duckprintspress

This is a guest post that's supposed to come out tomorrow, but I'm gonna be traveling all day tomorrow and can't post day-off, and I haven't yet sorted out scheduling on here, so apologies, you are getting yet ANOTHER post from me today (I'm doing a lot of catching up now that I'm kinda able to work post-surgery). ANYWAY.

a guest post by Kaiden Alderling

Introduction

Ellipsus is a freemium writing and collaboration tool for writers, offering both free and paid versions. As a browser-based text editor, it has a distinct focus on anti-AI offerings and web-based publishing and collaboration. Users can use themes to change the colours and fonts displayed by the interface, and can easily export or copy text in multiple formats for online publishing. Fan writers will find the AO3 export tool especially useful. However, limitations to collaboration and tools for organising longer works make it a tough sell for power users. A lack of automated backups, reported server connection and sync issues, and unclear terms for allowed/prohibited content make for a murky user experience.

As a writer and poet, I think that the most important part of writing is the actual writing. Any platform that works for you? That’s the right one, and my first and foremost advice is to always back up your work, no matter what software you use.

For writers looking at trying out something new, I’ve taken a look at what’s going on with Ellipsus.

One of the web app’s biggest selling points? It’s easy to get started with and use for basic writing, and it’s dead simple to switch between devices with.

Pros and Cons

Positives

• The company’s anti-AI ethos is attractive to authors concerned about scraping of private and publicly exposed documents for large language model (LLM) training.
• Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Ellipsus GmbH is a European company with European users, and has laid out its privacy policy to showcase its compliance with European GDPR and German data protection law, including an explicit promise to “never use your writing to train AI models.” Its hosting with Amazon Web Services is also provided through EU regions (see “Service providers we work with“).
• According to the terms of service, a user’s “content” within the service refers not only to the user’s files, documents, and drafts, but also to comments and chat messages. Users explicitly own that content. Ellipsus explicitly promises not to use any of it for “training or developing machine learning or AI models of any kind” and this is echoed in the privacy policy.
• “Snippets” sharing tool is a hit with writers who like to share quotes from their manuscripts and works-in-progress with an external audience, showcasing customisable, social-media-friendly designs (with additional customisation in the Plus version).
• Theme customisation: users enjoy a similar level of customisation with the interface, mostly involving adjustments to to colours and fonts. Dark and light themes—among others—are available in the free version, and custom themes are available in the Plus plan.
• Convenient export functionality allows users to download any individual document as a PDF, DocX, or Markdown file; or to copy it as HTML, Markdown, or Rich Text. Fan writers may appreciate the export functionality that allows linking an account directly to Archive of Our Own.
• Browser-based text editor offers ease in switching between devices, making it a popular alternative to writing in Google Docs (also: unlike in Ellipsus, GDocs’s scroll bar makes me lose my place every time my thumb brushes the side of the screen). As a writing app, Ellipsus boasts a low barrier-to-entry compared to more privacy-focused tools that focus on encryption. Personally, I also enjoy writing with Markdown shortcuts enabled in Ellipsus, which allow for quick formatting when typing on mobile.
• “Writing Insights” (Plus plan) tool uses “simple, programmed algorithms that run locally on your device”—the ability to highlight frequently used words and passive voice can be a useful tool while editing. These simple metrics are similar to word count or the “find and replace” tool in complexity; there’s zero indication that they use any sort of “AI” or LLM-based processing, and Ellipsus confirms that the feature does not use AI.
• Queer-founded, with support from Gaingels Syndicate, a US-based venture capital firm that aims to support LGBTQ-friendly tech investment, as well as diversity and inclusion in hiring.
• Introduction of a paid plan (“Ellipsus Plus“) indicates the potential for a sustainable business plan, and the “yours to keep” model provides a lifetime licence after 24 months of payments (currently $6 USD per month, with a final price of $144 USD). No credit card is required for the free 7-day trial.

Drawbacks

note: numbers in parenthesis are footnotes; see the end of the post for the notes!

