It’s finally here, Prosers,

Before we begin telling you all about our launch, we cannot ignore the events that have just unfolded. This presidential election has had passions running high; with lots of debate, healthy discussion, and unfortunately, some not so healthy discussion. Whether you agree or disagree with the outcome, we hope that everyone can continue to agree on one thing, Prose is the shit. Balls to politics right now because we are about to remove the politics and red tape from the publishing industry.

Yep, that’s right, the full bookstore is now live. Partners, you can begin to sell your books, and readers, you’re in for a treat with a plethora of word porn for you to drool over.

We have been working so hard for the past year, from concept to release, to bring you all something unique and refreshing, something that gives readers and writers alike the freedom and flexibility that a lot of you have told us conventional social media and publishing platforms do not.

Prose Coins:

With this update comes Prose coins. Prose coins are our exclusive currency enabling you to buy books. Each coin is equal to one cent. (1c)

To purchase coins, all you need to do is visit theprose.com/bookstore/coins and choose the coin package you wish to purchase. Follow the onscreen prompts to complete the purchase and those coins will deposit into your wallet. The more coins you buy, the better the reward. Most of our coin packages will offer you free coins for your purchase; because we’re nice like that. Let’s take a look at the coin packages we have to offer:

$5 = 500 coins

$10 = 1,020 coins

$20 = 2,080 coins

$35 = 3,710 coins

$50 = 5,400 coins

$100 = 11,000 coins

From that point onward, you can spend the coins on the website on any juicy title that takes your fancy.

Running out of room on your physical bookshelf? Your Prose one will hold infinite books.

**Within the upcoming weeks you will be able to buy coins on the web and then spend them on the iOS app. Currently, you will have to buy and spend the coins on the website, but once you have, you’ll be able to read the books on your iPhone. For Android users, we will be updating the app in the future, once we have all of the features built for iOS and the Website, however, you can always access Prose through mobile browsers in the interim.

Royalties:

In previous updates we spoke about our royalty structure. We’ve had to tweak this slightly to make sure that Prose can continue to bring you a platform that is always evolving, with you, our Prosers, in mind.

Up until today, we have relied solely on generous people with deep pockets to help us build up our business. Today marks our evolution as a company, the day where we pave our path to go it alone. We’ve crunched our numbers, worked on our humble budgets and costings, and have come up with a royalty structure that will forever be in your favour as writers, and they are as follows:

Full Books:

If you’re selling your book as a whole you’ll be pleased to know that we are still offering competitive royalties. Let’s first take a look at what our competitors are offering on eBook sales.

Amazon:

For books priced below $2.98 and above $10.00 the author gets just 35% royalties

For books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 the author gets 70%

Kobo:

Their royalty structure once again depends on pricing points sliding between 70% and just 45% for authors.

iBooks:

Seems like the best deal to us nerds here at Prose, whereby Apple offer 70% royalties across the board.

So, how are we better?

Prosers who publish their book will receive 75% royalties on all book sales regardless of what you choose to price them at, leaving Prose with 25%. Flexibility to choose is something we want to give you in spades and we will not penalise you for pricing your books too high or low. It really is up to you.

Per Chapter / Short Stories:

Not only can you sell your books as a whole, but you can now sell short stories, or sell your books per chapter.

There is one other company doing this and we have made sure our royalty structure for this part is far more competitive, and again, in the favour of the Proser.

Radish Fiction:

Radish sell their coins (currency) through their apps iOS and Android, thus incurring a 30% charge from the respective App Stores. Therefore their royalties work like so:

Apple / Android 30%

Radish 35%

Author 35%

We have avoided sharing your money with any app store, simply speaking. Coins are only purchasable on the Prose website, but your coins can be spent in-app. This allows us to give you a way more competitive royalty.

Author: 60%

Prose: 40%

Once again, we believe that you, the author, should always receive more money for your words than we do.

