Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about making your books with ContentFactory, publishing them to your ContentPortal, and choosing who can read them.
What is ContentFactory used for?
It's where you plan, write, and publish your books, and open them to your readers.
ContentFactory carries a book from first idea to finished release. You plan it, write it, give it a cover, and publish it to a ContentPortal library with your name on it. EPUB, PDF, and Word files are ready for anywhere else you sell.
Open ContentPortalWhat will I see after I sign in?
Your workspaces, your books, and where each one stands.
The dashboard is your starting point. It shows your workspaces, the books in progress, and what each one needs next. Admins also reach announcements, public pages, search settings, and legal text from here.
What is a workspace?
A home for one imprint, studio, or author program, with its people and its books.
A workspace keeps one line of work together: its people, its projects, and its reference material. Run an imprint, a studio, and an author program side by side, each in its own workspace, all in one ContentFactory.
What are avatars used for?
They keep the faces of your authors, characters, and personas in one place.
Avatars are reusable images for author profiles, characters, and the personas that appear on your ContentPortal. Add an image once and reuse it, instead of uploading the same picture for every appearance.
How do projects fit in?
A project is usually one book, with everything it needs in one place.
Each project holds a book's plan, manuscript, artwork, and release settings. Planning, drafting, covers, and getting ready to publish all happen in the same place, so nothing gets lost between tools.
What can I do in the manuscript?
Write and revise your book chapter by chapter, with AI help when you want it.
The manuscript holds your book's text and its structure. Review each chapter, arrange its scenes, read the drafts, and ask for AI help. You never lose sight of how the text fits the rest of the book.
Why use a story bible?
It keeps the facts of your book straight, from the first draft to the last revision.
A story bible holds what must stay true across your book: its people, places, rules, terms, and recurring details. It guides your planning, helps AI drafts avoid contradictions, and gives your editors one place to check.
What do genre templates do?
They let you start a new book from a proven shape, not a blank page.
A genre template captures the structure and tone a kind of book usually follows, from its beats to its pacing. Start several books from the same template, and they all begin from the same editorial standard.
What belongs in the Documents Library?
The files your whole team needs: references, guides, and policies.
Keep anything more than one project needs here, such as reference material, style guides, and policy documents. It's a shared, organized library, not a place to dump manuscript files.
What happens on the Workflows screen?
You see and run the bigger jobs behind drafting and publishing.
Some work runs in the background, like drafting a whole book or preparing it for release. Workflows shows you each of those jobs and how far along it is, across every project.
What is the Observation Deck used for?
Watch AI drafting as it happens, and spot problems early.
Observation Deck shows the drafting runs in progress and the ones that just finished. Follow a run as it goes, see where it slows down, and confirm your biggest jobs are on track. It's open to the people you give access to.
What does AI Manager control?
It lets you choose the AI providers and models behind your writing tools.
AI Manager is where your admins pick the providers and models ContentFactory uses, and the tasks each one handles. Match the AI to the kind of writing your team does.
What is a ContentPortal?
Your own reading site, where your readers find and read your books.
A ContentPortal puts your books, your pages, and your choice of who can read in front of your readers, under your own brand. Your workspaces are where you make your books. Your portal is what your readers see.
What is set on the portal Configuration screen?
How your portal behaves as a whole.
Configuration holds the settings that apply to your whole portal rather than to one title, such as how new releases appear and what the portal does by default. For your main ContentPortal, it's also where you open it to the public or keep it private.
What does the portal Branding screen manage?
It makes your portal look like yours.
Branding sets the look of your whole reading site: its name and tagline, its colors and fonts, your brand assets, and the background behind it all. Every page then feels like part of one brand, not assembled title by title.
How are portal pages and posts different from the pages on this site?
Portal pages and posts appear on your ContentPortal. Dashboard content appears on ContentFactory's own public pages.
Pages & Posts is for your ContentPortal: an about page, a news post, a note for your readers. The dashboard Content screen is for ContentFactory's own public pages, like this FAQ and the blog. Each stays where it belongs.
What is the portal Media screen for?
One place for the images and files your portal uses.
Media holds the artwork and files behind your portal's pages, posts, and titles. Find them, review them, and reuse them without uploading the same image twice.
What is portal Storage for?
It shows where your portal's files are kept and how they reach your readers.
Storage shows where your portal's files live and how they're delivered. Check it when you want to be sure every image and file is coming from the right place.
What does the portal Access screen control?
Who can find your titles, and who can open them.
Access sets who can read on your portal. Open a title to everyone, to readers who sign in, or to the subscription tiers you choose. A title can stay visible in your library while you decide who opens it.
How do subscriptions and single-title sales work?
