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Filigree

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Hmm, not so fast. Wattpad has apparently revamped its annual Watty awards with an eye more toward quality than the old popularity contest. I know of a couple of Big Five aquiring editors who watch Wattpad. Yes, putting something there effectively kills first rights for most work...but some publishers are recognizing Wattpad as an opportunity. I'm only doing it because an older version of my trunk-novel got rejected by nearly 80 agents...including the one I have now. I've improved the book, but I suspect I'll have to self-publish it and its sequels.
 

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Hmm, not so fast. Wattpad has apparently revamped its annual Watty awards with an eye more toward quality than the old popularity contest. I know of a couple of Big Five aquiring editors who watch Wattpad. Yes, putting something there effectively kills first rights for most work...but some publishers are recognizing Wattpad as an opportunity. I'm only doing it because an older version of my trunk-novel got rejected by nearly 80 agents...including the one I have now. I've improved the book, but I suspect I'll have to self-publish it and its sequels.

Hi Filigree!

I posted a couple of chapters at Wattpad. Does that mean I lost "first rights". I already before posting had copyrighted it and on the first page include my copyright registration number. I need to know because I think I'm going to go the trade publishing route with my 56,000 word novel and also try to find an agent. Anyone else out there too that might have advice after a person just posts an excerpt and not my whole novel. I remember when I uploaded my first chapter a message from Wattpad showed "Congratulations you've published to the web!" or something like that.

Thanks!
Winfred
 
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Aggy B.

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Hi Filigree!

I posted a couple of chapters at Wattpad. Does that mean I lost "first rights". I already before posting had copyrighted it and on the first page include my copyright registration number. I need to know because I think I'm going to go the trade publishing route with my 56,000 word novel and also try to find an agent. Anyone else out there too that might have advice after a person just posts an excerpt and not my whole novel. I remember when I uploaded my first chapter a message from Wattpad showed "Congratulations you've published to the web!" or something like that.

Thanks!
Winfred

Registering a copyright is an unnecessary step. You own the copyright as soon as you write it. And simply inserting (c) <Author Name> <year> on the title page is sufficient to establish the copyright.

That being said, in general, posting a few chapters of a full length novel will not burn First Publication Rights. If you post the whole thing, it will. (But even then some publishers will pick things up because they intend for the author to expand and refine the work before they publish it. Or because even without the First rights there's a significant market for it.)
 

Winfred

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Hi Aggy B.!

Thanks very much for your response as it is a relief to think then that Wattpad doesn't really "publish" your work when you post it there. I was led to believe something "legal" happened as when you post, like I did with my Chapter One, you get an automated message something like... "Congratulations you have now been published to the worldwide web!" or something like that. I posted it with a fictional name and not my own real name... does that make a difference? When they get to my first page, those who click beyond my cover, then they see my real name and I have my copyright registration number there. So I guess I'm okay then, right? Thanks for your help!! Anyone else with input to is much appreciated.

Kindest Regards,
Winfred
 
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Filigree

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Again, back up a little bit. The moment you've exposed anything online, whether it's on a blog, the open forums here at AW, or Wattpad...You Are Published. That piece can legally be counted as published. There's wiggle room when you look at different publishers' criteria for first rights and prior exposure. They'll want to know how many people saw the piece. If it got lots of hits, comments, rep points, etc. How does that audience translate into paying readers, if the publisher commits to putting out a new version?

Probably the best current example I can think of is C. A. Pacat's 'Captive Prince' novels, the first two of which were self-published online in serial form on LiveJournal (I think). They developed such a loyal following online that the author snagged an agent, and then a Big Five publication deal for the first two (slightly revised) books and a third to be published in Feb 2016. Of course, before the Big Five sale, the free versions were taken down.

So yes, a piece displayed on Wattpad can be considered 'published', and you'd need to disclose that fact if you later approach an agent or publisher.
 

Aggy B.

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Filigree is correct. However, if you have only posted a few chapters out of the novel (thinking of a novel in technical terms, so usually 50k and up) then you won't have killed first rights for the entire thing. But anything that goes online is considered published, so be careful about how much you share if you intend to seek trade publication.
 

Filigree

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What Aggy said. A couple of chapters can be considered a teaser, and most commercial publishers won't worry about it. You should be fine, if that's all you are doing.

My Wattpad experiment is something I approached only after long consideration. The trunk-novel's earlier version never got as far as a full request, over 80 agents and 3 publishers said 'No' outright, and even my current agent gave up 50 pages in. Even revised, it is a hot mess with no real chance at commercial distribution at this time. So I decided to put it up on Wattpad for two reasons: get feedback from other readers, and use it as possible advertising for something I'm hoping to commercially publish in a year or two.
 

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I'm experimenting with Wattpad for similar reasons to Filigree -- get feedback on my writing skills in general, build up a fanbase for future publishing exploits.

It's a nice enough place. The forums have pretty cool people and some of the stories on there are great, even if amateurism hangs over the whole site to a greater or lesser degree still. (Probably depends on what you read. I wouldn't touch romance to save my life, but to my understanding it's the site's main focus and probably sees higher quality in its top works. I'm sticking to horror for the time being.)

