Naver WEBTOON-owned webnovel subsidiary Wattpad has opened pitches for its Originals program as of September 3rd, and the platform is seeking new pitches for the webnovel platform’s most popular genres in Dangerous Love, Hot Encounter, Werewolf, Para-Romantasy, Slice of Life, and Speculative Fiction.
Originally launched in 2023, stories published under the Wattpad Originals banner are part of Wattpad’s paid content program, where readers to pay to read the latest chapters ahead or wait to read chapters for free.
In turn, writers under the program are able to build their audience through limited free reading, and offer paid early access to new chapters for the most dedicated readers. Early access to new chapters are unlocked with Coins, or Wattpad’s Premium and Premium+ subscriptions.
Nick Uskoski, Head of Content at Wattpad had this to say about opening formal pitches on the platform:
“Empowering writers to share their stories and make money doing what they love is what drives us as Wattpad, by introducing open pitching we’re making it even easier for anyone with a great idea to tell their story, make money, and connect with readers all over the world.”
In order to submit a pitch for consideration into the program, authors must submit a logline, title, summary and a polished first chapter in English along with a character summary, if available.
Pitches must be for an ongoing story and fit within one of the aforementioned categories. Pre-development support from Wattpad’s Editorial Team, and inclusion in Wattpad’s Originals program are being offered for successful pitches that fit the categories being sought for new and ongoing stories.
While Wattpad also mentions successful pitches being eligible for up to $5,000 USD in cash advances and ongoing monetization via Wattpad’s paid content revenue sharing, the PR makes no mention of how the advances will be split for winning pitches, or how the revenue share will work if the submission leads to a successful debut and ongoing series under the program.
The official pitch form is now live and accepting submissions, with a Wattpad account required to submit pitches.
Wattpad was formally acquired by Korea’s Naver WEBTOON in 2021 and the companies also merged their once separate studio divisions into Wattpad WEBTOON Studios later that same year. Wattpad also publishes books under the Wattpad Books imprint.
Source: Wattpad PR