We’d also like to make this clear: after crunching numbers, these are the royalties we believe we need to take to cover our costs, not to become mega billionaires. If after the first quarter or two our figures turn out to be over cautious, you will benefit by a raise in your royalties and we will reduce ours. That’s a Prose Promise right there, even though it sounds cheesy.

Making Money

So, how do you make money from your words? Well, in short, once you’ve checked you meet our Partner criteria, you need to apply to be a Partner. It’s that simple. Whilst logged in, visit theprose.com/p/partners, read our Partner requirements and follow the steps to apply. We personally read and respond to all Partner requests so give us up to fourteen working days before chasing us up if you haven’t heard anything. Once you are accepted, you’re all set up.

Our terms and conditions have changed to reflect this change to our service, so be sure to give them a read if you’re a Partner and are about to sell your stories or chapters.

We have lots of promotions and giveaways coming up, along with a whole host of new ways in which we can help you reach a wide and vast audience.

All FAQ’s / Instructions / Partner requirements will be winging their way into the Community Portal within a hot minute so if you don’t subscribe to that Portal, we suggest you hit that subscribe button now.

So what’s next for Prose?

Well, this is the first brand-new chapter of a whole new book; many more will follow, where we’ll add finesse to the bookstore, and give you another new way in which to make money from your meanderings. We will keep bringing innovative technology to your screens with you, our Prosers in the forefront of every decision we make.

Until next time, Prosers,

Prose.

PS: We have a Thunderclap campaign that needs your support. All you need to do is visit the link https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/49541-set-the-book-industry-alight?locale=en and click the support button.It costs nothing but a few seconds of your time. This will enable us to reach a huge amount of people, which in turn means more readers for your books.

 I just 

  stripped 

   buttass naked 

    in digital public 

     and 

      damn does it feel good, 

       but this flash nonfiction 

        shall soon 

         be surpassed 

          by placing this mask 

           back 

            on my literary face 

             to face 

              - nay, embrace - 

               the reality that 

                anonymity allows 

                 the 

                  greatest masterpiece; so 

                   peace

 writenow 

summer 

   means to me 

    jupitersmajesty radiating righteous beauty 

     and simply stringing the heartchords 

      of my being while I'm trying 

       to be optimizing so that I 

             can 

                      enjoy 

       summer 

                                  Always.

There's no destiny. 

There's no coincidence.

But as  your lips press against mine. 

After I've given up . 

Your hard body against my soft curves.

Fingers trailing my skin 

And an undeniable heat between us. 

I smile. 

Your swollen lipsOn my skin. 

My red lipstick 

On your skin.

It wasn't destiny. 

It wasn't a coincidene 

And I'd never raise my hands to pray.

But how beautiful 

is it to have faith.

How beautiful 

is it to believe.

Someone, somewhere Knew we're meant to meet. 

It does not consist of riches

No fairies or magic

No candy and soda and gumdrops

No,

My paradise is much more than that

In my paradise there are

Happy faces

And kind hearts

Soft hands

And warm embraces

No one leaves each other

No one hurts

The families are all whole

No orphans are found here

The streets are clean

The air is pure

The water is crystal clear

The houses aren't falling apart

There are no broken bones

No broken hearts

No out of control fires

There is no murder

No rape

No hitting

No fighting

No yelling

Because paradise is an escape

And these are what I need an escape from

I mean,

Don't we all

Little white note, on the table

Express my thoughts clear and vivid

Reverenced by writers stable

Little white note on the table

Preserve my words like a marble

Fresh, as onion bulbs in liquid

Little white note on the table

Express my thoughts clear and vivid

She smiled

I was paralyzed

Spake

Hypnotized

My

Heart

Melted blue

Confused

Like a fool.

Each

Word

Were

So

Radioactive

Exposed

Cancerous

Love

Tissues

Became

Active

Each

Sigh

Shockwaves

With motive

Carried away

Hurricane sandy

My

Blood

Blazed

With fumes

So drunk

Muse

On

The

Loose

There

Is

No

Reason

Why

I

Shouldn't

Explode

Immediately

She hung up

Big Bang

Was

Not close

I

Am

Definitely

Insane

Meth or weed

Frozen brain

Pick a pen, with a little jotter

Read and learn, the worlds disorder

Off, to think, create, maneuver

Spread your ink, debate, whatever!

