Encryption

How do I encrypt my novel to validate it? I've tried nonsense fonts but that negates the word count.

Save a separate copy of your novel, and follow the instructions for scrambling here.

I certainly do not bother to do this. The word count facility just counts spaces and dumps the whole thing. In any case, I don't think anyone is going to want a part of a nano draft...

Moonmomma: exactly - and then there are manuscripts written in all kinds of word's languages... and one should actually catch the manuscript as a man-in-the-middle attack...

(if I remember right our moderator commented that if somebody is idiot enough to steal somebody's hastily written first draft, the idion gets what it reserves...

Wait, so If I did not do encryption, should I be worried?

I only scrambled the novel I put in the validator once.

I only did it just to see how to do it.

I have not scrambled since.

When I did do it, I made a separate copy on a different thumb drive and scrambled that with the original on another thumb drive unplugged from the computer. I didn't want to accidentally scramble all copies of my novel.

Every now and then on the forums there is usually a post about how do I unscramble my novel. In fact, I think I have already come across this already this year.

I do not want to be one of these people. I even create a separate file of my novel before I copy/paste into the validator because I don't want to accidentally mess something up.

I have no concerns about my novel being stolen.

And if someone does steal it and publishes it, I will demand a share of the royalties and thank the person for doing all the work for me. (This hasn't happened yet.)

I say don't bother.

But if you do, be very careful.

My two cents.