Let’s keep the Tech Forum 15th year anniversary celebrations going with another instalment of our Tech Forum to-go series, where we put past sessions back on the menu and break them down into takeaways that are still relevant for publishing today.
Over the last 15 years, we’ve had the pleasure of bringing you hundreds of Tech Forum sessions on topics such as accessibility, diversity and inclusion, publishing, bookselling, libraries, metadata, audiobooks, and ebooks. And we aren’t stopping any time soon — keep your eyes on our website for upcoming sessions.
Last month we brought back a 2021 session from a team of experts all about how to optimize your publishing workflows. Today’s digestible takeaways are all about new ways for publishers to engage with their audiences.
Bon appétit!
Publishing with an audience: An experiment from Sourcebooks and Wattpad
Today’s special is Tech Forum 2014’s Publishing with an audience: An experiment from Sourcebooks and Wattpad presented by Ashleigh Gardner and Dominique Raccah.
Together in this session, Ashleigh and Dominique reexamine how reading, writing, and publishing come together by sharing what they’ve learned through their many collaborative experiments.
Here are four key takeaways from this session:
Takeaway 1 – Connect through marketing
Publishers are now, more than ever, responsible for amplifying the reach of their authors and books not just to retailers but directly to readers.
Like Dominique says here, “it's really about creating better revenue channels and better marketing channels for your creative content partners.”
Sourcebooks' success collaborating with Wattpad (or marketing a Juvenile title as a “Put Me in the Story” picture book) only goes to show that thinking about marketing in new ways and amplifying the work that retailers are already doing is a key way to better connect with readers.
You can gain another perspective on marketing with these two sessions from Tech Forum 2022: part one and part two of What makes #BookTokers tick.
Takeaway 2 – Build readership with serialization
The vast majority of authors on Wattpad don’t wait until their book is finished to release it, but instead share chapters as they finish writing them and this can be a powerful tool to build readership, says Ashleigh here.
Through actionable messaging set out by writers and push notifications on the website, a book like Catching Jordan can have millions of reads in its lifetime, much more than if it were only traditionally published.
And most of this is happening on mobile devices — for both readers and writers.
Takeaway 3 – Create space for fans
Along with serialization comes social reading. As Ashleigh explains, when everyone's reading chapter by chapter at the same time, there’s much more opportunity for active discussion among readers.
While social reading has been around for decades, Wattpad offers one of the best examples of this strategy through in-line and chapter comments. Above all else, it’s a social network and social reading can make something viral.
Allowing fans to connect creates strong fanbases that can not only boost a title’s popularity, but can even inspire future writing through fanfiction.
Learn even more about fanfiction with our 2022 session The difference queer fanfiction makes: Lessons for the publishing industry.
Takeaway 4 – Rethink “traditional” publishing
Collaborating in new ways sometimes means leaving old ways behind. Sourcebooks’ decision to keep the original stories on Wattpad, alongside new traditionally published copies, was much more about the readers and authors, than it was about following publishing norms.
Like Dominique says, “I think as publishers, we're having much more intense and very real conversations with readers than we've ever had before.” It’s worth giving them a seat at the table.
Watch the full session below
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5 questions with Brad Green and Petra Thoms, the owners of World of Maps.