Edit and publish, relate, discover.

The morning after Easter, I was in the middle of editing a book for press, working on the second proof, when my screen went black.  I fidgeted with all the buttons, turned it off and on, then with a deadline looming, I got dressed got in the car and drove to the nearest Best Buy and asked to buy a replacement computer that would smoothly transition my work to quickly finish and get back to the printer and my husband said it I was going there to buy him a GPS for his car. 

So this twit in uniform comes up to patronize me. I am informed my computer is inadequate for my needs and this perky teen proceed to try to upsell me. I know what I want, just a replacement tower at the time and the GPS. She calls me ma'me and again reminds me of those things she knows that I don't about what I want. I pull the box off the undershelf.  It is heavy.  Then go over and pull a Garmin into my cart.

I have a 40-mile drive home to brew about wasted time, being a ma'me and my deadline to re-edit the proof and get it back without losing our press date. Pulling into the garage, I was stressed. I put the computer box on the kitchen counter and unpacked the tower and began carrying it down to my office.

Now, I have a condition, which at the time was considered rare called Primary Orthostatic Tremor. It's not exactly a tremor but it triggered by adrenaline and makes it so I can walk, sit, but not stand unsupported for more than a minute in most circumstances. That time shortens with heat, anxiety, stuff like that. When working, I'm usually in charge so stage events to have plenty of stools and after 20 years of both haveing this condition and doing trade shows and sales meetings, I'd learned to move so the condition mostly didn't show. 

But as I was carrying this new computer down my hardwood steps, I realized how heavy it was getting and how I could not hold onto the railing.  So I leaned on the wall and stopped.  If you have POT, never stop.  Once I stopped the muscles in my thighs began a full on tremor in unison. I felt them bucking.  I knew the only way to break the tremor was to move.  So I did, missing the step, turning my body to save the new computer and then I heard a snap.

The computer landed safely. I felt sharp agony that made me scream. The contents of my bowels poured into my jeans. I prayed working up the nerve to slide my hand down my left leg. The bone was sticking out two inches.  I knew this was not going to fix itself, but still I tried to stand and felt my leg fold from under me. 

A phone was near but I was alone in a rural area where my screams for help could not be heard.  I knew my husband's work number, I dialed it wrong, 20-30 times in a row.  Finally, I got it and asked the secretary to find him 45 minutes away. I tried to clean up the mess, amazed something so visibly wrong seemed to have stopped hurting.  I drug myself around for a while.  Then felt this incredible peace come over me.  How odd. When my husband arrived, I was laying there with calm.

He could not pick me up so somehow I drug myself up the steps across the house, into the garage and up into the car. He drove me back those 45 minutes to a hospital where

an x-ray reveal two breaks in my leg and ankle and I was pulled into surgery immediately where they inserted two plates and 13 screws in my leg. That night between vomiting and oxycontin, I recall twinges in my leg.  A nurse would come in and ask me how the were from one to ten.  An eight, I'd reply, vomiting some more and then drifting off into a painless substitute for sleep. Once I told the nurse I had no pain when it happened.  She said my body went into shock.  How nice, I thought that when real pain comes, the body handles it.  All the rest too insignificant.

I had 8 weeks to think about it in a cast and wheelchair. Years before, I had been diagnosed and hospitalized with manic-depression. So many years with depression not well-treated, years of grief and tears and wishing myself dead. And years of medications and therapy that worked but still leaving a trail of torment, torture and tears.  It hurt so bad and took so long to heal even after the healing began. My mind a time capsule of misery and dissolution.  How strange this same mind so quickly shut off the anguish and injury in my leg, so very real and maintain my function and calm in the face of an actual bone protruding two inches from my lower calf.  I don't know what it means but do know that your brain has the power to alter reality to protect you if you let it.