How Folio works

A folio is a book (or short piece, or serial) on Folio. Each folio has its own cover, title, chapters, and pricing. You can have as many folios as you want under one account — they're independent projects, not versions of the same document.

Think of it like this: one folio = one book you'd put on a shelf.

Open the editor at onfolio.press/app.html and click the green ＋ New folio button in the sidebar (under the Save controls). That gives you a fresh, empty folio to work in.

If you have unsaved changes in the current folio, Folio will offer to save it first before creating a new one — so you can't accidentally lose work.

Folio works as a guest — you can start writing immediately without signing in. But guest work only saves to this browser. Clear your browsing data, switch devices, or come back next week and it may be gone.

To make your work permanent and sync across devices, click Sign in with Google in the top-right corner of the editor. You'll see a green ✓ chip appear with your name once you're signed in — that's how you know it worked.

No password, no signup form. Google handles the identity part; Folio just remembers you're you.

Two layers, both automatic:

• Local backup — every keystroke is snapshotted to your browser. If you close the tab, refresh, or lose power, your work is still there when you come back.
• Cloud save — when you're signed in with Google and click ☁ Save, your folio is written to the cloud and follows your account. This is what you want for anything you plan to keep.

You'll see a status indicator in the sidebar showing whether the current folio is saved (green) or has unsaved edits (amber). If you try to leave with unsaved changes, the browser will warn you.

Each chapter has a small type badge you can click to change:

• Pre — front matter that comes before the story starts. Dedication, foreword, acknowledgements, prologue, epigraphs.
• TOC — Table of Contents. Auto-generated from your chapter titles; you don't write it manually.
• Ch — a regular chapter. This is the default for anything you import.
• Post — back matter that comes after the story ends. Epilogue, about the author, acknowledgements you didn't put up front, appendices.

Type affects how the chapter is numbered, styled, and included in exports. Only Ch chapters get chapter numbers.

The Import / Options / Write panels at the top of the Manuscript tab are collapsible now — click a panel header to expand or collapse it. Leave them collapsed and the Chapter List below gets all the space.

If you have more than a handful of chapters, you can scroll the sidebar with the mouse wheel or the scrollbar on the right edge. The scrollbar was recently widened so it's easier to spot.

They're still there — the Chapter List scrolls. Look for the scrollbar on the right edge of the sidebar, or use the mouse wheel while hovering the list. If chapters really are missing, check the ☁ Save status: if a save failed silently, an older version of the folio may have loaded. Sign in with Google (if you haven't) so cloud save is available.

Releasing a folio is the moment you make it available to readers. Before release, only you can see it. After release, it has a public URL that anyone can open. Releasing also lets you optionally list the folio on the Folio Shelf — the public marketplace where readers browse and discover new books.

You can un-release a folio at any time. That takes it back to private and hides it from the Shelf.

A serial folio releases chapters one at a time on a schedule you set — weekly, biweekly, monthly, or whatever cadence you like. Great for building anticipation, growing a mailing list, and getting reader feedback while you write later chapters.

You can also release the next chapter manually at any time with the 🔓 button in the sidebar, ahead of schedule.

Yes. Editing a published chapter updates the version readers see the next time they open it. There's no separate "publish edit" step for text changes.

If you change something shelf-visible — title, description, cover, genre — the listing goes back to the moderation queue for a quick review before it re-appears on the public Shelf. Your existing readers can still open the folio during that window; only the Shelf listing is affected.

Every new listing goes through a quick moderator review before it's publicly visible. You'll see a small ⏳ Pending review chip on your own card in the meantime — that's the signal that we can see it but the public can't. Once approved, the chip disappears.

If it's been more than 24 hours, email hello@onfolio.press.

Every folio has a language — it defaults to English but you can change it in the editor's Book tab. Scroll down to the Language dropdown and pick from the list (currently 11 options including English UK/US variants, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese).

Your language pick is set at publish time — it's part of the release, not the manuscript. If you want to change it after publishing, edit the Book tab's Language, then hit Publish again to update the release.

On the shelf, every non-English folio gets a small amber chip (like FR, JA, ZH) in the card footer. English folios get a muted grey EN chip — subtle enough that it doesn't clutter the majority of cards.

Readers can filter the shelf by language using the Language dropdown next to Genre. The dropdown auto-hides on shelves where every folio is the same language, so English-only sites don't show a redundant filter.

Yes — Folio is designed to sit alongside every other channel you sell on. The only conflict is KDP Select, Amazon's exclusive-digital program that forbids selling the same book anywhere else. If you're in KDP Select, don't sell on Folio at the same time (you'd violate Amazon's terms). Standard non-Select KDP, wide distribution via Draft2Digital / PublishDrive, Kobo, Apple, Google Play — all fine.

Folio takes 0% of your book sales. Optional Press subscriptions ($2 / $6 per month) give you extra author tools; they don't take a cut of your revenue.

Reading is always free. Writing and publishing is free up to a point.

• Free — up to 3 folios, all core editing + export tools.
• Indie ($2/mo) — unlimited folios, imprint customization, priority moderation.
• Imprint ($6/mo) — everything in Indie plus product photos, AI cover assistant, expanded analytics, founding contributor perks.

Folio does not take a percentage of your book sales, tips, or subscription revenue. See the Press page for the full breakdown.

In the editor, open the release settings for any folio, and add a Tip URL — your PayPal.me link, Ko-fi, Stripe checkout, Buy Me a Coffee, whatever you already use. Once set, readers see a small "Tip the author" link at the end of each chapter that opens your payment page in a new tab.

Folio takes 0% of tips — the payment goes directly from the reader to your vendor of choice. No intermediary.

A perk we grant to early authors who help seed the platform — family, friends, and first supporters. Founding contributors get a comped Imprint subscription and a small ✨ chip on their imprint page indicating they came on board early.

Founding status is invite-only right now (from Jacob directly). If you're a serious author interested in an early-days comp, email hello@onfolio.press.

In the editor, open the Shortcuts panel in the left sidebar (it's the collapsible section near the bottom, under the sign-in area). Inside, click 💬 Leave feedback. A modal opens where you pick a star rating (1–5), your role (author / reader / editor / early tester), which feature you're commenting on, and up to 500 characters of thoughts.

Submitting a review earns you a free 24-hour Featured Boost on one of your published folios — pick which folio in the same modal. The boost is a one-time-per-folio thing (can't stack multiple reviews on the same book), but you can review Folio again for a different folio later.

Only if you opt in. The review modal has a checkbox — "I'm happy for Folio to quote this review publicly (with my display name)." Tick it if you're comfortable being quoted. Leave it unticked if you want the boost + feedback loop but not the public display.

Every opted-in review still passes through a light moderator review before appearing on onfolio.press — same "quick sanity check" queue that shelf listings go through. Once approved, your quote lands in the "Real words from real authors" section on the welcome page, tagged with your display name and role. FTC-disclosure requires us to add a small "Early access user" badge indicating you received a free boost when you submitted; that's not editable.

You can retract permission later by emailing hello@onfolio.press with the review text — we'll pull it within a day.

Not yet — the current review system is for feedback on Folio itself (the platform), not for book reviews on individual folios. Book-level reviews are on the roadmap but not built.

If you want reader feedback on your book today, a couple of workarounds work well:

• Add a Tip URL to your release and encourage readers to include a note when they tip — Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee both surface those comments in your dashboard.
• Include a "reply to this email" line in your author message on Ko-fi (the post-purchase message shown after checkout) so readers can just email you thoughts.
• Use the subscribers feature — set the release to notify subscribers when new chapters drop, and readers who subscribe can reply to those emails.