Fanfare! My new digital publishing venture

[brendancody]

It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s been over a decade since I joined the Litopia Colony. I’ve been dormant in recent years, though. Like many who love writing, I found it difficult to make work as more than a side-line. Bills had to be paid, so my career in IT necessarily took precedence, and writing was pushed to the margins—limited to the occasional blog or short story.

More recently, changes in the economy and the introduction of AI into the IT industry have—ironically—caused difficulties for those working in IT. When I was made redundant last year, getting back to work this time proved especially difficult due to a chronic back injury (and other factors). Finding myself in what could only be described as a liminal workspace, I decided to turn the situation into a positive opportunity and finally pursue an idea I’d been mulling over for some time.

The idea marries my interests in technology and reading & writing short stories. I wanted to facilitate both readersand fiction writers by creating an app that I would genuinely want to use myself - a regular collection of short stories to pick from a read anywhere. You can see the results at wordfyle.com—please feel free to try it out. I’d be genuinely interested to hear what fellow Litopians make of it, and to have an influence at this early stage.

Perhaps it’s naïve to launch another digital publication in the age of social media, when reading is said to be declining and the economy precarious. Even so, I believe it’s a noble venture to promote reading and writers, and I’m determined to give it a proper go.

Any feedback—particularly from this community—for problems or improvements would be very welcome. Also, if anyone would like early access to pre-release versions of the app (with new features not yet available publicly), please let me know. Just drop a note in the website’s contact page, or DM.

Thanks!

 

[Pamela Jo]

It's an interesting idea that is synchronistic with many of Pete's. Have you discussed this with him? How is this moneticised for you? You say join for free but as a consumer I suppose I am suspicious of any such claim. As they saying goes if you cant see how it's making money -you are the product.

 

[Sedayne]

Hi @brendancody

I had a look, and whilst it's visually appealing, and I admire your effort, I don't think this is for me.

Am I correct in thinking there is no submission/acceptance or editorial process?

That's a red flag for me.

It's not only that I want the validation of editorial selection for my own writing, it's that I don't want my work next to other stories with zero quality control. How do I know my queer lit won't be alongside homophobic or misogynistic writing? Or just bad writing?

If I wanted to just get my stories out there, I could use my Substack where there are plenty of discerning readers already. But I'd rather publish in quality lit mags with experienced editors. And of course, I've got the Litopia Platform in the company authors I trust both in terms of quality writing and sensible politics.

That's just my personal POV. I can see how this might appeal to writers who are jaded with lit mag submissions and the inevitable rejections, but I still enjoy that whole process.

I wish you the best with it.
Regards,
Rachel

 

[brendancody]

Am I correct in thinking there is no submission/acceptance or editorial process?

That's a red flag for me.

That's just my personal POV. I can see how this might appeal to writers who are jaded with lit mag submissions and the inevitable rejections, but I still enjoy that whole process.

There actually is a submission and acceptance process in order to get published. I appreciate that may not be clear until you get through to the writers desk part of the website, (where the submission process is laid out in detail.) This is an excellent observation though - thank you - as it highlights one of the teething issues that an FAQ, or prominent link to the submissions guidelines, would resolve.

I agree with your viewpoint on substack; not only does the open nature of platform offer variable quality, but there's just so much content that it even becomes a challenge for the readers to find the best. It's a problem with hyperlinked social media in general! I think readers might appreciate the more curated nature of something different (but of well established benefit from the print magazine model) .

 

[Sedayne]

There actually is a submission and acceptance process in order to get published.

That's good. So I had a closer look. But I can't find any Masthead. I would never send my writing anywhere that didn't list the names and credentials of the editors.

Your blog posts say they are by the Wordfyle Team. I suppose that must be you, but I only know that because of Litopia; judging the website as an outsider, I would be suspicious that anything without a writer's name was written by AI.

Your blog post on AI itself takes a while to get to the point, and the title is ambiguous. I had to read the whole thing more than once to work out if you were in favour or against the use of AI as it flits between extolling the virtues of AI in general and the importance of human writing. Ironic that I couldn't find a name of any human being anywhere on the site. A brief anti-AI statement is what I'm looking for before I will consider submitting my work anywhere.

