Frequently Asked Questions

Booksie is a free social publishing site that provides a place where writers and readers can connect from across the globe. Over the past ten years, tens of thousands of writers have posted hundreds of thousands of short stories, novel, poems, articles and more.

Welcome!

What are the site's content guidelines? What can I post?

Booksie is a site for all ages and as a result content should be suitable for anyone over 13 to read. A helpful way to think about it is that all content should fall within the G to R ratings guidelines. If you are over 18 and have adult content you would like to post, visit BooksieSilk, a publishing site for adults.

Is there a cost to join?

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

Can Anybody Join?

You must be 13 or older 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.

Can anyone start a writing group?

Yes, anyone can start a writing group on the site. Once you start a writing group, you can invite other people to join, assign other moderators, and have complete control over how the group runs and operates. This feature can be used by middle school, high school, and college classes, offline writing groups, and other assemblages of writers.

It is free to create and join one writing group. Premium Members can create or join up to 10 writing groups.

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 Membership Agreement to view our rights policy.

Can I cancel my membership at any time?

Yes, you can close your account at any time by going to the Settings/Close Account page.

Posting Questions

Is it difficult to post work?

No, we have made the posting system easy and intuitive. If you can type into a Word document, and know how to cut and past text then you can post to the system. If you don't know how to cut and paste we have simple instructions to guide you through the process. Do not let your fear of technology prevent you from participating. Signing up and posting your first work takes approximately 5 minutes.

Can I hide my true identity?

Yes. 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. You do not have to post your email address to 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.

Editing posted work is useful for several reasons. You can update and improve your work as feedback comes in. Editing also allows you to test market different titles and summaries to see what generates the most visits and comments. If you’re not happy with the number of visits and reviews you are getting, test a different title or perhaps a more exciting summary. Use the site to understand what turns browsers into readers.

Can I preserve the formatting of my work?

The site does its best to preserve the formatting of your work. In general, we format it as it would appear in an ebook. If you use Microsoft Word, we have a utility that preserves most of the formatting.

Can I remove my writing at any time?

Yes, you can easily delete it from the site at any time. It's your writing and you can decide what to do with it.

Promoting Your Writing

What is the Shelfit button and how can I use it?

The Shelfit button seen on content across the site is an easy way to add content that you like to your bookshelf. You can Shelf two different kinds of content: Content published on the site and content published via Amazon.

Published Shelf: This is for adding content you have published on Amazon to your shelf. It's a great to promote your published writing.

Recommended Shelf: This content written by others that you would recommend. Building a recommended shelf helps other members get to know your reading and writing preferences better and is one more way to build a following and increase connections on the site. Your can shelf either content published on Booksie or content published on Amazon t your recommended shelf.

When a user adds content to their Published Shelf and Recommended Shelf, these additions are shown on the homepage of everyone you are connected to, increasing your exposure across the site.

You can view the video on Shelving content to get a simple explanation of how to use the feature.

How else can I promote my writing on the site?

The Shelfit tool is a great way to spread the word about your work. In addition to that tool, you can:

Use the Facebook and Twitter links to promote your writing across those social networks.

Use the email tool on each page to email friends and family a link to your content.

Houses

What are Houses and what do they do?

Houses, which stand for Publishing Houses, are independent publishing communities on Booksie. The original and largest of these Houses is the Booksie Classic House. Houses give everyone the ability to create their own Publishing House. When members of the site post content, they have to decide which House they want to post their content to. Posting to a House does not mean that the House has any ownership of the content, it just determines which House community the content resides in. Have fun with Houses.

Houses can be arranged around genres (fantasy, science fiction, self-help, medical), or around countries, or age groups, or any other idea you have. Build a House and see how many writers and how much content you can attract!

How do I start a House?

Starting a House is easy. Just go to the House creation page and fill out the form. Each member can currently create one House.