Updates

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

Published and last edited dates

Version 1.18.0 · October 6, 2026

Release 1.18.0.

Series, book and chapter pages show when the work was published, under the byline, and when a chapter's text was last changed after it went public.
The book page's chapter list shows the date each chapter was published. A chapter still to come keeps its "Public on" date.
Authors can hide the last edited date on the Settings tab of the author area with the "Show the last edited date" box. Published dates always show.
An edit means a change to a chapter's title or text. Reordering chapters, changing a public date or editing a description does not count.
From 1.17.1: Subscribe on an author's page is the same height as Follow, and a long chapter title on a home page card wraps instead of cutting off the chapter's age.

A Following shelf, a Support page and a tidier home page

Version 1.17.0 · October 6, 2026

Release 1.17.0.

Signed in, the home page has a Following shelf right after Continue Reading: one card for every series you follow or whose author you follow, newest chapter first, with the chapter's title and age on the card.
Latest Updates is now a shelf of series cards like the others, each showing its newest chapter and when it was published, instead of a separate list. The genre chips are gone from the home page; the Genres tab has them.
The Read menu now reads Home, Calendar, Following, Subscription, History, Genres, Settings. Classics stays reachable from its shelf on the home page.
Subscribing to an author's tier follows the author as well, so their new chapters reach your Following shelf and notices. Readers who already subscribe have been followed once; unfollowing afterwards is up to you.
An author's page shows Subscribe only when they have a tier to subscribe to, and the button now matches Follow.
A new Support page, linked in the footer, points to Help first and then to support@writersgrove.net.
Reading settings opens with a Fonts area that takes you to the font settings on your Account page. The Links rows on Edit Profile keep their Remove button inside the box.

Settings that save as you change them

Version 1.16.0 · October 6, 2026

Release 1.16.0.

Every setting on the Account page and the Reading settings page is saved the moment you change it. The Save buttons are gone, and a short "Saved." under the section tells you it took.
The theme (dark, light or match my device) and the reading font are on the Account page now, under Theme and Reading Font, with the text size, paragraph spacing and line height beside the font. These apply to the whole site, not only to chapter text. The "font installed on this device" choice and the column width are gone; the uploaded fonts stay, with a ? beside Upload that shows what is accepted.
Reading settings keeps your own text and background colours for chapter text, under Customize Reading Colours with a preview, and the content preferences.
A sun and moon button in the header, left of your username, switches between dark and light at once. Signed in it is saved to your account; signed out it is remembered in your browser.
Every chapter has a full-screen button at the top. It shows the chapter title, the text and the previous and next chapter links alone, stays on as you move between chapters, and the button or Escape brings the page back.

Reading settings and a light theme

Version 1.15.1 · October 6, 2026

Releases 1.14.1 to 1.15.1.

A Settings tab at the end of the reader row holds how the site looks for you, kept on your account so it follows you to every device: a dark or light theme, or one that matches your device; the font for chapter text or the whole site, from the site font, a serif, a monospace, OpenDyslexic, Atkinson Hyperlegible, a font installed on your own device, or up to five fonts you upload yourself; and the chapter column's text size, width, paragraph spacing, line height and your own text and background colours. The content preferences have moved there from the Account page.
Chapter text is a softer off-white on the dark theme and sits in a column of about seventy characters, which is easier on the eyes over a long read.
The Account page keeps keyboard shortcuts, the newsletter, notifications, text-to-speech for readers and Delete Account. The Account Archive has moved to a Settings tab at the end of the author row.
Deleting an account now prepares an archive only when there is something to put in it. An account with no writing, pictures or reader activity goes straight to the 30-day countdown.
Premium authors can give their pages a look of their own from the Premium tab: a banner across the top of the author page and series pages, and an accent colour for the links and buttons on all of their pages, in a dark and a light version.
The Help page explains the reading settings, your own fonts and their licences, the archive and the author look.
Fixed in 1.14.1: the Edit Profile form's Save failed with a script error.
Fixed in 1.15.1: the placeholder book cover's title and author were hard to read on the light theme, and deleting the uploaded font you were using left the font choice pointing at the next upload instead of the site font.

Display names

Version 1.14.0 · October 6, 2026

Release 1.14.0.

Every account now has a display name, shown on your series, books and chapters, your author page, your comments and the new-chapter emails your followers receive. It can carry spaces and capitals, while your username stays as it is for web addresses and your author subdomain. The display name is set when a username is claimed (the page suggests one from the username, with a space before each capital letter) and can be changed at any time on Edit Profile. Accounts that already had a username start with it as their display name.
The Author Name field has left the New Series and Edit Series forms. A series is credited to its account's display name; the public domain classics keep naming their writers.

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