Community-writing site Wattpad says over 70 percent of time spent on the service comes from users on tablets or smartphones, and one of its most requested features is the ability to write and edit stories from mobile devices. So this week, the company is rolling out a “Create” functionality for Android tablets and phones. The updated app can be found in the Google Play store.

Wattpad, which is five years old and based in Toronto, has nearly 10 million monthly unique users. “This is the post-PC era,” Wattpad founder and CEO Allen Lau told me. “Users can write a chapter in 15 minutes while they’re waiting for a bus. They can write whenever they have the inspiration.” In fact, users have already been writing stories from their phones by navigating their mobile browsers to wattpad.com, “essentially hacking their way around the limitation.” Now they have an easier way.

Wattpad’s app is also available for iOS, but the company is rolling out its writing function on Android first because that is where most of its global users are. Fred Wilson, principal of Union Square Ventures (which led Wattpad’s first funding round in September 2011), recently took a look at Wattpad’s mobile usage stats and found that most of its North American users are on iOS, but Asian and European users skew toward Android. “Android is our top mobile platform, and we are going there first to learn,” Lau said.

“Cellphone novels” written via SMS are already popular in Japan, but Wattpad says it is the first company to let users publish long-form text from mobile to the Web. In beta tests, the company said “hundreds of stories” were written and published from mobile. Testers also jotted notes, made quick edits and fixed typos. ”The behavior we are seeing [in beta testing] is similar to what we saw in Japan ten years ago,” he said.

Wattpad raised $17.3 million last month in a round led by Khosla Ventures, in addition to its $3.5 million funding from Union Square.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Survey: How apps can solve photo management

Wattpad, which describes itself as the world’s largest online community of readers and writers, has raised a Series B funding round of $17.3 million from a group of venture funds led by Khosla Ventures and including Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. The Toronto-based company announced the financing news on Wednesday at Book Expo America in New York. In an interview with GigaOM, Khosla partner Andrew Chung said he believes that Wattpad can transform the world of writing and publishing in the same way that YouTube has transformed the world of video.

Although the five-year-old company only has 15 employees, Chung said Wattpad has produced “an absolutely phenomenal amount of growth” with very little investment so far (the company raised a $3.5-million Series A round led by Union Square in September). A social-reading platform that allows amateur authors to upload content and connect directly with readers, Wattpad hosts more than five million user-generated stories in 25 languages and half a million new stories are added every month. The network has 3 million registered users, up from 1 million in September, and according to the company, those users spend 1.7 billion minutes reading and writing every month, which is more than Pinterest.

Wattpad’s approach is similar to that of some online writing communities, in which authors and readers collaborate on a work, and much of what is created is designed to be read quickly online or on a mobile device rather than being published as a conventional book or story. Fan fiction based on characters from movies and TV shows is popular, and stories often evolve over time with contributions from multiple readers and writers. As Chung describes it:

You’re able to upload a story chapter by chapter, folks are able to comment on that chapter, and they can provide encouragement to the writer and actually signal where they’d like want the story to go, which creates a type of engagement that’s impossible in an offline context. There’s a very strong parallel to the way that YouTube was able to do that for amateur or user-generated video content.

Amazon also allows authors to create fiction and then publish it themselves through the Kindle platform, but Chung says Wattpad’s approach is different because it focuses on the community, and the content is designed to be consumed in a different way. “This is a different kind of content designed from the ground up to be consumed in a mobile and internet environment,” he said. “I’m reading this when I’m waiting for my girlfriend who’s in the change room, or waiting for the waiter to come with my order. I would liken a Kindle e-book to watching a DVD on my computer, versus watching a YouTube video on my iPhone.”

The signals from the community of readers and writers that Wattpad has built up can also become a powerful discovery mechanism, and a way of sorting through the massive quantities of user-generated content, Chung said. Readers can see how many others have read a particular chapter or piece of a story, how many people have shared it or favorited it, and can read the comments to see how an author is interacting with his or her readers. Some young fiction writers who use the service have seen their work get more than 10 million views, Chung said — and that in turn has led to them being contacted by traditional publishers and content companies.

