Gitbook.io

In one of the best things I've seen in a long time, especially as an aspiring writer.

https://www.gitbook.io/

from https://www.gitbook.io/about (stripped of pretty formatting)

GitBook makes it easy to publish great books.

Discover gorgeous books from the community.

Publish your books easily thanks to a great workflow.

Monetize your paid books in less than 5 minutes.

Simple to update, publish and update your books easily using Git or the editor.

Responsive, books can be read on all devices, laptops, tablets, phones, kindles, etc.

Editor, use the GitBook editor to write beautiful books, on Mac, Windows or Linux.

Git, books are versionned and collaborative using the GIT scm.

Markdown, books are written using the markdown syntax.

Open Source, built on top of the open source GitBook technology.

o more thanks to powerful integrations.

E-book readers, books are readable on the Amazon Kindle, Nook and other readers.

iBooks, books are readable on iPad, iPhone and Mac using iBooks.

GitHub, write your book on GitHub and publish it in seconds through GitBook.

Monetize your books

Choose your own minimum and suggested prices, from $0 (or free) to $100.

Let everybody buy your book easily. GitBook accepts most credit & debit cards.

You keep the rights to your book, not us. So you can do a deal with a publisher at any time.

GitBook charges 20% per transaction.

I'm cautiously optimistic...  could also be a big middle finger to the traditional publishing model...

Update: So, following my own advice to do more investigation on open-source projects I find interesting.

So far, I see that Gitbook is owned by FriendCode.  Haven't done a corporate search, but a little cursory searching led me to Codebox (https://www.codebox.io/about).  They are owned by FriendCode also, so I assume at this point some correlation.

There is also a concerning bit in their TOS- the use of real names, and the ability to terminate accounts.

Violation of any of the terms below will result in the termination of your Account. While FriendCode prohibits such conduct and Content on the Service, you understand and agree that FriendCode cannot be responsible for the Content posted on the Service and you nonetheless may be exposed to such materials. You agree to use the Service at your own risk.

Account Terms

• You must be a human, bots are not allowed
• You must be 10 years or older to use this Service.
• You must provide your legal full name (as name) and a valid email address (as email)
• You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password.
• You are responsible for all Content posted and activity that occurs under your account (even when Content is posted by others who have accounts under your account).
• One person may not maintain more than one free account.
• You may not use the Service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose. You must not, in the use of the Service, violate any laws in your jurisdiction
• Your use of the Service is at your sole risk
• You must not modify, adapt or hack the Service

I wrote an e-mail, and am waiting to hear back.

Hi,

I'm a prospective user of gitbook.io, and I had a concern.  I don't want to write under my real name.  I have business concerns that I use my real name for, and don't want any contract or other issues, which is why I don't use my real name for either my hobby coding nor writing concerns.

However, it seems that things published must be connected to my legal name?  Or I'm subject to summary termination of account?

I just wanted to make sure of what was actually meant, i.e. was this absolute?  Especially in publishing where people ghost write and use pseudonyms, it seems that this is a bit short sighted.

Thanks for your time, and any response!

Update: I received a response today, which I've posted below.

Hi,

If your book is a paid book, you have to use your legal name, because otherwise we can't legally transfer you the money.

But if the book is a free or private book, feel free to use a pseudonym, we'll suspend the book only if the content is a stolen or illegal content.

You can only signup using twitter or github, so if you want to use a pseudonym, please make sure that your real name is not written on your Twitter/Github user profile.

So it seems that you can publish free content under a pseudonym, but not paid content.