Amazon to Shutter Its Write On Author Community on 22 March
Amazon sent out an email today to members of Write On, Amazon’s writing community with the news that Write On is shutting down in a couple months:
While we have been proud over the last few years to have brought together such a vibrant, active, and creative community, unfortunately we will be closing Write On’s doors on March 22. After this date, access to Write On will be unavailable.
Your Amazon.com account will not be affected by the closure of Write On. If you don’t have any content you wish to save, no further action is required on your part.
If you do have content you wish to save, we encourage you to download your posted and drafted stories by March 22. Here’s how:
- Log in and visit your My Stuff page
- Click "Resume Writing" for the story you wish to save
- Click the "More Actions" menu on the top-right (directly below the "Post Update" button)
- Click "Download Story with Comments"
All story comments will be automatically appended to the end of the file downloaded. Please note that profile and forum comments are not included in this file. If you wish to save those, you will need to manually copy and paste the text into a file of your own.
Judging by the lack of mentions on KBoards, Twitter, and elsewhere, Write On is closing because no one was using it.
Launched in October 2014, Write On was Amazon’s answer to Wattpad. It was a community where writers could post parts of a story, get feedback, and rewrite while engaging with fans.
Alas, Write On never achieved the success of Wattpad. The latter’s community of readers and writers has helped hundreds of authors finish and publish their books, and its most popular titles have each been read tens if millions if not 100 million or more times (seriously).
Write On’s most popular titles, on the other hand, haveeach been read thousands of times (as in under 10,000).
Comments
Mark Williams International January 27, 2017 um 4:33 am
While Wattpad numbers are unquestionably impressive we need to bear in mind "reads" usually refers to chapters or even part chapters put up.
A fifty chapter novel put up in installments would get fifty "reads" for every one full read of the book.
By way of example, I just checked one of my part-published novels on Wattpad, with 51 chapters up – barely half of the total book – and it has collected over 7,500 reads yet no-one on Wattpad has seen the second half yet.
What is impressive is the global reach, with readers as far afield as Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Iran and Burkina Faso.
Tracy January 27, 2017 um 9:21 am
WriteOn, while not hosting the size of community that Wattpad has, is not "closing because no one was using it." There are a lot of people using it. Primarily writers who are using the site to beta read for each other, provide feedback, edit based on comments, and essentially hone their craft. Many have gone on to publish, and feel the site has been instrumental in their success. Myself included.
Also, while Wattpad boasts millions of reads, some writers find this intimidating, and cherish the smaller community that we call home.
We will be looking to fight this apparently imminent closing with everything we have. Even if it looks bleak.
Don DeBon January 30, 2017 um 8:22 pm
It does sound interesting, too bad it is closing. They certainly didn’t promote it or even mention it. If I had heard of it before, I would have given it a spin.
Katt February 8, 2017 um 8:58 am
Too bad they are closing it. But there are many other alternatives in the market. One of the more interesting sites is Penana. It allows people to set up writing contests with their own writing prompt. https://www.penana.com