Some writers that spent years trying to get their work published with the standard guys out there with no success, but after building a fan base with thousands of followers and millions of people reading their stories, some of them have been discovered and publishers have signed distribution deals with them — something that also mirrors the way that YouTube has been able to discover talent.

In addition to Khosla and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, the funding round also included Union Square Ventures and Golden Venture Partners of Toronto. Chung said the funds would help Wattpad hire more staff and expand its services, and also develop partnerships with existing content-publishing and distribution companies.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Jeremy Mates

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Frenemy mine: The pros and cons of social partnerships for online media companies
• The evolution of consumer-media cloud storage
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

iA Writer for iPad has been popular as a distraction-free writing app, and I’ve been looking forward to the Mac version. Now that it’s finally here, read on to find out whether it’s worth your money or not.

Writer is distraction-free in the truest sense of the term; it doesn’t even have a preferences window. You can’t change the font size, the font, or really anything else. The app is completely unapologetic about this, too; you either like it, or you don’t. But even though it doesn’t come with a lot of features, the ones it does have are well-implemented.

Writer showing Focus Mode and Auto Markdown

Most of the features from the iPad app are present in the Mac version, such as Focus Mode, which dims out everything except the current sentence, and Reading Time, which provides an estimate of how long it would take someone to read through what you’ve written. One of the new features that isn’t in the iPad version is Auto Markdown, which automatically formats text written in Markdown, in effect making it somewhat of a semantic text editor. This is a boon for web writers, as Markdown makes it easy to convert text to valid HTML.

Writer’s interface is one of my favorite things about it. The title bar is black and fades in and out, like QuickTime X’s. The scrollbar also fades in and out, like on iOS or Lion. In effect, all you see once you start typing is your text, and I love that. However, since this is a 1.0 release, there is some interface weirdness. For one, the dot that appears in the close button to let you know there are unsaved changes is always there, even right after you save, which kind of defeats the purpose. Another thing is that the title bar is black in focused windows, but in unfocused windows, it has the default “slate” appearance.

iA Writer is available in the Mac App Store for an introductory price of $18, which is 10 percent off. Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about the price. You don’t get many features, and you can’t even change the font size. Plus, the iPad version is $5 and offers almost all of the same things. But I have to say, writing with Writer is a pleasure. Something about making that funky cyan-colored cursor move across the screen makes me happy, and that’s worth the $18 to me. Whether it’s worth it to you depends on how much you trust yourself to focus.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Development strategies for the app-developer community
• A near-term outlook for the mobile app marketplace
• The evolution of consumer-media cloud storage

As you might expect, the site is simple. Just push the “Click to write” button, and you’re taken to an almost-blank screen. You can close the tip that displays when you first visit, and the navigation bar disappears after a few seconds. You can start writing immediately, but if you want to return to your work, you’ll want to register a username and password. You’ll also want to put your browser into full-screen mode.

Writing is limited to text only: no formatting, no links, no bulleted lists. Editing is limited to what can be done by the browser (such as Control-C or Command-C for copying). You can create document titles. Writing is saved automatically, but if you’re nervous, you can use Control-S or Command-S, and there’s a Save button in the navigation bar.

For now, QuietWrite has very few features, but the developers tell us they are considering adding support for offline editing, an iOS-optimized  version, the ability to send writing directly to popular blog platforms, themes and more customization options.

I have to admit that simplifying the screen probably won’t do much for my ability to focus, but if you think it will make a difference for you, give QuietWrite a try. It’s free and in beta.

How do you concentrate while writing?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.):

• Enabling the Web Work Revolution
• What Does the Future Hold For Browsers?
• HTML5’s a Game-Changer for Web Apps

Group-buying service Groupon continues to get a lot of attention, in part because it recently turned down a staggering $6-billion acquisition offer from Google. But while the popularity of group-powered buying accounts for a large part of the company’s growth, many supporters say that a key strength is the writing talent Groupon displays in its email offers. A piece in The Atlantic entitled “Forget Journalism School and Enroll in Groupon Academy” notes that the company has more than 100 writers, editors and fact-checkers on staff — more than a lot of medium-sized newspapers — and adds that “journalism majors should rejoice” because the company is hiring and training writers. But is that really worth celebrating?

