My Favorite Website

Do you have a favorite website?

I do. And today I’m finally going to tell you about it.

I should lead with a disclaimer: I have not received any financial or other compensation for writing this review. I posted this review purely for my love of this site and this community and how it’s contributed to my personal and professional growth. The only part of this review that Alex Cabal (the owner of the site) contributed is giving me a high-quality image of the logo for use in this post.

I can’t believe I’ve never done an official review of this site on my blog, even though I’m always praising it to no end whenever I encounter a wannabe author on social media who asks “how do I get better at writing?” And Alex has recently released a new feature of the site that I’m very excited about, so I wanted to highlight that.

My Scribophile story

The time was 2015, March or thereabouts. I had just graduated from college in January, proving wrong all the doctors who had told my parents when I was a small bean that because I am autistic, I would never be able to graduate from college or get a job. I had accomplished one of those two “impossible goals” and was on my way to the other–my sights were set on the JET program, an international endeavor run by the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) to send foreign English teachers to rural parts of Japan to expose Japanese youngsters to different cultures. Little did 2015 Corinne know that in summer 2016, she would be offered a contract on JET to teach English in the best city in the entire country for a whole year, and then some. But spring 2015 Corinne was moping about because she’d just received a rejection for JET and didn’t have any sort of backup plan. Neither was she enthusiastic about the prospect of a job search because if she did get a job, then she’d either have to quit that job the next year to go on JET, disappointing her potential future boss and coworkers, or else give up on one of the most formative dreams she’d been fostering since her first day in her first ever Japanese class when her professor told everyone about the JET program, just to keep a job she’d gotten on a whim.

In between procrastinating on her job search by playing Candy Crush and Farmville, she was looking into options to take her writing to the next level. She’d been looking up things like “How to get my book published” and one website had mentioned beta readers, so when she’d then switched to Googling “How to find beta readers” and “What is a beta reader,” the Google algorithm blessed her with Scribophile.com.

My first look at Scribophile. Screenshot courtesy of the Wayback Machine.

She created an account “just to see,” since it was free anyway, and the rest was history.

The Head Honcho

Alex Cabal, owner and creator of Scribophile.com

The man behind the curtain, aka the head honcho and creator of Scribophile, is a mysterious man named Alex Cabal. That’s really all anyone knows about him, though guesses have certainly been made about his age, his other ventures, or if it’s just a pseudonym for multiple people all using one name together. Alex is the owner of Turkey Sandwich Industries, a company that is as mysterious as its owner. The offiical TSI website gives no information about its mission statement, financing, or employee information, only links to its two most lucrative websites: Scribophile and Writerfolio.

What is the reason I think this is done on purpose? Because when I try and look up Turkey Sandwich Industries public records, it tells me that TSI is a restaurant, agriculture, and farming business headquartered in Ohio (and yes, the records site links back to the same TSI that Alex Cabal owns). He “claims” that he’s a software developer, but does Alex perhaps own some chain restaurants or a restaurant supply company in Ohio and files taxes for Scribophile and Writerfolio under his restaurant company to make his taxes easier?

In an attempt to learn more about Turkey Sandwich Industries, I went to the Wayback Machine and asked it to show me screenshots archived from https://www.turkeysandwichindustries.com. The earliest screenshot it gave me was August 27, 2010. I clicked around a little bit more, and I think this screenshot from February 2014 helps illustrate my point:

As you can see, the basic layout of the webpage has remained the same: company name on top in big white letters, Scribophile and Writerfolio credited at the bottom. But what’s with the map? Each time I clicked on a different screenshot from a different date, it showed me text saying “Turkey Sandwich Industries is now located in Bad Mergentheim, Germany” or “Turkey Sandwich Industries is now located in Limal, Belgium.” As you can see from the screenshot, it’s got lines all over the map indicating the location of Turkey Sandwich Industries over time. Move over Carmen Sandiego, where in the world is Alex Cabal instead? xD

I’m not really a fan of the recent movement towards AI/ChatGPT, but out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT “Tell me about Alex Cabal” and this is what it told me.

