diff --git a/manifest.go b/manifest.go
index 532660b7b..07f6b5e54 100644
--- a/manifest.go
+++ b/manifest.go
@@ -1261,9 +1261,10 @@ func constructPartitionSummaries(spec PartitionSpec, schema *Schema, partitions
 }
 
 type ManifestWriter struct {
-	closed  bool
-	version int
-	impl    writerImpl
+	closed   bool
+	closeErr error
+	version  int
+	impl     writerImpl
 
 	output io.Writer
 	writer *ocf.Writer
@@ -1358,16 +1359,18 @@ func NewManifestWriter(version int, out io.Writer, spec PartitionSpec, schema *S
 
 func (w *ManifestWriter) Close() error {
 	if w.closed {
-		return nil
+		return w.closeErr
 	}
+	w.closed = true
 
+	var emptyErr error
 	if w.addedFiles+w.existingFiles+w.deletedFiles == 0 {
-		return errors.New("empty manifest file has been written")
+		emptyErr = errors.New("empty manifest file has been written")
 	}
 
-	w.closed = true
+	w.closeErr = errors.Join(emptyErr, w.writer.Close())
 
-	return w.writer.Close()
+	return w.closeErr
 }
 
 type ManifestFileOption func(mf *manifestFile)
diff --git a/manifest_test.go b/manifest_test.go
index ffb163699..c90ff3c11 100644
--- a/manifest_test.go
+++ b/manifest_test.go
@@ -2091,6 +2091,20 @@ func (m *ManifestTestSuite) TestManifestWriterMeta() {
 	m.Equal("[]", string(md["partition-spec"]))
 }
 
+func (m *ManifestTestSuite) TestEmptyManifestWriterCloseIsTerminal() {
+	var out bytes.Buffer
+	writer, err := NewManifestWriter(2, &out, *UnpartitionedSpec, testSchema, snapshotID)
+	m.Require().NoError(err)
+
+	firstErr := writer.Close()
+	m.Require().EqualError(firstErr, "empty manifest file has been written")
+	m.ErrorContains(writer.Add(manifestEntryV2Records[0]), "closed manifest writer")
+	m.Equal(firstErr, writer.Close())
+
+	_, err = writer.ToManifestFile("manifest.avro", int64(out.Len()))
+	m.Equal(firstErr, err)
+}
+
 func TestReadManifestDecodesNilLogicalPartitionValueFromNullableUnion(t *testing.T) {
 	schema := NewSchema(
 		0,