The Atlantic piece goes on to note that some observers have credited Groupon with being one of the top “alternative storytellers” in the media industry, thanks in part to the company’s dedication to teaching its writers how to create engaging and often hilarious copy for the group discounts it sends out to subscribers. And the Groupon handbook of writing tips does have a number of helpful suggestions for making your writing more interesting, such as using the active voice and not resorting to clichés, or employing comedic mechanisms such as absurd comparisons or “fake history”.

That said, however, what Groupon does isn’t even remotely close to what journalists — either the offline or the online kind — are supposed to be doing. The idea behind Groupon’s offers is to convince the person receiving the email to buy something, so that the offer gets accepted by enough people to trigger the discount, and the company gets paid by the retailer who offered it. In other words, it’s advertising — just like writing brochures or marketing campaigns. This obviously requires some writing talent, but the purpose of the writing is very different, since journalism isn’t usually aimed at selling something (other than maybe an idea or a way of looking at a particular issue).

There’s no question that online media is becoming more marketing-oriented — with writers for outlets such as Gawker Media having to worry about “selling” their posts and drawing as much traffic as possible so they can get on the Big Board. The ability to write engaging and witty prose is obviously something that comes in handy in traditional journalism as well as Groupon-style copywriting. But does that mean we should celebrate the fact that aspiring journalists are taking jobs at Groupon instead of doing journalism? The Atlantic piece makes much of the fact that writers at the company — 40 percent of whom have journalism experience — have joined because they are “eager to churn out prose and study the craft.”

But is writing eight to 10 blurbs about cupcakes and clothing for sale really great training for journalism? Maybe it seems like a worthwhile opportunity when most traditional news outlets are cutting back on staff, and one of the only other entities hiring is AOL’s Patch.com — where writers can expect to share a similar workload writing about local news, but get paid $50 a piece if they are freelancers and might make $40,000 a year if they are editors. If you simply want to get paid for writing, Groupon probably looks like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow compared to that.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d):

• Why Google Should Fear the Social Web
• Lessons From Twitter: How to Play Nice With Ecosystem Partners
• What We Can Learn From the Guardian’s Open Platform

Post and thumbnail photo courtesy of Flickr users Rusty Boxcars and Yan Arief

I’ve laid down a few criteria. To be considered, an app must easily sync or transfer natively with a cloud service (I’m assuming you’re going to be doing the bulk of your writing at home, and the iPad is the “writing at lunch” option). Since the goal for NaNo is to churn out 50,000 words, the app should have a word count feature, although there are two notable exceptions to this rule that made the cut. Finally, the app needs to be able to work both on- and offline.

I’m going to make a few observations on my time with each program, and you’ll see which I prefer. If word counts aren’t all that important to you, check out our roundup of office suite apps here.

Pages ($9.99): Pages is the best option if you’re also using iWork and have a MobileMe subscription. Pages for the iPad can natively save and download via MobileMe iDisk, but not Dropbox. Pages on the iPad is my choice when what I’m writing needs to look professional. It gets my nod as a NaNo candidate because it has a word count feature, is stable, and easily transfers documents via MobileMe.

Documents to Go ($9.99): Documents to Go connects to darn near anything: iDisk, Dropbox, Google Docs, and Box.net. One thing I’ve never liked about Docs to Go is the lack of margins on each side of the screen. I’m just so used to them that it messes up my mojo when they’re not there.

Elements ($4.99): Elements is a pretty neat program that automatically syncs with your Dropbox\elements folder on launch and exit. It’s just a plain text editor, but for NaNo that’s all you need; in fact, almost all my writing is done in plain text these days. The app is also universal, so you can write on your iPhone, too.

PlainText (Free): PlainText is the one of two exceptions to the word count requirement. The reason for this is when PlainText syncs to Dropbox, it’s the only current one I’ve seen that allows for subfolders in its Dropbox directory. This is important because the NaNo version of Scrivener for OS X that was just released (currently a preview copy; goes on sale Nov. 1) allows you to sync Scrivener projects to a Dropbox folder. Because each project in synced into its own folder, PlainText can then access the file for editing. When you load Scrivener, it imports the changes. Scrivener is my daily driver for writing. Almost everything I write goes through Scrivener, so the ability to write on the road with PlainText and easily get the edits back into Scrivener is a bonus.

