Tools for the writer.
The Workshop is Hard Shiver's open toolset. Score your pitch's IP potential with The Hook Score. Compose a story concept with The Story Engine. The same instruments our internal editors use — opened up for any writer who wants the publisher's view of their own work. Free. No login. No data sent.
Two instruments. No login.
Every instrument runs entirely in your browser. The same methods power the Hard Shiver editorial process — we just opened them up.
Score what you have
If you've written a pitch, premise, or short proposal — paste it into The Hook Score. The instrument reads it across eight institutional dimensions.
Compose what you need
If you're at the blank-page moment — open The Story Engine. Five choices and the engine returns a working concept with a publisher's brief.
Read what we believe
The Research holds five papers explaining how Hard Shiver thinks about the story-IP economy. The Colophon is the quarterly editorial. Both are free.
Built on 1,847 published-book outcomes.
Every instrument in The Workshop is calibrated against the Hard Shiver editorial dataset — 1,847 published books tracked across primary book sales, audiobook conversion, screen optioning, and cult durability since 2014. The scoring weights and the generator's fragment banks are documented in the Vol. 02 research. The math runs in-browser.
Want us to publish it?
If The Hook scored your pitch above the threshold, the next step is the submissions desk. We read every submission, and respond within 60 days.