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This story was originally published on Passionfruit.
We’re sitting down with leaders on the business side of the creator economy to get their best advice for creators looking to launch and develop their careers. This week, we spoke with Jeanne Lam, the president of Wattpad.
Wattpad is a social media storytelling and writing platform, known for its bustling ecosystem of young fanfiction, romance, fantasy and pop culture enthusiasts. In recent years, it expanded its creator monetization options with paid stories, branded opportunities, and film, television and publishing deals for invited creators. In June, it announced a beta launch of the Wattpad Creators Program—an invitation-only program granting selected creators perks like monetization, mentorship, and marketing opportunities in exchange for publishing their stories exclusively on the platform.
We spoke with Lam about the company’s recent strategic shift towards monetization offerings for creators, the program’s requirements, her best tips for program hopefuls, and more.
The new Creators Program announced by Wattpad touts an investment of over $2.6 million in stipends—up to $25,000 each—for 500 eligible creators in 2022. Including those selected for stipends, the company is targeting over 3,000 invited creators to receive mentorship, marketing support, writing resources, and special paid opportunities.
Creators accepted into the program must meet a minimum threshold of “engaged readers,” which varies depending on which genre a creator writes in. Wattpad’s engaged readers are a new metric launched by the company which shows users who read a story for longer than five minutes. In addition, creators in the program must demonstrate they have published a new story “part” in the past three months, released a “novel-length story” of 50,000 words or more, and have no outstanding “trust or safety violations” on their stories.
“Our goal is for more writers to make a living from writing on Wattpad than anywhere else. We want to make Wattpad the best place in the world for writers to take control of their entire career,” Wattpad president Jeanne Lam told Passionfruit.
