The Watty Awards 2022 are opening for entries from July 22, 2022, and there’s only a short timeframe to enter as the contest closes on August 19, 2022. That’s a lot less than last year when entries were open for nearly three full months.
Stories must be at least 50,000 words and must have been posted on Wattpad after January 1, 2020.
The categories this year are:
- Fan fiction
- Fantasy
- Historical fiction
- Horror
- Mystery & Thriller
- New Adult
- Paranormal
- Romance
- Science fiction
- Wild card (Stories that transcend multiple genres)
- Young Adult
- Sequels (English-only) (Stories that continue a narrative, but not a standalone spin-off)
You can enter a story for The Watty Awards by going to the Story Details page of the story you want to enter and filling in a submission form.
The shortlist will be revealed on October 19, 2022, and the winners of The Wattys will be announced on November 19, 2022.
You can get more details about The Watty Awards 2022 at the Wattpad website.
Wattpad Creators Program to pay writer stipends of $2.6 million
Wattpad have set up a Creators Program that could pay the site’s most-engaged writers up to $25,000.
The company plans to pay out $2.6 million in writer stipends this year, and some of Wattpad’s most popular stories will become exclusive to the platform.
Participants will be eligible for marketing and editorial support, sponsored brand partnerships, and for the first time, cash stipends of up to $25,000.
Among the first cohort of now exclusive Wattpad writers is romance superstar Tamara Lush, author of Drive and Crash and other steamy hits; Jessica Cunsolo, whose With Me series of novels has accumulated nearly 1 billion reads on the platform; Kate Marchant, author of the hit novel and upcoming film Float; Claudia Tan, author of Perfect Addiction, in production as a feature film; and Sondi Warner, author of Lead Me Astray, which has 259 million reads.
The company recently rolled out a new Engaged Readers metric for writers which offers a snapshot of story performance and engagement over the past tear, highlighting how many readers spent more than five minutes reading a story.
Wattpad President Jeanne Lam says, ‘We’re in the business of helping writers build a global audience and make money. With this program and investment, we’re putting millions of dollars directly into authors’ pockets, and helping them hone their skills with new editorial support and educational programming. Our goal has always been to create multiple, scalable ways for writers to make money and build a writing career on Wattpad.’
The Wattpad Creators Program is launching to English-language writers around the world. Spanish-language markets and the Philippines will be next, with additional markets to follow in 2023. Educational programming and writer resources will be available for more than 3,000 qualifying writers this year, along with over 500 writers eligible for cash stipends.
The program is currently invitation-only but the company is looking at the most effective way to work with creators. Subscribe to the Creators Newsletter to be the first to learn of any updates, with the possibility of applying to the Creators Program.
Eligibility criteria for writers include:
- Have published a new story part in the last three months
- Have at least one completed novel-length story of 50,000 words or more in their catalog
- Have at least one story in an eligible genre
- Have achieved a minimum number of Engaged Readers as indicated by Wattpad’s Story Statistics resource
For more program details, see here on the Wattpad website.