As of my last update in January 2022, Alex Cabal is known as the founder and CEO of Scribophile.com, a popular online writing community. Scribophile provides a platform for writers to share their work, receive feedback, and connect with other writers. Cabal launched Scribophile in 2007 with the goal of creating a supportive environment for writers to improve their craft through critique and collaboration.

Cabal’s vision for Scribophile has garnered significant attention in the writing community, and the platform has grown to become one of the largest online writing communities, attracting writers from around the world.

However, I don’t have real-time information, so I can’t provide updates on Cabal’s current activities or any developments related to Scribophile beyond January 2022.

When asked about Turkey Sandwich Industries, ChatGPT didn’t know anything and didn’t recognize the name. I told ChatGPT that the Wayback Machine proves that TSI has been in business since 2010 and it just gave me a virtual shrug and asked if we could talk about something else. xD

A few basic stats about Scribophile

No one knows when Scribophile was first started or how it came about because Alex refuses to tell anyone its origin story. Really, he thinks he’s being all sneaky-sneaky, but I have discovered that Scribophile is as old as January 16, 2008–the Wayback Machine’s first archive of the site is February 14, 2008, and on the screenshot, a “Welcome to Scribophile!” blog post is dated January 16, 2008.

Very much 90s HTML vibes here xD Screenshot courtesy of the Wayback Machine.

Is Scribophile free to use?

Yes, at its core, Scribophile is completely free. With a free account, you can access all of Scribophile’s most essential functions, such as:

Post your work for other people to read and get feedback on individual chapters or short stories

Read other people’s work and leave feedback

Access the Academy articles to level up your writing

Join groups and talk to people on the Main and group forums

Send and receive private messages and bulletins

Access the brand-new Beta Reader Directory, query beta readers, and get feedback on full novels or longer pieces of work

Scribophile also offers a paid option, called colloquially “Premium membership.” When paying for Premium, you’re given two different pay options: you can pay $15 USD per month, billed monthly, or you can pay one lump payment for an entire year ($89 USD, which turns out to be about $7.42 USD per month). I think starting with one month at $15 USD is a pretty good deal, because if you’re thinking about getting Premium but don’t want to drop $90 and commit to a full year, you can buy just one month’s subscription and try it out to see if you like it. Then, once you realize you like it, you can pay the full year price.

Why pay for Premium?

The free account comes with a few limitations, such as:

Only being able to post two works at a time

Not able to use italics, bold text, or other formatting in your forum posts or posted works

Limited to ten private message threads at one time

Only able to access the Main Spotlight, with not really any options for controlling who can see or critique your work

My least favorite part: banner ads EVERYWHERE

With the Premium membership, these limitations go away, and you get unlimited posting of works, access to formatting in forums and posts, unlimited private messages, and access to the Personal Spotlight and customization of privacy options. Also those annoying banner ads on the website all go away.

Update: As I was writing this post and grabbing the screenshots and things from Scribophile, the site gave me the dreaded “Your Premium membership has expired!” message. I went and renewed it like usual, and then the confirmation page told me this:

Apparently our Premium account now can auto-renew? This wasn’t a feature last year when I paid my annual subscription lol. It’s also really nice that there’s an option to disable auto-renew if you want.

The unique karma system

Scribophile is a little different from other websites in that it runs on a system known as the karma system. When you create your account, you’re given 2 karma points as a freebie. In order to post a work for critique, you have to spend 5 karma points. This means that you must earn karma by critiquing others’ work. The amount of karma you earn from a critique varies, but on average, I earn about 1.5 karma per each critique I do, which means that in order for a brand-new person to post a piece of writing to the site, they must first read and critique two other pieces of writing in order to earn enough points. Meaning that on Scribophile, there’s no “post and run” opportunities, to just post your writing, take the feedback you get, and never use the site again. You’re forced to give back to the community in order to get anything out of it. Which leads me to

What do I like so much about Scribophile?

Scribophile has, undeniably, made my writing a thousand times better than it used to be. And I’m going to prove it! The following is a passage from my first-ever book, written circa 2011-2012. Aka, before I found Scribophile.

