Wattpad has popularized the notion of serialized digital books on their website. Millions of readers and writers use the free service to hone their writing skills and develop a loyal following. The serialized approach is the most dominant on the platform with readers giving their feedback after every chapter. Wattpad is now getting into the publishing game with two of their most seminal stories.
Wattpad is using Amazon Createspace to make physical versions of the books available. This will give people the ability to buy printed versions of the books and allow the authors to do book signings. Wattpad is also distributing the books digitally with Amazon, iBooks and Kobo.
The first book to get published is A Proscriptive Relationship by Jordan Lynde: Holly finds herself inexplicably drawn to her young teacher, Mr. Heywood, who is a mysterious man with dark and dangerous secrets. Jordan Lynde’s prolific writing boasts more than 100 million reads on Wattpad, with A Proscriptive Relationship alone having more that 30 million reads.
The second book is entitled My Wattpad Love by Ariana Godoy: Julie discovers far more than reading and writing in Wattpad’s online community. My Wattpad Love has been read more than 19 million times, and it was the recipient of the 2012 Watty Award.
These two books are one of the centerpieces to Wattpads bright and vibrant community. Having a free book read over 30 million times is no small feet, and is a testament to the writing prowess of the authors. It will be very interesting to see how these do in the mainstream sales channels, where they are competing against perennial bestsellers. Will the Wattpad community support the eBook versions of the books? If the book is available for free on the site, will people pay for it?
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.