Prose Update

A True Writing And Newsletter Platform

May 23, 2026

INITIATING_TRANSMISSION
AUTHOR: Profit
ORIGIN: Queensbridge
CURRENT_LOCATION: Tijuana, Baja California, MX, Earth-473B
STATUS: Operational
CLASSIFICATION: PROSE_UPDATE // A_REAL_WRITING_PLATFORM

Prose is live.

It isn’t finished. But it’s Live. Huge difference. No I won’t give you the link yet.

For the past several months I’ve been building a publishing platform from scratch. The goal was simple: fix what every major player in this space has either ignored or decided was not worth addressing. The result is a platform where the writing wins, not the account size.

The algorhythm works differently here.

On Substack, subscriber count is leverage. The more you have, the more the system surfaces you. We built the opposite. Every post on Prose gets scored based on how fresh the engagement is, not how much of it exists in total. A reaction from two hours ago outweighs one from five days ago. A small account with ten genuinely engaged readers right now can outrank an established account coasting on old momentum. Publications are tiered by subscriber count with multipliers that structurally favor smaller voices. Tiny accounts get a 2.5x boost. Established accounts get .5%. The feed is not a popularity contest. It is a real time reflection of what is alive right now.

On top of that we built a breakout detection system. When a post spikes relative to a publication’s normal baseline, the algorhythm identifies it and amplifies it regardless of who wrote it. That is how unknown writers go viral on Prose organically.

The discovery layer is built to find people, not just content.

Rising Writers is a dedicated section in the feed that surfaces publications the reader has not discovered yet, sorted by subscriber count ascending. The smallest accounts show up first. That is not a feature. That is a structural commitment.

The For You tab is chronological from subscriptions, clean and unalgorhythmic. The Explore tab is where the scoring system lives. Two tabs, two different modes, both useful.

The writing experience is real.

Full rich text editor. Cover images. Subtitles. Drafts with autosave. Scheduled publishing. Post types including Newsletter, Long Form, Thread, with more coming. The editor handles everything a writer needs without getting in the way.

The publication is yours to build.

Ghost requires code to customize anything meaningful. Beehiiv gives you a template and calls it done. We are building a full customization layer where your publication looks like your brand. Typography control. Layout modes. Color system. Custom pages. Nav structure. None of it requires a developer.

The social layer actually serves the writing.

Notes as a distinct content type separate from posts. Restacks with context. Comments with threading. Reactions that feed into the algorhythm meaningfully. The social layer is not bolted on. It was designed from the start as a parallel layer to the long form work, not a replacement for it.

The dashboard gives you real data.

Subscriber growth over time. Top posts by views. Engagement rate per post. Soon: subscriber source tracking that tells you exactly which surface converted each reader, not just a bucket labeled Referral. Engagement quality metrics that distinguish a real reader from a drive-by subscriber. Full list export at any time with no friction, no waiting, your data in CSV format whenever you want it.

The subscriber import system is coming.

Writers migrating from Substack or Beehiiv should not have to leave their audience behind. CSV import with email validation, duplicate detection, and optional welcome email on import. Bring your list. Own it here.

The lowest platform fee. Probably 3%. Undecided.

We will take a small cut of subscription revenue. Writers keep what they earn minus the small fee and standard payment processing. That is the whole deal.

What is running right now:

The feed. The discovery algorhythm. The editor. The dashboard. Settings. Analytics. The social layer. Notes. Rising Writers. Publication pages. Post pages. Archive. User profiles. Email dispatch on newsletter publish. Subscriber management. The full auth system with automatic publication creation on signup.

What is coming next:

Full settings suite across all 14 pages. Subscriber source tracking with granular data. Publication customization builder. Post type expansion including Field Log, Half Thought, Ping as distinct social objects rendered differently in the feed. Interaction quality scoring that weights engagement by who is engaging not just that they are. A cold start spotlight for brand new accounts with dedicated real estate outside the main algorhythm. Recommendation transparency showing writers exactly where their referrals are coming from and which surfaces actually convert.

The longest arc is the Novel1st integration. Novel1st is a novel writing platform with world building and character creation built in. The plan is a single login that connects both. Write your novel in Novel1st, build your world, develop your characters, then publish content around it on Prose. The platform where you write and the platform where you build your audience become the same place. Nothing in the market does that. We are building it.

Prose is not trying to be Substack with better features. It is the platform that should have existed from the start.

More soon.