Storytelling platform Wattpad is revamping its creator program and making it extra accessible for writers, the corporate introduced on Thursday. Launched final yr, the Wattpad Creators Program was restricted in scale and “overly difficult,” the corporate says. Since its launch, Wattpad has paid out practically $3.8 million in stipends by means of this system. Wattpad plans to pay out $1 million extra throughout the remainder of the yr.
At launch, this system featured totally different tiers primarily based on a author’s objectives. With the revamped program, WattPad is shifting from program tiers with totally different necessities, to a single degree and expertise for everybody in this system. The Toronto-based firm says this modification will make it simpler for author to deal with their writing, fairly than which tier they need to goal for.
To be eligible for this system, a author should decide to writing a minimal of 500 phrases per week and have no less than one accomplished novel-length story of fifty,000 phrases or extra of their catalog. As well as, a author will need to have no less than one story in an eligible style that has achieved a minimal variety of Engaged Readers. The corporate counts an Engaged Reader as somebody who has spent greater than 5 minutes on a narrative within the final one year. The standards for Engaged Readers differ from 9,000 for normal fiction to 100 for horror.
Though the brand new program is at the moment invite-only, Wattpad says the brand new standards will allow it so as to add extra writers. Wattpad notes that this system provides writers the choice to pause and resume participation.
Nick Uskoski, Wattpad Head of Content material and Creator Improvement, advised TechCrunch in an e-mail that the corporate is eradicating a number of the boundaries to entry so it might carry extra writers into this system. The unique program was open to just some hundred writers, and provided stipends upon entry. Individuals had been eligible for varied ranges of stipends relying on a tiering system. Within the new program, the corporate is transferring to a mannequin that provides stipends for particular writing initiatives.
Wattpad can also be putting a larger deal with author schooling and training with the revamped creator program. The unique model of this system provided perks to writers who had been extra skilled or had revealed extra work, whereas the up to date program will give all writers entry to those assets.
All writers in this system will get entry to Wattpad’s editorial response software, which lets writers ask the corporate’s in-house editorial crew questions. Writers will even get entry to new instruments and assets that can assist them develop, together with entry to stay editorial teaching and workplace hours. As well as, writers will get entry to quarterly conferences the place the corporate will share details about constructing a profession on Wattpad.
“Not everybody has the time, assets, and privilege to attend writing workshops and retreats, so we’re bringing that very same type of neighborhood, assist, and perception to the Wattpad Creators Program,” Uskoski mentioned. “We don’t simply need to be the place the place writers begin their profession, we would like them to develop and flourish on Wattpad and past.”
The brand new program will supply limited-term writing initiatives to encourage new content material in genres we need to see extra of on the platform. The primary of those is a year-long Writing Intensive-style challenge, which pays a stipend for publishing new chapters on a daily weekly schedule.
