Where untold stories
meet trusted readers.
A private home for your stories, where writers share their work with trusted readers and keep it fully under their control. No AI training. No scrapers. No one ever selling your words.
Share your work without giving it away.
Every page stays locked to the readers you invite, watermarked and revocable at any time, while you watch exactly how your story lands.
Find your next favorite before anyone else.
A curated shelf of manuscripts you can read early and follow all the way to publication, with a front-row seat to stories still in the making.
What Thing.pub stands for.
These are the principles I built on, and the commitments I intend to keep: to every author, reader, and professional who comes into this community.
Platform access is free. Full stop.
Every core feature, from manuscript protection and device locking to analytics, is free. No paywalls. Optional paid subscriptions exist strictly for aesthetic customization, and pay-what-you-want contributions are entirely at your discretion. Neither is ever required.
No AI, bots, or scrapers. Ever.
Generative AI tools, scrapers, and automated bots are blocked at the infrastructure level. Your manuscript will never be indexed, harvested, or silently used as training data for a language model.
You are never the product.
Thing.pub runs zero ads and will never sell or share your data. Reading analytics are strictly for your benefit and are completely anonymized before reaching any dashboard.
Data sharing is opt-in.
Your data (profile, reading lists, book progress, communities) are private by default. No one can find, follow, or request access to your work or information unless you explicitly choose to share it.
Your settings, your way.
Granular control over notifications, analytics, and your platform experience belongs to you from day one and can be changed at any time.
Transparency is not optional.
I build in public and communicate platform updates directly in plain language: no buried terms or policies. As a solo builder, you can always reach me directly, and I will always respond.
Real humans protecting human work.
Every member is human-verified: a real person validates every invitation before access is granted. Accountability is strictly enforced: violating community trust results in immediate, permanent removal and ban from Thing.pub.
An early look at the interface.
Toggle between the author and reader views to see how the same protected library looks from each side.
- Reading analytics, heatmaps and completion rates
- Hardware device locking and dynamic watermarking
- See exactly who has been reading
- Full access controls, without ever exposing the file
Built for every page of the journey.
Security & Access
Author protection at the vault level.
- End-to-end encryption (AES-256-GCM)
- Hardware device locking
- Dynamic watermarking
- Screenshot deterrents
- No selection, copying or printing
- Human access protection
- Timed access expirations
- Session activity logging
Analytics & Insight
Real engagement, not vanity metrics.
- Reading heatmaps
- Progress tracking
- Drop-off analysis
- Sentiment prompts & surveys
- Completion rates
- Comment & review management
- Historical snapshot timelines
Community & Connection
A vetted, human-first network.
- Complete content & search control
- On page commenting & annotations
- Reader & author profiles
- Reading lists & shelves
- Book clubs & read-alongs
- ARC team management
- Professional indie directory
A vetted directory of indie professionals.
The Directory will launch alongside the platform. If you are a professional who wants to be among the first listed, apply using the links below.
Indie Bookstores
Independent shops that stock indie titles and host author signings and launch events.
Editors & Proofreaders
Developmental, line and copy editors who guarantee human-made work, no AI.
Cover Artists & Illustrators
Designers and illustrators for covers, interiors and cast art.
Audio Narrators & Producers
Voice talent and producers to bring your book to audio.
A friendly note: an application does not guarantee a listing on Thing.pub. I will be verifying all submissions before including them in our directory to ensure everything is human-made and not supported by GenAI.
Where we are, and where we're going.
Prototype complete
Core architecture, the encryption kernel, and the protected reading layer, all built and proven.
Active development
Building out the protected reader, the analytics layer, and the professional directory.
Closed Beta
Inviting the first authors and readers from the waitlist to help shape the platform.
Public launch
Open human verification, the live directory, and the full feature set for everyone.
Built from within the community, with expertise.
Istarted writing code before Google even existed. In the decades since, I have shipped AAA video games, open source projects, and secured systems at the federal level for some of the largest companies in the world, but my love always remained in storytelling.
With degrees in Business and Computer Science, my career spans more than twenty years of active development. I have led compliance programs acrossSOC2 and GDPR, and guided organizations throughFedRAMP certification. A dozen entrepreneurs have worked with me to launch their businesses, most of which still exist today.
When I got really serious about finally putting my stories into books, the landscape for publishing had evolved so much that I felt a paralysis from anxiety; we as authors still had no real protection for our work. No tool I trusted existed, so I built one.
Take back control.
Join the waitlist: you will hear from me occasionally as things progress, including early access notifications and the public launch announcement. Let's build a new path for our community.
Common questions.
What is Thing.pub?
Thing.pub is an end-to-end encrypted platform where authors and readers can connect to share unpublished stories in a safe, AI-free community. Readers discover and request early, privileged access at various book stages, including Alpha, Beta and ARC.
Is it free?
Yes, core access and every protection feature are free, always. The only paid things are optional cosmetics and pay-what-you-want support.
How do I get in?
Join the waitlist and hop into Discord. The closed early access opens September 2026 and rolls out in limited waves. Access is invitation-only and every account is reviewed individually.
How is my manuscript protected?
Manuscripts are end-to-end encrypted (AES-256-GCM) and decrypted only on a reader's authorized device. Access is hardware-locked to devices you approve, revocable instantly, and can be set to expire. Every reader's copy carries an invisible, per-reader watermark, and the platform never stores a readable copy of any book.
Will my manuscript be used to train AI?
Never. AI tools, scrapers, and bots are blocked at the infrastructure level, and there's no readable copy to harvest in the first place.
What happens to my reading data?
On Thing.pub, your books are private. We build the system so we cannot read their contents, cannot sell them, and cannot use them to train AI models (not that we do that anyway!). On a closed platform, that choice is not up to you. It is up to the company, and it can change anytime without your consent or even telling you first.
Can I read on my Kindle?
No, and not for a reason that has anything to do with you. Kindle is a closed system, so we cannot verify what happens to your books once they leave your library, and that verification is the whole point of end-to-end encryption. You can, however, read Thing.pub books in any web browser today, and on open Android e-ink tablets such as Boox, Bigme, and Meebook e-ink devices.