Guides/For a job
Encrypt manuscript drafts before a publisher sees them
A working manuscript is fragile in a way finished books aren't. Elba gives you a sealed folder for drafts, notes, and research that stays on your machine — safe from a stolen laptop or a curious houseguest.
A workspace with a lock on it
One vault per book. Chapters, outlines, character sheets, and the messy research pile all go in. Unlock at the writing desk; re-lock when you close the laptop.
Sending pages to an agent or editor
Export the chapter you're sharing, send it, and re-lock the vault. The unfinished parts never leave the island.
Questions people actually ask
- Does Elba work with Word and Scrivener files?
- Yes — any file type. Scrivener projects are folders; drop the whole thing in.
- Will version control work inside the vault?
- You'd need to unlock to run git. For most writers, dated file names inside the vault are enough.
Quick answers
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- File encryption for writers and novelists
A quiet fence around the manuscript. Elba seals your draft folder locally so the work-in-progress stays yours until you decide.
- Encrypt notes: a quiet vault for people speaking up
For those documenting wrongdoing: a sealed local folder that never contacts a server, on a machine you control. No accounts, no logs.