Oh my gosh, hi! It's been a while, hasn't it?

If you don't remember/know me, I'm Vicky, aka TinHoverCarInIce on Wattpad! This time last year, I was a super active Wattpader, but now I'm happily settled in another part of the bookish community: the YA book blogger section.

Over the last twelve months, I've worked with traditional publishers, authors, and all sorts of different people to review books and do all sorts of cool and fun things on my blog! (shameless plugin: check it out at www.vickywhoreads.wordpress.com!)

I love what I'm doing, and although I obviously miss the Wattpad community a bunch (love you guys), there's a lot left for me to explore! (Like all those books!)

By now, you're probably asking, "VICKY. ENOUGH ALREADY. Just tell me how to get traditionally published, and I'll be outta your hair."

And yes, we'll get to that in a moment. But pesky intros are super important for us to get to the real tea, publishing & Wattpad (aka "VICKY TELL ME HOW TO GET TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED"). 

Because I've been a Wattpader and a book blogger (for around a year each), I've really become familiar with how Wattpad interacts with the traditional publishing community. And if you're wondering what I mean by "traditional publishing," I mean those books you see at the bookstore, like at Barnes and Noble or even Target.

I feel like it's important to establish that I have a decently sound basis for when I'm talking about this topic.

Despite this, I'm going to warn you right off the bat: a good portion of this is based on observation and educated deduction. The only people who can get you the real facts & statistics are probably Wattpad HQ and some publishing professionals.

But, I believe that my observations have merit, and I'll try to be as objective as possible.

Bringing us to the million dollar question: How do I, a Wattpader, get published?

Normally, there are two ways any layperson can get published: traditionally or self-published.

Self-publishing is when you publish your book yourself (duh), i.e. using Createspace and selling a book on Amazon. Anyone can self-publish, although making sure your self-published novel is a success is a different story. For example, AnaEasterly self published her Watty 2017 winning novel, The Fakers.

Traditional-publishing, on the other hand, is when there's a publishing house who helps you polish your book, market it, etc. Basically, they help do more of the work to ensure your book is a success. For example, bethrevis has her novels (the Across the Universe series, as well as other novels and the upcoming Give the Dark My Love) traditionally published with Penguin Random House!

Traditionally-published books are normally the ones you find in bookstores, and they often come in hardcover format when they debut.

Despite how cut and dry this sounds, there are more intricacies to it. There are smaller publishing houses that only publish books as eBooks or paperbacks, and self-published authors can also market and edit their books in many of the same ways as traditional publishers, although they might not have the same reach in the book community.

So there's a little overlap, but I'll be focusing primarily on traditional publishing in this post, which is what I'm more familiar with.

I'm gonna say this straight off the bat: getting traditionally published is seriously freaking hard. If you were expecting a quick and easy five step guide, I'm sorry, but you'll be sorely disappointed.

It's hard for non-Wattpaders and Wattpaders alike.

One of my favorite traditionally published authors, Joy McCullough, had her debut novel Blood Water Paint published just a couple months ago. She'd been working on writing it and getting it published for almost 16 years.

Can you believe it? That's older than a bunch of you folks on Wattpad right now. And despite how absolutely stellar her debut is, it took her that long to get it published traditionally.

Getting traditionally published usually involves a couple steps (which turn out to be really freaking hard to do):

1. Getting a Literary Agent – This means querying (sending info about your book for them to read) different literary agents and hoping one of them offers to represent you. (Can take many, many years.)

2. Having Said Literary Agent Try to Sell Your Book to a Publishing House – This could mean your book is bid on in a multi-house auction, your book is sold relatively quietly, or your book is never sold. (Could never happen. Could also take many years.)

3. Get Book Published – This involves multiple rounds of editing, lots of waiting, marketing, and other business-y things. (After getting your book sold to a publishing house, it usually takes 1-3 years to get published and in the hands of readers.)

This is a really simplified & generalized summary, and I urge any of you considering traditional publishing to DO YOUR RESEARCH. But, do not fret if this sounds super complicated & something you don't want to do! There are other ways to do this, which I'll talk about later.

