Wattpad Books, the new print division of the Canadian online writing and reading community, launches this month. Macmillan is handling sales and distribution in the U.S. and Raincoast Books is handling the titles in Canada. In addition, Penguin Random House Children's Books U.K. will publish the books in the U.K., making it Wattpad Books' first overseas partner.
The press is so far focused on young adult literature; the inaugural title to be published will be QB Bad Boy & Me by Tay Marley. It will be published in North America on August 19 and in the U.K. in September, along with the next two books on the list, Trapeze by Leigh Ansell and What Happened That Night by Deanna Cameron. The final three titles in the launch list, to be published in October, are Cupid’s Match by Lauren Palphreyman, Saving Everest by Sky Chase, and I’m a Gay Wizard by V.S. Santoni.
Wattpad has said it is using a combination of human editorial expertise and data to determine which titles are best suited for transitioning from the online platform to print. The QB Bad Boy & Me, for example, has had some 29 million reads on Wattpad and is among the most popular stories in Wattpad's Paid Stories program, in which readers pay to access each chapter of the book. The print books will differ from the originals posted online, and will have additional material and professional editing.
"We are excited to be collaborating with Wattpad to bring the stand-out young adult novels from the millions of uploads written on the platform to the U.K. and other territories in the English language," Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children’s Books U.K., said in a statement. "This new publishing strand sits alongside our existing list of the very best, ground-breaking books and authors, diversifying and enriching our young adult publishing in a very exciting way."
