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I've decided to force myself by publishing my writings, hopefully acquiring at least a small following so I feel obliged to provide them with more texts.

Are there publishing platforms for this purpose? Where you can post drafts as well as finished stories? Get feedback? Publish a story in several parts (e.g. chapter by chapter) and the platform will pull them together for readers to read as one?

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That would be Leanpub. It has the express purpose to publish works in progress, and also provides a store front where readers can buy your book right away and receive free updates as you publish new chapters. Epub, mobi and PDF are all supported. You retain the copyright, and there's no exclusivity, so you can publish elsewhere when you're done. Last but not least, your royalties are about 90% of the book price.

I have a couple of books there at different stages (one with a co-author, which is also supported) and can only say good things of them and of their support forum. The only two caveats: starting a book will cost you 99$, and their main workflow uses a markup language called Markdown which is simple but you might not be familiar with. Importing your Word files is also supported, though.

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  • I forgot: when you look at their site you'll find mainly technical books (that's how they started) but that's definitely not a rule.
    – Luigi Ballabio
    Commented Jun 18, 2017 at 7:09
  • Thanks for that link. Markdown is actually a good choice for a book, it provides all the typography you would need.
    – Tom
    Commented Jun 18, 2017 at 7:23
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    From a cursory glance, markdown looks like what all StE websites are using!
    – Ludi
    Commented Jun 18, 2017 at 20:19
  • You're right, of course. Silly me. I suppose it became so natural for me to use it that it didn't register...
    – Luigi Ballabio
    Commented Jun 18, 2017 at 20:45
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    @ggiaquin - that might be the disconnect here. I'm specifically looking for something to publish drafts, which includes the possibility that you scrape or considerably rework the whole thing. For stuff that is ready-to-go, I don't have a problem with $100, you pay the same for the Apple Developer Program for iOS games or for Steam Greenlight for desktop games, both of which I've done in the past.
    – Tom
    Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:15
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It's not very big but I do recommend Storybird.com. Not only is it an online writing platform but it also is a website where you are able to read your own and other people's stories. You can also buy books from there. Each chapter is moderated to ensure that there are no copyright issues. If you want to publish your book without anyone seeing it, you can publish it privately. You can also download the PDF format. The prices are not too expensive and you can buy your book in hardcover or paperback.

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  • From a quick glance, that seems very much like what I was looking for, maybe geared a bit too much to a younger audience. But thank you for the pointer, I will check it out in detail.
    – Tom
    Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:41
  • I like the idea of storybird, but they seem to be mostly for illustrated kid books or at least a strong emphasis on illustrated books which tend to be children books.
    – ggiaquin16
    Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:52

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