Wattpad, social networking community for budding writers, completes seven years

Ever wondered what would happen if epic rivals Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy bonded? Just go to to Wattpad, a Canadian social networking community for writers, where Japanese author Tsukino Migoto Khun has created a whole new alternate world, Drarry: Arcane Ties – Harry Potter AUFanfiction, quite different from JK Rowling’s.

Tsukino’s exploration of Harry and Draco’s journey against a new Dark Lord and their feelings towards each other has 23 parts and has received 56,980 views.

Wattpad is, for the many fans like Tsukino out there, itching to create alternate storylines and introduce new characters to take the story forward. Seven years after it started, it has around 19 million users reading its millions of free stories.

The writing community has come a long way since 2006 when Wattpad was launched. The site has moved from providing a space for writers to hone their craft to giving publishers a chance to choose authors and offer them a book deal.

India is a big player too. In September, it was the fifth most active country on Wattpad with more than three million sessions. The numbers are small but the users active.

“Wattpad gives growing writers a chance to interact with published writers and show their talents to the community at no cost. The writers get recognition because of their work and also a fan following who will support them throughout their career,” says Durriya Kapasi, an occasional blogger from Udaipur. Kapasi has two completed stories on Wattpad, including ‘Lydia’, a science fiction/fantasy story that has been read by 95,000 people.

Vijayendra Mohanty, a comic book writer from Delhi and a daily Wattpad user, joined the site when he heard that Margaret Atwood was on it. He likes the platform because it offers an unusual relationship between readers and writers, providing avenues for both his interests.

Mohanty started reading the science fiction story Teen Punk Detective and loved it so much that he got in touch with the writer on Facebook. “These writings won’t be found in a bookshop, and the kind of feedback received is difficult to find in the real world,” says Mohanty, who has written a short stories collection called ‘Ramayan 2.0’.

Some people call Wattpad the YouTube for writers as it allows people to create their own accounts, post stories, as well as read and comment on the stories of others.

Interestingly, though Wattpad is a writing community, about 90 per cent of its users are readers.
But are sites like Wattpad sounding the death knell for the printed word?

“We’re not replacing printed books but we’re creating a new experience around storytelling,” says Allen Lau, CEO and co-founder. “From the start, Wattpad has been about mobile, social reading.”

Most writers agree. They say that having a medium like the online world is helpful in polishing their craft but getting something out in print holds more weight. Wattpad seems to have understood this concept the best. It is currently partnering with publishers to help users reach a wider audience.

“I think we have already begun to change the way stories are shared and discovered around the world,” says Lau, adding that “By removing the traditional barriers that separated reader and writer we are enabling the creation of billions of stories.”

Wattpad is also representative of the newer approaches to writing.

Microblogging site Twitter, which also started in 2006, is an example. As people jumped on to the Twitter wagon to broadcast their thoughts within 140 characters, some saw in it an opportunity to test their writing skills.

Arjun Basu joined Twitter in 2008. A week after his first tweet, he created Twisters, 140-character short stories. Basu has written 6,000 Twisters since.

“Writing is a solitary activity. On Twitter it isn’t. Your audience is right there,” he says. Basu’s Twisters have received favourable reviews, one even turned into a film called Life.

“It’s not social media that has seen the deluge — it’s the entire digital space. The barriers to publishing have been lifted for anyone with access to a computer.”

There are some drawbacks too. Although social media has opened newer avenues to publishing stories, it comes with its drawbacks, the main one being quality.

Indira Chandrasekhar, founding editor of online magazine Out of Print, tries to keep a strict control over quality. “A positive trend is that people are bold and confident in their writing, there is a whole plethora of writers now and people feel that their work is ready to be exposed. That is a big transition,” she says.

The who, how and why of Wattpad
Wattpad and Harlequin have teamed up for a romance writing contest where writers can use Wattpad to upload the first chapter of their romance story aimed at a ‘new adult’ audience. Four winning submissions will each be awarded a publishing contract from Harlequin

The service, available on desktop, iOS, Android and via Kindle, hosts about two million writers, both amateur and professional (including Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale)

Writers retain all rights, and upload anything from short stories to complete e-books

The Wattpad Story Widget gives users the ability to share stories by embedding the widget on a blog, Tumblr, or website, which grants readers access to the first part of a Wattpad story

In August, the service saw more than one billion story reads, prompting it’s founders to launch a Kickstarter-style crowdfunding service for authors to raise capital to self-publish. So far three projects have been funded.