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Professional author here. Personally, this wouldn't be for me, at least not right now. But it may be for others, and it's neat that you built it!

Why it's not for me:

These days, the choice between self publishing and traditional publishing is really a question of what I want my job to be. If I'm willing to be a writer/editor/publicist/graphic designer/etc., then modern digital distribution means self publishing makes a lot of sense. It potentially also makes a lot of sense for people who already have largish followings, as it increases profits per sale. (People with following can also monetize those followings directly via things like Patreon, or likely your "paid subscribers" feature.)

For me, though, all I really feel comfortable doing is writing. I don't want to publicize, or format books, or cultivate a following that I can turn into patrons and monetize. I'm a slow writer, so unlikely to produce a steady enough stream of content to make a serialization/patron model viable. I also strongly dislike being on social media, which would really limit my exposure.

Being in control of publicity is empowering for some authors, but for me it would make the work harder, not easier. So I prefer traditional publishing, where my only job is to write the stories and have professional interaction with agents and editors. Self-advocacy isn't a major part of my job as an author, and I'm an author who doesn't want it to be. I'm to have (and indirectly pay) agents and editors to let me have a writing career without needing to do work I find onerous.

Best of luck to you, though. And things change, so who knows? Maybe someday something like this will be exactly what I need. I know a brilliant author who was traditionally published for decades, but has now reclaimed her rights and is self publishing to much greater satisfaction.

In my opinion, that's an interesting idea.

I started writing short stories a couple of years ago, and I created a Hugo website to host them: https://crooked.ink. The main issues with a blog are that it's hard to get an audience from scratch, and it's hard to be found with all the SEO effort you can do.

I also tried to submit a couple of stories to webzines and I got published once for free, but I really don't think I'll ever do it for a living.

What I wish more and still didn't get, though, it's a _feedback_ for my stories. So maybe the project could be intriguing for this, if it can get you closer to an audience.

Have you seen the Short Story Substack[1]? I appreciate how forthcoming the editor is with the stats.

[1]: https://shortstory.substack.com/

I'm not writing serialized fiction at the moment, so probably not for me. I'm sure others will be interested, though, especially if you can collect a community of readers around the site.

I personally will use it to also publish my short stories (in my case, very short, less than 2,000 words) and gather an audience around it, not just serialized fiction.

>The main difference is that people can read your books from the beginning, from the first chapter, in installments.

Maybe market it as "Learn to write as Dickens did".

on edit: To get writers on board of course.

I'm someone else, but I just wanted to say: I hope your project succeeds.

I've thought about this for a long time and have a lot of insight into the problem, and thoughts about the pitfalls. If you'd like to talk, post an email address (can be throwaway) and I'll reach out. I'm a novelist myself, with a book coming out in early '23.

The most important thing, over the next 20 years, is making sure that the self-publishing ecosystem isn't controlled or controllable by companies (e.g., Amazon). Amazon are currently the good guys (believe it or not) relative to traditional publishers [1] and chain bookstores, but God knows what they are doing with their algorithm, and we can't let them become a SPOF for the self-publishing ecosystem.

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[1] Actually, the editors at the publishing houses themselves are a pretty good set of people (and, at least in the US, very underpaid). It's the rest of the trad-pub ecosystem--the tastemakers, the literary agents, the various sausage-makers who decide which books get celebrity endorsements--who can eat a bowl of taint cancer.

I appreciate the offer! I definitely would like to hear your thoughts. You can email me at contato [at] confabulistas.com.br

Thanks!