Sell subscriptions, and sell a subscriber title on its own.
Commerce connects your books to the way you sell them. Reserve a title for the subscription tiers you choose, then give it a price if you also want to sell it on its own. Subscribers on those tiers still read it as part of their plan. Any title can also stay open to everyone, or to readers who sign in.
What are announcements for?
They reach your signed-in team with a message, right where they work.
Use announcements for release notes, maintenance windows, and reminders your team should see. They appear inside ContentFactory for people who are signed in, never on your public pages.
What is the dashboard Content screen for?
Editing the blog posts, FAQs, and pages people see before they sign in.
The Content screen runs ContentFactory's own public pages: the blog, this FAQ, and any custom pages you add. Write them here, and visitors can read them without an account.
What belongs on the SEO screen?
Everything that helps people find your public pages in search.
SEO sets the page titles, canonical links, and search engine rules for your public pages, including the FAQ, the blog, and your legal pages. Pages behind sign-in aren't part of it.
What is the Legal screen for?
Your terms and privacy policy, in your own words.
Legal builds your terms of service and privacy policy from reusable snippets and your own details, like your company name and support email. Preview the result before it goes live. Change it once, and every page that shows it is up to date.
What is on the Authentication screen?
How your team signs in to ContentFactory.
Authentication shows which sign-in provider your ContentFactory uses and how it's set up. Check it here before you change how people get in.
What does Backup & Restore cover?
A full copy of your ContentFactory, ready to restore when you need it.
Backup & Restore lets your admins make a full backup, look inside it, and restore from it. It's there for the bad day, not daily work. Make sure a recent backup exists before you ever need one.
What is the Security screen used for?
A clear record of what's happening across your ContentFactory.
Security keeps a searchable record of access and important changes. Use it to look into anything unusual and to confirm your rules are being enforced.
What kinds of jobs appear in Schedules?
Recurring jobs, like digests and exports, that run on their own.
Schedules is for work that should happen on a timetable. Set it up once, and it runs without anyone having to start it.
What does User Manager control?
Each person's role and memberships.
User Manager shows who has which role and which groups they belong to. Adjust one person's access directly when they need something their groups don't give them.
What is the difference between Group Manager and User Manager?
Group Manager gives roles to whole groups. User Manager adjusts one person.
Use Group Manager to grant roles through groups, so people get the right access as soon as they join one. It matters more as your team grows, and it works hand in hand with User Manager.
What can I connect in Integrations?
File storage, Slack, and email.
Integrations is where you connect the services ContentFactory relies on: object storage for your files, Slack for messages, and SMTP and IMAP for email. All of it lives on one screen.
Why is there a Git Repo settings area?
To keep your projects in Git, with every version saved.
If your team works with Git, connect a service like GitLab here. Your workspaces and projects are reflected in it, so your files are versioned and every project starts from the same skeleton.
What is the Agents settings area for?
It shows the agents that work on your books in the background.
Agents lists the long-running helpers ContentFactory uses, what's running now, what's waiting, and what each one has done. Check here to see how your agents are doing over time.
What is the ImageGen settings area for?
Choosing the image providers and models behind your covers and artwork.
ImageGen is where your admins connect image generation providers and pick the models that make your covers, artwork, and other images.
What does the Performance screen do?
It keeps your ContentPortal fast.
Performance sets how images and files are optimized and how long they're cached. The result is a ContentPortal that loads quickly for your readers without wasting resources.
What is the Help area for?
Guidance for your team, right inside ContentFactory.
Help keeps answers next to the screens where you need them. Your team doesn't have to leave the app to find the basics.
What is the MCP Library?
The tools and connections ContentFactory's AI can use.
The MCP Library lists the connected tools available to ContentFactory's AI. Check it to see what's there and how each tool fits into your work.
Can a book be free, need a sign-in, or be paid?
Yes. Open each title to everyone, to readers who sign in, or to the subscription tiers you choose.
A title can sit in your library for everyone to see while you decide who reads it. Open it to anyone, ask readers to sign in, or reserve it for your subscribers. You can also sell a subscriber title on its own, and it stays part of the plans you chose for it.
Who checks what I publish?
You do. Editorial review, rights, and the decision to release stay with you.
ContentFactory helps you plan, write, review, and deliver your books. Before you release one, you still check that it's original, lawful, accurate, right for your brand, and ready for your readers or your retailers.
What do my readers get in ContentPortal?
Your library, a cover page for every book, and chapters that are easy to read.
Your readers find a book in your library, open its cover page, and start reading. When they sign in, they pick up where they left off and keep their bookmarks. Every book also comes with a Companion Guide, and while it's on, your readers can send you feedback as they go.