certified as complete. Once the last chapter turns green, Publish activates.
Clicking it does one thing, precisely: it takes the content hash from every sealed chapter, in order, and binds them into a single master certificate. Technically, that certificate is an Ed25519 signature over a Merkle root computed from your ordered chapter hashes — a standard, well-understood cryptographic construction. In plain terms, it means the certificate is tied to the exact sequence and exact content of every chapter, and anyone can verify it later without needing to trust ValidDraft’s servers at that moment — the math checks itself.
If you add a chapter, edit a sealed one, or reorder the manuscript afterward, the existing certificate no longer matches — which is the point. A published certificate is a snapshot of the manuscript exactly as it stood when every chapter was sealed.
Step 4 — Optional: confirm you were at the keyboard
Author also offers an on-device liveness check, and it’s entirely optional. You can optionally confirm you were at the keyboard with an on-device check — and only a digest ever leaves your Mac. No video is recorded, stored, or sent, ever. It runs locally as one more signal alongside the keystroke and behavioral data Author already captures, for authors who want an additional layer of confidence in the certificate without handing over any footage of themselves.
Step 5 — Export your manuscript
With the manuscript published, you can export the text itself, separately from the certificate. Today that means Markdown, plain text, or a straight copy from within the app, plus a .docx export for anyone working in Word or Google Docs. A PDF export is on the roadmap but isn’t shipped yet, so if a submission portal or a publisher specifically requires a PDF, plan to convert from the .docx for now.
The certificate itself lives at its own verification link and short code — the kind you can drop into a query letter, a submission form, or a portfolio, and anyone can check it in seconds without needing a ValidDraft account.
What Author costs
Author is part of ValidDraft’s paid tier. Early members get the Founding Author Rate: $69/year, down from the regular $499/year — that’s the standard early-member pricing the site itself uses, not a live countdown or a limited-time trick. It includes 100 verified articles a month and up to 500,000 manuscript words a year, which covers a full-length novel or two with plenty of room for revisions.
If you’re not ready to commit, the free tier is a reasonable place to get a feel for how ValidDraft scores writing: $0, 30 articles a month at up to 1,000 words each, the browser extension, and a shareable certificate for each one. The free tier doesn’t include the desktop app or Manuscripts, though — for chapter-by-chapter sealing and a master certificate, you’ll need Author.