Where it came from
From our own need. On another product we were making downloadable material — guides someone receives in exchange for an email address. Writing one took two days, and typesetting it into something we were not embarrassed to send took another two. The tools on the market shortened the first part and skipped the second entirely: you got text you still had to format yourself.
What we decided was the point
That the product is a typeset book, not text. A cover, a numbered table of contents, running heads, callouts and tables do not make the content smarter — they make it usable, and make it look like material somebody stands behind. That is the whole difference between a file you send a client and a file you leave on a drive.
Why the outline is free
Because without it you buy blind. The model call behind an outline costs us real money and we pay it before receiving anything from the buyer. We decided it would pay for itself in fewer complaints and better orders — a customer who rearranged the outline gets the book they actually wanted.
What we deliberately do not do
We do not pretend a person writes the content. The note about machine origin is in every file, on the colophon page, and cannot be switched off — including with branding purchased. We do not run a subscription, because most customers order a few times a year and paying monthly would be worse for them. We do not generate covers with an image model, because they mangle lettering, and on a cover the lettering is the content.
How to talk to us
Write. A person answers, including when the answer is “not yet” — reports like that set the order of work more effectively than any internal plan.