Novel
Break the Simulation
A reality-bending fever-dream about waking up from a world that was always rigged.
A Modern Story IP Engine · Est. 2014
Books are the seed.
Books are the seed.
The story is the asset.
Hard Shiver is a modern story-IP house. We publish books — and develop them across audiobook, audio drama, limited TV, feature, interactive, and live. Authors share in the upside across every medium it lives in. The Cellar lets readers fund the work.
The Six Layers
One studio. Six layers of business.
Publishing is the visible part. The bigger business is the multi-medium IP that grows around each book. Here is how the studio actually works.
i. — Catalog
The books.
Six to eight titles per year. The visible part of the studio. Where the story begins.
Read the catalogii. — Pipeline
The adaptations.
38 titles in active multi-medium development. Audio, limited TV, feature, interactive, theater. The bigger business.
See the pipelineiii. — Workshop
The tools.
Open writers' tools — score a pitch's IP potential, compose a story concept. Free. Same instruments the editors use.
Open the workshopiv. — The Cellar
The patrons.
Reader patronage funds the work. Three tiers. Patrons share in IP upside. Publishing's oldest model, rebuilt.
Become a patronv. — Research
The reasoning.
Five open-access papers on the story-IP economy, adaptation premium, author equity, the Cellar model. CC BY 4.0.
Read the researchvi. — Colophon
The editorial.
Quarterly studio editorial, formatted as a real book colophon. Issue #013, Q3 2026. Best read by lamplight.
Read the colophonFeatured Books
Novels worth staying up for.
See all books →
Business Fiction
Startup X
What happens when a founder bets everything on a company that shouldn't exist.
Performance
BAM — Business Athlete Mode
Operating principles for entrepreneurs who treat business like training camp.
Thriller
Fight Psycho Boy
A cult-classic chase through obsession, identity, and the violence underneath calm.
Featured Music
Records that play loud.
All albums →
Album
Bodhi Safa
A meditation-meets-momentum debut. Genre-fluid, deeply playable.
Album
Monkey Business
Loud, scrappy, irreverent. Plays best at full volume in moving vehicles.
On Deck
Coming soon from the press.
Two new titles entering the Hard Shiver catalog. We'll let you know when they ship.
Fight Psycho Boy 2
Madson 3
By the Numbers
The studio so far.
Twelve years of independent publishing — now a story-IP engine. The catalog is the seed; the pipeline is the bigger business.
38
Titles in pipeline
112
Adaptations under option
2,418
Cellar patrons
$4.2M
Author equity paid '23–'25
Three Doors In
You wrote it. You'll read it. You'll fund the work.
Hard Shiver has three doors: the submission desk for writers, the catalog for readers, and the Cellar for patrons who want to fund what gets made. Pick the one that fits.