Comments on: Do you Wattpad?

By: Jean

Jean — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:38:42 +0000

I don’t understand how she can have 13 million readers if Wattpad only has 1 million registered users.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:52:01 +0000

I thought that publishers are not interested if (part of) a work is already published (including making it freely available on the internet). Not sure if that´s completely true (it could be the reason why she´s going to self-publish), but I don´t want to ruin my chances of publishing in the ´traditional´ way so I have never put anything online.

By: Livia Blackburne

Livia Blackburne — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:28:32 +0000

So how grassroots was Twilight and Hunger Games? I’d thought that they were both PW “major deal” six figure extravaganzas.

By: I don't get it ...

I don't get it ... — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:08:46 +0000

How can the number 13 million possibly be right? Wouldn’t she and her book be a cultural phenomenon if that number were accurate? It’s way beyond the number of readers of many of the best-known New York Time’s Bestsellers.And if she were that successful, I find it hard to believe agents and publishers wouldn’t be pursuing her a la Amanda Hawking. I just think something is off here.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:27:31 +0000

Wattpad reminds me of Figment. I think it’s an interesting way for aspiring writers to show off their work and get feedback. As far as the huge fan base, it could work or not work in the writer’s favor.

I certainly wouldn’t buy the same book I just read for free. However, if I like the author’s style, voice, characters, world-building, etc…then I might go purchase one of their books that wasn’t free. Is Ms. Geragotelis thinking: hey, maybe I can translate those 13 million plus people into 13 million plus dollars in my pocket by going the self-pub route? I don’t know if that would necessarily work. Yes, Amanda Hocking was able to accomplish that, but I don’t believe she was on Wattpad.

Ms. Geragotelis has to remember those 13 million plus people are reading her stuff for…free. It doesn’t necessarily mean they liked her work. If they do (kudos to her) and it’s awesome and fabulous…then if it were me I’d go the traditional route. I’d state in my query letter I have 13 million plus readers of my work of Wattpad and I’m interested in having the agent read my sample pages or chapter.

By: Catherine Whitney

Catherine Whitney — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:27:45 +0000

Overall, I’m unimpressed with Wattpad. As a nonfiction author, I’m especially gagging at the nonfiction entries. They’re pretty terrible. I do support the idea of everyone writing. However, the cream in the marketplace still rises in fairly conventional ways. And professional writers, grounded in love, ultimately need to be paid.

By: Josin

Josin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:15:34 +0000

This doesn’t sound much different from people with large fanfiction fan-bases banking on them following over. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. It’s easy to grab a large pool of followers when things are free, but the indicator is the much smaller number who asked for paid copies.