#KathNiel is the most-searched term on Wattpad in The Philippines. There, Wattpad is known as much more than a huge online reading and writing community. Its arm called Wattpad Presents generates content for film and television productions. Announced in September 2014, the partnership sees TV5 Manila dramatize popular stories from the Toronto-based Wattpad site. The program is heavily… Read More
Age, Surveys, And Income: The Authors Guild’s View
‘Only One Piece Of The Puzzle’ Subsequent to our report on the Authors Guild’s release of results from its 2015 Member Survey, I’ve invited the Guild to provide some interpretation of how it sees the release of its “The Wages of Writing” survey results. In response, I have this explanation of the survey exercise, and I want to… Read More
Mega-Wattpad Stardom: The Before And After Of Anna Todd
‘I Got Impatient’ After all, Anna Todd was not yet an author. “Never thought about it.” She certainly is one now. But she arrived at Wattpad, as do the great majority of its users, as a reader. “I read for four months before I started writing anything.” And then one of the oldest bits of wisdom… Read More
Can digital community support writing, really?
Not unlike climate change, it’s something that digital-age writers worry about, but can’t nail down. I’m not sure what effect the accepting warmth of digital communities has on our literature. I don’t think encouraging people can make bad writing suddenly appeal to the masses. Are the communities going to start getting the same blame that self-publishing… Read More
#WDC15: Writer's Digest's Annual Conference
Hundreds of authors head into the ballrooms of New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel at Madison and East 45th this week for Writer’s Digest’s Annual Conference. There, many of them will woo literary agents in the confab’s huge Pitch Slam. And this year, the savviest of them will know exactly what moves those agents are looking for, thanks to… Read More
What if the 90 percent does write a book?
‘Your followers are so cynical’ In digital publishing, we’ve been talking about that “tsunami of content” (thank you, Jon Fine) for a long time. This week here at BookExpo America (BEA), however, we had a good remi nder that the world at large may not yet understand the stupendously deepening inventory that has come right along with… Read More
Does A ‘Writing Community’ Really Foster Writing? Or Community?
‘Connect With Readers While You Write Your Book’ That’s the brand promise of a site called Tablo. Familiar with it? It’s the work of writer and developer Ashley Davies of Melbourne, Australia. That’s a city we Australian Open tennis viewers feel we know very well after two weeks at the Rod Laver Arena (and two… Read More
‘Murder, She Read!’ Taking A Deep Dive Into Mystery With Nielsen
Do We Have A Clue What’s Happening In Mystery/Crime Reading? Their safe and secure lives rocked by a shocking revelation! Their routines turned upside down! Their world wracked by fear of the unknown now stalking them all! No, not the characters in a Dorothy Sayers mystery. I’m talking about the publishers. As I wrote in… Read More