Toronto-based community writing site Wattpad is taking a cue from Amazon’s Kindle Serials and releasing some serial fiction of its own. Canadian author Margaret Atwood (who has been working with Wattpad since July) and British author Naomi Alderman are writing alternating chapters of “The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home.” The whole thing is free; the first three chapters are available on Wattpad’s site Wednesday, and one chapter will be published each week through January 2.
Alderman is Atwood’s “protégé” through watchmaker Rolex’s mentor program. The women wrote alternating chapters of the zombie serial via email. While the entire serial is already written, Wattpad says Atwood and Alderman may change it based on online requests and reader feedback. (Similarly, Amazon is eliciting reader feedback on its Kindle Serials.)
The main difference between Wattpad’s serial and Kindle Serials is the price: Wattpad’s is free, Kindle Serials are $ 1.99 (for now; the price is supposed to rise). The Kindle Serials program, while new, is also more fully fledged and Amazon is conceiving of it as some kind of money maker, while Wattpad’s approach seems purely experimental and designed to drive user engagement.
“This format offers a cool insight into the writing process and touch points for readers to participate directly with writers,” said Wattpad CEO Allan Lau. “The wall between readers and writers is falling.”
