How Pick Your Path Stories works

A short guide for readers and creators—no jargon required.

Pick Your Path Stories (PYPStories) is a place to read and create interactive stories online. Think of a book or web comic where the page ends with a choice—and what you pick changes what happens next. The experience is built for adventure fiction in the spirit of classic choose-your-own-adventure and modern epic fantasy: quests, intrigue, battles, and clean romance, written so a wide audience can enjoy the path.

Whether you showed up to read Sleeper (or the next story that lands on the shelf) or to build your own branching comic, this page explains the basics.

For readers

Browse and open a story

On the home page you’ll see covers, titles, genres, ratings, and view counts. Tap a story to read the description, see chapters if the creator added them, and start reading. You can search by title or author and sort by what’s popular, new, or top-rated.

Samples and full stories

Many stories let you try a free sample—often the beginning and a first choice—so you can feel the style before you commit. Free stories may be fully open to read. Paid stories may use:

Creators set pricing within platform rules. You’ll always see the price before you pay. Payments are handled securely through Stripe when checkout is involved.

Your account

Creating a free account lets you keep a login, verify your email, leave ratings and comments where enabled, buy credits, and return to stories you’ve unlocked. You don’t need an account just to look around the catalog, but you’ll need one for purchases and most community features.

Reading the path

Inside the reader you’ll see the current page (often art plus text), then up to a few choices. Pick one to jump to the next page the creator linked. You can go back where the story allows. There’s no wrong way to explore—part of the fun is that two readers can take different routes through the same comic.

For creators

If you want to publish on PYPStories, you build a story in layers: shell → pages → structure → review → publish. You don’t need to be a programmer. You do need patience for uploading images and linking choices.

1Create the story

From My Stories, start a new story. Add a title, short description, genre, and price (zero for free). That creates your draft—the container for everything else.

2Add a cover (optional but recommended)

Upload a cover image so readers recognize your work in the browse grid. Landscape images around a 3:2 ratio tend to look best on cards.

3Upload pages

Each page is a moment in the story—often a comic panel or a strip of panels stitched together, plus optional caption text. Filenames can become page names, which helps when you build the map later. Upload in batches if you have many images.

4Build structure

Open Build Structure. Set the starting page. For each page, drag destination pages into choice slots and type the labels readers will see (for example, “Open the door” or “Talk to the stranger”). Save as you go. This step is what turns a stack of pictures into a choose-your-own-adventure.

5Preview, then submit for review

Use Preview to walk the path yourself. When you’re happy, submit for review. An editor checks that the story runs and that it follows our family-friendly rules. After approval, you can publish so it appears for everyone.

Chapters and earnings (when you sell)

Longer works can be split into chapters with their own prices in credits. If you sell, you’ll connect a Stripe account for payouts. The platform may take a fee; details appear in your account and at checkout. Always keep your Connect onboarding complete so earnings can reach you.

Content rules in one breath

PYPStories is family-friendly. Adventure, fights, intrigue, and clean romance are welcome. Pornography, smut, and profanity are not. Full rules live in our Content Policy. If you wouldn’t hand the story to a wide audience that expects mainstream fantasy, tighten it before you submit.

Why interactive stories?

Books let you live inside someone else’s choices. Interactive comics let you make a few of those choices. A good path still feels like a story—characters you care about, a world with rules, tension that rises—not a random menu. The best creators plan branches that matter: a door you open, a trust you break, a fight you walk into or away from.

On PYPStories we keep the tools simple so the craft stays on the writing and the art: upload pages, name them, link choices, publish. The rest is imagination—the same fuel that always filled choose-your-own-adventure books and epic fantasy paperbacks, now with a cover on a website and a path you can share.

Quick FAQ

Do I need to pay to read?

Not always. Free stories and samples exist. Paid chapters or full stories cost what the creator set (within platform rules).

Do I need to pay to create?

Creating a draft and uploading for review is part of the core product. Selling may require a Stripe connection for payouts.

What if I get stuck building a story?

Use the short checklist on the Create Story screen, watch the tutorial video when available, or use Contact us in the footer on the home page. We’re building for people who love stories more than software manuals.

Is this only for comics?

Comics and illustrated panels are a natural fit, but text-forward branching stories work too. If readers can open a page and pick a path, you’re in the right place.

Ready to start?

Browse stories on the home page, open a free sample, and see how a path feels. When you’re ready to build, create an account, verify your email, and hit New Story. Every great branching tale starts with a single page—and a choice that matters.

Related: Content Policy · Terms of Service · Home