What's built,
what's coming.

• Reading

  Full e-reader with table of contents, four themes (light, sepia, dark, auto), four font sizes, three line-height options. Two reading modes — continuous scroll or one chapter per page. Your reading position persists across sessions.

• Highlights and notes

  Select any text to highlight it in yellow, blue, or red. Attach notes to highlights. A sidebar lists all your annotations for the current book. Highlights survive author edits via context-based re-anchoring.

• Publishing

  Publish a book in five minutes. Import a manuscript from Word (recommended) or PDF. Replace or extend an existing book's body any time. Upload a cover. Set price, genre (15 options), and content warnings. No approval queue — your book is live the moment you click Publish.

• Library & sample previews

  Save books to your library. Read free sample previews before deciding. Track your reading progress automatically.

• Reader analytics for authors

  Authors see aggregate stats on how readers move through their books: total readers, finish rate, where readers stop, time spent reading, per-chapter drop-off. Individual readers are never identified — only aggregates. Stats appear once a book has at least 5 readers, to avoid noise on small samples.

• Learn-to-write section

  A growing library of articles on indie publishing craft and business — pricing strategy, comps, trim sizes, what major publishing does that indie can't (and vice versa). Editable through the admin panel; new articles are added over time.

• Live readings (scheduling layer)

  Authors can schedule live readings with date, time, duration, related book, and a stream URL. Readers can browse upcoming readings, RSVP, and join the stream when it goes live. Recordings are archived after. The actual streaming happens on the author's preferred external platform (YouTube Live, Zoom, etc) — Spine handles the schedule, discovery, and archive.

• Release announcements

  Authors can announce upcoming books with a release date, video link, and inspiration story. Readers can opt in to be notified when the book drops.

• Ad-free reading

  No ads. No third-party trackers. No engagement-maximizing notifications. Reading takes place in clean editorial space.

• Premium membership ($4.99/month)

  Reading is always ad-free for everyone. Premium membership silences ads across the rest of the platform — homepage, discover, profile pages. Founding Member rate locks in $4.99/month for early subscribers when the regular price rises in 18–24 months. Stripe-powered, cancel anytime via the billing portal. The single 87.5% author royalty applies to all book sales regardless of reader membership status.

• Book clubs & reading signal

  Readers can create book clubs around any book, with threaded discussion. Authors who post in their own book's club automatically get an "Author" badge — a real direct connection that Goodreads/Amazon can't replicate. A separate /trending surface shows what readers are actually reading right now and finishing this month, computed from real platform data with no paid placement.

• Email verification & password reset

  Transactional email is wired through Postmark. New signups receive a verification link. Forgotten passwords can be reset via a 1-hour single-use link. The infrastructure is in place for receipts and notifications.

• Reader-list export for authors

  Authors can download the email addresses of readers who have their book in their library — split by Saved, Reading, and Finished. The reader list belongs to the author, as the manifesto says. Readers default to sharing their email but can opt out in Settings → Privacy.

• Security baseline

  CSRF protection on every form. HTML sanitization on user input (XSS defense). HttpOnly, SameSite, and Secure cookies in production. Password hashing. Rate limiting on login to defend against credential stuffing.

These features are on the roadmap and are part of the platform's vision. They are not live yet.

• Paid sales via Stripe

  Sales infrastructure (Stripe Connect, payouts, royalty splits) is the next major build. Until it ships, no money is changing hands on the platform — prices are set, but books are accessible while we work toward launch.

• Carbon removal contributions

  Our commitment to contribute 1% of every platform fee to Stripe Climate begins the moment paid sales launch. Stripe Climate funds frontier carbon removal companies — direct air capture, mineralization, ocean alkalinity, biochar. The commitment is real; the dollars start flowing when transactions do.

• Author payouts via Stripe Connect

  The foundation is built. Authors can see their Stripe connection status in the Studio. Once Spine's Stripe Connect application is approved by Stripe and the purchase flow is wired in, readers can buy books and authors receive payouts directly to their bank accounts. 87.5% royalty on every sale. 1% of every sale flows to Stripe Climate.

• Print editions — paperback & hardcover

  Authors can configure print specs (trim size, binding, list price) and readers can reserve a copy of any book in paperback or hardcover. The interest list captures who's waiting and what format they want. The fulfillment integration with a print-on-demand partner is being wired in next — once it ships, reservations become real orders, and authors earn royalties on each print sale.

• Spine-hosted streaming

  Live readings currently happen on external platforms (YouTube, Zoom, etc.) with Spine handling discovery and RSVPs. Real-time streaming inside Spine itself — with synchronized text, embedded chat, and reactions — is a Phase 2 build.

• Audiobook layer

  Authors will be able to attach audio to a book and listeners will be able to switch between text and audio with their place syncing. This is a Phase 2 feature — not started yet.

• Discovery algorithm

  The reader-signal-based discovery score (sample, save, finish, react, return, review, live engagement) is on the roadmap. Today, the discovery page sorts books chronologically. The full algorithm with published weights ships when there are enough reader signals to make it meaningful.

• Reactions, reviews, and gifting

  Reader engagement features — finishing a book and reacting, leaving reviews, gifting an author — are part of the planned platform. None are live yet.

• Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

  Spine's structural commitments — 87.5% royalty floor, no author-paid book promotion, no exclusivity, reader-list ownership — will be encoded in a binding Terms of Service. The legal text is drafted; it's being wired into the site next.