Verified Human Authorship
The True Origin™ process for documenting and verifying human authorship.
Build a documented record of your manuscript’s development—and earn the Verified Human Authorship seal.
Why Verified Human Authorship Matters
For generations, publishers could reasonably assume that a manuscript reflected months or years of drafting, revision, restructuring, and refinement.
Today, that assumption is no longer enough. Artificial intelligence can now produce polished manuscripts in a remarkably short period of time. The question is no longer whether a manuscript appears complete, but how it became complete.
Verified Human Authorship begins by documenting how a manuscript was created—from its earliest drafts through editing, revision, and its final version.
Human writing develops over time: ideas evolve, passages are rewritten, material is added or removed, and editorial decisions are made. Documenting that progression creates evidence of the human creative process behind the finished manuscript.
A finished manuscript shows the result. A documented timeline shows how the author got there.
Copyright and Verified Human Authorship are Different
01
Copyright establishes legal ownership of a work. It protects the author's rights in the finished work, but does not document how the manuscript developed over time.
02
True Origin creates an independently verifiable record of human authorship by documenting a manuscript's development across meaningful stages. Each checkpoint preserves evidence of the drafts, revisions, edits, and creative decisions that show how the work evolved over time.
True Origin™ provides a structured process for documenting a manuscript’s development over time and creating an independently verifiable record of human authorship.
As authors develop a manuscript, meaningful stages—including the original manuscript, the edited manuscript with Track Changes, the proofread manuscript with Track Changes, and the final manuscript—are recorded as part of a permanent authorship timeline.
Each submitted version receives its own True Origin certificate, creating a timestamped record of that specific manuscript checkpoint.
Together, these timestamped versions document the manuscript’s evolution over time—the drafting, rewriting, editing, and revision that provide evidence of the human creative process behind the finished work.
Once all required stages are complete, a member of the True Origin team reviews the documented development history as a whole to confirm that it demonstrates a clear progression of human authorship. When the completed record meets the Verified Human Authorship standard, the author receives the Verified Human Authorship seal.
True Origin™ is designed for authors and publishers who believe readers deserve confidence that a book represents genuine human creativity.
It is particularly valuable for:
• Authors documenting a manuscript from its original draft through publication
• Writers preparing to submit work to agents or publishers
• Authors working with editors, proofreaders, or co-authors
• Publishers seeking a documented standard for verifying human authorship
• Anyone who wants a permanent, independently verifiable record of a manuscript’s creative development
True Origin™ documents four meaningful stages in the life of your manuscript:
1. Original Manuscript
Upload your original manuscript before professional editing. This establishes the starting point for the documented development history.
2. Edited Manuscript with Track Changes
Upload a copy of the edited manuscript that preserves the Track Changes. These visible edits and revisions document how the manuscript developed through the editorial process.
3. Proofread Manuscript with Track Changes
Upload a copy of the proofread manuscript with Track Changes preserved, creating another documented checkpoint in the manuscript’s development.
4. Final Manuscript
Upload the completed manuscript that resulted from the documented writing, editing, and proofreading process.
Each upload receives its own True Origin certificate and timestamped blockchain record. Once all four stages are complete, a member of the True Origin team reviews the development history as a whole. When the completed record demonstrates a clear progression of human authorship and meets the Verified Human Authorship standard, the author receives the Verified Human Authorship seal.
At each checkpoint, make a copy of your manuscript specifically for True Origin. Upload that copy, then place that exact file in a dedicated archive folder on your computer and do not edit, rename, overwrite, or otherwise modify it. Continue your writing and revisions in your working manuscript. This allows your archived True Origin checkpoint files to remain unchanged so they can always be matched to their original True Origin records. A change to even one letter in the file will change its digital fingerprint, which is used to match the file to its True Origin timestamped record. We also recommend backing up your True Origin archive folder in a second location.
Gotham Ghostwriters, whose writers have collaborated on bestselling books published by all of the Big Five publishers, as well as projects involving Fortune 100 CEOs and the last five U.S. presidents, recently featured True Origin in its industry newsletter.
“While no solution is going to be perfect when it comes to protecting copyrighted content, having this type of ironclad ownership documentation is a valuable tool to have on hand as insurance should a writer ever need it.”
