Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

• Does is cost anything to join and publish on Booksie?
• Do I retain ownership of my work?
• Can I hide my true identity?

Publishing Content

• Why should I add my writing to Booksie?
• How can I get my writing on Booksie?
• Can anyone post their writing?
• How long does it take to publish?
• Can I edit my work on the site?
• Can I preserve the formatting of my work?
• Can I remove my writing at any time?
• I have my writing published on another site. Can I still list it on Booksie?
• Why is publishing on Booksie better than on a regular Blog?

Receiving Comments and Getting Featured

• How do I get more Reads?
• How do I get more comments?
• How can I be Featured on the site?
• How are the Top 20 rankings determined?

Fans and Networking

• How can I become a fan of someone?
• Is there an easy way to invite others to Booksie?

About Us

• Who Is Booksie?

 

Does is cost anything to join and publish on Booksie?

Just your soul. No, just kidding. It’s free to publish and read.

Do I retain ownership of my work?

Yes, absolutely. You retain full rights to your work and may do with it as you please. Please see the Member Agreement to view our rights policy.

Why Should I Add My Writing to Booksie?

You don't have to. You can keep your writing on your hard drive or in your head or on a piece of paper. But if you'd like to see what the world thinks of your writing, give publishing on Booksie a try.

Here are a few other reasons:

• Flexibility. We give you tools to publish your work on the site or link to work published elsewhere. No other creative writing site on the Web does that.
• Control. As an author you have total control of your experience. You can remove your work whenever you want, delete innapropriate comments you receive, and monitor the number of visits and reads you get. You also retain full ownership of your work.
• Exposure. Booksie is visited by tens of thousands of readers a month eager to find interesting writing to read. The site also optimizes your work so that it is found by readers searching via the search engines - Google, Yahoo, etc.
• Fun. Writers and readers on the site enjoy meeting on another, bondings over common likes, and inspiring each other to future literary endeavors.
• Mission. Be a part of something bigger. Help us build the largest organized dbase of creative and literary writing in the world.
• Free. Doing all of this is completely free.

How Can I Get My Writing on Booksie?

There are two ways to get your writing included on Booksie. You can either publish it directly on the site. In this case, your content will appear on a Booksie page and you can use all of the Booksie tools to promote it.

Or, you can add your writing to the index by linking to it from Booksie using LitLink.

In both cases, your writing will appear in the index and on your Booksie page.

Can anyone post their writing?

You must be over 13 to post material to the site. As long as you are, anyone may submit material as long as it conforms to the site Content Posting Guidelines specified in our Member Agreement.

How long does it take to post?

It will take you minutes to post a short story or poem. A novel, depending on how many chapters you have could take 30 minutes.

Can I hide my true identity?

Absolutely. You have the option of posting your work under a Pen Name. In addition, although you provide us with your email address, this is for administrative purposes only and will not be shown on the site.

Can I edit my work on the site?

You can change everything about the work you posted, including the title, genre, summary, and of course, the main text of the work. To do this:

• Click on the Your Account tab located on the upper right of the screen.
• Either click on the story title or click the edit link to the right of the title.
• To edit the title, type, genre, rating, and story/novel summary, click the link labeled Edit Main Story Information
• To edit the chapter title, chapter summary, and body of your work, click on the name of the chapter/short story.

Can I preserve the formatting of my work?

The site does its best to preserve the formatting of your work. If you use Microsoft Word, we have a utility that preserves most of the formatting. When you are uploading your work, be sure to click on the W icon on the left hand side of the toolbar above the text box. In addition, please skim our tips for ensuring optimal formatting.

Can I remove my writing at any time?

Yes, you have complete control over your writing. You can edit it, remove it, or repost it to the site. Please note that if you repost your writing, you will loose all visits and ratings associated with that piece of writing. This will hurt its ranking.

Please note: You must first delete all inner sections or chapters of a posted piece before you can delete the entire piece. If you have trouble doing this, please contact us.

