Tutorials & Resources Host Your Novel for Free with ProgNovel

ProgNovel update v0.7.6

Changelog:
- fix: endless loop on reload / redirect on certain pages

 

ProgNovel update v0.7.7

Changelog:
- upgrade SvelteKit and Vite version
- BREAKING: now requires Nodejs v16 and up (correct version for cloud build should be automatically chosen by Jamstack platforms - if not, refer to your hosting documentation how to choose Node version). If you build ProgNovel on your local computer and still on old version of Node, consider upgrading or use NVM to switch between Node versions to continue using ProgNovel.
- ui(read page): rework novel stats UI on reading page (now with percentage bars instead of ugly texts)
- ux(read page): add more information for revenue sharing on novel stats
- ui(novel page): fix "undefined" revenue share contributors profile if their about me is empty
- ui(read page): fix stuck floating menu bar container when it supposed to be hidden
- ui(read page): center floating chapter navigation on tablet
- ui(read page): fix "undefined" label on floating chapter navigation when loading chapter
- ui: novel cover header now loads image with better resolution on top of low res placeholder

 

ProgNovel update v0.7.8

Changelog:
- ui(read page): show skeleton shell animation for novel stats when loading
- ui(read page): prevent much of unintended layout shift for novel stats section
- ux/fix: add mouseover threshold to search result window, preventing to lose search bar focus if mouse accidentally touch some search results when they appear

 

Dang dude, you're still working on this. Props

How's the progress been with usage?

 

Yup. The project is still ongoing though it has been slowing down for a while since I have another project at the moment.

To be honest the adoption has been discouraging till now. This mainly because the similar thread as this one on Reddit has been deleted in just 5 hours by mods so I have very limited reach to let people know about my project. There are some who contacted me before saying they were interested in using my project but mostly the platform they wanted to build were novel platforms like Scribblehub/Wattpad where users posted their own contents, while this project meant for independent authors/translators who wanted to self-host their works. Besides that, there are no actual adopters who I have in contact directly, which meant that I basically have little feedback from actual users of the project.

Stats wise, I see from @prognovel/cli - npm (npmjs.com) that it has about 100~ weekly downloads or so, but from that number alone is very hard to discern the actual usage by authors/translators who are using my project for their works.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by. If there's nothing big happening this project I should be able to support this project for a few more years. Suggesting this project if you know someone looking to publish their novels is a big help for me. I'm in lack of testers for this project.

 

I watched your project progress from time to time (as a silent reader), your project was really great one & has big potential when it grows. I really like how you implement the monetization part and visualize them which I believed none of any novel site has it. This is my thought about the project after this whole time,

Based on what you told earlier, I think the demography target is the issue why the adoption rate is still low, it was intended for an independent author/translator and small groups, but most of them are not into self-hosted and without any tech background they don't know how to install this project into their own hosting, then those who self-hosted prefer to use WordPress due to its flexibility in term of customization which in my opinion none can beat them with its already enormous plugin ecosystem since they (people) can't write codes to able to customize the site. Lack of documentation also plays a big part, not everyone is willing to sacrifice their time to figure out themselves with google and I don't think it will be able to provide a solution to them without a tech background to find correct keywords to the issues they get into.

This whole time I thought your project was intended toward a platform rather than what you targeted with its current capability have. It's suitable for those who have staff with programming experience on their side.

 

Thanks for the kind word. Really glad that you like them!

As for lack of adoption rate and documentation - you are right, I'm also been aware of them for a while. But this kind of thing is kinda hard to get it right especially when the other option is a giant like Wordpress. Many Jamstack projects of similar nature such as this also only appeal to tech-savvy users as they mainly provide only markup based content management system as opposed of full-blown dashboard UI like Wordpress has, which actually common in their early phase of the project. Catching up to Wordpress would require a lot of time and contributions that currently ProgNovel is still lacking. This kinda needs a feedback loop where the project will get more users from documentation and ease of adoption that will become better the more users have tried it. But like you said, the first step is the hard part since it kinda look scary for non-tech savvy users making me lack the first feedback from an adopter.

 

ProgNovel update v0.7.9
Github link: https://github.com/prognoveljs/prognovel-app
More information on the release at: https://github.com/prognoveljs/prognovel-app/releases/tag/v0.7.9

This patch brings fixes to search bar on mobile and allow readers to continue reading last read chapter directly from novel page.

Changelogs:

UI/UX IMPROVEMENTS:
- (novel page) rework read now button, change label to "Begin reading", add "fetch info..." label when loading, new subtle animations and show destination chapter title
- (novel page) Allow to continue reading from novel page, based on reader's last chapter read
- (read page) adjust color and add icons for section headers in read page option tab
- (searchbar) now has close button both on desktop and mobile versions
- (searchbar) on mobile, scrolling/swipping down the search result will lose the focus on searchbar, disabling the mobile keyboard and thus giving the search result larger view of the screen
- (search result) on mobile, tapping search result will focus on the novel and reveal its full title, while tap the second time will make direct the page to the novel's page like it originally behaves

BUG FIXES:
- (fix - searchbar) search result not being able to scroll on mobile
- (fix - searchbar) active search unintendedly closing when clicking search result container
- (fix - search result) randomly blur images and texts on scrolling
- (fix - read page) fix missing (404 error) for chapter lock SVG

 

ProgNovel update v0.8.0
Github link: https://github.com/prognoveljs/prognovel-app

This version adds "Infinite Reading" option that will load chapters automatically on page scroll instead of clicking next chapter button. One chapter per page with next button is now "Classic Mode" and can be switched to "Infinite Reading" in read page's setting Layout and Themes section. Note that this is still too early to say that Infinite Reading mode is bug free so if you encounter any bugs, please raise an issue at https://github.com/prognoveljs/prognovel-app/issues.

