OpenStoryBoard is an emerging platform for passionate readers and creative writers.
Through open collaboration on unique fiction projects it produces prime community sourced stories, uncovers and promotes hidden writing talents.

Click to learn more.
Click to read about us.
Click to browse all stories.

Creative writers start new stories. Once the first chapters are finished they promote their work so that more people quickly can read and rate them. After every chapter everyone can chose where the story should continue, or if the story should be taken into a new direction.
Popular stories will be published first as ebook on OpenStoryBoard. Prime stories go even further and will be professionally edited and distributed into the traditional ebook stores like Amazon or the iBookstore. Read more on popular and prime stories or how your story can become the next ebook that pays you royalties.

Successful writers quickly advance after sign up from Freshman via Graduate and Master to Director. When you become a Master, the community has voted - as in popular TV talent shows - that you have the potential for a best selling writer. All Directors will find the attention of independent literary agents and the traditional publishing industry. Read more how you can become a Director.

So, if you are successful, we are. Let's work together and bring out prime community sourced stories and discover your hidden writing talent.

Membership at and the use of OpenStoryBoard is for free!

In case you wonder how we do this: Every time we can sell a story of and with one of our creative writers, we split the revenue and thereby ensure that our complete service remains free of charge.

Our standard offering is 50% of the sale price on ebooks. The other 30% go to the distribution platform such as Amazon or the iBookstore and 20% are for OpenStoryBoard. This means every time a story is sold for 10, creative writers get 5, the retailer gets 3, and we at OpenStoryBoard are happy with 2.

For stories, which are jointly initiated by a partner organisation and OpenStoryBoard, a custom offering with attractive rewards may be place. All of these stories are clearly branded at the top of on every chapter page.

In the standard and all custom cases all applicable details are specified in the remuneration policy attached to every story. Further information on remuneration policies can be found here.

OpenStoryBoard is a community-based entertainment house for people who love reading, and publishing house for creative writers with passion.

Readers can explore a world of imagination and will find fiction in a contemporary style. Online reading of published stories is free of charge. If readers become a member of the community, they are able to enjoy many reading features, can be part of the community, can explore certain unpublished stories, and more.

Writers can express their imagination in form of words and stories. They can start off at OpenStoryBoard as hobby, and - if successful - can earn royalties or develop a writing career. Success of an author depends on the vote of the community. For more information see How can I get recognized?

If you are reading or writing fiction, OpenStoryBoard is the right platform for you. It is completely free of charge and offers the chance to earn attractive royalties on the stories you write. More than that you can see it as a springboard to win the attention of the traditional creative industry.

All you need to do is to start reading and writing. Your friends and our community will reward good work with good ratings, and the more good ratings you get the higher the chances that you promote to Director or that you start earning royalties. No risk and fun.

The Community Guidelines at OpenStoryBoard define what the community expects from its members. Generally, it calls for fair and respectful collaboration. The Community Guidelines can be found at the bottom of every page.

Every user who reads or writes on OpenStoryBoard has to accept the Terms of Service of OpenStoryBoard. As at any other professional site, these describe how OpenStoryBoard operates. The Terms of Service can be found at the bottom of every page.

A Remuneration Policy defines how profits are shared amongst the creative writers who have contributed to a story. At OpenStoryBoard, every story has its own Remuneration Policy, which can be found in the chapter details section.

Most of the stories are written under the Standard Policy, which for example pays 50% percent of the sale price on ebooks as royalties back to creative writers. A Custom Policy may be discussed and offered for fiction projects initiated by established partners and continued by creative writers.

For further information contact us here.

Individual privacy is seen as a landmark at OpenStoryBoard. Although any user can act completely anonymously, we may require personal details from community members. For what purposes we collect personal details and how we respect everyone's privacy is stated in our Privacy Policy.
The Privacy Policy can be found at the bottom of every page.

