If you want to publish your book, you will.
This is the bold claim of StoryForge, a writing, reading, and publishing platform launched in January 2024.
The website’s goal is to offer a free place for writers to craft stories, get feedback, and achieve publication. The Minnesota based team, headed by Sabrina Rucker, is focused on making publishing more accessible. They also focus on making the hardest parts of writing, like getting criticism and finding an audience, easier for people new to the process.
As the website explains, StoryForge is here to transform the publication landscape. The site wants to focus on you – the writers and readers who feel like they aren’t being seen or heard by the big players in publishing.
It wants to focus on accessibility, which is why everything from writing to publishing can be done for free on the website. And it wants to focus on community – the heart of StoryForge is creating a vibrant, interactive community where writers from all walks of life can share stories and ideas.
Right now the beta-website includes a homepage, the ‘library’, which is cozy and customizable, a writing tab to write or upload original work, a reading tab to browse and comment on others works, and a community tab with dozens of Writing Circle threads for smaller and more meaningful connections.
The website is also “Gamifying” the process of reading and writing by including levels, rewards, daily challenges, and in-game currency to keep users motivated to write, edit, and move towards publication. Currency can be used to customize the library, while leveling up gets you closer to ‘legendary status’ – Where users unlock the right to be published and distributed by StoryForge.
As users revise their work, get feedback, and interact with other users, they level up, all tracked with their progress bar. At level five, authors will be able to receive money as support for their work-in-progress. At level nine, so long as the work doesn’t violate community guidelines, your work will qualify for a publishing contract with the StoryForge team.
StoryForge keeps a record of all work as it gets revised and improved, keeping users’ copyright safe in case of a plagiarism dispute. The website guarantees it will never work to train AI to create content and that authors will always keep all rights to their work.
Though it’s only been up and running since January, Storyforge has already amassed a strong base of nearly 5,000 beta-users. Storyforge is on nearly every Social Media, especially Instagram where they hold almost 10,000 followers. It’s clear this is a platform people are connecting with and looking to as a place to find community, motivation, and empowerment in the unforgiving publishing world.
Visit StoryForge to learn more.
