This site uses a flipped editorial approach to reviewing and quality assurance. In traditional publishing, authors must pitch ideas to publishers before they can begin writing, relying upon the publisher's determination as to whether their work will have value, be purchased, etc. This prevents authors from creating and sharing their books right away and places the creation of books at the mercy of the publisher's subjective (monetization-based) determinations of value.
Our approach flips this. We give anyone who would like to create a book access to begin working on it. As they create it, they are able to share it and to put any safeguards in place that they would like to help ensure quality (e.g., peer review). Once the book is created, the author will then have the option to have their book showcased and certified by our site. We do this by providing the author with a quality assurance checklist to complete with a list of our standards, and once these are met, we will do a final review before deciding whether to showcase the book.
You can create an account by logging in with one of the provided methods (e.g., Google, ORCID).
Once you have an account created, go to your settings page and switch your role to Content Creator.
Begin writing your book by creating a new book on the home page. If you need help using the platform, please refer to our user guide or email a site administrator for assistance.
Once you've started creating it, your book is always active and live. So, you can share the link with anyone to allow them to see it. Readers do not need an account on the site to view your book.
If you would like to go through the optional step of having us showcase your book on our site, we require you to complete the quality assurance checklist on your book, which is found on the book's cover page under the "Quality Assurance" tab. Once you have completed this, email us again for a final review.
Additionally, unique badges may be applied to your book either automatically or by site administrators to help signal quality to readers. For instance, a "High Quality" badge might be appended if readers rate your content above a certain level, or administrators might apply a "Peer Reviewed" badge to your book if you underwent a rigorous peer-review process during writing.
We have carefully designed our site to provide the fullest functionality possible to authors and readers without paying any fees. However, to provide some features, we need to use external services that incur additional costs for us. These services are optional and can be requested by book authors by paying a small fee.
We do not accept solicitations for paid posts or contributions.
We do not allow our system to be used for marketing or promotional purposes (e.g., linking to your company's website or improving your Google search ranking).
Please do not contact us with requests to add links to your company's website or app. These will categorically be ignored.
Authors maintain ownership and copyright of their materials. We do not claim ownership of materials and do not make any claims about veracity of content.
Should you feel obligated to participate in this community, to repay the help you've received, to "pay it forward," or to give your stuff away?
No. Of course, not. Never.
As David Hansson recently said:
Contribute to the ... community because it brings meaning to your life. Because [it] sparks joy. Don’t participate if it doesn’t.