Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Lithaus ∞

I opened Lithaus a week and a half ago, because there’s no (good) site to share your short stories. In fact, most Web sites that have to do with books or fiction or publishing are awful. This reflects my observation that the more tech-savvy the audience (video gamers, indie bands, computer geeks), the better the Web sites are that cater to them.

Notable features of Lithaus:

1. Automatic ebook generation: Just click the “Read anywhere” button to consume your fiction on the go. Download in ePub or MOBI formats, or sync to Instapaper. It’s easy.
2. Usergroups: Works like Flickr’s group functionality, you can submit your fiction to public or private usergroups. Other members can then discuss in the group’s own message board.
3. Comprehensive dashboard view: Inspired by Tumblr, when something happens on Lithaus, you’re kept in the loop. Activity in your groups, new messages, editor’s pick status updates are all worked into your Dashboard.

The story formatting is also purposefully very rigorous. You can’t change the typeface or font color. (You’re welcome.) You can’t modify the line-height or text size. You get bold, italics, and one type of header. That’s about it, which means the stories look great anywhere:

So check out Lithaus, and tell your fiction-loving friends.