I also need to know something of the ethos if not the politics, and I couldn't find any inclusivity statement.

I'm afraid I would not submit anything here until there was more information about who the editors are and what the ethos is. I couldn't find anything on the website to indicate either. It looks professional, yes, but completely impersonal and un-human.

I agree with your viewpoint on substack

I actually love Substack. I use it every day, and I have some paid subscriptions there. I just don't publish much on my own stack. The stacks that I subscribe to and read regularly are great. There's high quality writing and integrity there as well as sharing of resources, experience and knowledge. But it's for writers more than readers.

 

[Pamela Jo]

For writers more than readers sums it up perfectly. And everyone on there is making reels for you tube instagram -everything else, working their ass off reaching readers.

Personally I think you would be better off looking at something like Royal Road for a particular genre you're interested in. Ream is out there already. Maybe check them out.

Ream Stories | Your New Self Publishing Platform

Ream Stories is the self publishing platform built for authors. Sell books direct online, share serial fiction, and grow your romance author platform with tools that help you connect, earn, and thrive.

info.reamstories.com

 

[Sedayne]

And everyone on there is making reels for you tube instagram

That's interesting, but not my experience. The Substacks I subscribe to don't put any reels up or link to other social media. There's no video which is better for me because I'm not good with visuals. But a lot of the Substacks I follow do audio versions of their output which I love.

I think any of these sites can become distracting from the real business of writing, however, and I purposely have to limit myself so as not to spend all morning on Litopia or Substack and get no writing done at all.

 

[brendancody]

Thanks for those perspectives—all very useful to take into the next phase. I can immediately see that information addressing some of your queries and assumptions is currently only accessible if you have created a writer account. It’s now clear to me that this should be brought forward into the public part of the site, to make it more open (and perhaps alleviate some concerns too). A new FAQ section is also on the feature roadmap.

There are a couple of points raised I’d like to address here, though.

Writers will be rewarded on an ongoing revenue-share basis. My immediate focus is to attract submissions, and that anyone wanting to publish their story shouldn’t feel excluded from submitting.

That brings me to my second point: one of the few exclusions , which is AI. The site terms and the submission rules both make it clear that AI-generated or AI-assisted submissions are not permitted. In fact, it would be impossible to enforce this without a gated editorial submission process (which is the very problem every uncurated media platform on the internet is now discovering.)

I appreciate that reputation and trust are essential for any publication, and that they simply don’t exist yet for a new one. This particular challenge is a marathon, not a sprint!

Thanks again.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Thanks for those perspectives—all very useful to take into the next phase. I can immediately see that information addressing some of your queries and assumptions is currently only accessible if you have created a writer account. It’s now clear to me that this should be brought forward into the public part of the site, to make it more open (and perhaps alleviate some concerns too). A new FAQ section is also on the feature roadmap.

There are a couple of points raised I’d like to address here, though.

Writers will be rewarded on an ongoing revenue-share basis. My immediate focus is to attract submissions, and that anyone wanting to publish their story shouldn’t feel excluded from submitting.

That brings me to my second point: one of the few exclusions , which is AI. The site terms and the submission rules both make it clear that AI-generated or AI-assisted submissions are not permitted. In fact, it would be impossible to enforce this without a gated editorial submission process (which is the very problem every uncurated media platform on the internet is now discovering.)

I appreciate that reputation and trust are essential for any publication, and that they simply don’t exist yet for a new one. This particular challenge is a marathon, not a sprint!

Thanks again.

I would echo many of the concerns raised above. There is so little information on the website (about process, who you are, what's in it for me as a writer) that I would dismiss it as untrustworthy--I'd gravitate towards the established platforms instead. I also squint at that picture of a woman looking at her phone on the blog and think, AI, which immediately makes me wary. Not that there's anything wrong with what you have put up, I just think there needs to be a lot more information.