Anna Todd Quote
“What is Wattpad and what is it for?”, a question that can be found commonly on the web. It is a free and digital platform where, as a social network, readers can log in and interact with the works of their favorite writers on the site. Wattpad arises in 2006 thanks to a partnership between Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen.
The portal has spawned an Arcadian community where users write and read original material.. Authors have the freedom to create stories indefinitely, in any genre, and without filters or censorship from the web. While, at the same time, readers can engage with the content more directly.
Wattpad for all tastes
On Wattpad it is possible to find texts from the public domain or Project Gutenberg —a free digital library from existing physical books—. Also, it is common to obtain unpublished works by local writers, which, through user reactions and interactions, make their way to a much broader audience.
The most popular genre within the platform is fanfic. SHowever, it is also possible to find essays, poems, horror, science fiction, romance and youth novels.
Wattpad Statistics
According to Mary Meeker's Annual Internet Trends Report, by 2019 Wattpad had more than 80 million registered users. The platform currently has around 40 million members a month, and approximately 24 hours of reading material is uploaded each day.
As in any social network, more than the quality of the content, the relevance comes from how many people share it, and the way they do it. On this platform that is equivalent to 259.000 shares newspapers.
90% of orange web traffic comes from mobile devices, so at least half of the original books on Wattpad are written from a smartphone or a tablet. Of the latter, 40% come from the United States. Additionally, 70% of the community's digital population are Gen Z women.
Features designed for comfortable reading
Anna Todd: Books
Wattpad has tools that help you search, read, and categorize content. Likewise, these are beneficial for writers, since allows them to perform a type of segmentation to find the right audience to the type of texts they develop. Some of these resources are:
Tagged content
It works in a very similar way to hashtags on social networks like Instagram or Twitter. Writers can add these tags to their stories. Readers, for their part, can use them to specifically find content they are interested in reading. Tagged content also serves to indicate to users which texts are not appropriate for them., or to block specific material.
Rating of the stories
The platform allows to establish classifications that go from “mature” to “for all”. Nevertheless, content for older teens or young adults has a systematization of 17+. Even so, minor users can access these supposedly restricted topics, because there are no real filters within Wattpad.
Reading list
Readers can create a collection or reading list of the books they enjoy the most, or those they are about to read. This makes it easier for them to access. Also, logs are publicly displayed on user profiles, so it is usual for conversations to be generated about it among the members.
Write in the App
Wattpad has a mobile application for the convenience of its users. This App allows you to write directly on it, without the need to resort to the platform via computer, and is available for Android and iOS. Thus, It has an intuitive interface, where it is possible to modify the type and size of the letter, as well as adding the dark mode alternative. However, text editing is not always optimal, and the dictionary is very limited.
Paid Stories on Wattpad
Writers often use this feature to receive giveaways through the platform, much like someone would on a Twitch stream or Patreon. Readers support their favorite books with coin donations, which, in turn, are purchased with real money through Google Play or Apple.
Watty Awards
Once a year, the website launches a contest to reward writers with the most popular and highest quality stories. The rules and genres subscribed vary in each award ceremony, and registrations usually take place in the summer.
From type to ink: Wattpad's most famous books
The statistics show the notoriety of some of the emerging books on this platform, even attracting the attention of the most traditional publishers, such as Barcelona's Casa Nova Editorial. While it is true that this website does not have a rigorous quality control, it is also true that it has helped many new writers to come out of the shell., because it encourages the writing of young people aged thirteen and older.
Ariana Godoy Quote
One of the most popular cases is that of the American Anna Todd, with his debut feature, After (2013) that started out as a fanfic.
Many authors have been inspired by the success of the Todd saga to write their own stories, as is the case of the Venezuelan Ariana Godoy, with her novel Through my window, which has 257 thousand readings on the platform, and its own youth film on the red giant, Netflix.
other popular books
- Guilty Trilogy (2017-2018) Mercedes Ron;
- Perfect liars (2020) Alex Mirez;
- Damian (2022) Alex Mirez.
The Terror of Copyright: Controversy
In May 2009, a controversial article in the New York Times stated: “Sites like Scribd and Wattpad, which invite users to upload documents like college theses and self-published novels, have been the target of industry complaints in recent weeks for the illegal reproduction of popular titles that have appeared on such websites…”
However, in April of the same year, that is, before the renowned newspaper gave the green light for the publication of the article, the orange platform stated that it would implement a program that would allow published authors —and their representatives— identify infringing material.
In this way, and like other well-known digital portals, such as YouTube or Tik-Tok, Wattpad could be an interesting tool to make yourself known as a writer. The platform itself requires nothing more than a certain availability of a mobile device and the internet to reach readers. However, and in symmetry with the other spaces mentioned above, it is also very common to find low-quality content that does not entail a greater contribution to literary culture.