Publisher is two installs: a theme that knows what a publication looks like, and the plugin that runs the membership behind it.
1. Install the theme
Stoat is the standard theme for Publisher and is free on WordPress.org.
- Go to Appearance → Themes → Add New.
- Search for
Stoat. - Click Install, then Activate.
Publisher works with other themes too — it just has less to hang on to. If you are using your own theme, skip to the next step.
2. Install the plugin
The plugin is not in the WordPress.org directory; you download it from your OwlDraft account after buying a licence.
- Log in to your account at owldraft.com and download
owldraft-publisher.zip. Do not unzip it. - In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
- Choose the zip, click Install Now, then Activate.
If the upload fails with the link you followed has expired, the file is larger than your server’s upload limit — ask your host to raise upload_max_filesize, or upload the unzipped owldraft-publisher folder to wp-content/plugins/ over SFTP instead.
3. Let Setup finish
Activating drops you on OwlDraft → Setup. Publisher needs one companion plugin, Editorial Blocks — the post grid, list and hero blocks the demo layouts are built from. It is free on WordPress.org and the screen installs it for you.
Click the button and leave the tab open. The screen installs one plugin per request on purpose, so it will look like it is working slowly — that is deliberate, and it is how a cheap host gets through it without timing out. When it says everything is installed, carry on.
The membership blocks are not in there. Sign in / Sign up, Account and Newsletter ship inside Publisher itself, in their own OwlDraft category in the block inserter — they are there the moment the plugin is active.
4. Activate your licence
One licence, one site.
- Go to OwlDraft → Licence.
- Paste your key into Licence key.
- Click Activate.
The screen then shows your plan, who bought it, and how many of the licence’s activations are in use.
Activation is what unlocks plugin updates, demo imports and the support desk. The publication itself and everything you publish keep working whatever this screen says — an expired licence never takes a site down.
If it will not activate
| What it says | What happened |
|---|---|
| This licence belongs to a different address | The site was copied from staging, or the domain changed. Detach the old address on the Licence screen, then activate again. |
| Every activation is in use | Detach a site you no longer update. It keeps everything it has published. |
| This licence has expired | The subscription behind the key lapsed. Renew from the same screen — the key itself does not change. |
| This licence has been disabled | The key was disabled at the source. Contact support. |
5. Optional — import the demo
If you installed Stoat, OwlDraft → Import demo will build a whole example publication for you: posts, pages, menus and the theme settings that go with them. On a brand new site this is the fastest way to see what the finished thing looks like, and you can delete the content afterwards.
Next: set up email.