• No desktop version or offline version. Currently, the only way to access Ellipsus is through a browser on your computer or mobile device.
• Lack of automated backups—or any simple way to regularly export all of the files in a user’s account—makes Ellipsus concerning as a primary place to write and store documents. With any platform, loss of data is always a possibility: always back up your work! (1)
• Feature limitations:
  • Editing: A lack of track changes functionality (also known as selective merging, suggestions, or inline track changes) means that editors or beta readers need to leave comments on the work instead of being able to provide individual suggestions at a granular level. I also find it clunky to manage editing in the platform; writers need to create a separate “draft” to allow comments. Drafts can be merged, but doing so isn’t as intuitive or specific as track changes.
  • Writing: This becomes especially confusing when drafts are also used as a workaround for a lack of chapter/tab functionality, and a common criticism online is that the platform lags on documents with longer word counts. There is no support for tables, and nested lists often break upon import/export, even in Markdown. (2)
  • Collaboration: Commenters need their own Ellipsus accounts, so depending on how common Ellipsus already is in your own writing circles, it might not be the easiest platform to onboard beta readers to.
  • Version history: only 30 days are included with the free plan.
  • No encryption for documents, which might otherwise alleviate concerns about allowed content.
  • Security concerns: no multi-factor authentication is currently available for logging in, despite Ellipsus now accepting payments. (3)
• Bug reports online include issues with syncing and loss of work (always click the sync button to ensure your work syncs), server connection issues, random movement through the document, keys sticking, and unexpected formatting changes to paragraph spacing and fonts. A ticketing system is available, but the best way to reach support is through the Discord server, which is very unfortunately very common with modern apps.
• Unclear terms for allowed content: as a young platform, Ellipsus is largely untested when it comes to policing of user content within the platform. The terms of service assure that content written “privately within Ellipsus” isn’t policed, but some content is against the rules, namely plagiarism and planning/committing crimes (4), and that prohibited content is subject to reporting from readers who receive access to the document, as well as legal requests (keeping in mind Ellipsus’s European jurisdiction). Ellipsus also recognises the community’s concerns that the payment processor Stripe might “pressure” Ellipsus over “adult or NSFW content” and has responded that in the case of a “serious conflict with our values, user privacy, or the kinds of (lawful) writing our users create, we would evaluate alternatives. If necessary, we would migrate payment providers.” (5)(6) Please remember that I am not a lawyer, and that this summary is not legal advice.
• Abrupt changes are always possible with any SaaS (software as a service), especially to the free version. Growth of the platform is imperative for a company with Ellipsus’s funding structure, based on both its venture capital backing (7) and its lifetime licence structure. It will require additional users to continue bringing in cash flow, and as with any company, it could shift focus from its current niche of fan writers and toward a larger potential userbase.
• The opt-in tool Emboss, available as part of the Plus plan, appears to have been planned by the company from early on (8). The purpose of this tool is to provide evidence of human authorship by combining a number of metrics with the ability to provide a public link to past versions of the document (“selected version history snapshots“). While the tool doesn’t provide any kind of score or assessment as to whether the document was or was not human authored, I personally don’t think it was well-executed, and I was concerned when Ellipsus seemed to be suggesting that sharing Emboss links might provide a writer with a public shield against accusations of AI use. While this tool might be able to provide evidence of the evolution of a work to an editor or publisher through version history, it doesn’t seem to provide any more value than other tools with version control. (9)

