Reaching Young Writers Where They Write

When Hot Key Books was looking for a sponsor for its third annual Young Writers Prize – a competition to find and publish writers aged 18-25 – it took a different tack from previous years, where the award was sponsored by the Guardian newspaper in its inaugural year, and then ebook retailer Kobo the second year. This year, the British publisher of books for children and young adults turned to Wattpad, an online community for writers and readers.

“We knew Wattpad had built a thriving community around the written word and that there was a lot of talent to be found there. Our Young Writers Prize was in its third year, and we thought Wattpad might be a good third partner. We were about to be surprised!” says Sara O’Connor, fiction digital director at Hot Key Books.

“The experience so far has blown our minds. We're extremely proud of our nearly 10,000 engaged Twitter followers, but that audience has taken us almost 3 years to build. With Wattpad, we hit 20,000 followers in three weeks – with probably 2,000 comments on our contest profile. 20,000 eager readers who are now aware of the Hot Key brand.” 

People who say that teens don't read should consider that Wattpad is getting 121 million global unique visits every month, with the heaviest slant to 13-18 year olds, says O’Connor. “There are no gimmicks – these are people that are connecting over the written word, and we are absolutely loving being a part of it. Submissions close August 16, and we are eager to see what kind of voices there are to discover. Some of the entries so far have millions of reads.”

While the competition runs and Hot Key Books has the attention of fans, the publisher is also promoting one of its own authors, Laure Eve, who is posting her book Fearsome Dreamer on the platform in installments with promotional support from Wattpad. Eve built a following of 12,000 followers in just one week. Says O’Connor: “The Wattpad community is hungry for quality content, and when they find it, they it shout about it very loudly, as you can see in the comments on Laure's story.”

So, how does O’Connor view Wattpad from her perspective in the traditional book publishing industry?

“Wattpad is a platform for discovery, for building audiences and celebrating writing and reading,” she says. “While most stories on Wattpad are not stories you could charge money for, they are all contributing to developing happy reading habits and driving excitement about books and authors. And one thing I can see clearly from the comments we've received, a huge proportion of Wattpad users still hold being published traditionally as a dream come true.”