Introducing: The Prose Collections

Hey, Prosers!

This is a public service announcement: There will be no Throwback Thursday in app today.

Why not? Well, today is not just a good morning, it’s a super-awesome morning.

Those of you logging on to the website right now will notice something different, we’ve made some changes, changes that we know you’ll love, we love them too!

We are proud to introduce The Prose Collections. This has been in the works for such a long time and we are bursting at the seams with excitement to finally be able to share this with you.

We have spent a lot of time as a team discussing the writing industry and how we can make it better. These discussions haven’t been the kind that take an hour or two, we have poured over this for an inconceivable amount of time.

So, we hear you ask, what on earth are “Collections?”

Before we tell you about the collections in their entirety, there will be certain things that are NOT live right now; for really good reasons, too. They will be soon, but not today. But instead of just telling you about the things that are now live, we wanted to let you in on the whole secret that we have been keeping for months. All of it. So without further ado, we give you The Prose Collections.

The Prose Collections are split into two main functions. Reader functions and writer functions.

Readers:

Readlists: Spotify brings you playlists. Prose brings you readlists. Save your favorite posts to your readlists so you can read them over and over again. Share your readlists with other users and let them know what you like to read. Discover new writers and new posts by browsing other Prosers’ readlists. (Coming in the next update, hang tight)

Bookmarks: Every reader needs one, especially when it comes to longer pieces of literature. Bookmark the piece you are reading, and dive straight back in when it is more convenient for you. (Coming in the next update, we know it’s worth the wait)

Writers:

The Partner Program: This is an application-only facility whereby accepted writers will be able to make money directly from their Prose account in the most flexible way possible. (Live)

Books: Partners and non-partners will be able to create books and publish them in our brand-new Prose Bookstore. Partners will be able to sell these books for our in-house currency, Prose Coins. (Book creation is live. Selling and purchasing is coming as soon as our bookshelves are stocked.)

Bookselling: Not only will Partners be able to create and sell their books directly on Prose, but they will also have a new and flexible way of selling them. Not only will you be able to sell your books as a whole, but if you can’t wait to get readers drawn in to your story, you can now sell you book on a per chapter basis. Serialised fiction like this has become more popular over recent years, so now your words can earn you money. We would also like to announce the subscription model. We took inspiration for this part from Twitch, the go-to place for online video game live streaming. This is another way your blood sweat and words can make you money. Each subscriber would pay monthly amount to read all of your content, it’s that simple. (Stock our bookshelves first, and we’ll open the store!)

Royalties: Prose wants to put the power back into the hand of the author. Our royalty scheme is competitive, and more importantly, fair. Authors will take 80% of all earnings on Prose. (As soon as you are able to sell books, you’ll start earning. See the seller's terms here). You’ll be able to “cash-in” your Prose Coins for the currency of your country!

Visibility: You now have better flexibility over who sees your posts. Hurrah! You can select these options in your writing desk. Your default audience will be everyone, but you can change that to followers only (coming in the next day or so), subscribers only (coming in the next update), or only me (live now). That’s right, you can write privately and share with your audience later. How cool is that? 

For this first update, we have disabled some of the features until the iOS update is ready to roll out and the bookstore is ready for its grand unveiling. We can’t have a bookstore with empty shelves, so the book creation feature is live right now. So, you know, write now! We’ve also included within the above description little notes on what’s live and what’s not just yet.

We have made some design changes we hope you like, including welcoming a new term, “your desk.” Your writers desk is your creation suite. Create books, posts, and challenges all from your desk, and control who sees your posts. Set the pricing model of your books (mentioned above), attach your hashtags and header images, along with assigning a portal.

As if that wasn’t enough, likes are back! Thank goodness! We know that the introduction of bookmarks six months ago confused some people and given that we are changing the functionalities of bookmarks, likes have made a welcome return to your screens.

So, that’s a round-up of what has just landed, and what will be on your screens soon. Development of the iOS features are underway, and we will push the update to your phones as soon as it’s complete and we’re happy that everything is working as it should be.

Go forth and do what writers do. Create your books, write your poetry and prose. Comment, like, and share. We are building an empire, and this is only one chapter of our book.

Until next time, Prosers,

Prose.