FICTBASE

FICTBASE turns any WordPress site into a self-hosted serialized fiction platform — a free Wattpad alternative and Royal Road alternative that runs on infrastructure you control.

Publish your web novel or serialized story chapter by chapter. Own your readers. Keep 100% of your revenue. No platform fees, no algorithm changes, no lock-in.

Why Self-Host Your Fiction?

Platforms like Wattpad and Royal Road give you discovery, then take everything else. When you self-host with FICTBASE:

• You own your audience — collect email subscribers directly on your story pages
• You own the SEO — Google ranks your domain, not the platform’s
• You control monetization — Patreon, subscriptions, ads, or anything else
• You set the rules — no content policy changes, no sudden demonetization

Free Features

Stories and Chapters

• Create and manage stories with title, cover image, description, genre, and status
• Add chapters with a full rich-text editor
• Automatic word count and estimated read time per chapter
• Chapter reading page with scroll-based progress bar
• Previous / Next chapter navigation
• Author bio block at the end of each chapter
• Clean URLs: /story/my-story/, /story/my-story/chapter/1/

Reader Experience

• Light, Dark, and Auto (follows OS) reader themes
• Adjustable font size and reading width
• Story archive at /stories/ with genre and status filters

Developer and Site Tools

• Shortcodes: [fictbase_list], [fictbase_story id="5"], [fictbase_chapters story_id="5"]
• REST API: GET stories, GET chapters, POST view tracking
• Works with any WordPress theme — injects CSS only on fiction pages

Pro Features

Pro is an optional paid upgrade available at fictbase.com. The free plugin is fully functional without it.

• Drip scheduling — write chapters in advance and release them on an automatic schedule
• Reader bookmarks — logged-in users save their exact reading position across devices
• Analytics dashboard — total chapter views, 30-day chart, top chapters by reads
• Email notifications — subscribers receive an email the moment a new chapter publishes
• .docx import — bulk-import a Word manuscript; chapters detected automatically from headings
• Custom CSS editor — per-page scoped CSS for story listing, story landing page, and chapter reader

The Self-Hosted Web Novel Platform

FICTBASE is built specifically for serialized fiction authors who want the features of Wattpad or Royal Road without giving up ownership of their work. Whether you write fantasy, romance, LitRPG, progression fantasy, sci-fi, or any other genre — if it’s chapter-based and ongoing, FICTBASE is built for it.

External Services

This plugin makes no external HTTP requests of any kind. No data is transmitted to any third-party service. All data (stories, chapters, settings) is stored in your own WordPress database.