Wattpad is the world’s biggest platform for young writers and avid readers, and was created by Allen Lau, CEO of Wattpad Corp in Toronto, Canada 2006. Wattpad is an app that is open to anyone worldwide and gives people the opportunity to get their creative pieces of writing noticed without the difficulty and high cost of going through a traditional publisher.
Wattpad has a large variety of novels and short stories in many genres; some examples are: romance, horror and adventure to teen/fan fictions. Once a writer is comfortable with what they’ve written, they can publish it. The readers will be able to read, comment on, vote on or add to their library/reading lists. Wattpad has a feature where readers can give the author feedback through public messages on the authors “board,” and comment on the book or a paragraph in a chapter. If stories begin receiving a large amount of views and more fans leave a lot of feedback and votes, authors will eventually be given the opportunity to get paid. According to Wattpad.com, Wattpad Futures is a simple way for writers to make money from their writing. Wattpad staff will contact the author directly if they feel that they are a suitable candidate. According to a member on the Wattpad Futures program, Jodie Ha, a 30 second video advertisement will come up between chapters every 30 minutes for each reader, the amount of videos watched will be recorded and the companies will pay the authors based on advertising exposure. An example of a story that receives payments through advertisements is I’ll Protect You, a humorous novel by an author known as Nghi.
Books on Wattpad also earn awards such as The Storysmiths, The Tap Award, The Riveting Reads, The Originals and more. You can submit your book for The Wattys, and if your book gets accepted into the awards, the awarded stories will be featured on the home page for more eyes to see. Some examples of award winning books 2017 are 7:23 am, a teen fiction by Asia Keller and The Water Weaver, a fantasy by Holly Hamilton.
To sign up, go online on wattpad.com or get the app on your device. According to wattpad.com, the app gets over 130 thousand sign ups per day, with a total of 55+ million monthly audience and users spend an average 30 minutes per day on the app. Happy reading!
