How it started
We, two brothers dreamed about this and WritingNepal began in 2010 in Bhaktapur with a simple idea: Nepali literature deserved a proper home online — somewhere readers could find, rate, and talk about Nepali books the same way readers everywhere else could, and somewhere writers could publish without needing a publisher to say yes first.
Over the years, the site grew into a catalog of tens of thousands of books and tens of thousands of readers and writers — bloggers sharing personal essays, poets posting छन्द and गजल, publishers listing their catalogs, and a community that actually read what got posted.
The road here
Kindled as OnlineKksha.wall.fm
It all started with a reading habit. We wanted one website for Nepal's book lovers and writers — but couldn't afford a domain yet, so we started on wall.fm, a free social network builder back then. The address was onlinekksha.wall.fm.
500 users, and loved by them
Two years in, we had a small but genuinely regular crowd. Nepal's internet was slow and expensive back then, so real engagement felt like a big deal — enough that we released our first-ever official logo.
We fixed the date to launch
OnlineKksha went online for real. We registered the company and launched officially, ready to actually compete instead of just experimenting.
The name nobody could say right
"OnlineKksha" was meant as अनलाईन कक्षा — "online class." People kept hearing something else entirely.
We came up with a cool name
We renamed the company. OnlineKksha became WritingNepal — a name that actually said what we were about, and one nobody could mishear.
A new design for book lovers
We redesigned the entire website for readers' efficiency, with a new layout built around how people actually use it — the foundation this revival is still built on.
We shut down
The ad-free idea sounded noble, but there was no way to keep the lights on. No ads, no Catch, no way to actually make money from the writing happening here — just cost, with nothing coming back in. We ran out of runway and closed the site. It stayed quiet for years, and that part still stings to admit.
Back, with a different plan
We're rebuilding from scratch, and being honest about what didn't work: staying ad-free wasn't sustainable, so we're placing ads this time — clearly labeled, never disguised as content. And the bigger change is Catch, where any writer can price their own work and get paid directly, something we simply didn't have the first time around. Let's see how this goes.
Why we're rebuilding
Like a lot of things, the site went quiet for a while. What you're using now is a from-scratch revival — same mission, rebuilt properly, with the old catalog carried forward as a foundation rather than a fresh start from zero. It's still a small team behind it, which is part of why some things (like Catch) are still labeled Beta — we'd rather ship something real and improve it in the open than wait for it to be perfect.
What we believe
- Nepali writing deserves a Nepali-first platform — not an afterthought on a global site built for someone else's language and habits.
- Writers should get paid for their work — directly, without needing a traditional publishing deal, and without asking readers to commit to a monthly subscription to try it.
- Reading should stay social — ratings, comments, and follows from real people, not just a star average with no context.
Get in touch
Writing Nepal Pty. Ltd, Duwakot, Bhaktapur, Nepal. If you have anything you'd like to ask us — about the platform, your account, anything — please contact us here.