I do not feel the same for you as I once did. I thought at least in front of you, I could assume my
normal appearance, but I can see that it would be harder for you to forget me that way.
Therefore…” She closed her eyes, and her pale skin took on a more flushed pallor. Her thin lips
filled out a bit, her sun-colored blonde hair became a few shades darker, and when she opened
her eyes again, they were a deep emerald green, not the thoughtful blue eyes Kinaldor had
always known and loved.
“…I shall assume this guise always, even before you, my Lord, to ensure that it is easier
for you to forget Cyassay, whom you loved.” The sorceress turned and proceeded across the
room to the door.
“Cyassay, wait!” Kinaldor ran to her and touched her shoulder hesitantly. “Cyassay…”
Without looking at him, she murmured, “Princess Cyassay is dead. From this day forth, I
am merely Cyassay, healer of Irisia.”
The sorceress squirmed out of his touch and swept out of the room, leaving the King
looking lonely and forlorn.

*cue retching noises* I wish you guys could see how revolted I am reading that, because I am revolted. I hate this passage so much, and in fact, the entire book, but I keep it for posterity and to remind myself of where I came from.

Comparing this section of gross and horrible writing to the quality of writing I’m able to produce now, it is infinitely better. And I know for a fact, 100% certainty, that it is because I’ve been learning from Scribophile’s academy, and getting feedback on my writing from other Scribophile members (we lovingly call ourselves Scribbers) and critiquing other peoples’ work and improving my editorial eyes. The proof is in the proverbial pudding: Scribophile makes you a better writer.

I love the community!

If there was one aspect of Scribophile I’d have to identify as being my favorite, it is the community. While no website is perfect and I’ve certainly seen a troll or two on Scribophile, the site admins and Alex are so quick to respond to any reports or concerns that it really does feel like a safe space. There’s an unspoken understanding on Scribophile of “we’re all writers, we’re all trying to achieve our goals, there’s no point in trying to shoot someone down because when one person wins, we all win”. Alex has never revealed the exact number of Scribophile users, but it’s somewhere in the thousands. And while it seems easy to get lost among other Scribbers, you quickly find your people by joining groups or making connections with people you’ve critiqued or people who have critiqued your work. You make actual, real friends on Scribophile, ones that are tried and true for many years. And to me, that alone is worth the price tag because Alex and the moderators do such a good job of making sure everyone on Scribophile feels welcome and safe.

Would I recommend Scribophile to other writers? If so, which kind of writers?

I think no matter where you are in your writing journey, you would be able to get something out of joining Scribophile. Beginning writers would certainly be able to get lots out of the site, from reading articles in the Scribophile Academy to participating in the forums and groups to critiquing others’ work and getting feedback on their own writing. If you are a Nanowrimo finisher who has just finished a manuscript, you would get lots out of Scribophile–you could post you work to the site and get feedback on it, and be able to pursue publication if that is something you envision for yourself. Even authors who already have an agent/have published a few books would benefit from having a community of supportive writer friends to be able to vent to when that inevitable one-star review comes in. Even if you’re not a fiction writer, if you write nonfiction or news articles for your career, you can still post those for feedback on the site.

The best part is, due to the fact that someone would have to create an account in order to read any of the posted works, Scribophile doesn’t use up those valuable first publishing rights. First publishing rights basically means if you write a book or article and make it available on the Internet, even to get feedback on it, it’s “published” and agents/editors/magazines won’t want to acquire it after that. But you still retain your first publishing rights when you post your work to Scribophile, and in fact, many Scrib users have gone on to successfully self-publish or become agented writers using the work they originally workshopped on Scribophile.

What is my advice for new Scribbers?

I am a Scribophile veteran (coming up on my ninth year on the site) and if I could only give one piece of advice to a new Scribber, it would be this: Scribophile is a website where you get out of it what you put into it. If you want people to critique your work, reach out, don’t just expect feedback to fall in your lap. Join a group related to your interests (there’s basically a group for everything, including queer writers, fantasy writers, short stories, autistic/ND writers, Japan-related stories, and everything else in between) and ask people in the group to take a look at your stuff, or even better, offer to do a one-for-one swap with them for something they’ve needed to get looked at. It’s that old buzzword: networking. Network with other writers and find your people.