Sign-in as creative writer and start writing. Your chapters and stories will be read by the online internet community and rated by the OpenStoryBoard community. With a certain number of published chapters and positive ratings from the community, you will make your way through the ranks of OpenStoryBoard: Anyone starts as Freshman; Successful writers make it up to the title of Director.

Complete your personal details and promote to Freshman. As Freshman start writing your own book or take a storyline from someone else into a new direction. Once you write on a chapter, you can invite authors to collaborate with you. As soon as you are happy with your chapter, publish it to the world.

As soon as you have proven your commitment and published a number of your own chapters or rated chapters from others, you are rewarded with a higher level of recognition which will give your stories more attraction to readers.

Once the community recognises your work with a certain amount of top ratings and you established a crowd of fans, you are rewarded with the title Master. All Masters are eligible for the title Director.

Tip: If you promote your chapters amongst friends and colleagues, you can build up attraction for other community members to read your chapters and stories.

A panel of experts selects who makes the final step to Director. If you are amongst this exclusive cycle you will meet agents who help you to expand your success from online to offline media.

Your personal rating depends on how the community rates your chapters. Start promoting your chapter immediately after you have published it and increase the chances that you get ratings. You can even promote chapters that you have published a while ago. Simply click on share at the top of the chapter page and start to let your friends know!

Start promoting your chapter immediately after you have published it. This increases the chances that many people find it quickly - and if they like your work, they will become your fans! You can even promote chapters that you have published a while ago. Simply click on share at the top of the chapter page and start to let your friends know!

Anywhere on the site, click on the name of the author. The public profile of this author opens up and offers you a button to become a fan. All the authors you are a fan of are listed on your HOME page under the section favorite authors.

OpenStoryBoard is not a social networking site and does not offer friend-connections like Facebook.

OpenStoryBoard offers many great features for reading and writing activities. In the privacy section (on the settings page) you can manage what type of activities you want to share with others via your public user profile or your Facebook account:

1. "You like a chapter"
This update will be generated as soon as you assign a top rating to a chapter.

2. "You've downloaded a story"
This update will be generated as soon as you download an e-book from OpenStoryBoard.

3. "You've published a chapter"
This update will be generated as soon as you finish writing a chapter and you publish it.

4. "You've been promoted"
This update will be generated as soon as you promote to the next higher level (i.e. from Freshman to Graduate)

5. "You've started a discussion"
This update will be generated as soon as you start a new discussion anywhere on the site.

6. "You are a fan"
This update will be generated as soon as you become a fan of any other writer on OpenStoryBoard.

Sign-in and click on "settings" in the main navigation bar. Under the tab "personal" details you can find what you are looking for.

Sign-in and click on "settings" in the main navigation bar. Thereafter you can control in the "privacy" section what other people can see on your public profile.

Sign-in and click on "settings" in the main navigation bar. Thereafter you can manage your privacy settings in the "privacy" section .

Yes. Only your screen-name is visible to other community members.

Anywhere on the site, click on the name of an author. The public profile of the respective author opens up and offers you a link to report the user.

In order to keep up the standard of OpenStoryBoard, the community values if you report members who do not comply with the community guidelines. All reported users will be monitored by OpenStoryBoard. In case it can be verified that their behaviour is against the expectations of the community, the reported member will be warned and may risk a permanent exclusion from OpenStoryBoard.

Fiction of any kind in any genre can be found on OpenStoryBoard. Great about reading stories on OpenStoryBoard is that any story can develop in multiple directions with different endings. The reader can choose where the story should continue, or OpenStoryBoard can suggest - based on individual preferences - where the reader should continue.

Fiction in any genre can be found on OpenStoryBoard: Action, Adult, Children, Comedy, Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Poetry, Realistic Fiction, Religious, Romance, Science Fiction, Sport, War, or Young Adult.

Featured stories are selected and promising writing and reading projects at OpenStoryBoard. All users can find featured stories with their covers on the top of the stories page. Registered members also have the option to browse featured stories on their personal OpenStoryBoard home page.

