The temptation to sell everything

There was also a familiar early-stage impulse: monetize every interesting detail immediately—tokens for a “secret tea method,” tokens for gossip, tokens for insider fragments.

That impulse is understandable, but it needs control.

Why? Because credibility is worth more than quick conversion. A publishing brand can sell paid access, but it must first earn trust that the platform is not a carnival booth. The best long-term approach:

• keep the paywall for genuinely premium narrative payloads,
• keep the public surface high-quality and substantial,
• make paid unlocks feel like value, not a toll.