Footnotes

1. The “Right to portability” section under the privacy policy specifies that users can request a “machine-readable export” which includes your writing.
2. One of the co-founders addressed the lack of some of these features in a reply to a document posted by both co-founders in June 2026.
3. The company updated the privacy policy by June 10, 2026 to indicate that full credit card numbers were not being stored by Ellipsus, but were handled by the payment processor. The co-founder responded to a user question on June 13, 2026 saying that multi-factor authentication/two-factor authentication would move to a planned feature, and this has been added as a “big priority” to the June 2026 document (item 35).
4. Item 28 in the June 2026 document elaborates that “NSFW content is not illegal” and “is permitted in Ellipsus” while users should look to the terms of service “and refer to your local laws for clarification.” The terms prohibit “Us[ing] our services to do anything illegal: Write about fictional or historical crime as much as you want—please don’t use our services to plan or commit any IRL illegal activity.” In the June 2026 document, illegal content is defined as subject to the user’s local law; Ellipsus claims that they “do not actively look at or police your documents” but elaborates that users sharing their documents do so at their own risk. “We don’t actively police public work, unless it’s reported to us/we receive a valid legal or DMCA request. (If so, we will handle that according to our policies and legal obligations).”
5. Item 26 in the June 2026 document.
6. Users are also concerned because of the reality that classification systems often include all queer content within the label “adult” and that “Several regions make it illegal to discuss, promote, or teach LGBTQ+ topics.”
7. Including Better Angle, Circle & Co Ventures, Common Magic, SpeedInvest, and Gaingels.
8. An argument for the Emboss human attribution tool is laid out in some early blog posts: The Watchmakers (2023) and The Distributors.
9. As with the writing metrics, there is no reason to think that the metrics provided through Emboss use any sort of “AI” or LLM-based processing, and Ellipsus confirms that “No AI is used in the compiling of these metrics.”

Readercon is one of the biggest events we attend all year, and is the event that the single highest number of Duck Prints Press authors attend. This year, in addition to me (Claire/unforth/Nina Waters) vending and paneling, authors D. V. Morse, Adrian Harley, N. C. Farrell, Shea Sullivan, Puck Malamud, and Nova Mason were all in attendance.

Learn more about Readercon

We thought it’d be fun to type up some of our impressions and share them with y’all. Here are reports from D. V. Morse, Adrian Harley, N. C. Farrell, Shea Sullivan, and yours truly!

D. V. Morse Reports:

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Adrian Harley Reports:

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N. C. Farrell Reports:

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Shea Sullivan Reports:

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Claire Houck Reports:

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The Kickstarter to fund publishing our next anthology, Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales, hasn’t reached the funding goal yet! We’re getting closer though – less than $2,500 US to go, and just shy of 85% of the way to our goal. A huge THANK YOU to people who’ve been reading and sharing our posts.

Today, check out teasers from four more of our contributors: Anne Hessel, Elias Strunck, Lyonel Loy, and R. L. Houck. Links to our other previews are at the end of the post!

Learn more about what’s been created for this project:

• Cover Reveal, art by Jinx Inks
• Merch Reveal 1: Stickers by Alessa Riel and Elias Strunck, Bookmark by Jagoda Zirebiec
• Merch Reveal 2: Enamel Pendant by Aceriee, Slate Coaster by Clare DeZutti
• Merch Reveal 3: Journal by Aceriee, Art Print of the Front Cover, and Window Hanging by Betta
• Contributor Post 1: zazrichor, Shea Sullivan, H. Armstrong, and T. L. Sly
• Contributor Post 2: Cris Alborja, Kendall Pletcher, E. V. Dean, and Sage Mooreland

Our Kickstarter to fund our next anthology, Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales, has two weeks left. We’re still over $3,000 from our goal, and are 79% funded. We can’t publish this collection unless we raise the minimum goal of our campaign, and if we can exceed that sufficiently, we can also give all our creators raises, so we’d love your help! Even if you can’t back, boosts on our posts help so much. <3

We’ll be doing posts highlighting the many creators who’ve contributed to this collection. Today, check out crops of two of our artworks, by zazrichor and Shea Sullivan, and excerpts from two of our authors, H. Armstrong and T. L. Sly!


 

July 16th is International Drag Day! We’ve put together a list of our favorite books featuring characters who do drag, non-fiction about people who do drag, and books written by people who do drag. Drag is not just “people who dress in clothes not conventionally associated with their gender”; it is a specific culture, so our list takes that into account, but we had to make some calls on what would and wouldn’t count. The contributors to the list are: CarCrash, Linnea Peterson, E. C., Nina Waters, Annabeth Lynch, hullosweetpea, Evangeline Giaconia and 3 anonymous contributors.