Select a story on the stories page and start reading the first chapter. In case a chapter has multiple pages you can flip pages with the buttons at the end of every page or use the forward and backward on your keyboard. At the end of every chapter you can rate the story and decide where you want to continue reading (if other authors have written different endings) or you can write the next chapter yourself.

In every story you have two options to assign a rating to one chapter:
1. At any time above every chapter page, or
2. At the bottom of the last chapter.

In case you change your mind later, simply update your rating.

Rate the chapters of a user! The average rating of the chapters drives the rating of the user (author).

A "top rating" is a rating with 4 or 5 stars:

Discussions can be started at chapter level (at the bottom of the chapter page).

In every story you can click on "get copy" above the chapter page. The following pop-up offers you to print chapters for free. Print your personal copy and read offline whenever and wherever you are.
Note: You can only print one chapter at a time.

You can download stories in ebook format for free when you click on the "get copy" button on every chapter page. Popular or prime stories contain community proven fiction and have to be purchased for a small price.

Try it out! Don't forget to turn the light on again.

Try it out! It will allow adjusting the OpenStoryBoard Reader to your preferred online reading habits.

Try it out! It will allow adjusting the OpenStoryBoard Reader to your preferred online reading habits.

The library function allows adding a story to the reading library called "My Reading Library". Anyone signed in can find "My Reading Library" on the HOME page of OpenStoryBoard.

This allows sharing chapters via Facebook, Twitter, and many more social media sites with your friends and colleagues.

"Choose next" allows selecting where the story should continue. It is available at the end of every chapter as long as there are one or more following chapters.

Based on your personal reading preferences "Continue" suggests where the story should continue. It can only be found at the end of a chapter when there are one or more following chapters.

Note: Personal preferences can be found and adjusted on the settings page.

An "earnote" is a personal and private note at chapter page level. You can take any notes with up to 140 characters which you can find again through a simple search.

Personal reading preferences can be changed on the "Settings" page in the "Personal Preferences" section.

Flags on chapters can be set at the end of every chapter or in the chapter details menu.
Chapters can be flagged as violent, pornographic, for prejudice, or for it's language.

In order to ensure the quality and standards of stories, it is important that every community member flags chapters.
Chapters can be flagged as violent, pornographic, for prejudice, or for it's language.

Only registered users above 16 years of age can opt-in to see flagged chapters at the settings page (personal preferences).

All registered users can read unpublished content that has been set public by the authors.

Only the users in the author list can see unpublished private content.

Online at OpenStoryBoard, anyone can read published chapters for free.

Access to individual chapters or whole stories may be restricted for one of the following reasons:

1. Content is set as privacy by the author(s).
2. Content is set as offline since a media company has acquired an exclusive license.
3. Content is set as offline since it is violating community guidelines.
4. Content is flagged as inappropriate for younger age groups.
5. Content does not exist on OpenStoryBoard.

Chapters can be flagged and reported. The report function can be found when clicking on "flag" at the end of every chapter.

It is important to report chapters for many reasons. For example it is crucial that chapters are reported in case they have inappropriate genres and flags, or other reasons such as:

Plagiarism: The chapter is stolen from other media or publications (i.e. book)
Copyright infringement: The chapter has been published on OpenStoryBoard and someone has used it elsewhere without permission
The chapter contains personal information about natural persons.
The chapter contains contact details of a legal entity.
The chapter violates the right of privacy or other rights of a third party.
The chapter is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, harmful, abusive, or otherwise objectionable.
The chapter includes code or software.
The chapter promotes for products or services.
The chapter is simply nonsense and should be removed.

In order to find content quickly, the following shortcuts can be used in the search textfield in front of the keyword(s):

Search for stories with s:
Search for chapters with c:
Search for earnotes with e: (only when signed in)
Search for discussion with d:
Search for users (members) with u:
Search for help with h:

The example below returns all stories with the keyword "Vienna":

Yes. Simply use the shortcut for "stories" in the search textfield, or search for a story via advanced criteria on the SEARCH page.

