Updates

What has changed on Writer's Grove, newest first.

Monthly contests, and reading before rating

Version 1.0.120 · September 16, 2026

Releases 1.0.115 to 1.0.120.

  • There is now a monthly writing contest with a $100 prize. The Contests page under Write lists every month. While a month runs, an author can enter one published series from its dashboard and withdraw it again the same way. At the end of the month each entry is scored on how readers responded during the month: how many signed-in readers opened chapters published that month, how many of them followed the series, and how readers who read it rated its books. The winner is picked on the first of the next month, the standings appear on the contest's page, and the winner and the top ten are marked on their series pages. An author can win once.
  • Before entering a series, an author signs up for contests on the Contests page: the PayPal address the prize is paid to (the same address the Referrals page uses for payouts) and an agreement to the Contest Terms and Conditions, a new page that says who may enter, how the winner is decided, how the prize is paid, and that fees and taxes on the prize are the winner's own. An author who presses Enter on a series dashboard without having signed up is taken to the Contests page to do that first.
  • A book can be rated only after you have opened a chapter of its series. Reads are remembered per chapter, so a book you had already started counts.
  • Trending now follows what readers did in the last seven days: new readers, follows and ratings. Two new rows on the home page: Rising Stars, for series whose first chapter went live in the last thirty days, and Favorites This Week, for series with three or more ratings this week. The home page leads with two featured series instead of one.
  • The Help page has a Ratings topic under Reading and a Contests topic under Writing.
  • For administrators, contests have their own page under Admin, and Analytics has a Contests tab with each month's top ten.

Phone fixes for the menu and the browse pages

Version 1.0.114 · September 16, 2026

Releases 1.0.113 to 1.0.114.

  • On a phone, the tabs inside the menu now fill the width of the menu, the same as Read and Write above them.
  • The Classics page, the Genres page, each genre page and each browse page fit the phone screen again. They had been laid out for a wide screen and cut off at the right edge, so the heading, the filters and the cards were partly out of view.

The tabs move into the menu on a phone

Version 1.0.112 · September 16, 2026

Release 1.0.112.

  • On a phone, the tabs for the area you are in (Home, Classics, Genres and your own lists under Read; Profile, Writing, Stats, Premium and Tiers under Write) now sit inside the menu, under Read and Write, instead of taking a row or two under the search box. The page starts higher, and the menu shows everything for the area in one place. Nothing changes on a wider screen.

Read and Write in the header, and a home page that says what the site is

Version 1.0.111 · September 16, 2026

Releases 1.0.104 to 1.0.111.

  • The header now has two main items, Read and Write, with a Sign Up button for anyone who does not have an account yet. The tabs under Read are Home, Classics and Genres, plus your Following, Reading History, Release Calendar and Subscriptions when you are signed in. The tabs under Write are your author pages. Account, Referrals and Log Out are in the menu under your username.
  • Visitors who are not signed in see a short introduction at the top of the home page: the site is free to read and free to publish, with a button to start reading and one to start writing. Write, for a visitor without an account, opens a page that explains how publishing here works.
  • A row of genres sits under the tabs on the home page, the Classics page, the Genres page and the browse pages, so you can jump to a genre in one click.
  • The home page leads with one featured series and a button that opens its first chapter, followed by Trending, then a Latest Updates list of the newest chapters across the site with how long ago each was posted.
  • Every series card now shows the author, the genre, the star rating and the follower count under the cover.
  • A signed-in reader who has not created a series is invited to write a first chapter; the invitation has a Dismiss button for readers who do not mean to write, and once dismissed it stays away on every browser and device.
  • A series page has a Start Reading button that opens the first chapter, for everyone; Continue Reading takes its place once you have started.
  • Pricing has moved from the header to the footer, the Write tabs and the introduction. The footer is shorter and starts with one line about the site.
  • The home page shows the title under every card, and the thin scroll bar under each row is hidden.
  • The header now shows you as signed in only while your sign-in is still valid, so it always agrees with the page under it. If it shows Sign Up and Log In, signing in again puts everything back.
  • Signing in on the beta site no longer signs you in, or out, on the main site, and the other way round. Beta sessions start fresh with this release, so a sign-in there is needed once.
  • When the Terms of Service or the Privacy Policy have changed since you last agreed to them, the sign-in dialog now says so instead of reading like a new account sign-up.

Star ratings on books, comments everywhere, and a plainer accessibility page

Version 1.0.103 · September 15, 2026

Releases 1.0.99 to 1.0.103.

  • Ratings are now stars on a book rather than on each chapter, and written reviews are gone. A chapter page shows its book's rating at the top, and the home page and shelf pages show each book's rating on its card.
  • Comments are open on series pages and book pages as well as chapter pages, with replies, reporting and deletion working the same way on all three.
  • A series page now shows its follower count and the average rating across its books under the title.
  • Links are stripped from comments and other user content, so a comment cannot carry a reader off the site.
  • The accessibility page says plainly what standard the site is built and tested to, how it is tested, and how to tell us when something does not work.