Every author who completes the True Origin process receives:
• A permanent True Origin Registry Number for each file
• A public verification page documenting the manuscript’s registered history
• A documented authorship timeline preserving the manuscript’s development
• Individual True Origin certificates documenting each registered manuscript stage
• Permanent blockchain records of the digital fingerprint and timestamp for every documented version
Verified Human Authorship
Once all required stages are complete, a member of the True Origin team reviews the documented development history as a whole. When the record meets the Verified Human Authorship standard, the author also receives the Verified Human Authorship seal for use on the book and marketing materials.
True Origin does not replace copyright registration.
Copyright establishes legal ownership. True Origin documents and verifies the creative journey behind a manuscript, providing readers and publishers with greater confidence in its human authorship.
A single manuscript shows the finished result.
A documented authorship timeline shows how that result came to exist. It preserves evidence of how a manuscript evolved through drafting, rewriting, revision, restructuring, editing, proofreading, and refinement over time. Those changes between versions provide evidence of the human creative process behind the finished work.
In an era when a finished manuscript can be generated with artificial intelligence, documenting that creative process has become increasingly important. Rather than attempting to determine authorship from a single finished file, True Origin preserves a verifiable record of the manuscript’s development across meaningful stages.
The finished manuscript tells readers what was written.
A documented authorship timeline helps demonstrate how it came to be.
That distinction is becoming one of the defining questions facing publishing in the AI era.
The strongest evidence of human authorship comes from documenting a manuscript’s development over time—not simply preserving the finished manuscript.
True Origin documents four required stages in that development:
• Original manuscript — the author’s manuscript before professional editing
• Edited manuscript with Track Changes — preserving the visible editing and revision process
• Proofread manuscript with Track Changes — preserving the visible proofreading and final refinement process
• Final manuscript — the completed version of the work
Together, these timestamped records create a documented continuum of the manuscript’s evolution and provide the foundation used to evaluate Verified Human Authorship.
The strongest authorship records begin long before a manuscript reaches its final form.
Outlines, research, notes, character sketches, concept drafts, and early chapters help establish the earliest stages of creative development.
Combined with later drafts, editorial revisions, and final manuscripts, these records create a continuous history showing not only that a work existed, but how it evolved.
The earlier documentation begins, the more complete the record becomes.
Verified Human Authorship is not based on a single document.
It is earned through the documented story of a manuscript’s creation.
Who Can Use True Origin
True Origin™ is included with every book published through DartFrog Books. Throughout the publishing process, authors document the four required stages of their manuscript's development, creating a permanent, independently verifiable authorship timeline.
Authors publishing elsewhere may also use True Origin as a standalone service. The same process and Verified Human Authorship standard apply: the original manuscript, edited manuscript with Track Changes, proofread manuscript with Track Changes, and final manuscript are documented through True Origin, with each stage receiving its own certificate and timestamped blockchain record. Once the record is complete, a member of the True Origin team reviews the documented development history to determine whether it meets the standard for the Verified Human Authorship seal.
Build Your Verified Human Authorship Record
- Build a permanent authorship timeline by documenting your manuscript from first draft through final publication
- Complete the True Origin verification process
- Receive the Verified Human Authorship seal (when certification standards are met), a permanent Registry Number, and public verification record
Your Records Are Permanently Secured and Verifiable
blockchain (noun) A public, distributed ledger that permanently records information in a way that cannot be altered or deleted. Once a record is written, it becomes part of an independent, verifiable history that exists outside the control of any single company or organization.
Why Do We Use Polygon?
True Origin™ uses the Polygon blockchain because it provides a secure, reliable, and permanent foundation for documenting the development of a manuscript over time.
Each documented manuscript stage receives a unique digital fingerprint that is permanently timestamped and independently verifiable.
The blockchain never stores your manuscript. It stores only the secure digital fingerprint of each registered version, allowing the authenticity of your documented authorship record to be verified without exposing the contents of your work.
Blockchain is simply the technology that makes long-term, independent verification possible.
The value of True Origin lies in the documented evidence it preserves—and, ultimately, in the confidence that documented evidence provides when awarding Verified Human Authorship.