I'm playing my cards to get some degree of name recognition through there, at least enough that people will be interested in looking into my non-Wattpad works. I don't expect Saving Calixta to get picked up by the Big Five or something, though it would be super cool if it did. I just want enough people to like it that they tell their friends.
 

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I recently got obsessed with Wattpad. I entered the Harlequin/Carina SYTYCW contest and having never been on Wattpad before, the experience has been great. Wonderful feedback and although I didn't make top 55, my work has done well (I hit top 20 in romance category).

I have been subbing it to agents and publishers and while I haven't had any bites yet, so far none have been concerned with it being on Wattpad. Perhaps down the road one might be concerned, but I'm not going to fret about it.
 

NateSean

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It's basically fanfiction.net with more bells and whistles. I'm not planning to upload anything, but it might be worth it to kill some time reading what's there.
 

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I just wanted to say I posted my whole entire story on wattpad and it is now published. I sent it to 11 different publishers and only 1 got back to me and said they wouldn't publish it because it appeared for free on wattpad and honestly it was at the bottom of my list anyway. Of course, I had to take it down once I signed my contract and now only the first chapter is posted but if has been great having wattpad to promote my cover reveal, release date, and now the sequel coming out. I firmly believe I wouldn't be a published author today if it weren't for posting my story on wattpad.
 

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I didn't send the link but I did mention my story and it's popularity on wattpad in my query letter. My story was published with Evernight.
 

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Is this normal? [Wattpad]

https://twitter.com/ToDiaspora/status/800203036517892096

Like even to just say something as off hand as saying I didn't like 1984, started getting me a crap storm from the same four people that have harassed me for the last four months.

This doesn't seem like normal publisher behavior to me.

I had already unsubscribed from the thread in question. And it still goes on. Going to move my work to LitHive.

It seems like it truly doesn't take much to set some of these people off, and in case is outright unintentional.

The only people that call you spoiled are abusers and those who wish to take advantage of you.
 
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Introversion

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Just FYI, I don't have a Tumblr account, so can't read the link that tweet mentions.
 

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I do have a Tumblr account, but it just redirects to my dashboard. So I can't say anything about this specific case, as I don't know what happened.

What I'd say as a general thing is Wattpad isn't a publisher. It's a social display site. Most of the people you talk to on Wattpad are not people they employ. Most aren't professional writers either. So like any social site, you can end up with issues with other users. You'd most likely need to report the harassment on the site, rather than just unsubscribing from the thread.
 

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Wattpad isn't a publisher, it's just a display site with a decent following. If they've not given you any help so far, I don't think there's much you can do apart from taking your work down and not visiting the place anymore.
 

JenniferMannering

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I've debated posting my stuff on Wattpad... but I am definitely leery of giving away my writing for free.
 

Filigree

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I've had a novel on Wattpad for a year. 2048 views, some engagement with a couple of fans, no traction in the Wattys awards (not that I expected any) and no real engagement on my part in the forums. It's too much work gleaning through the nonsense, which is more my fault than Wattpad's. I've had no realistic benefit from the experiment. No loss, since it's a trunk novel.
 

Maryn

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That's interesting to know, Filigree. I appreciate the input.

Maryn, who appreciates you in other ways, too
 

IdrisG

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I've had some joy from Wattpad. I was invited to submit to a legit lit agency after posting a few stories on WP that gained some traction. I haven't submitted yet, because I'm still revising my submission, but it was a friendly, open-ended invitation that I can't wait to take them up on. I've also won one of the the website's Watty awards and been Featured, both of which go a long way to raising one's profile on the website. After being Featured and winning a Watty last year I went on to join their ambassadors, because I think the website has the power to do a lot of good for aspiring writers under the best circumstances and I want to help.
 

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A "Creator Relations Specialist" messaged me on Wattpad, saying I should let her know if I needed anything. No idea what such a person could do for me. My reply, asking what a creator relations specialist does, has yet to be answered.
 

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Hi, after seeing that some authors had their work noticed through Wattpad, I'm curious about checking it out. There's a lot of low-quality stuff there, so it's hard to imagine an agent sieving through it all, but is there really any downside to trying it out? Even just posting a few chapters of a novel you one day want to publish, on the off chance you might get some good advice or be able to tell an agent you got a decent following?
 

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I'm giving Wattpad a try. I don't have any stats yet since this is my first day of having a couple of chapters posted. What I do know is that in order to "be read" you have to get out there (on the site) and read. Comment. Participate in the forums. Frequently update your book(s) -- it's better to serialize. Oh, and I read on their forums that it's best to NOT categorize as Mature unless you're willing to do some major advertising. Of course, you have to mark as Mature if there's anything sexual in your book or talk of self-harm.

It's a great op for anyone with a trunk novel like Filigree above, or like myself with old freebies that need a new home. But it does require some work.

I'm not hoping for much out of my stuff.