There’s an app for that, thanks to Slash

There’s a new app for readers and writers, and it’s solely devoted to LGBTQ stories. It’s called Slash, and it’s a sub-platform of Stary, which bills itself as “an entertainment company of storytelling that offers aspiring writers a comfortable space to maximize their full potential by providing tools to publish and monetize their finished stories.”

Stary puts its reach at more than 100 million readers in over 130 regions and countries, with more than 300,000 books written and published on it. Stary reports that, in 2020, it paid more than $30 million to writers, with more than 100 authors exceeding $10,000 a month. Tier-1 writers, they say, can make approximately $120,000 a month — and more than 10,000 authors earn a steady income at Stary every month.

Stary offers memberships in a variety of sub-platforms in hopes of serving a large range of readers and writers, and those using the app can monetize their work once they publish more than 3,000 words on the platform.

“Once they reach this goal, they work with Stary to come up with a contract that encompasses payment and commission rates,” the app says.

Here’s more from Stary about what users can expect from the new app.

— Jenny Block

 

Dallas Voice: Where did you get the idea for Slash? Slash: There are many LBGT novel lovers on our team. Some of them are also excellent creators. As readers and creators, we have realized that there is no online platform devoted to LGBT content until now. Then the idea of Slash popped into our minds naturally. As one of the first reading platforms to provide readers with excellent LGBT content worldwide, we hope to create an exclusive reading corner for LBGT+ novel lovers.

Why did you feel it was something that people would want/need? In the past few decades, a great number of LGBT works and works that contain LGBT elements have sprung up. This kind of work has aroused a great deal of discussion and attracted a huge group of readers. This phenomenon made us realize that there are a lot of people who love this genre.

Even though nearly every online reading platform features LGBT content, it is usually tagged with a general tag. In fact, LGBT novels can be categorized into diverse, subtypes like urban and fantasy. So, our team hopes to expand the categories of LGBT stories and provide a better reading and creating experience for readers with our effort.

How did you land on the name Slash? Fans of fan fiction are very familiar with this word. The name “Slash” comes from “slash fiction,” a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the romantic relationships between same-sex fictional characters. It has been a favorite among fans for decades. And many LGBT fiction lovers were fans of fan fiction and were first engaged in LGBT content with slash fiction. So they would have a sense of closeness to slash. It is one of the reasons why we went for the name Slash.

As Professor Henry Jenkins has said before, slash gave us a chance to imagine what a new kind of same-sex relationship might look like by taking away the social barriers. It also lets us learn about and respect different types of emotional signs.

As an online reading platform, we hope Slash breaks not only the glass between Spock and Kirk but also breaks the rules that traditional male culture seeks to impose on those kinds of relationships and feelings.

Why is writing so vital to our community — both doing it and reading it? Writing is one of the most important ways for human beings to express themselves. When different alphabets and words combine together, thousands of possibilities will burst out. Therefore, writing is essential to our community because it demonstrates that our imagination knows no boundaries.

The act of reading enables us to understand our inner world and discover who we are. When we read, we can find things deep within our hearts and minds that have been ignored, positive or negative. Reading helps us accept ourselves for who we are.

What is your hope for the future of Slash? We hope to introduce LGBT content to more and more people, and more readers can be into this content through Slash.