• The Queen Bees of Tybee County by Kyle Casey Chu
• Becoming Ted by Matt Cain
• The Bell in the Fog by Lev A.C. Rosen
• Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen
• Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
• The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul
• Pumpkin by Julie Murphy
• Murder in the Dressing Room by Holly Stars
• Donutella Hamachi and the Library Avengers by Kim Chi, Stephan Lee & utomaru
• Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju
• Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku by Fujita
• Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen

Find these and other books on our Goodreads book shelf, Pagebound list, or buy them through the Duck Prints Press Bookshop.org affiliate page.

Join our Book Lover’s Discord server to chat books, fandom, and more!

a guest post by R. D. Cook.

The term “media literacy” gets thrown around a lot these days. A fandom friend says they avoid Fandom X because “these people have zero media literacy.” Half the school board candidate statements in your local election pamphlet call for “increased media literacy education.” Clickbait news headlines proclaim a “media literacy crisis!” But what exactly is media literacy, and why does it seem like everyone is suddenly talking about it?

What even is media literacy?

Media literacy refers to the ability to understand all forms of media, from TV shows to pop-up ads to social media posts.

Just like there are different levels of literacy when it comes to written language, there are different levels of media literacy. For example, one person might watch Star Wars: Episode IV and understand that Luke went on an adventure, saved Princess Leia, and blew up the Death Star. Another person might also understand that the movie carries an anti-imperialist message. Still another person might recognize the influence of samurai films, and specifically those of Akira Kurosawa, and spend time contemplating the similarities and differences between Jedi and Zen philosophy. All of these people are employing different levels of media literacy.

When people talk about media literacy in the context of schools and education, they’re usually talking about all levels of media literacy, from the most basic surface-level understanding to deep analysis. But when people talk about media literacy in casual conversation, they’re usually talking about the middle levels of media literacy: understanding things like context, subtext, and propaganda.

Why is media literacy important?

Even though it’s been getting a lot of attention recently and the term itself was only coined in the 1990s, the concept of media literacy has been around for over a hundred years. It started to gain traction in the early 20th century, when radio shows were booming and motion pictures first came onto the scene. As the media landscape has changed and evolved, so has the theory and importance of media literacy.

Over the past two decades, media has become more enmeshed in people’s lives. The advent of the internet and things like social media, streaming video, and smartphones mean that most of us are bombarded by media messages every day. At the same time, people who create media content have developed more effective ways to influence us through the media they create. Some of that influence is good—who doesn’t love that feeling of excitement when a new game or show really grabs you?—but  more often, it’s used as a tool to get us to keep scrolling, keep buying, keep supporting institutional injustices.

Media literacy is our best defense against those who would use our media-saturated world to manipulate us. It also helps us understand and enjoy the things we watch and listen to on a deeper level. Sinners is a standout movie regardless of how deep you go into it, but there’s a certain delight in catching the references to other vampire fiction and hearing how the musical styles and structures reflect the story and characters.

How do I improve my media literacy?

If you’re new to the concept of media literacy, you can start with looking a little more deeply at the things you love. Pick a favorite show or podcast or webcomic and engage your curiosity! What are the specific elements that you love? Can you spot any references to other media? What things is this piece of media implying that it isn’t stating directly? Are there any parts you wish you understood better? You can research those! Are there any parts that aren’t consistent with your experience of the world? That’s another research opportunity.

When it comes to things like advertising, news, social media posts, or political messaging, you might have to dig a bit deeper. First, and perhaps most importantly: is this message even true? Fact-checking—and double-checking!—is your friend. Who is this message from, and what do they have to gain from you taking this message at face value? If you don’t know who the message is from or it’s unclear what they have to gain, it’s time for more research. What is the message trying to get you to do? Is it something you want to do, or is the message trying to make you angry or fearful enough to do something you might not otherwise.

For a deeper dive into increasing your media literacy, check out the links below.