Simplenote (Free): This is the second exception to the word count rule. While at its core, Simplenote is a note taking app, it’s also a handy way to throw gobs of text around different applications. Now, I’m not going to suggest you crank out all 50k words in Simplenote. However, since it syncs between all your iDevices and a web portal, it’s a fantastic way to bang out copy on your commute, sync it to the web portal and cut and paste it into your active document.

iPad Writing Tips and Tricks

I had a day recently where not much writing was done. In the Good Intentions category, I planned on writing while watching the first game of the World Series using my iPad on the couch. Yeah, right.

Writing on the iPad I’ve found requires more attention to ergonomics than a laptop. A laptop I can sit in my recliner and type with, but I’ve had poor success with that using my iPad. I have the best success with propping the iPad up, either with a pillow in a comfy chair or in bed. On a hard surface, I have much better results, even just using the virtual keyboard. I’ve banged out a few thousand words using the virtual keyboard when I’ve had to.

While it may seem redundant, I also keep my Apple Bluetooth keyboard in my bag. I’m considering getting either a Scosche folio case, or the Compass iPad stand. I’ve found the Apple case is okay for typing in landscape mode, but it’s useless if I want to prop it up to use an external keyboard — it’s just way too tippy. The Apple keyboard is great for when I really need to bang out some prose but don’t want to lug my MacBook with me.

Now you’re armed for NaNoWriMo, but that doesn’t make the task any less intimidating. The only way to do it is to dive in and give it your best shot.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• Can Anyone Really Compete With the iPad?
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories
• HTML5’s a Game-Changer for Web Apps

You can use your own backgrounds with a simple hack, though. Basically, you just replace the background images OmmWriter uses with your own, and then choose between them within the app. This can be useful if you don’t like the backgrounds bundled with OmmWriter, or if you want to use an image of your blog, so you can see what your text will look like when it’s published, like this guy did here.

To do this, go to your Applications folder and select OmmWriter. Then, right-click it and select Show Package Contents. There are three default background images used in the free version of OmmWriter, with names “background_white.jpg”, “paisaje_1920x1200.jpg”, and “textura_oscuro_1920x1200.jpg”. Choose which file you want to replace and move it to the trash (don’t worry, you can always drag it out again). Now you need to rename the image you want to use as a replacement with the name of the image you removed. Then, all you have to do is drag your replacement image into the OmmWriter Resources folder and that’s it. When you restart OmmWriter, you should be able to choose your new background image.

Your replacement background image will have to be a JPEG. Since you can’t change the color of the text in OmmWriter, you’ll want to choose an image that’s light enough for you to see the text. You can find some good images from InterfaceLift, and you can always change the opacity of the picture with your favorite photo editing software if you need to lighten it up.

You can also use this method to replace some of the audio files OmmWriter uses for ambiance. OmmWriter is a great app for writers looking to boost their productivity, and this nifty little hack should help you get even more in the zone. Does anyone else use these distraction-free writing tools?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• How to Manage Consumer-Grade Collaborative Tools in the Workplace
• VMware’s Cloudy Ambitions: Can It Repeat Hypervisor Success?
• The Internet of Things: What It Is, Why It Matters

I solved this problem by defining for myself what Serious Writing was.

Back in my printing days, projects had three stages: pre-production, production, and post production. After mulling my quest over, I realized most of my writing falls into this as well. Pre-production is the point where you have your feet up on the window sill watching the birds and truthfully answer, “Why, yes, dear, I really am working. Why?” You don’t even need an iPad for this; pen and paper is probably the best choice anyway. Post production is where you get your writing into final form. You format it to meet your publisher’s requirements; get it into that godawful corporate template you loathe; or maybe drop it into a web-based CMS system for publishing. Most likely, the iPad isn’t ideal for this, either.

[inline-ad align="right"]However, the production portion is where the iPad can come in quite handy. The production stage is where I feel Serious Writing happens: the act of simply putting one word after the other. I am a big fan of Merlin Mann’s Making the Clackity Noise article, and the iPad helps me make the noise.

