Follow to read: a free story or sample for followers
For readers and authorsUpdated 3 min read
An author on the Creator plan and above can offer a sample (the opening of a book) or a free story (a standalone) that is readable on Booklabria by anyone who follows them. The reader follows with one press (or a one-step free account) and reads at once in the same reader as an early copy, with their place kept, in the Library under Samples and stories, below the shelves. It stays there after an unfollow, and reading it again asks for the follow: the follow is the door, not a lease. Nothing is downloaded, nothing is owed.
The short answer
For the reader
Some authors offer something to the people who follow them, in two shapes with one rule: a sample (the opening chapters of a book that is or will be for sale) or a free story (a standalone the author gives away). It shows on the author's page and on the book's page as a card marked Free for followers, with Follow to read. Press it: you follow the author, and it opens in the reader you use for early copies, one chapter at a time, your place kept on every device, watermarked to you and never downloadable. Without an account, you make a free reader account and follow Ana Reyes in one step on the same page, with Follow and read, and it opens. It costs nothing, no review is owed, and following to read never puts anything in your inbox: a follow is a follow. Once you follow, the card reads Read now, and the sample or story is in your Library under Samples and stories, below your shelves, marked From Ana Reyes, for followers. It sits there rather than on a shelf because a story has no book to shelve. Nothing is owed for it. If you unfollow later, it stays in your Library, and opening it asks you to follow again: the follow is the door, not a lease. The row in your Library is the reader's; the reading is the follower's. Your place is kept either way, so following again puts you back on the page you left. At the end of a sample the page says the book is coming soon or points at the book page, which says where to buy it; the author never learns where you stopped.
For the author
On the Creator plan and above, a book can carry one live sample for followers (Studio › Catalog › The Salt Road › Sample for followers: the first chapters of the file already there, or a separate EPUB up to 25 MB; Publish the sample), and a standalone story with no book page of its own can be offered the same way. Readers who follow you read it on Booklabria, their place kept across devices; the file never leaves the server. The card shows 12 followers opened it · 8 finished, as counts. You can withdraw a sample at any time. Readers who opened it keep the row in their Library, because their reading position keeps it, and lose the reading: opening it says the sample is no longer offered. A new one can be published in its place. A sample counts toward nothing: it is not a campaign and takes no reader from your plan. Publishing your first sample counts as a first paid action and starts the 14-day trial, which arrives with W1 when billing opens.
It is a way to be read, not a way to collect addresses: following gives you a follower, not an address. Following never sends a reader your letters either; the box does, and a follower who wants them ticks it themselves.
Where this lives
Related
- Following, and what you are told: Follow authors (their pen name), readers and series; their news reaches your feed and the bell, grouped and switchable per author. Notifications live under the bell, everything can be marked read at once, and e-mail is a digest, never one message per event.
- Reading or downloading your early copy, and how the file is protected: The author chooses per campaign how you receive an approved early copy, and may offer more than one way for you to pick from: you read it on Booklabria (the file stays on the server, you open it from My early copies, your progress is saved as you read), you download a protected copy through a link that expires fifteen minutes after it is issued (five downloads per approval, every one logged, every EPUB watermarked), or, if the author offers Send to Kindle, we e-mail the watermarked EPUB to your own Kindle address (five sends per approval). If a link expires, ask for a fresh one; if you reach a limit, write to the author or support.
- The Author Journal: New entry opens the Journal composer with fourteen formats in four groups (General; Book and Story; Launch and ARC; Community), each asking only for what it needs, an audience (Public, Followers, Only me), an optional content note that hides the entry behind a spoiler warning, and a preview. Entries can be saved as drafts under Studio, Posts, and one can be pinned to your page.
- Plans, and what the beta unlocks: Readers never pay; there is no reader plan and never will be. Writing here is free forever: books, series, the Journal and followers are never limited on any plan. What the plans are for is the launch: advance-copy campaigns, the readers who come with them, and the people who help. Author (free) has one pen name and one small campaign at a time (up to 25 readers, no delivery links); Creator ($9 a month or $90 a year) runs 3 campaigns at a time with up to 100 readers each; Pro ($19 or $190) is unlimited with 5 pen names and 2 collaborators; Publisher ($59 or $590) is the imprint, billed yearly by invoice with 5 seats. A $12 campaign pass runs one campaign (up to 100 readers) without a plan, valid for 60 days from the day you buy it. The 14-day trial needs a card and starts with your first campaign or delivery link, not at signup. During the closed beta nothing is charged and every author feature is unlocked.
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