Hederis (pronounced “header-iss”), comes from the word hedera. Used primarily in ancient greek and latin texts, the hedera was a purely ornamental symbol used to mark a break between paragraphs ☙ It can also mean an ecosystem of vines or ivy.
Our goal is to empower publishers to have control over their processes and intellectual property, keeping their staff employed with fulfilling work that builds real skills.
Some of our driving principles are to:
Help you succeed. While we’re doing our best to build tools that we think can help the publishing community, our tools aren’t the right answer for everyone, and that’s ok. We’re always happy to help point you in the right direction and get you on the path to success.
Support our community. Embracing innovation can feel lonely, but rest assured you’re not alone. We’re genuinely passionate about book-making and love to share our knowledge and connect with other like-minded folks.
Respect your knowledge and experience. Book-making is a craft that has evolved over centuries, and involves a variety of different people with different skills. Newcomers and veterans alike have invaluable insights to share, and we want to hear them!
About Hederis
Hederis was built by a collective of people passionate about book publishing. Originally founded by long-time publishing technologist Nellie McKesson in response to seeing many publishers struggle with inefficient and outdated production workflows, Hederis has brought together many people from all aspects of the publishing industry to build tools that solve real publishing issues. Here are some of our team members:
Nellie McKesson, CEO
Nellie has over a dozen years of experience in publishing. She spent the early years of her career doing hands-on book production and layout, and then moved into more technical and managerial roles. As the market for ebooks began to rise, she taught herself web development and was an early evangelist for using web technologies in the book production process. (You may have seen her speak at a conference about building automated book production tools.)
Zach Schwartz, Lead Developer
Zach Schwartz is a full-stack software engineer with experience building innovative software for O’Reilly Media, Bloomberg LP, and Google. He holds degrees from University of Chicago and the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, and is passionate about iteratively building great tools and experiences.
John Erik “Buster” Bylander, Product
John is a Brooklyn-based publishing professional with a strong background in writing, editing, design, production, and metadata. He brings a decade of experience in book publishing and an enthusiasm for publishing innovation to the Hederis team.
Tiffany Watson, Marketing
Tiffany is a Portland-based publishing professional. Her interests in academic research, writing, literary events/book festivals, and community building inform her experience and background in the field. Her love of small press publishing and passion for the decentralization of the industry alight her interest in Hederis as a tool for inciting necessary change.
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