OK, before I go any further, I’m not for a minute suggesting an iPad is a suitable replacement for a laptop, desktop, typewriter or quill pen. However, I am finding the iPad is a decent balance of portability and functionality. While the debate over whether the iPad is a content creation or content consumption device will be everlasting, I’m willing to bet most of your every day writing can be done on an iPad. Working on that Executive Summary for your report on a crowded train? The iPad is great in cramped writing conditions. I’ve gotten work done in doctor’s offices, coffee shops, commuter trains, waiting for a conference session to start, and sometimes while I’m curled up on my comfy chair working while watching the Red Sox cough up a five run lead in the ninth inning. While at least 80 percent of my time spent with the iPad is consuming content, I love that I can keep current projects with me to work on when I need to.

That’s not to say it’s all beer and pretzels. The on-screen keyboard isn’t at all ideal. If I know I’m in for an extended writing session I’ll throw the Apple bluetooth keyboard in my bag. Getting files to and from the iPad is a needless pain. If your work requires heavy footnoting or citations, you’re pretty much hosed. I’ll often put the proper MLA citation in there, and link it to Endnote on OS X later. If I’m footnoting something on the iPad, I’ll cheat and put the whole footnote as a parenthetical (1 – Diet Coke tasted much better cold) and later in OS X Pages I’ll use the footnote command and paste the note in.

How exactly have I integrated the iPad to my work flow?

Outside of accepting the limitations of the platform, the big decision I made was deciding on a program I felt excelled at the “getting writing done” part of the process, and accepting the hassles of file transfers. After giving all them of more than careful consideration, I chose Pages to do my work. It doesn’t have parts I use a lot, like word counts, but I liked the writing interface (the file browser is kind of a mess) and felt it met my needs. Which is a nice way of saying it didn’t crash on me. To aid in file transfers, I just use the iWork.com beta since I also use Pages on OS X. While the other writing programs excelled at using cloud services, I felt they let me down when I wanted to get actual work done.

Nowadays, most of what I write passes through the iPad. The fiction projects I’m working on all have current versions on the iPad. This article was written predominately on the iPad, if for no other reason than to eat my own dog food. Sure, the post production stuff all happens off the iPad. This post was edited on WordPress in Firefox. A fiction manuscript will receive the proper editing and formatting in OS X. If I’ve kludged citation management on the iPad, I’ll fix it then.

The biggest reason I write on the iPad? It’s always with me. I want to have an excuse to write; not use a missing tool as an excuse not to write.

At first, I resisted getting the dock, opting instead for the Apple iPad case. When using the iPad in the case, it is possible to set the iPad on its edge and use the bluetooth keyboard to type. Possible, but not elegant. The case is malleable and unstable, so while the case can balance the iPad on its edge, to interact with the touch interface still requires both hands. If you don’t use one hand to steady the iPad, the first time you try to tap on a word in Pages you’ll knock your iPad onto its back. I’ve done this more than once and it makes a sickening sounding “whack” noise.

The case isn’t all bad. Using the case in its other, more stable position, laying down with the small edge at the back, lifts the iPad up to a perfect reading angle, and a good angle to type using the software keyboard. Once you try to use the bluetooth keyboard at this angle though, it becomes much more awkward, since the screen is sitting farther back.

There is no way to dock the iPad while it’s in the case, but sliding it out of the case is fairly easy. The dock is small, and at first I was worried about how stable the iPad would be resting in it. It turns out that its much more stable than I expected. The dock is surprisingly heavy and solid, reassuringly so, and most importantly it doesn’t distract with worry about the iPad tipping over like it does with the case.

I’m not convinced that the Apple dock is the best stand for the iPad, but I am convinced of the usefulness of the dock for the purpose of writing. Combining the dock with a bluetooth keyboard and Pages is one of the most elegant and relaxing writing experiences I’ve ever had. I’m looking forward to many long hours with this setup.

I’d love to hear your opinion on the case, the dock, or the software keyboard. Let me know your favorite way to interact with the iPad in the comments!

