Penulisan2u Di New Straits Times

New Strait Times 22 Mac 2010

Muka Surat Depan New Strait Times – Life & Times

Muka Surat Tengah New Strait Times – Tech

New Strait Times Online

Write place on the Web

Wan Mohd Muzri Ramli shows ROZANA SANI the Web way to help aspiring novelists
EVERY morning, Wan Mohd Muzri Ramli diligently checks his emails. He receives lots of them — from acquaintances and business associates to the occasional spam.

But the ones he looks forward to are from budding writers, who send in their material in the hopes of seeing it published. Muzri is a talent promoter.

He scouts for talented writers online.

Though not a writer himself, the Kelantan-born Muzri can spot a good story when he sees one.

Storytelling is an art Muzri can relate to.

He not only hails from a State known for its various forms of traditional storytelling but was exposed to the art of creative writing at a young age.
Muzri (bottom left) set up his free blog platform, Penulisan2u at www.penulisan2u.blogspot.com to encourage aspiring writers to post their work. His friend Norazam (top) concentrates on promoting short story writers and novelists.

His father was on the panel of judges for literary competitions throughout the State, which included the annual school-level pantun competition. Muzri set up his free blog platform, Penulisan2u (www.penulisan2u.blogspot.com) in 2006 to encourage aspiring writers to post their work. “Readers can comment on the writings which are in Malay.

However, some of the readers became fans and certain writers now have a following,” says Muzri. The 29-year-old business administration diploma holder decided to upgrade the site and invested in paid domain and server domain services in 2007.

With his close friend Norazam Zahari, he managed www.penulisan2u.net, www.penulisan2u.my and www.penulisan2u.com.my. “Our main site is www.penulisan2u.my which is being hosted for free by a company called Serverfreak.

I take care of the daily submission of stories, posting and maintenance of the portal.

“Norazam concentrates on promoting short story writers and novelists.

The service is free for writers while readers can subscribe to our email service that provides a weekly notification of new stories posted,” says Muzri. Reaching out To date, about 500 writers (locals and Singaporeans) have signed up at Penulisan2u with some 200 actively posting their works on a regular basis.

“Penulisan2U concentrates on novels and stories are posted by the chapter.

They mostly comprise love stories but other genres, such as thrillers and science fiction, are also included.

“There is no need for registration or passwords and the system is very user-friendly,” says Muzri, adding that vetting is done to ensure quality of content. “We use Google’s feedburner to send out new titles to our subscribers via email.” Muzri says there are 20,000 readers subscribing to the service.

Penulisan2u also has a presence on Facebook and has attracted fans from Singapore and Brunei.

“Every time there is a new story or a new chapter of a developing novel, an application on Facebook will highlight it,” says Muzri. Success stories Thanks to its popularity, Penulisan2u has entered into partnership with two key publishing houses: Kaki Novel and Fajar Pakeer. “Among the writers who have gained mileage through these partnerships are Hanni Ramsul, Areila Sahimi, Adilla Tasha, Shasfa Alyahya, Lynn Allyna and Alina Haizar.

Between them, they have seven novels and three are already out in the market through Kaki Novel.

The other five will be launched this year,” says Muzri. Fajar Pakeer is launching two novels at the Book Carnival in Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur (ending March 28).

They are Cermin by Hasrudi Jawawi and Tak Mampu Ku Hindar by Ana Sofiya. “We sent five manuscripts to Fajar Pakeer for publishing and three have been approved.

The rest are being evaluated,” says Muzri. And what of the future? Muzri hopes to open a bookstore and set up his own publishing business.