I have my writing published on another site. Can I still include it in the Booksie index?

Yes. You can link to that piece of content from Booksie. We only allow links directly to a short story, novel, poem, or some other creative piece of content. Links to the homepages of websites, the front of your Myspace pages, or non-relevant content will be deleted. We're building an index of writing, not of irrelevant homepages. Help us make this happen.

Why Is Publishing on Booksie Better than On a Regular Blog?

Booksie is visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors per month looking to read what you write. When you post to your own Blog, you are starting with an audience of 0. If you work really hard you might be able to build up a readership on your Blog. On Booksie, if you post interesting material you will quickly generate a readership and a fanbase.

Booksie was also created specifically for creative writing and literature. Organizing a book on a blog is not easy. Blogs also don't organize your portfolio. They are designed for time-based journal writing, not literary writing. Check out the profile of some of our users and you'll see how Booksie organizes your portfolio and gives you tools (including a micro-Blogger) to connect with your audience. You can Feature certain work in your porfolio, embed images and video, tell your writers about the latest news (micro-Blogging), and keep tabs of your fans.

But if you'd prefer to post on a Blog or another site, that's cool. We make it easy to link to your Blog from Booksie using our LitLink program. It's free and it will only drive more readers and visitors to your pages.

How Do I Attract More Readers to My Work?

Marketing and promoting your work is essential to any author, whether you publish on Booksie or with a traditional publisher. Booksie makes it easy to attract more readers to your writing. Read up on tools and advice on attracting more readers.

How Do I Get More Comments

Booksie is a publishing site and it does not employ a credit or rewards system to incent readers to leave comments. Your writing is expected to stand on its own. Marketing though, is part of publishing, and you can help your writing receive more comments by commenting on the work of others. Most authors on the site are happy to reciprocate feedback.

If you are looking for a writing community that provides guaranteed constructive feedback on your writing, visit the writing workshop TheNextBigWriter.com.

How Can I Be Featured on the Site?

Like any author, self-promotion is an important part of your success. We have designed a system so that the more visitors that read your work, the more exposure it will get. The site encourages you to promote your work and bring others onto the site to read it. Here are some ideas:

• Read and provide interesting and thoughful comments on the writing of others on the site. This provides you with visibility and readers often first hear of writers through their comments.
• Use the Invite tab at the top of the page to invite friends, family, and other who you think might be interested to visit and read your writing.
• Put links on any personal sites you may have to your Booksie page or directly to the piece of writing you wish to promote. The url for your Booksie page is listed in the Your Space tab.
• Use the little icons at the bottom of each story to promote your work across other sites: etc.
• Post the url of your Booksie page on your Myspace, Facebook, Bebo or other networking site.

How are the Top 20 rankings determined?

The rankings are determined according to two different criteria: ratings and reads. The more Like Its your work receives from readers, the better it will rank. The Read ranking is determined based on the total number of reads a piece receives during the different timeperiods - Yesterday, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, Last 90 Days, etc.

How Can I Become a Fan of Someone?

To become a fan of a writer you must be a member of Booksie. Once you have joined (it's free to join), simply click the Become a Fan link on their Booksie page or on the left hand side of any of their posted work. Once you are approved by the writer, you will be added as a fan and can receive alerts when they post additional writing.

Is there an easy way to invite others to Booksie?

Booksie provides an email tool that allows you to quickly send emails to your friends, family, and acquantinces, inviting them to the site. They will be invited to your Booksie page and from there can quickly and easily open an account, read your writing, or explore the site. Your page becomes their gateway into the site. To use the tool, click here.

Who Is Booksie?

Booksie was created and launched by TheNextBigWriter, LLC. The company's goal is to provide writers with the tools to help them publish and promote their work and to provide readers with more ways to find and read undiscovered writing talent.

In addition to Booksie, we own and operate the TheNextBigWriter.com Online Workshop, a private community for writers to receive detailed feedback on their short stories, novels, and poetry.

We also operate TheWritersSite, a free resource for writers.