Is Wattpad Books Setting an Example of Trend ForeCasting that Publishers Could Learn From?
Wattpad is an online writing community and story-sharing platform, often referred to as the ‘Youtube of Writing’, due to its vast selection of e-books written by amateur authors and open to the public domain. In 2019, the company launched Wattpad Books, a data-backed publishing division, where several stand-out titles from over 570 million uploads on the application are selected for international publishing. The in-house press combines global data, algorithms and reading trends to select which Young Adult titles will make it to bookshelves. Is this approach to forecasting reading trends something that publishing houses could learn from?
An Audience First Approach
Online publishers that have taken advantage of user-generated content, such as Buzzfeed and Reddit, have thrived within the digital age. Their use of data to collate which stories are ‘trending’ provide what is essentially, a leaderboard of real-time readership. When Wattpad launched in 2009, the website incorporated this same ‘trending’ approach by listing their highest performing titles by genre and providing recommendations based on users’ previous reads.
The company describes its publishing division as ‘discovered by data, loved by readers’, whereby, they use the same method to forecast precisely what their audiences are reading and would want to see published. Aron Levitz, The Manager of Wattpad Studios, suggests that the company can easily predict what to present to their audiences, because their content is written, shared and developed by those same audiences. A straight-forward model; it steers away from relying on advertising and focuses on measuring user retention instead.
A Post-Pandemic Readership
Wattpad recently announced that it had seen a major rise in user sign-ups whilst global lockdowns were in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With more young adults interacting with the online reading community, the platform can also monitor its users’ votes, comments and conversations on popular books and author profiles. As a result, Wattpad Books can identify titles that already have a dedicated audience, with the prospect of ‘series-binging fans’.
As online platforms continue to perform increasingly well, publishers predict that personalisation will become especially prevalent within the industry in years to come. This suggests that traditional publishing houses could most definitely learn from Wattpad Books and how it uses data derived from their ‘Spotify-style model’ of personalised reading suggestions to successfully forecast trends. However, this is an easy approach for what is essentially a tech-platform with a digital in-house press to adhere to, so how could other publishing houses do the same?
Personalisation of Audio and eBook’s
With sales of digital consumer titles up by 23% between January and July in 2020, the future of eBooks and audiobooks looks positive for UK publishers. It is through these digital platforms that publishers could potentially achieve the same level of personalisation towards future consumer trends within Young Adult Fiction. Through analysing data more thoroughly, publishers could optimise their digital sales and make more informed judgements or predictions on the success of new releases.
Despite publishers ability to implement successful marketing strategies and analyse books sales or global reach, future book releases could be selected more carefully if using a more personalised, data-driven approach towards e-book and audiobook trends.
Bibliography:
Anderson, P. (2020) ‘Germany’s Constantin Film Acquires a ‘Rocky-esque’ Story From Canada’s Wattpad’, Publishing Perspective. Available at: https://publishingperspectives.com/2020/08/germanys-constantin-film-acquires-a-rocky-esque-story-from-wattpad-covid19/ (Accessed 06 February 2021)
Anderson, P. (2019) ‘‘Wattpad Studios’ Aron Levitz: Words to Screen in the Year Ahead’, Publishing Perspective. Available at: https://publishingperspectives.com/2019/12/aron-levitz-wattpad-studios-words-to-screen-2020-outlook-books-to-film/ (Accessed 06 February 2021)
Chandler, M. (2020) ‘Wattpad activity spikes during coronavirus lockdown’, The Bookseller. Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/wattpad-activity-spikes-during-coronavirus-lockdown-1205050 (Accessed 05 February 2021)
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Ingram, M. (2012) ‘Wattpad raises $17 million to become the YouTube of writing’, Gigaom. Avaliable at: https://gigaom.com/2012/06/06/wattpad-raises-17-million-to-become-the-youtube-of-writing/ (Accessed 05 February 2021)
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