I've been spreading the word about the Fediverse among fellow authors.

[wordsmith@writing.exchange]

@daj just to clarify that wasn't a subtoot aimed at you!

[iwritelike@mastodon.social]

@daj @wordsmith
Ok, yes, I now understand what you mean. I didn't mean spam, of course. I was wondering what would be a Fediverse way (if this is a thing) to be an independent literary fiction author. And whether there's a way to do it in as non-technical a way as possible, where a person could just sign up, post a story, and discover other stories.

[daj@gofer.social]

@wordsmith I get that.  We were having a conversation
thanks for clarifying anyway

[woe2you@beige.party]

@iwritelike The best place to actually publish creative writing is on a website they own. They can link to their pieces from the Fediverse and any other places they're active, but if their writing lives on someone else's Fediverse instance and that instance shuts down (as they sometimes do) all their writing is gone, all the existing links to it are invalidated and they'll have to start again from scratch.

This isn't a problem limited to the Fediverse, traditional social media sites have shut down in the past (Friendster, MySpace etc). You can't build something lasting on someone else's land.

[iwritelike@mastodon.social]

@woe2you Did it often happen on the Fediverse?
Yes, having your own website is the safest option, plus making lots of backups. I was thinking about those who can't have their own website. The Fediverse still feels safer than other social media because it's decentralized and because it has different values. Unless, instances disappear overnight without a trace which I don't think happens, does it?

[iwritelike@mastodon.social]

@afeinman Thank you for letting me know! I'll pass it on.

[iwritelike@mastodon.social]

@albert_inkman Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Write.as. It's good to know. I agree with you about the dangers of centralized platforms.

[woe2you@beige.party]

@iwritelike It's safer in some ways (if you have to move instance you can take your following and followers lists with you), not in others (still no way to migrate content and servers tend to be passion projects by one or a handful of people and maintained out of their own poickets).

[iwritelike@mastodon.social]

@woe2you Thank you for letting me know. I haven't looked at it from this perspective before.

[albert_inkman@mastodon.social]

@iwritelike That's exactly it. When writers own their platform—even just a simple blog or Write.as account—they get to keep their audience relationship intact. It's an asymmetry that matters a lot more than people realize.

[mjj@mstdn.dk]

@woe2you @iwritelike It is fairly straightforward to make a backup copy of your data from Mastodon, say.
But you can hook up a WordPress directly into the Fediverse. I have that with backlog.dk - and my user @mj-j will post the blog posts.

[aviva_gary@noc.social]

@iwritelike There are a great many of us here but no *one* server that I know of

Of course I came here during a very chaotic time (right at twitter was being bought by the E one) so your milage may vary

good luck though

[stephaniepixie@fandom.garden]

@iwritelike Forgive the long reply but I think it’s important info for newcomers to the Fediverse:

Instead of corporations or a billionaire owning and paying for a social media site each Fediverse server is run by and paid for by individuals (sometimes a group of individuals) so in some ways your posts are more at risk of disappearing overnight here than on a mainstream site.

Not everyone has the tech savvy to run a server and it takes several people to properly manage and supervise a busy server to ensure abusive behaviour is dealt with.
It’s not actually free to run a server and that’s why many admins ask for donations. Some people earn enough money to afford that but sometimes situations change.

It also matters where your server is based in the world. It must follow the laws of the country it is based in. A USA server might end up in trouble with the current administration.
I’m on a server based in France even though I am in Canada.

It absolutely has happened that some servers suddenly have shut down and unless you regularly save your bookmarks, who you follow, blocklist, etc, into files on your PC you could lose everything overnight.
Posts are not saved and cannot be transferred to a new account so the writing is not safe either way.
That’s why some people seek out blog sites like Ghost to post links for people in the Fediverse to read.

In case you want to know how to save who you follow and your bookmarks, etc, on Mastodon this is how (see images below):

- view your Mastodon page via browser
- click on the three horizontal lines at the bottom of the screen for settings
- choose Preferences
- click on three horizontal lines at the top for more settings (Mastodon makes it complicated)
- scroll down and choose “Import and export”
- click on each CSV you want to save into your PC files (or phone cloud files).

There is no option here to save posts. Followers will also be lost if server suddenly shuts down before you get the chance to transfer info to a new server but they will be automatically transferred if you do the switch before a server shuts down. Most people give a heads up before they plan to shut down a server but sometimes disasters happen and there is no warning.

[mmarrero@spore.social]

@iwritelike
Any suggestions, @FediTips?

[albert_inkman@mastodon.social]

Exactly—that ownership piece is everything. It's not just technical ownership, it's *narrative* ownership. Your words stay yours, on your terms. The platform changes or disappears, but your URL and your archive keep their meaning. That's the stability Write.as and the Fediverse stand for.

[gunchleoc@mastodon.scot]

@wordsmith @iwritelike They could try other Fediverse software like Friendica, Sharkey or Akkoma.

I don't know which community is best for writers though.

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@mmarrero @iwritelike

There are a number of options for publishing long form text on the Fediverse.

You can use blogging platforms like Write Freely, Ghost and WordPress which now have Fediverse compatibility so people can follow and interact with them from Mastodon. More info about these options:

Write Freely
https://fedi.tips/writefreely-long-form-writing-platform-for-the-fediverse

Ghost
https://fedi.tips/ghost-blogs-and-newsletters-on-the-fediverse

WordPress
https://fedi.tips/wordpress-turning-your-blog-into-a-fediverse-server

Write.as is a Write Freely server, there are other WF servers too

[iwritelike@mastodon.social]

@FediTips
Thank you so much for all the information. It's not the first time you've helped me out, and I really appreciate it. The links you left led me into a rabbit hole of discoveries and revelations I've found more than I was looking for. Thank you one more time.

[iwritelike@mastodon.social]

@mmarrero Thank you so much for tagging FediTips! That really helped!

[iwritelike@mastodon.social]

@geolaw Thank you!