You may have noticed that Broken Penguin entries have been a little sparse this week. That’s because I’ve been busy attending sessions for Social Media Week Toronto! That, and because my bf and I had to hit up our favourite burger joint for Valentine’s Day. ‘Cause we classy like that.
In my Social Media Week adventures, I met the team at Wattpad. If you haven’t heard of Wattpad, you should check out their website and download their app. It’s free!
Wattpad lets authors share their stories with the 3 million Wattpad users who read, comment and share (not unlike us book bloggers!). It truly takes reading stories to a whole new interactive level. The co-founder of Wattpad says that 5,000 stories were shared in the last 12 hours. Unlike traditional publishers like Penguin, Wattpad is not about exclusivity. Anyone and everyone can post a story.
When I shared the concept on Twitter, I immediately received questions about how these authors make money. The answer is: it’s not about the money. Usually.
From what I understand, a select few Wattpad authors who are very marketing-savvy have managed to attract a following and secure book deals. But the majority of Wattpad authors just want to share their stories for fun.
The only real problem for me is that Wattpad has so many stories, it’s difficult to know what to read first. Every genre you can think of is available at Wattpad. While some authors publish a whole book at once, some publish chapter by chapter to keep readers coming back.
And along with the countless great stories, there are many more not-so-great stories. It truly is the wild west of stories. So how to filter out the bad cowboys? Wattpad says they’re looking for new ways to help people find the stories they want to read.
I hope to read some of these stories and tell you about them in the next few weeks. What do you think of Wattpad?
More than 13,000 results came up on Wattpad for romantic westerns.
Photo credits: oraclefox.blogspot.com, business.financialpost.com, features.cgsociety.org, homotrophy.com
Lovely cowboy. I saw him and inwardly yawped, “Yee Haw.”
So glad you are pleased! You won’t believe the trouble I went thru to find him. It was such hard work to sift through countless photos of topless cowboys on pinterest.
Sounds like a pretty neat idea Farah, I hadn’t heard of it before your review but I’ll be downloading it for my iPhone to check it out. I like the idea of people being able to self publish and get feedback from such a safe community. You’d hope there’s no one lurking around just waiting to tear someone’s story apart!
Hi Jessica! I looked thru some of the stories and I looks like a pretty supportive community. It’s more about giving constructive feedback rather than trolling. But I suppose every community has its trolls! Would love to read your story when it’s published!
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I love wattpad too. Awww….its an amazing website
i love wattpad my book is “Run” and “I Never Got To Say Goodbye” by me my wattpad is RainaAubrey please read my stories
Hi Jass! I’ll check those out. Thanks for visiting