Social Writing Site Quilli.us Reboots The Author Game

Quilli.us Aims to Take Writers "Out of That Lonely Garrett"

A new website is leveraging social networking and gaming to inspire the next generation of writers.

Just days after launching their website, Quilli.us, a social site for writers and readers is launching a Kickstarter campaign to take the site from Beta to full release. Tools on Quilli.us help content creators build an audience early, focus their attention on projects that resonate with their readership, and maintain motivation through the long and arduous writing process.

According to co-founder Marc Tanenbaum: "Lots of people have a book in them. Lots of people start that book, but give up after writing a chapter or two. It's like dieting or exercise. It's easy to let other things get in your way."

Co-founder Paul Jardetzky (famously part of the team that invented the webcam with the "Trojan Room Coffee Pot") describes Quilli.us' objectives from a business perspective. "The 'long tail' of the book market has generally been thought of down to the level of self-publishing. That is, people who've written books. We believe there's an even bigger, largely untapped market of aspiring writers: people who want to finish a story but never have. We want to provide those people with the motivation, support and tools to bring their creations to life. That's the audience we serve."

The site's existing tools include access controls so writers can decide how public they want their work to be, support for books, articles, short stories and screenplays, E-Book downloads, reputation points and games. The games on the site largely revolve around an author "challenging" her audience to see who can write the best review. "The games element," says Tanenbaum, "is the most innovative and experimental idea. Can we gamify writing, reading and reviewing? I guess we'll find out!"

Quilli.us' founders hope to take writers out of the clichéed 'lonely writer's garrett'. "We're breaking down the wall between author and audience, giving the reader a chance to participate in the creative process, and providing all-important motivation to keep aspiring writers from giving up." says Tanenbaum.

The Kickstarter project (which runs until August 26) will add new tools, including a crowd-funding mechanism so writers can ask their audience to help fund their books and screenplays.