Why Use DigitalNovelists.com?

Everything you need to post your stories and build your community

Many web fiction writers have their story on one site, their writing and/or personal blog on another, and a forum on yet another. If they start another story, add yet another site to the mix. DN gives you:

• Marketing: ad campaigns, addition to the DN front page listings of the latest chapters, and inclusion in the drop-down listing of sites in the DN site banners
• your own blog
• your own forum
• an easy "book" format to post as many different serials as you want to run, with automatic paging and tables of contents
• polling
• automatic integration with Google Analytics
• automatic integration with reCaptcha and Akismet to keep spam at a minimum
• automatic "pinging" to let sites like Technorati know when you've updated
• automatic integration with search engine indexers like Yahoo Explorer
• a scheduler so that you can post something on Monday and have it go live on Thursday
• a points system for your registered users so that you can reward them for participating however you'd like

...all on one site.

"MeiLin Miranda in an innovator in the field of digital fiction. Not only does she continuously strive to create meaningful experiences for her readers, and opportunities for them to be involved in the online writing community, she has come to the forefront in helping other writers carve out their own niche.

"Without her sponsorship and support at Digital Novelists (dot com) I would be relegated to using free sites like Wordpress or Blogger, where there's little opportunity for being noticed, or designing a unique experience for readers, including forums for story discussions. Now, I have my own site where I can control my advertising and interact readily with my audience. If you dream of taking online writing seriously, and finding readers for your work, MeiLin Miranda and the Digital Novelists network will help you do it."
--Gavin Williams

Cost-effective

We have three different options to help you:

1. Roll your own. It's free. Here's a list of all the Drupal modules you'll need. Just go to Drupal, download and install the software in your webspace (make sure your provider supports it), and install the listed modules. We do not provide any support for this option apart from what appears on this site; it's only listed to give those of you with the skills a head start.
2. Free with advertising. There is a $15 set-up fee to pay for our time in setting up your site. ATTENTION: THE SET-UP FEE IS RISING TO $20 ON 1/1/10! Your site then pays for itself by hosting a left-hand column of ads administered by DN and a banner at the top with an ad and DN information. You may not take these ads down or move them, though you may have as many other ad spaces as you'd like. This option comes with a YourName.DigitalNovelists.com address.
3. Paid. This plan is $15/mo by PayPal subscription, with a $15 set-up fee. THE SET-UP FEE IS RISING TO $20 ON 1/1/10. You keep all advertising space for yourself, however you want to manage it. You may use a YourName.DigitalNovelists.com address or your own domain. If you want to, you may add an ad-free, narrow banner identifying you as a DN site, and then be added to the service's marketing efforts--but only if you carry the banner.

"I'm incredibly happy with my move to DN. The freedom to shape my page to match my wishes is unparalleled on any free service. While it's true Wordpress can give much of the same functionality, it lacks the personal attention and tech support I've received from MeiLin. Additionally, I really like the professionalism that having a .digitalnovelists.com address brings to what I do. There's no question when a reader visits my site what they'll find. Additionally, DN gives me the freedom to have ads, which you can't get with a wordpress site. Overall, I would highly recommend this service to other web authors. It's be the best $15 I've spent in a long time."
--Allan T. Michaels

The power of the aggregate

All DN writers will be promoted on the main DN website. People looking for good stuff to read will have this as a destination to find it.

We hear what you're thinking

"I can get free hosting at blogspot or livejournal or wordpress." Go for it. You'll just end up with three or four applications scattered across the web. Again. You still won't have the power, proven community building tools or flexibility of a DN site.

And at the end of the day, a YourName.wordpress.com address tells people you're one of the millions of bloggers. A YourName.DigitalNovelists.com address (or your own address) tells people exactly what you do: You write stories for the web.

DN isn't for everyone. If you're a hobby writer and want to keep it a hobby, we totally understand. This is for the writers who are trying to take it to the next level, to get their 1000 True Fans. This is for the writers who really want to be read.

Are you ready?

Then get started or drop us a line if you have questions. Write us at:
i n f o @ d i g i t a l n o v e l i s t s . c o m.