Another notable feature in this version also allows authors to hide chapters' titles in a blurred spoiler, which is only available if used with recent versions of ProgNovel CLI and backend.

FEATURES ADDED:
- Infinite reading option is now available
- Now chapter titles can be blurred in a spoiler, which can be revealed on mouse hover or click, as well on tap in case for mobile devices
- To hide chapter title in spoiler, authors can set `spoiler: true` in chapter markdown's frontmatter (the same place to set the chapter's title)
- Chapter spoiler feature requires at least ProgNovel CLI v0.8.7 and ProgNovel Backend v0.6.5 to work.

UI/UX IMPROVEMENTS:
- (novel page) add background patters on the bottom of novel page
- (home page) add background patters on the bottom of novel promo
- (read page) rework botton chapter navigation to uses new navigation UI from novel page
- Fix settings modal images 404 not found

️ INTERNAL:
- Upgrade SvelteKit and Vite to latest versions. This might bring hidden bugs from SvelteKit's recent breaking changes.
- Refactor chapter navigation to its own component and rework its dependency store accordingly

 

awesome avatar.

I tried to use this thing, whatever it is, your team created, but sadly I couldn't figure the shit out...I got confused on the ProgNovel Workers backend part lol. Granted, I have 0 experience with web development and just programming in general...

 

If Workers backend is too difficult for you it can be skipped by using static backend API instead the dynamic one.
Have you already created a project folder with ProgNovel CLI in your computer? Static API backend still requires some web dev experience (mainly Git) but should be manageable once it git repo is set up.

Tell me where your progress is so I can guide you get your ProgNovel site live.

 

Here's what I did...
1. Go to https://github.com/prognoveljs/prognovel-app
2. Went here https://github.com/prognoveljs/prognovel-cli
3. Did npm install @ProgNovel/cli -g
4. Empty folder run prognovel new, huh? Which empty folder...okay let's skip that step...
5. Wait, I need to do ProgNovel Worker backend.
6. Clicked on the Deploy with Workers at https://github.com/prognoveljs/prognovel-workers
7. I added, then deleted the worker. Now when I click on Deploy with Workers my browser is just a white screen.
8. Quits.

It's fine. I don't think I'm the intended user for this.

 

Alright then If you think so.

For anyone else who wants support for getting ProgNovel app live can shoot me an email at [email protected]

 

Hi folks.

Next update of ProgNovel will take quite some time as I'm preparing to integrate a new experimental backend using Pocketbase
Unlike the previous backend, Pocketbase embeds a database by default so user login (via email and social login like Google, Facebook, Discord) or perhaps a currency system (like daily coin) could be added to ProgNovel. Pocketbase does use Golang as its primary language so I expect the project to enter semi-hiatus status as I need to learn this whole language from scratch.

Ciao.

 

Is there a particular reason you're using Pocketbase? I'm using Strapi, a headless CMS for my backend. It's more mature than Pocketbase and everything you mentioned could be done in Strapi.

 

Pocketbase is not a CMS. It's just a lite alternative version of Firebase and Supabase.

 

Uh-huh. I guess I'm still confused where the content are stored. Is it those novels/{your-novel-folder}/contents/{current-volume-or-book}/chapter-1.md in frontend? What happens when there are 10,000 chapters or more?

I don't understand anything though, so sorry about that.

 

The contents are prebuilt statically then stored in CDN or other edge storage if using Cloudflare service. I haven't really stress test with 10k chapters but if problems occur during pre-building content it shouldn't affect the frontend in production since the two have different build pipeline.

 

I see. Back when I was looking at some of the alternatives like Next, Hugo, Gatsby, Jekyll, Nuxt, Hexo, etc...My worry at the time was that build time would be rather long if there were thousands of chapters. Ultimately I chose Next + Strapi because it seemed easier than having to create all those .md files or worry about moving them around and etc...

But tbh, I kind of miss Wordpress because of the plugins...Maybe they're not needed, but I feel naked if I don't have them xD.

On the subject of your project, the reading experience is quite nice on mobile. I mean, it has everything a reader would want. A Next&Previous, Fonts, ToC, and comments. But again, it's really hard to get it set up for the average person, which is going to be a lot of people. And, I think, for many, they're only going to have maybe 1 or 2 novels. Your current project seems bigger in scope than needs be, in my opinion. Pretty much what your average translator is going to want is what you currently have for the reading experience + a synopsis for their novel.

 

Popular jamstack made from Javascript like Gatsby, Nuxt, Next usually uses slower markdown parser so they indeed not quite good handling thousands of chapters. Faster markdown parser for Javascript apps have been developed for quite sometime that uses WebAssembly compiled from another language (for example, I use markdown parser compiled from C language), but they are not quite matured yet for those Jamstack framework to rewrite their build engine with them. Among those jamstack framework Hugo is one of them that works quite well handling thousands of posts since it was written in Golang.

The reason deployment is still hard for now I don't have enough resources and people to contribute to make it simpler (just compare to those venture capitalists who poured millions of dollars to invest in headless CMS). Plus, the previous backend was vendor-locked to Cloudflare which its platform has its own problem. One of reason I'm considering Pocketbase as alternative is so that I can make the deployment simpler by using Docker which pretty much supported by most of hosting platforms, so people can just use solutions that are familiar with them, though the cost-effectiveness and performance might suffer compared the previous backend.

The project was at this scale because it originally started as alternative to compete with webnovel platforms that backed by big tech like Webnovel and Wattpad, but for smaller publishers. It originally wasn't meant to be a direct competitor for Wordpress + Madara theme so it make senses for ProgNovel to be this scope or perhaps even grow bigger in the future. If translators want a platform with smaller scope for their website other Jamstack like Hugo or Astro might a better choice to get started.