Frequently Asked Questions

Thing.pub is an end-to-end encrypted platform where authors and readers can connect to share unpublished stories in a safe, AI-free community.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.

Two groups: authors who need a safe, controlled way to share in-progress or finished manuscripts with alpha, beta, and ARC readers without risking AI ingestion or piracy; and readers who want early access to stories before publication and enjoy giving honest, substantive feedback in a quiet, social-media-free environment.

No. Thing.pub is built for unpublished, in-progress work—alpha drafts, beta manuscripts, and ARC (Advance Reader Copy) stages—as well as completed manuscripts you want to share privately before release.

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.

Never. AI tools, scrapers, and bots are blocked at the infrastructure level, and there’s no readable copy to harvest in the first place.

No. DRM tries to prevent copying and treats readers like suspects. Thing.pub encrypts your work so it’s private by default, makes any leak traceable with per-reader watermarking, and lets you grant or revoke access per person—accountability and consent, not impossible lockdown.

No platform can—that’s the “analog hole,” and we’re honest about it. What Thing.pub does is detect and deter capture, and make every reader’s copy invisibly traceable, so a leak points straight back to its source.

Those store your text as readable data on their servers. Thing.pub stores only encrypted ciphertext it can’t read, decrypts on an authorized device, blocks AI and scrapers at the infrastructure level, and gives you per-reader access control and leak tracing.

Profiles, reading lists, progress, and communities are private by default, and sharing is opt-in. Reading analytics are anonymized before they reach any dashboard, and you are never the product—no ads, and no data sold or shared. You have complete ownership of your data and can request it be deleted anytime.

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.

Authors grant access per reader and can revoke it instantly or set it to expire. Pre-published books are bound to the specific devices a reader registers to their account and can be revoked by the author anytime.

No. Every member is human-verified, and AI-generated work is grounds for immediate, permanent removal, including in the professional Directory of booksellers, editors, cover artists, and narrators.

Yes, core access and every protection feature are free, always. The only paid things are optional cosmetics and pay-what-you-want support.

Only through optional cosmetic customization and pay-what-you-want support—no paywalls on protection, and never any ads or selling of your data.

Closed, early access opens in September 2026 (with internal stress-testing in July), ahead of a public launch in late 2026/early 2027.