Yes. Simply use one of the two shortcuts for chapters in the search textfield, or search for a chapter via advanced criteria on the SEARCH page.

Yes. Simply use one of the two shortcuts for users in the search textfield, or search for a user via advanced criteria on the SEARCH page.

Yes. Simply use one of the two shortcuts for discussions in the search textfield, or search for a discussion via advanced criteria on the SEARCH page.

Yes. Simply use one of the two shortcuts for earnotes in the search textfield, or search for an earnote via advanced criteria on the SEARCH page.
Note: You have to be signed in to search for your private earnotes.

Yes. Simply use one of the two shortcuts for help in the search textfield, or search for help via advanced criteria on the SEARCH page.

There is no directory that lists all users in alphabetic order. However, anyone can search for individual community members (users) in the search textfield or on the SEARCH page.

Anyone can browse published but not flagged stories on the STORIES page.
Community members can also browse unpublished and flagged stories.
To get to the stories page simply click on "STORIES" on the global navigation.

Featured Stories are displayed with their covers on top of the stories page.

Fiction of any kind in any genre can be created on OpenStoryBoard. Interesting about collaborative writing projects on OpenStoryBoard is that writers who don't like how a story develops in a chapter, or the ending of a story, they can take it (at the end of every chapter) into a new direction towards a different ending. As a result one story can have multiple storylines (with different subtitles). All readers will rate all storylines and thereby identfy the most popular and succesful storyline.

Fiction in any genre can be found on OpenStoryBoard: Action, Adult, Children, Comedy, Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Poetry, Realistic Fiction, Religious, Romance, Science Fiction, Sport, War, or Young Adult.

The friends you invite and the OpenStoryBoard community will start reading your work. If they like your story, they will assign good ratings to it. A great number of views and top ratings will turn your story in an ebook that is being sold first on OpenStoryBoard.

If the story continues to attract readers, the ebook will be reviewed by a professional editing service and pushed into traditional online shops such as Amazon or the iBookstore. On every ebook that is being sold you will collect 50% from all ebook sale proceeds.

There is more. If your story continues to be popular we will attempt to translate your story into the traditional media and entertainment industry. And at all the time you will receive attractive royalties and full recognition under your screen name.

Finally, through your good work you will progress through the ranks on OpenStoryBoard. Starting as a Freshman, you can move on to Graduate, Master and Director. When you become a Master, the community has voted - as in popular TV talent shows - that you are a potential best selling writer. This will draw personal attention of industry experts to your skill of creative writing. Eventually we can expand your talent further from online to offline media.

So, if you are successful, we are. Let's work together and bring out prime community sourced stories and discover your hidden writing talent.

A popular story has an average top rating from at least 50 readers. All popular stories are offered as ebook on OpenStoryBoard. Contributing authors receive 50% on the ebook sale price as royalties. For more information please see our reward section.

A prime story has an average top rating from at least 500 readers. All prime stories are reviewed by a professional editing service and then offered as ebook on OpenStoryBoard as well as in the traditional online bookstores. Contributing authors receive 50% on the ebook sale price as royalties. For more information please see our reward section.

Yes. Community members can write offline in their preferred environment and import chapters in OpenStoryBoard.

Yes. Community members signed in as writers can start a new chapter or story and keep it private until it is ready for publication. Private chapters cannot be seen by anyone except the writers listed as authors.

Yes. Community members signed in as writers can write alone on a story, or they can invite other writers for collaboration.

Yes, you can write a story from the beginning to the end all on your own. No one can edit or even view your chapter(s) unless you want and approve this, and until you publish a chapter. Only if you want you can invite other creative writers for collaboration.

Remember: If somone continues your story and by chance turns it through the additions into a best seller, it is also you who will collect a fair share of royalties. It can pay off greatly if you allow others to add chapters to your story or if you add chapters to another already successful story.

