Wattpad
Wattpad [1] is a social networking mobile site for aspiring writers, editors, and avid book readers based in Toronto, Canada. Wattpad is also a database of over 5 million self published stories that anyone can read and comment on. The subjects of the stories include horror, fantasy, non-fiction, science fiction, and many other subjects.
Contents
Origin
Wattpad was created in 2006 in Toronto, Canada as a partnership between Allen Lau [2] and Ivan Yuen. In February 2007, Lau and Ivan created a mobile application of Wattpad that was supplied with 17,000 stories through an e-book project entitled Project Gutenburg [3]. Project Gutenberg is a long running organization that started in 1971. Their primary goal is to encourage ebook reading through the maintaining and distribution of copyright-free books. In the year 2009, Wattpad's mobile application expanded to mobile platforms such as BlackBerry [4], iPhone [5], and the iPad [6]. Now Wattpad is a social community of readers and writers where nearly 500,000 books are created every month.
Recent Funding/Rewards
In September of 2011, Wattpad received 3.5 million dollars in funding from Union Square Ventures [7]. Union Square Investors has also been an investor of MySpace (see Social Networking). Other investing companies that support Wattpad are W. Media Ventures, and Golden Venture Partners.
In December of 2011, Wattpad was nominated and won an award in the subject of "innovative digital media" at an event called CIX [8]. The CIX (Canadian Innovation Exchange) is Canada's people choice awards for start-up companies. The companies nominated for these awards are recognized for successful and innovative business strategies and start-ups. Within the same year as 2011, Ivan Yuen was selected to be part of the Deloitte Impact Infused Program [9]. The program selects ten entrepreneurs in the Canadian start-up business market and gives them special resources and training to increase their chances of supporting and/or creating their business.
Featured Pages
Wattpad features a a list on the front page called the "What's Hot List." The stories placed on the list are selected through the highest number votes. The list changes daily due to an ongoing voting process. According to the profiles that exist in Wattpad, most of the authors on the appear to be inspired teenagers.
Wattpad also has a "Featured Story" list on the site. The stories selected for this list are read and hand selected by staff members of Wattpad. Most of the authors that are selected are well established professional e-book writers that self-publish their own work.
Notable Writers
Margaret Atwood [10] has been a long time supporter of Wattpad and its cause. Margaret Atwood is a novelist, writer, essayist, literary critic, and a poet. She is one of the most notable writers in Canada, claiming a very extensive list of awards and creating multiple writer's organizations. She is also a promoter of environmentalism.
[[File:]]
Abigail Gibbs [11] is a Wattpad writer from Brixham, Devon, in the U.K. She started writing her book, The Dark Heroine, when she was 14. Now at 18 through Wattpad, she amassed a very large amount of readers and over 17 million hits. She has recently signed a six-figure deal with HarperCollins, a publishing company in Britain and America. Her book was inspired by the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.
[[File:]]
Brittany Geragotelis [12]is an editor for a magazine entitled "American Cheerleader [13]." She is famous on Wattpad for writing a popular story entitled "Life's a Witch." The story currently has over 20 million reads. She has decided to self publish her own work.
Contests
Wattpad host a series of small contests through the community page. The annual awards contest is called the Watty Awards [14]. The Watty awards was started in 2011 and is broken down into three divisions in order to give users of varying ability a chance to win. The three levels are Popular, On The Rise, and Undiscovered. Anyone with a Wattpad account can enter the contest.
In collaboration with Margaret Atwood, another contest has been created. The new contest is called the "Attys" awards. The Attys is a poetry contest that gives writers a chance to compete in 2 different categories: an "Enthusiast" or a "Competitor." 2012 marks the first year of the contest. Submissions end at the end of October. The judging panel consist of ten Toronto based notable writers and artist.
Ethical Concerns
Copyright Infringement
Some community pages and news pages have named Wattpad as "Literato's Pirate Bay" [15]. This name has came into fruition though a number of writers who used Wattpad to create digital copies of famous novels such as the Twilight series and Harry Potter [16]. Many authors including Stephanie Meyer, J.K. Rowling, and Stephen King, has become more active in patrolling sites like Wattpad for illegal copies of their work and demanding that Wattpad erases those books from their database. Wattpad has responded by erasing the illegal copies as quickly as possible.
See Also
References
- ↑ http://www.wattpad.com/about
- ↑ http://www.makingthingsoutofnothing.com/
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gutenberg
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad
- ↑ http://gigaom.com/2011/09/12/union-square-backs-wattpad-to-make-reading-more-social/
- ↑ http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/news.asp?id=65192
- ↑ http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_CA/ca/pressroom/ca-pressreleases-en/58b44ca2284c3310VgnVCM3000001c56f00aRCRD.htm
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood
- ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2201767/Wattpad-Abigail-Gibbs-18--secures-figure-sum-vampire-novel-inspired-Twilight-saga.html?openGraphAuthor=%2Fhome%2Fsearch.html%3Fs%3D%26authornamef%3DLarisa%2BBrown
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattpad
- ↑ http://www.americancheerleader.com/
- ↑ http://www.wattpad.com/watty2011
- ↑ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/09/wattpad_iphone/
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/technology/internet/12digital.html?_r=1&
