With approximately 70 million unique monthly visitors, the
digital literature /social networking website Wattpad is a massive focus group
for original storytelling for the millennial generation.
For authors, participating on Wattpad can have many benefits.
It is a way to build an audience directly on a reading social network. Harkening
back to the turn of the 19th century the draw of Wattpad’s social
reading platform allows authors to serialize a story, drip-feeding chapter to
readers who then have the opportunity to devour and comment on what they have
read. This beta-reader like experience is chock full of the feedback authors
need to revise their story to further develop and deepen plots and characters.
The element of continual engagement with the reading audience also serves to
develop that much needed platform and fan base the author needs no matter which
path they choose in publishing.
On the surface, it sounds like a perfect storm, but Wattpad
is not without its drawbacks. Wattpad is home to many aspiring authors, all of
them trying to stand out amongst millions of others doing the exact same thing.
Let me say that again, MILLIONS
OF OTHERS ARE DOING THE SAME THING.
Like with the traditional model of publishing, there is a slush
pile to be waded through to find the hidden gems. It’s the thing that authors
hate most about getting published. Well, in the case of Wattpad, the slush pile
is not on some agent’s desk, it’s out there for all to see in the digital
realm. And rising to the top is no easy feat. The time an author must take in
marketing their free book to read on Wattpad is equal to the time the same
author would put in trying to attract and agent or self-publishing and marketing
that book for sale in the public marketplace.
This is not to say Wattpad is a bad choice, it merely another
choice in the uphill battle an author faces in getting any recognition for
their work.
That said, Wattpad does have some major credits to its name.
Wattpad Studios, has made headlines over the past year for its film and TV
projects as well, with Netflix Original teen romantic comedy The Kissing Booth
and Hulu show Light as a Feather as examples of their success.
After finding initial success with its film and Tv
adaptation division Wattpad Studios, Wattpad has decided to launch a new
publishing division called, (what else?) Wattpad Books.
The company has already picked six debut stories to bring to
print in 2019, with the help of its special form of AI the Story DNA Machine
Learning technology.
“Wattpad Books is equal parts art and science, and our human
content and editorial experts are just as important for everything we do at
Wattpad Books,” says Ashleigh Gardner, the Deputy General Manager at Wattpad
Studios, Publishing.
Story DNA AI deconstructs stories into their elemental
features while also looking at multiple data points of audience engagement for
each of its story submissions. After all that data is compiled a human team of
Wattpad staffers will read each selected story to decide what gets published.
All Wattpad Books titles will be available at retailers
across North America, using Macmillan as its U.S. distributor and RaincoastBooks as its Canadian distributor.
At least one of those names should sound familiar to you.
This isn’t Macmillan’s first foray into crowd sourcing for
the next break out book. The publishing giant operates Swoon Reads through its
YA imprint Feiwel and Friends. Similar to Wattpad in its platform base, writers
submit manuscripts directly to the publisher, and readers rate, comment, and
vote on the submissions. Through this crowdsourcing platform Swoon Reads
releases between 20 and 30 titles a year in various formats: ebook, softcover, &
hardcover.
Some of you may remember Pronoun (Originally launched in
2009 as Vook), another initially popular self-publishing platform acquired by Macmillanin 2016. When the publishing giant took hold of the company it had been touted
as a sort of feeder platform, allowing the more popular indie published books a
chance of being seen or fast tracked into the traditional realm if sales proved
there was a viable interest. However, January 2018 Macmillan closed Pronoun, after
only 18 months stating the closure was due to its lack of profitability. One of
Pronouns draws in the indie publishing realm was its generous royalty structure
offering authors the highest payouts across any platform.
Macmillan’s history in partnering with platforms that allow
indie authors a sort of back door into traditional publishing can be seen as a positive
for this new Wattpad Books venture giving independent authors yet another
avenue into the traditional sphere, if
they so desire, that circumvents the standard query and rejection circuit that,
let’s face it, sometimes sucks the life out of being an author.
Only time will tell, but for now, I’ll be watching to see
what happens with these new title from Wattpad Books as they are published
later this year.