Where can I learn more?

• 10 Media Literacy Skills and How To Improve Them
• History of Media Literacy
• “A most mischievous word”: Neil Postman’s approach to propaganda education
• Media’s Role in Propaganda: From Historical Conflicts to Modern Politics
• How Stereotyping in Media Perpetuates Bias
• The Complete Guide to Media Literacy: Why It Matters Today
• How Japanese Culture Shaped Star Wars: From Samurai to Sith
• The Importance Of Blues & Folk Music In Sinners Explained
• Center for an Informed Public

The crowdfunding campaign for our next anthology, Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales, launched yesterday, and we’re already almost 50% funded and a Kickstarter “Project We Love”!

With Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales, our authors and artists bring our perspective as queer adults in the 21st century to the stories, some ancient, some modern, that meant the most to us when we were young. Each creator selected a folktale, fairy tale, myth, or legend that had personal significance for them, then reimagined these personal touch-stones as we wish they could be: stories that uphold our cultures, stories that impart the lessons and morals we wish to impart, stories that drive home the cautions we wish we’d received, stories in which people like us are the heroes held forth for emulation. We’ve transformed these stories to be more inclusive, more personal, more understanding of others, and—of course!—much more queer.

The book contains 23 stories, each up to 5,000 words long; 21 full-page artworks; a 4-page comic by Max Jason Peterson; and a 10-page comic by Jupiter V—a total of 46 queer fanworks inspired by stories from North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

In addition to the book, we’re offering awesome merch – two stickers, a bookmark, an art print, a slate coaster, an acrylic window hanging, an enamel pendant necklace, and a journal! There’s also a ton of add-ons you can choose from, from stories from our back catalog to Duck Prints Press merchandise and more.

Visit our campaign page TODAY to learn more about the anthology, our contributors, what we’re offering to backers, and our plans for getting this book into print with your help!

Duck Prints Press is hosting our 40-prompt Queer Book Challenge! on Storygraph again this year. We’re now half-way through 2026, so what better time to take a look back at our reading thus far and see how things are going?

First things first: I made the challenge into a blank bingo card for y’all! Because we have 40 prompts but that’s not a standard bingo square shape, I added a couple freebies.

You can still join this reading challenge, if you want, and fill the prompts will books you’ve read since January 1st! It ends December 31st.

We’re also introducing a summer challenge tomorrow, so be on the lookout!!

Once I had the bingo card made, I filled it out with my own reading progress! I’m technically 87% finished, but I actually have read a queer novelette, it’s just one that the Press is publishing and I haven’t added it to Storygraph yet, so I’m actually slightly more along, oops. It’ll get added eventually. Note that inclusion here does NOT mean I recommend the book, just that I read it and it fit the prompt. The ones I’d recommend are in bold in the text version of my list, below.

my list:

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The launch date for our next Kickstarter, to fund publishing Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales, is getting closer: this campaign goes live on July 8th, 2026!

Welcome to our second merch reveal; you can check out the first – sharing our two campaign stickers and our new bookmark – here. Now, we’re introducing two of our four “premium” high-level rewards: an enamel pendant in brilliant gold (gilding) with lots of glitter, and a slate coaster with engraved art!

• Enamel Key Pendant + Necklace: loads of glitter make this enamel key a sparkling, lovely, magical necklace! The art is by Aceriee (Linktree). The enamel will nestle in golden metal, and the necklace will be in gold as well. The pendant will be 1.5 in x 1 in/3.8 cm x 2.5 cm, with a chain 24 in/61 cm long. (Manufactured by Alchemy.)
• Seraph Kiss Ouroboros Slate Coaster: an elegant design featuring two feathered folk kissing, surrounded by a circular ouroboros, has been made by Clare DeZutti (Personal Webpage | Instagram | Tumblr) and will be etched onto a circular slate coaster, with a roughly 3.5 in/8.9 cm diameter. (Made by E. Conway.)

Follow our pre-launch page now to make sure you don’t miss when our campaign goes live!