Yes, you can write under a pseudonym (aka screen-name or pen-name).
The community will only find you under that name.

Easy, sign in and simply click on "start writing" on the STORIES page or anywhere else. You will be guided through the process.

Just click on "write next" at the end of any published chapter and take the story into a new direction.

You can edit any unpublished chapters where you are listed as author. You can find a list of all your chapters on your HOME page in the section "my writing works".
Note: Published chapters cannot be edited any longer!

As an author of a chapter go to the "details" (link above a chapter page) and select the "chapter details" tab. There you can change the genres of your chapter. You cannot change genres of chapters from other writers. If you feel that such chapters do not have the right genres, you can report the chapter.

The remuneration policy cannot be changed at this point.

For further information please contact us here.

You can promote your chapter through sharing it on facebook, diggit or other social media sites. The more you promote your chapter, the higher the chance that other people read it.

In addition, if you have a large number of fans within the community, in any case, they follow your publications through their feeds.

Once you have reviewed your chapter and you are satisfied with your work, click on "publish" in the editor menu or on the status "unpublished". Both functions will guide you through the publication process.

A teaser is a short description about a chapter. It should summarise what happens in the chapter, but does not give away too much. It should stimulate the reader's curiosity to read a chapter.

As an author of a chapter you can change the teaser until it is published. To change a teaser, go to the "chapter" details and select the "chapter details" tab.

Flags indicate that a chapter does contain content that is appropriate for adults only.
Chapters can be flagged in the following categories: violent, pornographic, prejudice, or language.

In order to flag a chapter as an author, go to the chapter "details" and select the "chapter details" tab.
There you can set or change flags of your chapter.

Every story has a title, sub-title, synopsis, and objectives.

The story title and objectives can only be changed by the authors of the first chapter. As long as the first chapter is unpublished all changes can be made in the detail section within the edit mode. After the first chapter is published no further changes can be made to the title or the objectives.

The subtitle and the synopsis can be changed by authors who end a story. To end a story click publish and let OpenStoryBoard guide you through the publication process.

A synopsis is a short description about a story. It summarises what happens in the story so that it stimulates the curiosity and desire to start reading.

Creative writers specify the synposis when they start a new story, and are asked to refine it again when they take an existing story into a new direction, or when they finish an open story. They should be aware that a good synopsis can greatly increase the early success of a story.

Story settings allow defining quantitative limits for your story. For example you can cap the maximum of words in a chapter. To view the possible settings of a story, start your own story, click on the "details" link at the chapter page, and go to the "story details" tab.

The status "unpublished" indicates that the authors have not yet finished this chapter. Once authors are finished with a chapter, they will publish the chapter.

Private chapters can only be seen by creative writers listed as authors.
Note: Only unpublished chapters can be set as private.

Public chapters can only be seen by signed-in community members.
Note: Only unpublished chapters can be set as public. Published chapters are public by default.

"Import" allows uploading a chapter that has been written offline. At the moment only files in .txt format and a maximum size of 200 kb can be uploaded. In case a chapter has been imported, it replaces any previously existing text for the related chapter.

Note: On OpenStoryBoard it is also possible to save different versions of a chapter. At any point you can "revert" to an older version. This function is only available if you are signed-in.

Authors click "publish" once they are satisfied with their work. Thereby anyone on the internet can search, find and read the chapter, and community members can rate the chapter.

After a chapter is published it cannot be edited any longer. Unless the story has specific settings, the author or any creative writer can continue the story with the next chapter.

Tip for creative writers: Make sure you have a title, a teaser, the right genres and flags for your chapter. Thereby the community can better find it and will be more attracted to reading it. In addition, if you want more people to read your chapter, make use of the promotion features and share your work with friends or colleagues!

Note: This function is only available if you are signed-in.

You can delete your chapter entirely from OpenStoryBoard. This requires a sign-in and can be done for all chapters which do not have a succeeding storyline. As shown below the delete function can be found on the top of the chapter page and in "My Writing Works" on the HOME page.