I did have an iPad-sized hole in my life. For me, a MacBook is weighty overkill. I have two jobs: the corporate-level one that pays the bills and my writing gig where I blog, freelance, and work on personal projects. The day job comes with its own Windows laptop that I lug around. I try to maintain a separation between the corporate job and personal work, so there’s very little in the way of personal data on the work machine. My commute is almost four hours round-trip. Most of it’s on a train, but if I wanted to write, I’d need the MacBook with me.

For personal work, my needs are modest. I need to write, research ideas, and read a book or watch a video. Simply put, I just need a tool to let me put words down. I don’t care about how they look when I’m composing on the iPad; just want to get them out of my head and onto what passes for paper for these days.

Productivity

A month in, I find Pages whelming. I felt Pages was about one patch from elevating itself from “merely OK” to “good,” and the 1.1 patch did that with support for landscape toolbars. I find myself to be fairly proficient with the virtual keyboard. While I am clearly faster and more accurate with an external keyboard, the iPad doesn’t seem to handle swapping between virtual and physical keyboards well, so I tend to stay with the iPad’s.

What I wasn’t expecting is, even at home, I prefer to write on the iPad. I think it comes down to a fantastic screen and, oddly, the single-tasking nature of the device. Pages gives me enough of a distraction-free environment that I can focus on writing.

For an in-depth look at Pages for Mac, view Pages 101 (subscription required).

I’m going to be giving a talk in a month or so, and as much as I try and tell myself I can do it on the iPad, the fact is, I can’t. While I tend to use my own fonts for my talks, I can design an effective presentation for the iPad using stock fonts, but I don’t want to be chained to the podium with no remote control.

The presentation issue pales to getting files to and from the iPad. Original rumors hinted of some sort of a shared-pool for files, but that never came true. Instead, each app still has files isolated to its own sandbox. You can use iTunes to transfer files into the sandboxes, but it’s a pain. Since there’s no true syncing, I can’t really work on a file on a desktop and get it back to the iPad without feeling like I’m playing a shell game. My ideal solution would be to have a Documents version of Photos. Apps could read and write to that sandbox to their heart’s content and there would be  OS-level integration of MobileMe iDisk.

These issues, while frustrating, don’t make me regret my decision to buy the iPad at all. I’m getting more done with the device, so that’s a win

Recreation

Like most writers, I read. A lot. I probably read about 30-40 books a year, not counting assigned reading for class and the like. I also am somewhat of a magazine junky. The iPad is indispensable for consuming this type of media.

Amazon’s Kindle app and Apple’s iBooks are both fine readers. Amazon’s selection is better, but I like the flexibility in iBooks’s presentation; the ability to change the order of my library is huge. However, when I’m researching, Amazon’s note tool wins out.  One small thing iBooks does is tell me how many pages are left in a chapter. That’s great for reading in bed and deciding if I want to commit to the next chapter.

I find the Zinio app fine for reading magazines. Recent updates have significantly improved page load times. As with the Amazon app, my chief complaint is not being able to arrange the library the way I want it. Deleting magazines seems undoable, also. I’d love an archive feature like the Kindle’s. I have a few subscriptions that thoughtfully provide DRM-free PDFs and GoodReader is my choice for reading them.

3G vs Wi-Fi

This was one of the hardest decisions I made regarding the iPad. In the end, I chose the Wi-Fi because it was out sooner. A close family member was having some major surgery and hospital stay before the 3G came out. I’d had some luck using the iPhone during a previous hospital visitation, but knew the iPad would be better. I also knew I’d be weak and keep the $30 data plan going and didn’t want the expense. While there have been times I wished the iPad had always-on Internet, I don’t regret my decision.

Final Thoughts

A month later, like my iPhone, the iPad is a device I rarely leave the house without. Its excellent battery life means I don’t need to worry about charging out. A heavy night of writing, surfing and game playing barely takes 30 percent of the battery. I like that I can get a creative idea and be writing it in less than 30 seconds. I do see an anti-glare film in my immediate future. It’s almost unusable outside, and a frequent place I use it has a fluorescent light directly overhead.

How about you? One month later, what are your thoughts?