The new beta reader directory

Not too long ago, I logged in to Scribophile to see a new feature “Beta Reader Directory.” Before this feature was introduced, people who wanted to read/critique something could only really visit the Main Spotlight page to search for something new to read, or else browse their group forums/friends’ newest works for something to read. There wasn’t really a better way for writers wanting feedback and users wanting to read something to be able to connect.

But now with the Beta Reader directory, users who are looking to read something new can give a short description of stuff they like to read, and writers who want feedback on a full novel can search the beta reader directory by either genre or keywords. And to prove how well it works, I’m going to try it with a hypothetical novel of mine.

So let’s take one of my favorite works in progress. It’s a YA contemporary set in Japan about two young people who are brought together in the wake of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Some comp books I’ve come up with for it include Eliza and Her Monsters and I Love You So Mochi. It also appeals to fans of Whisper of the Heart. So I am going to search for Young Adult and Romance genres with a keyword of “japan”.

I got three results when I searched with these parameters. When I deleted the keyword “japan” from my search and just looked up by genre, I got dozens, if not hundreds, of results. One could potentially play around with this system for ages, narrowing down potential betas by favorite authors, keywords, comp titles, or a specific profession (eg. if they had a novel about a lawyer and wanted to look for someone who could give feedback on what it’s like to be a lawyer)

I also added myself to the Beta Reader directory to see how it works from the other side. It was very easy to tell it my favorite genres, things I didn’t want to read, and a bit more info about my favorite kinds of stories. The only thing I didn’t like about this system was that an author would send me a request and my only options were “Yes, read this book” and “No don’t read anything ever from this author.” There wasn’t an option to ask for a writing sample, or to reject the book but still allow the author to send you other books in the future if they wrote another one. Also would have been handy to be able to have a checklist of reasons; when I got queried, it was right smack in the middle of graduation season for the school I work at, so I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off and didn’t have the time or energy to devote to a full beta read. I wanted to be able to have a checklist of reasons like “Too many obligations at this time to do this beta read” because otherwise the author would just feel like it’s a personal rejection. But since this is a new feature of the site, I don’t doubt that we’ll see more finesse added to the system eventually, as Alex has shown in the past to take feedback from users when introducing a new feature.

Advice from other Scribophile veterans

I asked my fellow Scribbers “What is one piece of advice you would give to newbie who have just joined the website?” and got permission from some of the respondents to share their advice with you here.

Keep the first story you post and the critiques. It’s fun to look back years later and see where my writing was, how it’s changed, and how I feel about the critiques I got back then.

Joanna F, Scribophile user

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. We are all learning one way or another and from what I have experienced people are willing to give input.

Tamar F, Scribophile user

Go to the bottom of the page and click every link you find.

There you’ll find the Code of Conduct, Terms of Service, Help Center, FAQ, Newsletter, and so many more helpful resources that will help you get started.

Anonymous Scribophile user

In conclusion, I really haven’t found any website that does what Scribophile does (though there are other websites out there designed for writers to “get feedback” or “find beta readers” Scribophile does it best). If you want proof…

My Farewell to Neopets

In the early 2000s, little eight-year old me discovered Neopets.com for the first time. In 2008, my parents gave me a computer for my very own, and I immediately set Neopets as my homepage. Neopets remained my homepage for years after that, until three computers and seven and a half years later, when I discovered Scribophile at the very tail end of my Neopets journey. (At the time, I was already toying with the idea of giving up on Neopets because it was right after Nickelodeon acquired the rights to Neopets and they were making a bunch of changes to the site that alienated a lot of the veteran users. A lot of the features of the site that I enjoyed were being changed/deleted, and I was only one of many in the mass exodus of Neopians during that time. But I still couldn’t bring myself to completely leave the site and would occasionally log on and browse the shops or Trading Post.) In 2015 or so, I said goodbye to my Neopets, logged out of my account for the final time, and changed my Firefox homepage to http://www.scribophile.com. And I’ve never looked back.

If you are a writer or want to learn more about how Scribophile works, head on over to http://www.scribophile.com and make a free account to give it a try. And if you do, find me over there and say hi, say that you came from my blog! I love hearing from my readers.

Corinne 乙女

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Scribophile.com and its logo are (c) Alex Cabal. Logo used with permission.