Attention: Deleted chapters cannot be recovered. If you delete the first chapter of a story, the story is also removed from OpenStoryBoard. In addition, if you delete a chapter all corresponding earnotes, discussions, reading or writing history entry will be removed as well.

You can save a new version of a chapter. At any point in time you can revert back to a prior version.
Note: This function is only available if you are signed-in.

In oder to leave the online editor of OpenStoryBoard, click on "close". You may be asked if you want to save your chapter and will be taken to the online reader of OpenStoryBoard.
Note: This function is only available if you are signed-in.

OpenStoryBoard automatically saves your work in regular intervals. If you would like to get back to your initially saved version, click on "revert".
Note: This function is only available if you are signed-in (in the editor).

Please see under "story settings".

A closed story is a story where no new chapters can be started. Stories can be closed as of a specific date. Please see "story settings" for more details on how to close a story.

An open story is a story where new chapters can be started after a published chapter. Most of the stories are open stories.

All your published and unpublished chapter can be found in "My Writing Works". You can access "My Writing Works" via your HOME page after you have signed in as writer.

Note: It can be that "My Writing Works" is not shown on your HOME page. You can bring it back it again via the "General" section on the SETTINGS page.

As a writer you have two options to collaborate with other authors. First, you can start your own story and proactively invite others to collaborate with you. Second, you can request collaboration for unpublished chapters that others have started. To invite others or to request collaboration simply click on the relevant link at the top of the chapter page.

Like all community members you can start writing your own chapter and thereby get credit for your work as author. In addition writers can request collaboration (co-authorship) of a chapter that has been started by another writer. If the other writer approves, the chapter can be developed jointly till publication.

You can request collaboration (co-authorship) for unpublished chapters by clicking on the "request collaboration" link in the header on the chapter page. The request will be sent to the current author(s) of the chapter. As soon as he/she (or they) approve(s) your request you can start collaborating with them.

Simply click on "invite author" in the header on every page of unpublished chapters. Note: If the chapter is public, other writers can also see your unpublished work and have the option to request collaboration.

The current version of OpenStoryBoard supports stories in English.

Most of the chapters or stories do not have any limitations on length. Sometimes authors have certain objectives on length. In these cases they can define story settings that limit the length of a chapter, number of chapters or other dimensions of a story.

Simply click on "start writing" and assign it a title, a synopsis and import the chapters of your book. Chapter by chapter you can publish it and promote your book (story) so that others find, read and rate it. The first couple of readers will be able to download free reading copies (ebooks), and as soon as the community has recognised it as quality content, you start earning royalties.

Featured stories can be found at the top of the STORIES page and on the HOME page of community members (in the section "featured"). Every community member who has signed up as creative writer can start a new story. In case your story is popular within the OpenStoryBoard community, it will be promoted to a featured story.

The current promotion criteria to featured-story combine qualitative and quantitative aspects such as a high number of views (in relation to all unique users) and number of top ratings. In certain cases the OpenStoryBoard team may also promote stories to featured stories based on other factors.

For further information on featured stories contact us here.

While cretive writers expose their work to the community, the community will reward good stories with positive ratings. Especially a high number of top ratings will help to publish quickly the story as ebook and help to promote the creative writer from Freshman to Graduate, Master and finally Director. Most popular stories and OpenStoryBoard Directors will emerge through the voice of the community and be in the focus point of industry experts.

So, if you are a creative writer, pursue the imagination, start writing and let the OpenStoryBoard community uncover your hidden potential.

In order to realise the full potential, OpenStoryBoard has the right to commercialise chapters or stories on behalf of the community. At all the time, contributing creative writers will be recognised under their screen name and receive their fair royalties - as defined in the remuneration policy on story level. For example, the standard remuneration policy guarantees an attractive 50% share on the sale price of ebooks. Further details on the remuneration policy can be found here.