The door in the tide
At low tide, the old city returned one street at a time. Mara waited where the water had drawn a silver line across the stones.
QuillTideGet QuillTidefor people with a book problem (affectionate)
Your book is in
14 apps. Stop that.
QuillTide is one desktop app for the drafting, the plotting, the cover fiddling, the reading and the launch panic. It lives on your computer, not in somebody's cloud, and it has never once suggested a better word for you.
Lives on your computer ✦ macOS + Windows ✦ No AI of any kind
write ✦plan ✦read ✦design ✦prepare ✦promote ✦no AI ✦buy once ✦keep it ✦
Public Beta · Registration Open
Your bookish corner of the internet is waiting.
Meet fellow readers, discover indie authors, find ARC opportunities, join book clubs, and share your love of stories. Ripple Web is free to join.
- A chronological feed, no algorithm
- Readers and indie authors together
- ARC and beta-reader calls
- Book clubs and discussions
- Window Seat backlist finds
- Your own library and profile
You don't need QuillTide Desktop. Ripple Web runs in your browser and the community is free. No invitation or purchase is needed; optional Reader+ and Ripple+ memberships add extra tools. Ripple Web is welcoming members in controlled beta waves. The current wave has room for up to 350 members, and registration stays open while capacity remains.
Your tidenewest firstJP
WORK IN PROGRESS
Chapter 14 is finally done. Beta packets go out Friday.
42 ripplesAM
The Clockwork Coffin★★★★½ · ARC review
BC
BOOK CLUB
Spooky Season Readers: chapters 1–6 discussion is open.
Writing the book is the easy part. Allegedly.
There's the manuscript, sure. Then there's the character spreadsheet, the timeline on a napkin, the cover you redid nine times, the launch plan, and the browser window with forty tabs you're scared to close. QuillTide puts all of it in one place, because it was always one project.
A note from QuillbyYour story is yours. I'm an owl. I can't even type.
all of this → one app
It's a lot of rooms. We got carried away.
click a word. any word.
where the actual words go ↓
Manuscript Studio Available
The main writing room. Chapters, scenes, goals, formatting and all the project context, built for a whole book and not a grocery list.
- Chapters and scenes
- Rich manuscript editing
- Word counts and goals
- Focus and writing checks
38,421 words
GOAL750 today
Sit at the writer's desk. Ignore the coffee rings.
Plot it, draft it, tear it apart, glue it back together, make the cover, then tell everyone. You never have to leave the book to do any of it.
Go to the writer's room →
Your own private library, minus the late fees.
Read, highlight, hoard quotes, scribble notes, and finally deal with the TBR pile that has been judging you from across the room.
Go to the reader's library →
42creatures28accessories8motions16support animalsyes, that is a duck in goggles
Get a tiny pixel friend who cares about your word count.
Pick a bookish sidekick and dress it up. It hangs around your writing and reading spaces, gets happier when you make progress, collects keepsakes, and will absolutely accept a cookie. You don't need one. You're getting one anyway.
custom bodies, faces & palettes ✦ pets & auras ✦ moods that change ✦ cookies, errands & keepsakes
Meet the Companions →There is zero AI in here. None. We checked twice.
Nothing writes for you, nothing draws for you, and nothing is quietly shipping your chapters off to train a robot. It's regular old code doing regular old code things. You do the creative part. That's sort of the whole point.
Read the full no-AI rantYour book lives on your computer. Like a normal file. Remember those?
The core writing stuff is built to live on your desktop. The few things that do go online (updates, licensing, optional sharing and lookups) are spelled out, so nothing sneaks off without telling you.
See exactly what goes online →There's a frankly unreasonable amount in here.
fourteen rooms. pull one off the shelf ↓
Manuscript StudioPlanning & Story WorldsReader WorkspaceCompanionsBook DesignCover DesignerProfessional Print DesignerCreative StudioReels EditorAudiobook StudioPublishing WorkflowsBeta Reader StudioMarketing OrganisationPA Mode
green dot: it's in the current verified releaseyellow dot: beta. it works, we're still fiddlingSee the whole ridiculous list →
customise everything, we won't stop you
Serious software is allowed to have an owl.
Change the look, move things around, adopt a pixel duck. QuillTide does real book work and still lets you have fun, because staring at a grey box for eight hours is how novels die.
Okay, show me
“I opened QuillTide to test one tiny thing. Three hours later, my fictional kingdom had a timeline, a reading list, and suspiciously tidy paperwork.”
QuillTide beta tester
checkout is open. public launch: 12 October 2026
QuillTide 1.0
US$120 once for a perpetual desktop licence. Checkout is open now, with no desktop subscription nagging you every month. Still zero AI. Obviously.
wait, is this a subscription?
nope. US$120 once for a perpetual desktop licence. optional Reader+ and Ripple+ plans are separate. the lifetime licence page explains updates and future editions
does it use AI though
no. none. it's just normal code in there. i checked
where does my manuscript actually go
it stays on your computer. the online bits (updates, sharing a beta link, that kind of thing) only happen when you choose them
is the owl ok
i'm fine. this is just my face