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Amazon Launches a New Writing Community, Write On

logo._V342995659_[1]Yesterday Amazon officially took the cover off of the writing community which they’ve been developing without anyone noticing.

The Amazon Write On program is the unnamed crowd sourced program I reported on, but it seems to be just as much a writing community as it is a publishing program.

Update: An Amazon spokesperson told me in an email that "Write On and the new publishing program are different and unrelated programs."

Amazon has been quietly working on Write On since at least March 2014. References to the program popped up on KBoards on 4 September, and in Amazon’s own forum on 28 August, but the most interesting detail is that some forum posts date to March of this year.

Before I cover the program, let me share a couple useful details. The Amazon Write On is now live at writeon.amazon.com, and if you’d like to check it out for yourself you can use this code to get in: X9RJTE9H.

Also, if you’ve already joined Write On, I would like to know what you think.

amazon writeon

I have only had a chance to explore Write On for a few minutes, but based on that and on how Amazon is pitching it I would say that this is just as much a writing community as it is a publishing program.

I’ve used it for a few minutes, and I can report that it has sections where writers can upload their latest work. Readers can like or follow a work, and they can also leave comments and discuss specific details. There is also a discussion forum where authors can meet and discuss issues related to writing.

Here’s how Amazon described it in yesterday’s announcement in their forums:

It’s called Write On by Kindle, and it’s a community where readers and writers come together around the creative process to make good stories great and great stories better.

Whether you want to polish an original work, hone your feedback skills, or just find a group of other passionate readers and writers to connect with, we’re building a community that will support you. Plus, you’ll get a chance to help guide the direction of a new Kindle project that’s still in beta. It’ll be a little experimental, a little seat-of-our-pants, and hopefully a pretty sweet time for all involved.

In short, Amazon is testing crowd sourcing as a publishing idea, but they are could also going after writing communities like KBoards, Wattpad, and Absolute Write –  in two completely separate programs.

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Amazon Shares New Details on Their Crowd Sourced Publishing Program – The Digital Reader October 2, 2014 um 12:36 pm

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Meryl Yourish October 2, 2014 um 6:06 pm

So it’s Amazon’s Wattpad?

Don’t know if I care for these terms.

"If you do post content or submit material other than a story, including any cover art and other related content, you are making that content and material freely available for use by any other Write On user. You also grant Amazon a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. "


Meryl Yourish October 2, 2014 um 6:07 pm

Oh, that’s non-story content. Never mind. Phew.

Nate Hoffelder October 2, 2014 um 6:10 pm

That’s actually pretty standard TOS for a forum.


Felipe Adan Lerma October 3, 2014 um 8:36 am

I’m gonna take a look at it (thanks for the X9RJTE9H code too!).

But I don’t really understand, is there a crowd source component to this also, or is that a different program. Sorry, just confused ’bout this – but going there now to check it out.

Felipe Adan Lerma October 3, 2014 um 8:53 am

Good info page: https://writeon.amazon.com/info?ref_=ign_w_bn_cg

Have a question into them to see if a title in Kindle Unlimited can also be placed there.

Felipe Adan Lerma October 3, 2014 um 7:01 pm

Got reply, can’t have work in KU and on WriteOn at same time, which makes sense, just wanted to make sure.

Did place 10% of my new work for feedback etc with WriteOn, at :

https://writeon.amazon.com/read/story/Felipe_Adan_Lerma_One_Night_in_the_Hill_Country_-_10%25_Excerpt/amzn1.ignite.story.048d32aba483037de050007f010062de?ref_=ign_c_rt_st_1

All rights remain with the author, and one can unpublish from WriteOn any time.

Not too bad so far, far as I can tell.


Amazon Launches WriteOn To Compete Against Crowd-Writing Sites Like Wattpad | TechCrunch October 3, 2014 um 10:16 am

[…] service has been growing over the summer but only recently came to light publicly thanks to The Digital Reader. It isn’t very full-featured – it’s more of a blogging platform right now – but it looks to […]


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[…] servicio ha ido creciendo durante el verano, pero sólo llegó recientemente a la luz pública gracias a The Digital Reader . No tiene excesivas funciones, más bien es una plataforma de blogs en este momento, pero parece […]


William D. O’Neil October 6, 2014 um 6:40 pm

I just got my invitation to WriteOn and took a look. My focus is on nonfiction and the work in the nonfiction section is mostly quite naive. I expect that in most cases the authors won’t get around to publishing it at all, and most of those that are published will find few readers outside of family and friends. This is significant for its implications about the kinds of feedback one might expect about work published in this forum.


Episode 27 – WriteOn, AuthorRise and Algorithms | Sell More Books Show October 8, 2014 um 10:04 am

[…] What? Amazon’s Own Pad.  […]


Laura October 8, 2014 um 12:46 pm

That code doesn’t work anymore, just FYI. I guess it can only be redeemed once!

Nate Hoffelder October 8, 2014 um 1:02 pm

That code was publicly posted on Amazon’s support forums. It should have worked for everyone, so it was probably canceled. Give me an hour, and let me see what I can do.

Edit: I have asked for a one time use code. If I get it I will email it to you.


JavierP October 9, 2014 um 1:58 pm

Any news on the code?

Nate Hoffelder October 9, 2014 um 2:16 pm

I’ll send you an email.


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[…] el blog The Digital Reader, que ya ha tenido ocasión de probarlo, el servicio permitirá a los autores disponer […]


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