Things are equally (if not more) hard for Wattpaders.

This isn't supposed to be a "Let's drag Wattpad" type of post, but I think it's important to share a little info about Wattpad's advantages and disadvantages to getting traditionally published.

The short version is: books published on Wattpad (or any online site) are generally less appealing to literary agents & publishers.

I know people can and will tell you differently, and it's not like having a Wattpad book makes it impossible to publish. But, going through the hoops of traditional publishing by yourself (more on this later) with a Wattpad book is really, really hard.

The justification is usually because they don't want things that were already available to read for free. This doesn't mean they won't take Wattpad books, but a lot of the time they're not interested. And oftentimes, they will ask you to take down your Wattpad version.

The benefit that comes with Wattpad books would be the built-in fanbase. This is your redemption for when you're trying to get traditionally published.

So, having a Wattpad book and trying to get published is really kind of tough, tougher than normal.

At this point, you might be ready to give up.

But do not worry! I have some ~awesome examples~ of Wattpaders who have gotten traditionally published to show you possible ways that YOU can get traditionally published.

Disclaimer: These are certainly not the only ways you can get your Wattpad book published. I know some people are just approached by publishers (be careful the person is not a scammer, because that happens) and there are also a bunch of special cases out there.

#3 The Normal Method

Remember those three steps I wrote about getting traditionally published—all of which requires querying and getting an agent? Well, this is still totally a viable option!

You'll have to do your research and dive into the query trenches, but this is the most common way books get traditionally published. (Also, look into things like pitching contests on Twitter, i.e. #PitchWars and #PitMad, for another way to get a literary agent)

I'm going to lay it out there, the normal way is probably the hardest option. Like I said before, Wattpad books aren't as appealing sometimes, and having a large fanbase (lots of followers & reads) can be helpful in making your book more appealing.

But people have done it! This is an example I'm a little shaky on, but I believe TaranMatharu got his Summoner series published by Macmillan without Wattpad's help. JulieCDao did not get her Wattpad book published, but she still got her other novel (written off Wattpad), Forest of a Thousand Lanterns published by Penguin Random House.

It has been done before, albeit somewhat rarely.

#2 With the Help of Wattpad

This is the method with the books you probably hear the most about.

Books like My Life with the Walter Boys by fallzswimmer, Follow Me Back by adam_and_jane, and Chasing Red by isabelleronin have all been published with Wattpad's help.

Wattpad, over the past few years, has been trying to bridge the gap between the stigma surrounding Wattpad novels and has partnered with publishing houses. The one with the most notable results would be Sourcebooks FIRE (published the three I mentioned), although the books with them have only been paperback editions (but they have been at lots of major retailers!).

A while back, a Wattpad & Harper Collins partnership was announced, although I don't believe any books have been published through this yet.

Either way, Wattpad can definitely provide a bunch of help in getting books published, and a lot of the time, you won't need a literary agent right off the bat (you will most likely get one eventually).

But, there's a catch.

This effort is usually only given to really big Wattpad writers—people with usually a couple hundred thousand followers (or, at least a couple dozen thousand). (And I think they're all Wattpad Stars, although I haven't gathered enough information to 100% confirm this.)

So, I'm just gonna say, don't hold your breath. Do you know just how many amazing Wattpad writers there are out there? There is a huge amount of talent on this platform, and it's really hard to get the talent where it needs to be, especially without a whole army of talent managers at Wattpad HQ. There are lots of wonderful stories and amazing Wattpad writers out there, and getting noticed can be super hard.

My advice is to not hinge all of your hopes and dreams on getting noticed, but do try your best at building your fanbase and producing amazing content. You never know, you might just be invited to the Stars program, which could lead to a potential publishing contract.

#1 Swoon Reads

This is my personal favorite way for Wattpad books to get published.

With Swoon Reads, you get the whole works.

You don't need a literary agent, you submit your manuscript online on their site, and then urge your readers to leave comment & rating love, just like they do on Wattpad, and you also get the full range of benefits of traditional publishing.

