Show HN: SelfPubKit – write, publish, monetize books on your own

13 points_rzez2y ago9 comments

Hi HN, I made a tool for self-publishing authors called SelfPubKit.com. The all-in-one editor allows you to write chapters, export them to epub, pdf. You can also publish product as a standalone website with direct payments set up with your Stripe account which means you get 100% of payments minus Stripe’s fee.

The idea came about when I wanted to write a short guide myself.

Anyhow, let me know what you think. I’ll share tech details in the comment below.

9 comments

_rzezOP2y ago

[redacted] is where it’s hosted

Stack consists of: BE: Node.js, Postgres, Redis (queues and keyval), uWebSockets.js Infra: S3, Cloudflare R2, Ubuntu box VPS FE: React, Dexie.js as a database on the front end, immer for state management. Auth: basic redis+bcrypt. Editor is based on tiptap plus hocuspocus. I stream tokens from OAI using node streams. Let me know if you have any questions.

edent2y ago

Looks nice. A few pieces of feedback.

The AI voiceover is creepy and a bit naff. Either record yourself or pay someone to be enthusiastic. There's also no subtitles, which isn't very accessible.

On your self-published page, lots of the text appears scrambled? "Owh aynm tuefrsno erew adem?"

But, overall, looks like a very good GUI for people who aren't comfortable with things like PanDoc.

kukabynd2y ago

Thank you, yea I was hesitant about the voiceover too but figured it’s good enough to launch.

As for the scrambled text, that’s the contents that will be unscrambled the moment one purchases the product. I should make it clearer for sure.

Yeah, Pandoc is great and there’s lots of lower level tools but I figure simplicity has its own value, especially if it’s in the browser.

Thanks for the feedback!

KomoD2y ago

> As for the scrambled text, that’s the contents that will be unscrambled the moment one purchases the product. I should make it clearer for sure.

Can't someone unscramble it and get all the contents for free...? Since it very much seems like the real contents and not placeholders

edit: yeah someone totally can...

"Est up ilam afirowdngr" - Set up mail forwarding

"otscs $-1020 epr nhmto" - costs $10-20 per month

"Epno a S..U Bkan Uactocn" - Open a U.S. Bank Account

"Lpapy fro a Esecudr Dteicr Card" - Apply for a Secured Credit Card

"0$30 is ngheuo" - $300 is enough

1 more reply

asicsp2y ago

May be add a link to your site/tool ;)

This sounds like self-hosted version of Leanpub (but they handle fees like VAT and act as merchant-of-record among other features).

kukabynd2y ago

Haha, yea. Added a link a moment ago. Kind of like Leanpub but more minimalistic and straightforward I think.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

9 comments

_rzezOP2y ago

[redacted] is where it’s hosted

edent2y ago

Looks nice. A few pieces of feedback.

The AI voiceover is creepy and a bit naff. Either record yourself or pay someone to be enthusiastic. There's also no subtitles, which isn't very accessible.

On your self-published page, lots of the text appears scrambled? "Owh aynm tuefrsno erew adem?"

But, overall, looks like a very good GUI for people who aren't comfortable with things like PanDoc.

kukabynd2y ago

Thank you, yea I was hesitant about the voiceover too but figured it’s good enough to launch.

As for the scrambled text, that’s the contents that will be unscrambled the moment one purchases the product. I should make it clearer for sure.

Yeah, Pandoc is great and there’s lots of lower level tools but I figure simplicity has its own value, especially if it’s in the browser.

Thanks for the feedback!

KomoD2y ago

> As for the scrambled text, that’s the contents that will be unscrambled the moment one purchases the product. I should make it clearer for sure.

Can't someone unscramble it and get all the contents for free...? Since it very much seems like the real contents and not placeholders

edit: yeah someone totally can...

"Est up ilam afirowdngr" - Set up mail forwarding

"otscs $-1020 epr nhmto" - costs $10-20 per month

"Epno a S..U Bkan Uactocn" - Open a U.S. Bank Account

"Lpapy fro a Esecudr Dteicr Card" - Apply for a Secured Credit Card

"0$30 is ngheuo" - $300 is enough

1 more reply

asicsp2y ago

May be add a link to your site/tool ;)

This sounds like self-hosted version of Leanpub (but they handle fees like VAT and act as merchant-of-record among other features).

kukabynd2y ago

Haha, yea. Added a link a moment ago. Kind of like Leanpub but more minimalistic and straightforward I think.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse