A community-oriented writing site with a shoe-string budget managed to score a coveted spot on the finalist list at the 12th Annual SXSW Web Awards this weekend.
Protagonize, a flourishing site where members create Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style fiction and build interactive stories, is one of the five finalists in the Community category. On the eve of the popular SXSW festival, GalleyCat caught up with founder Nick Bouton for an exclusive interview about his growing writing community.
“The Protagonize writers were pretty stoked about the nomination; a few even suggested they collaboratively write my acceptance speech in case I win,” Bouton explained. “I’m by myself operating Protagonize in my spare time, so I have to depend on good press, word of mouth, and our users to spread the word about the site. I’ve got a bunch of new features in the works. Our writing circles (micro-communities of authors within the site) feature should be going live in a couple weeks.”
He continued: “I’m re-working author profiles to turn them more into a portfolio/showcase of our authors’ work, and I’m adding some more viral features that should help to spread the word about the site a little better. I’m also working on creating a premium service with additional features to what a basic account on the site offers.”
“We have a big contest being sponsored by AMD/ATI that should launch either during or shortly after the festival, which should be a lot of fun for our community to participate in. I’d definitely be interested in partnerships, too, but as it stands I haven’t been approached by anyone yet. That door’s always open, though.”
(Editor’s note: this interview was edited for length.)