You don't have to use Mastodon to publish on Mastodon.
Mastodon is part of the Fediverse, and there are lots of other Fediverse platforms you can use instead.
For example, you can turn any independently hosted WordPress blog into a Fediverse server, and authors on that blog can be followed from Mastodon.
You can choose to display blog articles either in full, or as excerpts with a link, or just as links.
More info here:
https://fedi.tips/wordpress-turning-your-blog-into-a-fediverse-server/