The internet has enabled thousands of would-be writers to publish to the world, giving them access to a potentially global readership. But until the launch of Quilliant this month - say its creators - there has been no independent, UK incarnation of the book club online, somewhere aspiring writers can discuss and share their ongoing projects and improve their work.
Chris Vannozzi and Ben Oakshott started the site themselves from south-west London and have 300 beta testers right now. But they want 50,000 users by this time next year - and are hoping to prove that leaving the traditional media industry behind will be worth it.
What's your pitch?
"Quilliant.com is an online writing group made by writers for writers. The site is for anyone with the writing bug – old pros or newbies; poets, novelists, screenwriters or playwrights. It's a place where writers can support, encourage and connect with each other.
"Writing groups exist in their hundreds in town halls and front rooms, from Land's End to John O' Groats. Writers join these groups to give and receive feedback on their work – it is the best way to find out if your writing connects with the reader.
"Quilliant.com is the first site to successfully recreate the writing group experience online. Writers create a profile, form groups with like-minded others and then give each other line-by-line feedback on their work. Great writing perforates through the site via recommendation from one writing group to the next. Strong writers build up a following, which makes them more attractive to literary agents and publishers."
How do you make money?
"We will be launching a pro version of the site which will actively market writers to literary agents and publishers. We'll be charging a subscription for this, which will start at £3 per month. There will always be a free version for more casual writers."
How are you surviving the downturn?
"It meant that we had to start with no investment. But actually this has been a help because we've had to think hard about how to connect with writers at a grassroots level."
What's your background?
"Working in the magazine industry for the likes of Cosmo, Esquire, Top Gear and Stuff."
What makes your business unique?
"It's bloody hard to defeat the blank page and get something written. But then it's even harder to find an audience for your work. Quilliant.com creates ads for uploaded work which are shown to other members who have expressed an interest in that genre, solving this problem."
What has been your biggest achievement so far?
"Being told by the managing director of a major publishing house that our site is what the industry has been waiting for."
Who in the tech business inspires you?
"Nanowrimo.org, the site for National Novel Writing Month. They had 21 participants when they first launched in 1999 and 167,150 last year."
What's your biggest challenge?
"Writers' fear that their work could be plagiarised online. Anything uploaded to Quilliant.com is given a unique digital signature - the same principle as posting your manuscript to yourself."
What's the most important piece web tool that you use each day?
"Twitter. Twitter. Twitter. (We're @quilliant by the way… we promise a poem a day if you follow us!)"
Name your closest competitors
"There's Authonomy (which is owned by Harper Collins) and WEbook. Both are good sites but mainly shop windows for finished work. Quilliant.com is much more about the process of writing."
Where do you want the company to be in five years?
"We want Quilliant.com to be loved by writers for helping them to find an audience, to be loved by literary agents by helping them to find promising new work and loved by publishers for helping to take the risk out of backing new writing."
Sell to Google, or be bigger than Google?
"We just want to create a stable business that can be positive for the writing community. But maybe if Amazon call..."
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion