If your question isn't here, email contactus@skein-platform.com. I read every one.
A Skein is one self-contained story world on the platform. It is closer to a "series" than to a "book". A Skein has its own characters, magic system, internal cosmology, and ongoing chapter feed. Today there are six Skeins; Pendragon Protocol just closed at 40 chapters, the others are active.
The word "Skein" is from textile work: a coiled length of thread. The metaphor is that a story is one strand and a world is several braided together.
Earlier versions called the per-Skein reference book "Codex". We retired the word because it implied a static document. The Librarian is interactive: it knows about character relationships, chapter-by-chapter knowledge state, contradictions, and theory anchors. The codex word came from D&D conventions, and the platform isn't aspiring to be a wiki.
Paul Goodwin. Solo, pre-startup, twenty years in threat intelligence pivoting into serial fiction tooling. The About page has the long version. Email lands in his inbox directly.
Tokens are an in-platform unit. The posted rate is $0.10 per token, full stop. There are three packs: 100 tokens for $10.00, 500 for $50.00, and 2000 for $180.00. The 2000-pack is the only one with a discount (10% off, $0.09/token), and that discount is printed on the pack card.
A typical chapter unlock costs 7 tokens. Ch.1 of every Skein is always free.
For now, because most subscription serial-fiction platforms run a coin trick: a chapter advertises at 7 coins, you find out three chapters in that buying coins in bulk actually costs 20-per-chapter, and you feel robbed. We refuse to build that. Pay-per-chapter at a posted rate is the honest version of the same product.
A subscription tier alongside one-shot token packs is on the v1.2+ roadmap. When it launches it will be priced so the per-chapter cost is identical to the token rate.
Yes for unspent token-pack balance within 14 days of purchase. Email contactus@skein-platform.com from the address on your account and we refund the prorated unspent portion to the original payment method within 10 business days.
No for tokens you have already spent on a chapter unlock or a tip. The chapter you unlocked is yours for the lifetime of the account. Full refund language: Terms section 5.
Your unlocked chapters stay yours forever. Future chapters do not become an obligation we can enforce on the writer, and we say so explicitly in Terms section 10. We do show abandonment risk indicators on Skein pages (months since last chapter, completion percentage if known) so you can make informed decisions before unlocking deep into a Skein.
70% to the writer, 30% to the platform on chapter unlocks. 90% to the writer, 10% to the platform on reader tips. These rates are documented on the Terms page and do not change retroactively for chapters already published under them.
Today: email contactus@skein-platform.com with a sample chapter and a Skein pitch (the world, the magic, the protagonist, the first three arcs). The platform is curating tightly while it's solo-founder-staffed.
Once writer onboarding is automated (post-LLC formation), there will be a self-serve application flow with a portfolio upload and a Stripe Connect KYC step for payouts.
Writers may use AI tools (continuity checking, prose polishing, scene drafting, the platform's own writing tools). Where AI was used for more than light continuity checking, the writer must add an "AI-assisted" tag to that chapter. The detection isn't automated yet, the disclosure is on the honor system, and we treat misrepresentation as a Terms violation that can cost an account.
Pure AI-generated chapters with no meaningful human authorship are not what the platform is for, and will be rejected.
Discord is great at one thing: synchronous chat. The kind of reading community Skein is trying to support is async, evidence-anchored, and threaded around specific chapters. Discord is the wrong shape for that.
Comments live per-chapter with threading. The theory tracker lets readers post evidence-anchored claims tied to specific chapter references. Both stay searchable and don't roll off after 100 messages.
Both have working code in production; the feature flags are off pending external setup. Apple needs an Apple Developer membership and a .p8 signing key. Magic-link needs a Resend account and DNS verification on the sender domain. Both ETA: when the platform owner is back at the keyboard with the relevant credentials in hand. Google sign-in works today.
Skein requires age 13+ to create an account and 18+ to buy token packs or earn writer royalties (the latter because of payment processing requirements). Individual Skeins may carry adult-content tags; chapters tagged for adult content are not shown to accounts that have not opted in.
Conduct rules in Terms section 7 prohibit content sexualizing minors. We enforce.
No. We do not sell, license, or share individual-level user data with advertising networks or third-party analytics services. We use the service providers listed on the Privacy page (Google for sign-in, Stripe for payments, Netlify for hosting, etc.), and their use of your data is bounded by their own privacy policies. We don't run our own ad network.
The fastest help is finishing a Skein you started and emailing me about what tripped you up: continuity errors, character voice that felt off, theory threads that went nowhere. Reader-side notes are the highest-signal feedback at this stage. contactus@skein-platform.com.
If you write a Skein readers love, that's the actual product. Submit a sample.
Privacy and Terms are pre-lawyer; they will get a real review before Stripe activation completes. If you spot a clause that's ambiguous, hostile, or contradicts itself, point it out.