Your book gets a hardcover edition (in the past, it was paperback only, but now everyone is published in hardcover), it gets marketing, editing, is available at Barnes and Noble etc. (you get ARCs, finished copies in the mail, etc.) and it gives you potential for publishing more books with them.

Although your chances aren't 100%, you know your book is in good hands (as much as it may hurt to edit, you also have people like Jean Feiwel on your side) and you know that you have a decent chance, a one in hundreds (on Swoon Reads) vs. one in thousands (on Wattpad).

Plus, historically authors published on Swoon Reads don't need to have the largest of the large fanbases—they have modestly sized ones that may not be in the hundred thousands, but still have enough avid supporters who will leave love on their story.

I've seen how well Wattpad books on Swoon Reads perform within the book community. Swoon titles are respected and don't have the Wattpad stigma that some other Wattpad novels have. Even though your fanbase is inherently smaller, your book can reach a wider audience besides just Wattpad (a wider audience who is generally more willing to pay for books).

Writers like ClaireKann (Let's Talk About Love), nonfictionalex (Love Scene, Take Two, formerly known as Between Takes), and jenmariewilde (Queen of Geek, formerly What Happens at SupaCon) have all had successful books published with Swoon Reads, and some even have more novels to come from the imprint.

Writers like LillieVale (Small Town Hearts, formerly known as Bitter Brews), tasting_stars (The Supervillain and Me, formerly Men in Tights), and liveandlove10 (Surviving Adam Meade) all have upcoming titles with Swoon Reads that I am so excited for!

I personally think Swoon Reads is one of the best places to go with your young adult (teen) Wattpad manuscript, especially when you don't have Wattpad on your side. You get the benefits of traditional publishing by querying with the ease of traditional publishing through Wattpad's relationships.

I hope this bulk of this post has proved relatively informational for you & left you with some hope! These are just a few ways that you could potentially get your Wattpad manuscript traditionally published. It's definitely a lot to digest, and I really suggest you continue to look further into this with your own research.

I want to end this with a little bit about how traditional publishing is not your only option. Seriously. There are other ways of writing that can still help you generate money and build a name for yourself.

Serializing your fiction for money (on apps like Radish) can bring in some income that can go a long way. Writers like RobThier who serialize on Radish ahead of what they write on Wattpad, can make around $13k a month. (Source: an article on Radish from Publisher's Weekly cited how "at least one Radish writer to make as much as $13,000 a month.")

Similarly, self-publishing is definitely an option. Or using Kickstarter (popular with webcomics). There are a lot of options out there, you just have to find what works best for you, which may not always be traditional publishing.

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Thank you all so much for reading! I hope this post was super helpful in getting you on track to achieving all of your wonderful dreams. I'd be happy to answer (to the best of my ability) any questions you have, or at the very least, direct you to someone/somewhere you can find more information!

Questions, comments, concerns? Feel free to drop a comment on this post! I'll be checking the comments here all day on my post day, and regularly throughout the month.

If something is urgent, tag me in your comment TinHoverCarInIce. If it's really really urgent, message me on Twitter @VickyCBooks!

One last thing: don't forget to enter my giveaway! If y'all remember my graphics Wattpad Block Party post from last year, I'll be giving away to two lucky winners a choice of a graphic or a blog post feature (can be a guest post, an interview, whatever you want within reason)! Or personalized advice on publishing. Literally anything you can think of that is feasible, I will try to make happen 😊

And even if I'm not super active on Wattpad after the party ends, you can still chat with me or scream about books on my other social accounts below!

xoxo,

Vicky

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GIVEAWAY: TinHoverCarInIce will give away a blog post feature or a vector graphic (your choice) to TWO lucky winners! My giveaway is open internationally!

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ENTER THE WATTPAD BLOCK PARTY GIVEAWAYS BY CLICKING HERE: Shortened Link to Blog: https://goo.gl/2c6YUP

OR HERE:

Regular Link to Blog: http://kellyanneblountauthor.blogspot.com/2018/07/wattpad-block-party-giveaways-summer.html