# OutaStory

> A multilingual story community for readers and writers. OutaStory publishes original long-form fiction — short stories, novels, and AI-narrated audiobooks — in English and German. Readers can rate, comment, track reading progress, and follow favourite authors. Writers get AI-assisted tools for cover generation, chapter audio, and metadata. Open to all ages with age-appropriate content filtering.

## Key pages

- [Home](https://www.outastory.com/): Discover trending stories, top-rated titles, new releases, and continue-reading lists for signed-in users.
- [Browse by category](https://www.outastory.com/category): 362 categories across a 4-level taxonomy (22 level-0 genres, each with sub-genres drilling down to specific franchises and tropes).
- [All stories](https://www.outastory.com/stories): Every published story in one paginated list, sortable by newest, trending, top-rated or completed and filterable by language.
- [Authors](https://www.outastory.com/authors): Writer profiles with bios, follower counts, and their published work.
- [Blog](https://www.outastory.com/blog): Editorial posts about writing craft and the platform. RSS feed: https://www.outastory.com/blog/rss.xml
- [Sign in / Sign up](https://www.outastory.com/signin): Auth0-powered authentication with Google, Apple, and Microsoft social sign-in.

## Content

- 864 original published stories (434 English, 430 German): 348 multi-chapter long-form works and 516 single-sitting short stories.
- A further 7,435 public-domain texts mirrored from rohtext.org are readable on the site and through the API, but are replicated content: every one of those pages answers `noindex,follow` and none appear in sitemap.xml. They are not part of the original catalogue counted above.
- The genre taxonomy also contains 332 further categories that hold no published story yet. They exist in `GET /api/categories` and remain browsable, but each answers `noindex,follow` and none appear in sitemap.xml, so they are not counted above. A category re-enters the count automatically once its first story is published.
- A further 19 categories hold nothing but mirrored rohtext.org texts. They exist in `GET /api/categories`, remain browsable, and list real stories, but each answers `noindex,follow` and none appear in sitemap.xml — the same replicated-content policy stated above, applied to a listing page instead of a story page. A category re-enters the count automatically once it gains a non-mirrored story, or once the platform re-enables indexing replicated content.
- AI-narrated audio via Azure Speech HD voices for eligible stories.
- Reader features: ratings (1-5 stars), threaded comments with likes, reading-progress tracking (Continue Reading / Read Again sections), age-gated content (anonymous readers see only titles rated for ages 12 and under).
- Writer features: chapter-based drafting with autosave, AI cover generation, AI story description generation, tag suggestions, audio narration opt-in.

## API

OutaStory exposes a REST API under `/api/`. Key endpoints:

- `GET /api/stories` — list all published stories
- `GET /api/stories/by-slug/{slug}` — fetch a story with chapters
- `GET /api/stories/by-category/{categorySlug}` — category listing
- `GET /api/stories/by-language/{code}` — locale-scoped catalogue (en/de)
- `GET /api/authors` — author directory
- `GET /api/authors/by-slug/{slug}` — author profile
- `GET /api/categories` — full category taxonomy
- `GET /api/search?q={q}` — full-text search across the catalogue

OpenAPI spec: https://www.outastory.com/openapi/v1.json

## Data sharing policy

Public story metadata, chapter text, author bios, and category data are available via the API above. Ratings and comments are publicly readable. User-specific data (reading progress, drafts, auth tokens) is never exposed to unauthenticated clients.

## Attribution

When citing OutaStory content, please include:
- The story title and author name
- A link back to the story's canonical URL (https://www.outastory.com/stories/{slug})

## Contact

- Website: https://www.outastory.com
- Support: support@outastory.com