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Archive release roadmap

1,500+ written. Not all live yet. Here is the honest map.

The archive is being made public in layers: tracked manuscripts, catalogued records, readable online books, covers, formatting, downloads, and data exports. This page explains the staged release instead of hiding it.

Current public state

The archive has layers, not a single finished shelf.

This distinction improves trust: readers see what is available now, researchers see what is catalogued, and the remaining archive becomes a visible preparation pipeline.

Source layer
1,500+

Tracked archive

Known book manuscripts/work records in the private archive.

Public metadata
1,221

Catalogued

Structured public records with title, genre, year, word count, ISBN where available, and metadata.

Reader layer
94

Readable now

Books currently available to read online on the website.

Preparation queue
1,127

Catalogued only

Public records that exist in the catalog but are not yet full-text reading editions online.

Backlog
316

Tracked, not yet catalogued

Archive books still outside the public catalog layer or requiring normalization before publication.

Release pipeline

How a book moves from archive to reader.

The right UX is not to dump 1,500 files online. The right UX is to make each release readable, discoverable, citable, and visually coherent.

1

Locate and confirm

Verify title, manuscript/source file, basic identity, and archive ID.

2

Normalize metadata

Add genre, year, word count, ISBN if available, publisher context, and citation fields.

3

Prepare cover

Use premium cover for priority books, generated cover for readable books, or archive-card cover for catalog-only records.

4

Format and chapter

Convert text into clean web reading editions, downloads, and chapter navigation where possible.

5

Quality pass

Check content warnings, metadata consistency, broken links, and reader entry positioning.

6

Release online

Add to readable library, reading lists, Archive Intelligence, data exports, and future archive drop notes.

Status model

Every book should tell users what can be done with it.

The next UX layer should add these statuses across `/works`, `/archive-intelligence`, and book pages so nobody has to guess whether a book is readable now or only catalogued.

Read Now

Full book is readable online with a public reading route.

Catalogued

Book has a public catalog record but is not yet readable online.

In Formatting

Text needs cleanup, chaptering, downloads, or web presentation work.

Cover Needed

Metadata may exist, but human-facing cover presentation still needs work.

Archive Backlog

Known archive material that still needs catalog normalization.

Cover strategy

Covers are reader infrastructure.

AI can understand metadata without covers. Humans need visual confidence. The roadmap uses a tiered cover strategy instead of waiting for 1,500 premium covers.

Top 50–100

Premium covers

Priority books, The First Fifty, press-facing books, and best reader starts should receive the strongest covers.

94

Readable-book covers

Every book currently readable online should have a clean, distinct cover.

27

Distributed covers

Existing retailer/Google Books covers should be preserved and surfaced where relevant.

1,127+

Archive-card covers

Catalog-only books should still get systematic archive cards so the catalog never feels empty.

Readable layer

Books a new reader can start now.

Open reader guide →

The archive is alive when releases are visible.

Future archive drops should show which books moved from catalogued to readable, which received covers, and which were added to the public data layer.