Toronto based online story hub Wattpad to bring viral reads to bookstores

Ashleigh Gardner, who is leading the division, said the lack of diversity in publishing has created a disconnect between the people who decide what books reach the shelves and those who buy them. (File Photo: Ashleigh Gardner/Twitter)

TORONTO — Canadian online storytelling platform Wattpad is bringing clickable reads to a bookstore near you.

The Toronto-based company announced Thursday that it’s setting its sights on the offline book market with the launch of a new publishing division.

Wattpad Books plans to publish six digital hits from its online community of writers, to be rolled out across Canada this fall in partnership with Vancouver-based distributor Raincoast Books.

Ashleigh Gardner, who is leading the division, said the lack of diversity in publishing has created a disconnect between the people who decide what books reach the shelves and those who buy them.

Wattpad Books is looking to disrupt this “monoculture” with a data-backed “crowdsourced” approach that lets readers determine what stories are fit to print, she said.

“Instead of one editor deciding which story to publish, we’re able to look directly to what readers want,” Gardner said in a phone interview. “I’m really interested to see what other people are reading that we don’t traditionally see on bookstores.”

The imprint will cull titles from Wattpad’s 565 million uploads based on the combined input of human editors and a team of data scientists who use technology to track what stories or even words are resonating among readers, according to Gardner.

While some members of the literati may look askance at the notion of making publishing decisions by page views, Gardner said Wattpad has a record of being ahead of the curve in predicting the next book craze.

Many of the stories on Wattpad’s platform have already been turned into best-selling books or adapted for TV, film, and digital projects. Among the company’s biggest success stories is Anna Todd, who transitioned from a Wattpad reader into a publishing powerhouse.

In December, CBC announced a partnership with Wattpad for emerging Canadian writers to create exclusive content for its video streaming service, Gem.

“I think we’re often seeing things on Wattpad really trend on our site before we tend to see them in the traditional marketplace,” she said. “Our data and our readers are able to do that trendspotting and find those huge stories before they pop, and set new trends.”

Wattpad Books’ first slate of titles includes six young-adult reads spanning genre and subject matter, but Gardner said they are united by their approach to tackling topics that matter to teenagers, including mental health, #MeToo and LGBTQ issues.

“I think that so often in the traditional publishing industry, what we’re seeing is editors and librarians and all of these other people are choosing what’s acceptable for teens to read,” she said. “On Wattpad, we’re seeing teens choose their own reading, and write stories for each other.”

While the stories will remain free on Wattpad’s platform, Gardner said their analog counterparts will contain additional content that will have loyal followers waiting in line come publication day.

“(These readers) feel like they’ve been involved in this process and may have a lot of ownership over these titles as well, and that’s what makes them the biggest advocates for these titles in bookstores.”

Hannah McGregor, an assistant professor of publishing at Simon Fraser University, said Wattpad’s latest venture is tapping into the interactive way young people engage with literature, particularly through fan fiction.

McGregor noted that many books in Wattpad’s inaugural batch of releases feature perspectives that are underrepresented in literature, such as “I’m a Gay Wizard” by V.S. Santoni, which follows the magical misadventures of an angsty gay teen and his goth transgender best friend.

Some of these stories may turn out not to be “aesthetically refined” by traditional standards, said McGregor, but that’s not really the point.

“New approaches to publishing are often about opening up the possibilities and tapping new audiences,” said McGregor. “It allows for audiences who are being underserved to find space for their own voices.”

James Lorimer, a publisher and member of the book industry think tank More Canada, compared Wattpad to another Canada-founded publisher that earned worldwide commercial success — Harlequin Romance.

Wattpad has achieved impressive readership among teenagers, a hard-to-reach demographic for publishers, said Lorimer, and it only stands to reason that that success would translate onto the page.

If less-than-literary offerings help young people get into reading, then Lorimer said he’s hopeful they’ll discover other types of titles along the way.

“These worlds don’t operate totally separately,” he said. “It’s great to think that people who are already reading Wattpad … would be going to the bookstore and looking for books.”