The update you shouldn’t see

A substantial technical enhancement led to the extended development time for this update. We have switched how our forms are being handled. This is part of our long-term effort to move to technologies that will be faster and allow us to deliver even better functionality.

However, this has been quite intrusive, in the code, and it’s still probable that certain forms will malfunction. We are actively hunting them down, but if you find one that is not working, please let us know. In the best scenario, nothing has changed for you and hopefully improved.

For the technically minded, we moved from React Final Form to TanStack Form.

API Keys

We plan to create integrations with other services. To begin, we need to establish a method for interacting with these extensions. As such, we have introduced personal API Keys. API Keys management is now available in your account settings. You can restrict their actions and determine their duration.

However, we wish to include a caution here. Be careful where you use your API keys as they will give access to your data in Literary Universe. Please wait for our official extensions to other systems before using them. If you’re a developer and wish to connect with Literary Universe or use our API, please get in touch, and we’ll happily equip you with what you need. If you have a particular website or software that you would like us to integrate with, please suggest it as a feature on our feedback page.

Kindle

We expect that this addition will be interesting for many of you. We have added an option to add your Kindle email. This is as we have added option to authors to upload EPUB and PDF files as alternative formats to text on Literary Universe. When you get the email and the author’s EPUB or PDF, you’re all set to send those stories to your Kindle.

This update also marks our initial efforts to create EPUB versions of all stories on demand. But we still have some technical hurdles to overcome. Stay tuned.

Story Arcs

Under the new section, Alternate Formats, in story dashboard you can upload the above mentioned EPUBs and PDFs for your whole story. You can also separate your chapters into story arcs.

A Story Arc is a collection of chapters that form a unified section of the story. This is well known device from manga and web/light novels. For example it can be a set of chapters that focus on particular story element, be it backstory to a character or defeating a minor villain. Since this is our focus we have made it easy to set them.

In the context of Alternate Formats establishing a Story Arc allow you to upload EPUBs and PDFs for them. In essence allowing you to have a mini books. This will be very useful for long running stories.

We are also investigating the use of Story Arcs for monetization as we have a problem that selling stories chapter by chapter would require us to establish some sort of internal currency or other form of micro-transactions. This is nor currently viable, but Story Arcs could present a unit that could be sold at a price where the pay gate would not eat all the costs. Please let us know what you think about this.

Deleting chapter drafts

If you have been playing with the system you might have created a lot of chapters in a story that you don’t need. Now you are able to delete the last chapter in the story. But only if certain conditions are met. These are:

• It is the last chapter in a story

• The chapter has not been published

• There has been no revision of the chapter created
  

Other

• Fixed various small bugs

• Overhaul of private messages

• Removed remnants of WebMonetization, which has been discontinued

• Various fixes around monetization

• Updated AI list